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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 Rayo (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 Rayo. 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 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 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.

Rayo is located in Tulare 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 Tulare County: Fresno, Inyo, Kern & Kings.

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

  • Tulare County     (The home county of Rayo)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rayo, with the one closest to Rayo listed first.
    • Wimp
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Wimp is located in Tulare County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wimp
    • Yettem
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Ivanhoe
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Woodlake Junction
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Woodlake Junction is located in Tulare County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodlake Junction
    • Taurusa
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Taurusa is located in Tulare County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taurusa
    • Woodlake
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Cutler
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • East Orosi
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • East Orosi is located in Tulare County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Orosi
    • Orosi
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • East Farmersville
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • East Farmersville is located in Tulare County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Farmersville
    • Exeter
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Farmersville
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Lemon Cove
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Fresno County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rayo, with the one closest to Rayo listed first.
    • Orange Cove
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Reedley
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Miramonte
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Pinehurst
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Dunlap
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Yokuts
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Kingsburg
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Parlier
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Minkler
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Minkler is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minkler
    • Selma
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Selma is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Selma
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 24,370 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Selma <1>
    • Gravesboro
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Gravesboro is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gravesboro
    • Del Rey
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Del Rey is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Del Rey
    • Hume
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Kings County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rayo, with the one closest to Rayo listed first.
    • Home Garden
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Home Garden is located in Kings County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Home Garden
    • Hanford
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Hardwick
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Hardwick is located in Kings County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hardwick
    • Armona
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Rayo ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rayo.

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 Rayo - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Lone Oak Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Woodlake Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Hamilton Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Deep Creek Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Visalia Public Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Visalia Public Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Visalia Public Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located in Visalia.
    • The Visalia Public Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Visalia Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #198468 <2>
  • Smith Mtn. Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • S D A Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Reedley Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Tulare Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Lindsay - Strathmore Public Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Squaw Valley Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Kingsburg Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (26 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.<3>

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

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

  • Taurusa
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Taurusa is located in Tulare County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taurusa
  • Orosi
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Monson
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Monson is located in Tulare County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monson
  • Visalia
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Farmersville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Exeter
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Yokohl
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Yokohl is located in Tulare County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yokohl
  • Auckland
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Auckland is located in Tulare County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Auckland
  • Tokay
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Tokay is located in Tulare County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tokay
  • Goshen
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Tagus
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Tagus is located in Tulare County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tagus
  • Three Rivers
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (17 more) ...
    • Kaweah
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Advance ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Advance is located in Tulare County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Advance
    • Traver
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in Rayo ...

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 62 newspapers that have been published in the area around Rayo.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Rayo, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Rayo.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Rayo:

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 Rayo, 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Rayo) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.