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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 Old River (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 Old River. 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.

Old River is located in Kern 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 Kern County: Inyo, Kings, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare & Ventura.

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

  • Kern County     (The home county of Old River)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Old River, with the one closest to Old River listed first.
    • Joyful ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Joyful. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Joyful
      • Joyful is located in Kern County
      • Joyful has also been known as:
      • Joyfull
    • Gosford
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gosford
      • Gosford is located in Kern County
    • Pumpkin Center
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pumpkin Center
      • Pumpkin Center is located in Kern County
    • Venola
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Venola
      • Venola is located in Kern County
    • Alameda
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alameda
      • Alameda is located in Kern County
    • Greenacres
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Bakersfield
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Rosedale ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Rosedale. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosedale
      • Rosedale is located in Kern County
    • Kayandee
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kayandee
      • Kayandee is located in Kern County
    • Lamont
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Oil Junction
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oil Junction
      • Oil Junction is located in Kern County
    • East Bakersfield
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Bakersfield
      • East Bakersfield is located in Kern County
      • Former names for East Bakersfield:
      • Kern City
      • Sumner

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

Cemeteries Near Old River ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Old River.

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 Old River covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Greenlawn Southwest Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Union Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Union Cemetery
    • The Union Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Bakersfield Memorial Cemetery
    • Historic Union Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #8414 <3>
  • Greenlawn Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • South Kern Cemetery District
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the South Kern Cemetery District
    • The South Kern Cemetery District has also been known as:
    • Arvin Cemetery
    • Arvin Public Cemetery
    • Arvin - South Kern Cemetery District
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #656699 <3>
  • Hillcrest Memorial Park
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Shafter Memorial Park
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • West Side District Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Midway Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Bakersfield National Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Pomfret Memorial Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Chinaman Gravesite
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Fickert Family Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Engle Family Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Wasco Memorial Park
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wasco Memorial Park
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the Wasco Memorial Park is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the west of Wasco.
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1238237 <3>
    • Ft. Tejon Military Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)

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>

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

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

  • Bakersfield
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Rosedale ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Rosedale. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosedale
    • Rosedale is located in Kern County
  • Lerdo
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lerdo have been provided by the GNIS.<7> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lerdo
    • Lerdo is located in Kern County
  • Warren ‑ Historic
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Warren have been provided by the GNIS.<7> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warren
    • Warren is located in Kern County
  • Bealville
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Bealville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bealville
    • Bealville is located in Kern County
  • Caliente
    (27 miles [43.5 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 Old River. See our List of 1890's Communities around Old River.

Newspapers Published in Old River ...

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 129 newspapers that have been published in the area around Old River.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Old River, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Old River.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Old River:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Old River. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Kern County: www.co.kern.ca.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Old River) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Old River. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.2672, Longitude: -119.1090       In this case, the coordinates for Old River have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>To help visualize the location of the cemetery, we've drawn a straight line between the communities of Lebec and Grapevine. The cemetery can be found near that line and roughly halfway between the two communities. Remember that this is just an approximate location.
<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 Old River, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<7>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.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025