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The Commemorative Quarter for California





Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

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

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

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 Port Chicago: Prt. Chicago

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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors 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 Port Chicago is historic, it would have been located within present day Contra Costa 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 Contra Costa County: Alameda, Marin, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Joaquin & Solano.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Port Chicago ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Port Chicago.

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

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

  • Memory Gardens Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • St. Stephen Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Stephen Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Stephen Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Dominics Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Dominics Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Dominics Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Military Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Military Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Military Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Alhambra Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Alhambra Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Alhambra Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Catholic Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Catholic Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Catholic Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Live Oak Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Live Oak Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Live Oak Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Benicia City Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Benicia City Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Benicia City Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Benicia City Cemetery is located in Benicia.
  • Oakmount Memorial Park
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Queen of Heaven Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Queen of Heaven Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Queen of Heaven Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Oakmont Memorial Park
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oakmont Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Oakmont Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Queen of Haven Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Queen of Haven Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Queen of Haven Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (58 more) ...

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

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

  • Avon
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Bay Point
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • McAvoy
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for McAvoy have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McAvoy
    • McAvoy is located in Contra Costa County
  • Concord
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Pacheco
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Martinez
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Cornwall
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cornwall have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cornwall
    • Cornwall is located in Contra Costa County
  • Benicia
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Clayton
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Port Costa
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Walnut Creek
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Teal
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Teal have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Teal
    • Teal is located in Solano County
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Nortonville ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Nortonville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nortonville
      • Nortonville is located in Contra Costa County
    • Collinsville ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Collinsville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Collinsville
      • Collinsville is located in Solano County
    • Somersville ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Somersville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Somersville
      • Somersville is located in Contra Costa County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Port Chicago ...

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 74 newspapers that have been published in the area around Port Chicago.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Port Chicago. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Port Chicago and those printed in the larger area surrounding Port Chicago.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 17 miles [27.4 km]<6> of Port Chicago.

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 Port Chicago:

The official website for Contra Costa County: www.co.contra-costa.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 Port Chicago, 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>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 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.
<6>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 from Point A (ie- Port Chicago) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Port Chicago. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.0483, Longitude: -122.0212    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025