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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Packwood. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Packwood to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Packwood, please Contact Us.

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 Packwood (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 Packwood. 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 hospitals 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Packwood is historic, it would have been located within present day 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 Packwood. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Packwood:

  • Kern County     (The home county of Packwood)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Packwood, with the one closest to Packwood listed first.
    • Kecks Corner
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kecks Corner have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kecks Corner
      • Kecks Corner is located in Kern County
    • Lost Hills
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Spicer City
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Spicer City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spicer City
      • Spicer City is located in Kern County
    • Reward ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reward
      • Reward is located in Kern County
    • Semitropic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Semitropic
      • Semitropic is located in Kern County
  • Kings County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Packwood, with the one closest to Packwood listed first.
    • Avenal
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Kettleman City
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Monterey County
  • San Luis Obispo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Packwood, with the one closest to Packwood listed first.
    • Cholame
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Simmler
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Simmler have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Simmler
      • Simmler is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • La Panza ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for La Panza have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Panza
      • La Panza is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Shandon
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Creston
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Linne
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linne
      • Linne is located in San Luis Obispo County

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

Newspapers Published in Packwood ...

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 5 newspapers that have been published in the area around Packwood.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Packwood, 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 Packwood.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer 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 Packwood:

Cemeteries Near Packwood ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Packwood.

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

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

  • Shandon Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Shandon Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Shandon Cemetery
  • Clark Memorial Park
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Clark Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Clark Memorial Park
  • Parkfield Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Parkfield Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Parkfield Cemetery

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.

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

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

  • Annette
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Annette have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Annette
    • Annette is located in Kern County
  • Simmler
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Simmler have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Simmler
    • Simmler is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Cholame
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • La Panza ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for La Panza have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Panza
    • La Panza is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Shandon
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Creston
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Pozo
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pozo have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pozo
    • Pozo is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Linne
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linne
    • Linne is located in San Luis Obispo County

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

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

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Packwood, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>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.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 from Point A (ie- Packwood) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Packwood. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.5875, Longitude: -120.0601       In this case, the coordinates for Packwood have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024