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 Rand (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 Rand. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.
Rand is located in Kern 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 Kern County: Inyo, Kings, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare & Ventura.
Below are the counties that are near Rand. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Rand:
- Kern County (The home county of Rand)
- The following are listed by their distance from Rand, with the one closest to Rand listed first.
- Johannesburg
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
- Randsburg
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
- Garlock
(5 miles [8 km] to the west)
- Garlock is located in Kern County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garlock
- Saltdale ‑ Historic
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
- Saltdale is located in Kern County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saltdale
- Ridgecrest
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
- China Lake Acres
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
- China Lake Acres is located in Kern County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for China Lake Acres
- China Lake
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
- Armistead
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
- Armistead is located in Kern County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armistead
- Freeman ‑ Historic
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
- Freeman is located in Kern County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freeman
- Inyokern
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
- Cantil
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
- California City
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
- Inyo County
- The following are listed by their distance from Rand, with the one closest to Rand listed first.
- Pearsonville
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
- Pearsonville is located in Inyo County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pearsonville
- Linnie ‑ Historic
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
- Linnie is located in Inyo County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linnie
- San Bernardino County
- The following are listed by their distance from Rand, with the one closest to Rand listed first.
- Red Mountain
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
- Spangler ‑ Historic
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
- Spangler is located in San Bernardino County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spangler
- Pinnacle ‑ Historic
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
- Pinnacle is located in San Bernardino County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinnacle
- Westend
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
- Westend is located in San Bernardino County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westend
- Argus
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
- Argus is located in San Bernardino County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Argus
- Copper City
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
- Copper City is located in San Bernardino County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copper City
- Searles Valley
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
- Searles Valley is located in San Bernardino County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Searles Valley
- Trona
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Rand, see our County-by-County Page for Rand.
Cemeteries Near Rand ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rand.
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 Rand - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Rand covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Rand, with the one closest to Rand listed first.
- Roger McGavin Gravesite
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
- Rand District Community Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rand District Community Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Rand District Community Cemetery is located in the vicinity of Johannesburg
- The Rand District Community Cemetery has also been known as:
- Johannesburg Cemetery
- Rand District Cemetery
- Randsburg Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #685739 <3>
- Garlock - Goler Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the west)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garlock - Goler Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Garlock - Goler Cemetery is located in the vicinity of Garlock
- The Garlock - Goler Cemetery has also been known as:
- Benson Canyon Cemetery
- Goler Cemetery
- Goler Mine Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2432257 <3>
- Desert Memorial Park
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
- Josie Bishop Gravesite
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
- California City Memorial Park
(23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
- Mt. Owens Cemetery
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
- Searles Valley Cemetery
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
- Sageland Cemetery
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
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.<4>
While we didn't find Rand in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Rand.
- Freeman ‑ Historic
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
- Freeman is located in Kern County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freeman
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Rand. See our List of 1890's Communities around Rand.
Newspapers Published in Rand ...
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 34 newspapers that have been published in the area around Rand.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Rand, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Rand.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These 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 Rand:
- Websites specific to California
- Pages specific to Kern County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Inyo County
- San Bernardino County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for California
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> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Rand) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |
| <3> | 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. |
| <4> | 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 Rand, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |