RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of California >> Mendocino County >> Point Arena >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
California

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 Point Arena (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 Point Arena. 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.

Name Variations for Point Arena ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Point Arena: Pt. Arena

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 southeast 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 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 east 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.

Point Arena is located in Mendocino 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 Mendocino County: Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Sonoma, Tehama & Trinity.

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

  • Mendocino County     (The home county of Point Arena)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Point Arena, with the one closest to Point Arena listed first.
    • Stronetta
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stronetta
      • Stronetta is located in Mendocino County
    • Manchester
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Signal Port
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Signal Port
      • Signal Port is located in Mendocino County
      • Signal Port has also been known as:
      • Hardscratch
    • Anchor Bay
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Fish Rock
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fish Rock
      • Fish Rock is located in Mendocino County
    • Gualala
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Elk
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Philo
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Boonville
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Navarro
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Albion
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Comptche
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Sonoma County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Point Arena, with the one closest to Point Arena listed first.
    • Sea Ranch
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Annapolis
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Stewarts Point
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Point Arena ...

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 34 newspapers that have been published in the area around Point Arena.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Point Arena. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Point Arena and those printed in the larger area surrounding Point Arena.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2> of Point Arena.

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 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 Point Arena:

Cemeteries Near Point Arena ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Point Arena.

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

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

  • Manchester / Point Area Pomo Indian Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Fish Rock Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Bourn Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Bourn Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bourn Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7860 <3>
  • Shields Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Shields Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Shields Cemetery
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Evergreen Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Evergreen Cemetery
  • Ornbaun Springs Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ornbaun Springs Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ornbaun Springs Cemetery
  • Annapolis Church Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Stewarts Point Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Little River Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Little River Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Little River Cemetery
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Evergreen Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Evergreen Cemetery
  • Hillcrest Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hillcrest Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hillcrest Cemetery
  • Sugarloaf Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sugarloaf Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sugarloaf 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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Point Arena had a population of 709 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Point Arena had a population of 453 people.

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

  • Manchester
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Fish Rock
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fish Rock
    • Fish Rock is located in Mendocino County
  • Gualala
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Elk
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Philo
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Boonville
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Navarro
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Whitesboro
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Whitesboro have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whitesboro
    • Whitesboro is located in Mendocino County
  • Albion
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Little River
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Hermitage ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Hermitage. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hermitage
      • Hermitage is located in Mendocino County
    • Yorkville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Comptche
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Mendocino
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)

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

The official website for Point Arena: www.cityofpointarena.com/

The official website for Mendocino County: www.co.mendocino.ca.us/

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

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>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- Point Arena) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Point Arena. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.9109, Longitude: -123.6924    
<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>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.
<5>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.
<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 Point Arena, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

Copyright 2024
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

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: 07 Apr 2024