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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 Polaris (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 Polaris. 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.

Polaris is located in Nevada 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 Nevada County: Placer, Sierra, Yuba & Washoe (NV).

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

  • Nevada County     (The home county of Polaris)
  • El Dorado County
  • Placer County
  • Shasta County
    • Bear Valley ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Bear Valley. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bear Valley
      • Bear Valley is located in Shasta County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Bear Valley
      • From Polaris to Bear Valley
  • Sierra County
  • Carson City (NV)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Polaris, with the one closest to Polaris listed first.
    • Lakeview Summit
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lakeview Summit have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview Summit
      • Lakeview Summit is located in Carson City (NV)
    • Carson City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • New Empire
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Empire
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Empire. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Empire
      • Empire is located in Carson City (NV)
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Empire
      • From Polaris to Empire
  • Douglas County (NV)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Polaris, with the one closest to Polaris listed first.
    • Glenbrook
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Lincoln Park
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Skyland
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Indian Hills
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Indian Hills have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Hills
      • Indian Hills is located in Douglas County (NV)
    • Zephyr Cove
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Genoa
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Kingsbury Village
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kingsbury Village have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingsbury Village
      • Kingsbury Village is located in Douglas County (NV)
    • Kingsbury
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kingsbury have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingsbury
      • Kingsbury is located in Douglas County (NV)
    • Tahoe Village
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tahoe Village have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tahoe Village
      • Tahoe Village is located in Douglas County (NV)
    • Edgewood
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Edgewood have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgewood
      • Edgewood is located in Douglas County (NV)
    • Stateline
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Summit Village
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Summit Village have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit Village
      • Summit Village is located in Douglas County (NV)
  • Lyon County (NV)
  • Storey County (NV)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Polaris, with the one closest to Polaris listed first.
    • American City ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for American City have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for American City
      • American City is located in Storey County (NV)
    • American Flat ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Gold Hill
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Gold Hill. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gold Hill
      • Gold Hill is located in Storey County (NV)
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Gold Hill
      • From Polaris to Gold Hill
    • Lousetown ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Lousetown. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lousetown
      • Lousetown is located in Storey County (NV)
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Lousetown
      • From Polaris to Lousetown
    • Virginia City Highlands
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Virginia City Highlands have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virginia City Highlands
      • Virginia City Highlands is located in Storey County (NV)
    • Virginia City
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Lockwood
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Flowery City ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Flowery City have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flowery City
      • Flowery City is located in Storey County (NV)
  • Washoe County (NV)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Polaris, with the one closest to Polaris listed first.
    • Bronco ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bronco have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bronco
      • Bronco is located in Washoe County (NV)
      • Bronco has also been known as:
      • Bronca
    • Crystal Bay
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Incline Village
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Tyrolian Village
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tyrolian Village have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tyrolian Village
      • Tyrolian Village is located in Washoe County (NV)
    • Verdi
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Verdi - Mogul
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Franktown
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Ophir City ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ophir City have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ophir City
      • Ophir City is located in Washoe County (NV)
    • Sundown Town
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sundown Town have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sundown Town
      • Sundown Town is located in Washoe County (NV)
    • Mogul
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Galena ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Galena. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galena
      • Galena is located in Washoe County (NV)
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Galena
      • From Polaris to Galena
    • Lawton
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Polaris ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Polaris.

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

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

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in Polaris ...

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 71 newspapers that have been published in the area around Polaris.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Polaris, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Polaris.

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 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 Polaris:

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

The official website for Nevada County: www.new.mynevadacounty.com/

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>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.
<3>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.
<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.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Polaris) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Polaris. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.3401, Longitude: -120.1368       In this case, the coordinates for Polaris have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Polaris, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025