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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

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

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

Although our information shows that the community of Ralston is historic, it would have been located within present day Placer 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 Placer County: El Dorado, Nevada, Sacramento, Sutter, Yuba, Carson City (NV), Douglas (NV) & Washoe (NV).

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

  • Placer County     (The home county of Ralston)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ralston, with the one closest to Ralston listed first.
    • Michigan Bluff
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Michigan Bluff
      • Michigan Bluff is located in Placer County
    • Foresthill
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Last Chance ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Last Chance have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Last Chance
      • Last Chance is located in Placer County
    • Greekstore
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greekstore
      • Greekstore is located in Placer County
    • Yankee Jims
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Yankee Jims have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yankee Jims
      • Yankee Jims is located in Placer County
    • Iowa Hill
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Casa Loma
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Casa Loma
      • Casa Loma is located in Placer County
    • Alta
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Gold Run
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Secret Town
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Secret Town have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Secret Town
      • Secret Town is located in Placer County
    • Chicago Park ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Chicago Park. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chicago Park
      • Chicago Park is located in Placer County
    • Applegate
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • El Dorado County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ralston, with the one closest to Ralston listed first.
    • Quintette
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quintette
      • Quintette is located in El Dorado County
    • Georgetown
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Fornis
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fornis
      • Fornis is located in El Dorado County
    • Garden Valley
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Greenwood
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Pollock Pines
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Camino
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Sportsman Hall ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sportsman Hall
      • Sportsman Hall is located in El Dorado County
    • Fresh Pond
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fresh Pond have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fresh Pond
      • Fresh Pond is located in El Dorado County
    • Coloma
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Lotus
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Cool
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Nevada County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ralston, with the one closest to Ralston listed first.
    • Chicago Park
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • You Bet ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for You Bet have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for You Bet
      • You Bet is located in Nevada County
    • Lake of the Pines
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake of the Pines have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake of the Pines
      • Lake of the Pines is located in Nevada County
    • Alta Sierra
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alta Sierra have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alta Sierra
      • Alta Sierra is located in Nevada County
    • Cedar Ridge
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Scotts Flat
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scotts Flat
      • Scotts Flat is located in Nevada County
    • Union Hill
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Union Hill
      • Union Hill is located in Nevada County
    • Gold Flat
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gold Flat have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gold Flat
      • Gold Flat is located in Nevada County
    • Kingvale
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingvale
      • Kingvale is located in Nevada County
    • Glenbrook
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glenbrook
      • Glenbrook is located in Nevada County
    • Grass Valley
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Nevada City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Shasta County
    • Bear Valley ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • 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.<4>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bear Valley
      • Bear Valley is located in Shasta County

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

Newspapers Published in Ralston ...

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 57 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ralston.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Ralston, there are papers which were published within 22 miles [35.4 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Ralston.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Ralston:

Cemeteries Near Ralston ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ralston.

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

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

  • Pioneer Graves Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pioneer Graves Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pioneer Graves Cemetery
  • Deadwood Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Deadwood Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Deadwood Cemetery is located 4 miles [6.4 km]<5> to the west of Foresthill.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Deadwood Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2501041 <6>
  • Pioneer Grave
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pioneer Grave have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pioneer Grave
  • Josephine Mine Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Foresthill Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Foresthill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Foresthill Cemetery
  • Foresthill Community Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Georgetown Pioneer Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Iowa Hill Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Iowa Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Iowa Hill Cemetery
  • Spanish Dry Diggings Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Greenwood Pioneer Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Colfax Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Colfax Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Colfax Cemetery
  • Colfax Indian Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (30 more) ...
    • Dutch Flat Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the Dutch Flat Cemetery is located in the vicinity of Alta
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dutch Flat Cemetery
    • Catholic Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Catholic Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Catholic Cemetery
    • James Marshall Gravesite
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the James Marshall Gravesite have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the James Marshall Gravesite

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

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

  • Michigan Bluff
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Michigan Bluff
    • Michigan Bluff is located in Placer County
  • Georgetown
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Yankee Jims
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Yankee Jims have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yankee Jims
    • Yankee Jims is located in Placer County
  • Westville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Westville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westville
    • Westville is located in Placer County
  • Garden Valley
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Towle
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Towle have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Towle
    • Towle is located in Placer County
  • Alta
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Gold Run
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Kelsey
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kelsey have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kelsey
    • Kelsey is located in El Dorado County
  • Dutch Flat
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Colfax
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Weimar
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Blue Canyon
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Blue Canyon have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blue Canyon
      • Blue Canyon is located in Placer County
    • Lotus
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Coloma
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)

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

The official website for Placer County: www.placer.ca.gov/

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 Ralston, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 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>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>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- Ralston) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Ralston. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.0049, Longitude: -120.6760       In this case, the coordinates for Ralston have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>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.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024