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The Commemorative Quarter for California





Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Needles (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Needles. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Needles is located in San Bernardino County.

To see how the shape of California's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of San Bernardino County: La Paz (AZ), Mohave (AZ), Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside & Clark (NV).

Below are the counties that are near Needles. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Needles:

  • San Bernardino County     (The home county of Needles)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Needles, with the one closest to Needles listed first.
    • Parker Junction
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parker Junction
      • Parker Junction is located in San Bernardino County
    • Goffs
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goffs
      • Goffs is located in San Bernardino County
    • Havasu Lake
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Havasu Lake
      • Havasu Lake is located in San Bernardino County
  • Mohave County (AZ)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Needles, with the one closest to Needles listed first.
    • Arizona Village
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Arizona Village have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arizona Village
      • Arizona Village is located in Mohave County (AZ)
    • Willow Valley
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Willow Valley have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Willow Valley
      • Willow Valley is located in Mohave County (AZ)
    • Mohave Valley
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Mojave Ranch Estates
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mojave Ranch Estates have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mojave Ranch Estates
      • Mojave Ranch Estates is located in Mohave County (AZ)
    • Fivemile Landing
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fivemile Landing
      • Fivemile Landing is located in Mohave County (AZ)
    • Mesquite Creek
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesquite Creek
      • Mesquite Creek is located in Mohave County (AZ)
    • Fort Mohave
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Topock
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Hardyville ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hardyville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hardyville
      • Hardyville is located in Mohave County (AZ)
    • Mojave City
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mojave City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mojave City
      • Mojave City is located in Mohave County (AZ)
    • Powell ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Powell have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Powell
      • Powell is located in Mohave County (AZ)
    • Oldtrails ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oldtrails
      • Oldtrails is located in Mohave County (AZ)
  • Clark County (NV)

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Needles, see our County-by-County Page for Needles.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Needles ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 35 newspapers that have been published in the area around Needles.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Needles. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Needles and those printed in the larger area surrounding Needles.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3> of Needles.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Needles:

Cemeteries Near Needles ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Needles.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Needles covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Needles, with the one closest to Needles listed first.

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Needles had a population of 285 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Needles had a population of 4,942 people.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Needles, with the one closest to Needles listed first.

  • Java
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Java have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Java
    • Java is located in San Bernardino County
  • Powell ‑ Historic
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Powell have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Powell
    • Powell is located in Mohave County (AZ)
  • Homer
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Homer have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homer
    • Homer is located in San Bernardino County
  • Franconia
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Franconia have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Franconia
    • Franconia is located in Mohave County (AZ)
  • Goffs
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goffs
    • Goffs is located in San Bernardino County
  • Yucca
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Needles. See our List of 1890's Communities around Needles.

The official website for Needles: www.cityofneedles.com/

The official website for San Bernardino County: www.sbcounty.gov/

The official website for State of California: https://www.ca.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Needles) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Needles. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.8485, Longitude: -114.6140    
<4>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<5>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<6>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Needles, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024