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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 Portola (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 Portola. 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 northwest 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 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 west 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.

Portola is located in Plumas 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 Plumas County: Butte, Lassen, Shasta, Sierra, Tehama & Yuba.

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

  • Plumas County     (The home county of Portola)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Portola, with the one closest to Portola listed first.
    • Delleker
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delleker
      • Delleker is located in Plumas County
    • Iron Horse
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Iron Horse have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iron Horse
      • Iron Horse is located in Plumas County
    • Beckwourth
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Lake Davis
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Davis
      • Lake Davis is located in Plumas County
    • Mohawk Vista
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mohawk Vista
      • Mohawk Vista is located in Plumas County
    • C-Road
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for C-Road
      • C-Road is located in Plumas County
    • Clio
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Valley Ranch
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Valley Ranch have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valley Ranch
      • Valley Ranch is located in Plumas County
    • Whitehawk
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Whitehawk have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whitehawk
      • Whitehawk is located in Plumas County
    • Graeagle
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Blairsden
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Mohawk
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mohawk have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mohawk
      • Mohawk is located in Plumas County
    • Cromberg
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Lassen County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Portola, with the one closest to Portola listed first.
    • Doyle
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Herlong Junction
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Herlong Junction have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Herlong Junction
      • Herlong Junction is located in Lassen County
    • Milford
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Patton Village
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Patton Village have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Patton Village
      • Patton Village is located in Lassen County
    • Herlong
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Nevada County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Portola, with the one closest to Portola listed first.
    • Meadow Lake ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Meadow Lake. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Lake
      • Meadow Lake is located in Nevada County
    • Summit City ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Summit City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit City
      • Summit City is located in Nevada County
    • Marsh Mill
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marsh Mill
      • Marsh Mill is located in Nevada County
    • Baltimore Town
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Baltimore Town have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Baltimore Town
      • Baltimore Town is located in Nevada County
    • Graniteville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Graniteville
      • Graniteville is located in Nevada County
  • Sierra County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Portola, with the one closest to Portola listed first.
    • Calpine
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Sattley
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Loyalton
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Sierraville
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Sierra City
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Loganville
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Loganville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Loganville
      • Loganville is located in Sierra County
    • Poker Flat
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poker Flat
      • Poker Flat is located in Sierra County
    • Downieville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Queen City
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Queen City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Queen City
      • Queen City is located in Sierra County
    • Goodyears Bar
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Alleghany
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Forest
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest
      • Forest is located in Sierra County
  • Washoe County (NV)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Portola, with the one closest to Portola listed first.
    • Border Town
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Border Town
      • Border Town is located in Washoe County (NV)
    • Cold Springs
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cold Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cold Springs
      • Cold Springs is located in Washoe County (NV)
    • Copperfield ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copperfield
      • Copperfield is located in Washoe County (NV)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Portola ...

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 27 newspapers that have been published in the area around Portola.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Portola. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Portola and those printed in the larger area surrounding Portola.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Portola.

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 Portola:

Cemeteries Near Portola ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Portola.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Portola, with the one closest to Portola 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 Portola in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Portola.

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

  • Mohawk
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mohawk have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mohawk
    • Mohawk is located in Plumas County
  • Johnsville
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Cromberg
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Sattley
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Loyalton
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Sierra City
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Genesee ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Genesee have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Genesee
    • Genesee is located in Plumas County
  • Gibsonville
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gibsonville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gibsonville
    • Gibsonville is located in Sierra County
  • Saint Louis
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Saint Louis have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Louis
    • Saint Louis is located in Sierra County
  • Downieville
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Milford
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Taylorsville
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...

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

The official website for Portola: www.ci.portola.ca.us/

The official website for Plumas County: www.countyofplumas.com/

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>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.
<4>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Portola) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Portola. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.8105, Longitude: -120.4694    
<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>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 Portola, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024