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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

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

We've added Palmer to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Palmer, 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 Palmer (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 Palmer. 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 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Palmer is historic, it would have been located within present day Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara County: Kern, San Luis Obispo & Ventura.

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

  • Santa Barbara County     (The home county of Palmer)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Palmer, with the one closest to Palmer listed first.
    • Garey
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Garey is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garey
    • Los Alamos
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Orcutt
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Sisquoc
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Sisquoc is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sisquoc
    • Santa Maria
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Mission Hills
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Mission Hills is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mission Hills
    • Vandenberg Village
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Vandenberg Village is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vandenberg Village
    • Casmalia
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Betteravia
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Betteravia is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Betteravia
    • Lompoc
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Lompoc is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lompoc
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 42,253 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lompoc <2>
    • Lompoc Village
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Lompoc Village is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lompoc Village
    • Buellton
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Los Olivos
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • San Luis Obispo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Palmer, with the one closest to Palmer listed first.
    • Nipomo
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Callender
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Oceano
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Arroyo Grande
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Fairoaks
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Fairoaks is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairoaks
    • Musick ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Musick is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Musick
    • Grover Beach
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Pismo Beach
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Reeds ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Reeds is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reeds
    • Shell Beach
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Palmer ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Palmer.

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 Palmer - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Foxen Canyon Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Ontiveros Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Los Alamos Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Santa Maria Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Mission La Purisima Concepcion Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Ryon Memorial Park
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ryon Memorial Park
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Ryon Memorial Park is located in Lompoc.
  • Lompoc Evergreen Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Marks in the Valley Episcopal Church Memorial Garden
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Guadalupe Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Solvang Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
  • Oak Hill Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Hill Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Oak Hill Cemetery is located in Ballard.
    • The Oak Hill Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Oak Hill Memorial Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #8210 <4>
  • Halcyon Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)

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 Palmer in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Palmer.

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

  • Garey
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Garey is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garey
  • Los Alamos
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Sisquoc
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Sisquoc is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sisquoc
  • Santa Maria
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Lompoc
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Lompoc is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lompoc
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 42,253 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lompoc <2>
  • Los Olivos
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Ballard
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Nipomo
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Guadalupe
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Nojoqui
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Nojoqui is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nojoqui
  • Summit ‑ Historic
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Summit is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit
  • Huasna
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Huasna is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huasna
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Santa Ynez
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Los Berros
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Los Berros is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Berros
    • Arroyo Grande
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Palmer ...

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 51 newspapers that have been published in the area around Palmer.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Palmer, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Palmer.

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 Palmer:

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 Palmer, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Palmer) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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.