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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 Pasadena (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 Pasadena. 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.

Pasadena is located in Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles County: Kern, Orange, San Bernardino & Ventura.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Pasadena ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Pasadena.

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

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

  • San Gabriel Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Mountain View Mausoleum
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mountain View Mausoleum
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mountain View Mausoleum have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mountain View Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Sierra Madre Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sierra Madre Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sierra Madre Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Savannah Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Savannah Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Savannah Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Chinese Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Chinese Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Chinese Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Serbian Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Serbian Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Serbian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Resurrection Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Resurrection Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Resurrection Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mausoleum of the Golden West
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mausoleum of the Golden West
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mausoleum of the Golden West have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Beth Israel Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Beth Israel Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Beth Israel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (74 more) ...
    • Calvary Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Mt. Zion Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mt. Zion Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mt. Zion Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Home of Peace Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Home of Peace Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Home of Peace Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Pasadena had a population of 4,882 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Pasadena had a population of 141,045 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Pasadena ...

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 693 newspapers that have been published in the area around Pasadena.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Pasadena. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Pasadena and those printed in the larger area surrounding Pasadena.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 11 miles [17.7 km]<5> of Pasadena.

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 Pasadena:

The official website for Pasadena: www.ci.pasadena.ca.us/

The official website for Los Angeles County: www.lacounty.info/

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>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>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 Pasadena, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Pasadena) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Pasadena. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.1459, Longitude: -118.1414    









 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025