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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Oban (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 Oban. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

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 east contained birth and death records; the county to the north 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.

Oban is located in Los Angeles County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Los Angeles County: Kern, Orange, San Bernardino & Ventura.

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

  • Los Angeles County     (The home county of Oban)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oban, with the one closest to Oban listed first.
    • Lancaster
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Lancaster is also located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lancaster
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 155,822 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lancaster <1>
    • Antelope Acres
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Antelope Acres is also located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Antelope Acres
    • Del Sur
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Del Sur is also located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Del Sur
    • Quartz Hill
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Desert View Highlands
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Desert View Highlands is also located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Desert View Highlands
    • Palmdale
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Palmdale is also located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Palmdale
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 150,498 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Palmdale <1>
    • Leona Valley
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Harold
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Harold is also located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harold
    • Vincent
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Vincent is also located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vincent
    • Green Valley
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Green Valley is also located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Valley
    • Lake Hughes
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Littlerock
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Kern County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oban, with the one closest to Oban listed first.
    • Rosamond
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Actis Gardens ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Actis Gardens was located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Actis Gardens
    • Actis
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Actis is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Actis
      • Former names for Actis:
      • Gloster
      • Highberg
      • Rummington
    • Gold Town ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Gold Town was located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gold Town
    • Edwards
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Reefer City ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Reefer City was located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reefer City
    • Mojave
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • North Edwards
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • North Edwards is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Edwards
    • California City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Summit
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Summit is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit
    • Tehachapi
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Oban ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Oban.

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.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Oban - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Oban, with the one closest to Oban 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.<4>

While we didn't find Oban in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Oban.

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

  • Lancaster
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Lancaster is also located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lancaster
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 155,822 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lancaster <1>
  • Rosamond
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Del Sur
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Del Sur is also located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Del Sur
  • Palmdale
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Palmdale is also located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Palmdale
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 150,498 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Palmdale <1>
  • Harold
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Harold is also located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harold
  • Fairmont
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Fairmont is also located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairmont
  • Alpine ‑ Historic
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Alpine was located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpine
  • Vincent
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Vincent is also located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vincent
  • Mojave
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Acton
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • Ravenna
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Ravenna is also located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ravenna
  • Russ
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Russ is also located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Russ
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Neenach
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Neenach is also located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Neenach
    • Llano
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Lang
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Lang is also located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lang

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

Newspapers Published in Oban ...

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 43 newspapers that have been published in the area around Oban.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Oban, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Oban.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These 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 Oban:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>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.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Oban) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 Oban, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.