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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Ranchos del Oro (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 Ranchos del Oro. 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 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.

Ranchos del Oro is located in San Bernardino County.

To see how the shape of California's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of San Bernardino County: La Paz (AZ), Mohave (AZ), Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside & Clark (NV).

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

  • San Bernardino County     (The home county of Ranchos del Oro)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ranchos del Oro, with the one closest to Ranchos del Oro listed first.
    • Apple Valley
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • The Mesa
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • The Mesa is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Mesa
    • Hesperia
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Hesperia is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hesperia
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 96,911 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hesperia <1>
    • Victorville
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Lucerne Valley
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Oak Hills
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Bell Mountain
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Bell Mountain is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bell Mountain
    • Mountain View Acres
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Mountain View Acres is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain View Acres
    • Mountain View
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Mountain View is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain View
    • The Village
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • The Village is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Village
    • Cedar Glen
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Lake Arrowhead
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Los Angeles County
    • Big Pines
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Big Pines is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Pines
  • Riverside County
    • Ordway
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Ordway is located in Riverside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ordway

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

Cemeteries Near Ranchos del Oro ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ranchos del Oro.

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.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Ranchos del Oro - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Ranchos del Oro covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Ranchos del Oro, with the one closest to Ranchos del Oro 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.<3>

While we didn't find Ranchos del Oro in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Ranchos del Oro.

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

  • Hesperia
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Hesperia is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hesperia
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 96,911 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hesperia <1>
  • Oro Grande
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Cajon
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Cajon is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cajon
  • Arrowhead Springs
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Arrowhead Springs is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arrowhead Springs
  • San Bernardino
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
  • Grapeland ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Grapeland is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grapeland
  • Rialto
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Rialto is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rialto
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 104,132 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rialto <1>
  • Victoria
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Victoria is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Victoria
  • Lugonia ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Lugonia is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lugonia
  • Mentone
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
  • Eastbern ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Eastbern is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eastbern
  • Colton
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Colton is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colton
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 54,661 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Colton <1>
  • Mound City ‑ Historic
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Mound City is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mound City
  • Redlands
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Redlands is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redlands
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 72,271 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Redlands <1>

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

Newspapers Published in Ranchos del Oro ...

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 144 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ranchos del Oro.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Ranchos del Oro, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Ranchos del Oro.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we 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 Ranchos del Oro:

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>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.
<3>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 Ranchos del Oro, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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- Ranchos del Oro) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.