RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of California >> San Luis Obispo County >> Reeds >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

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

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

Name Variations for Reeds ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might occur.

While the name of this community is Reeds, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<2>. So Reeds may originally have been Reed's.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Reeds. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Reeds.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 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 Reeds is historic, it would have been located within present day San Luis Obispo 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 Luis Obispo County: Kern, Kings, Monterey, Santa Barbara & Ventura.

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

  • San Luis Obispo County     (The home county of Reeds)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Reeds, with the one closest to Reeds listed first.
    • Pismo Beach
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Arroyo Grande
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Fairoaks
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
      • Fairoaks is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairoaks
    • Grover Beach
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Shell Beach
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Oceano
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • San Miguelito
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • San Miguelito is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Miguelito
    • Avila Beach
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • San Luis Obispo
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Callender
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Port San Luis
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Port San Luis is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Port San Luis
    • Musick ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Musick is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Musick
  • San Mateo County
  • Santa Barbara County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Reeds, with the one closest to Reeds listed first.
    • Guadalupe
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Santa Maria
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Betteravia
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Betteravia is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Betteravia
    • Casmalia
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Orcutt
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Garey
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Garey is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garey
    • Lompoc Landing ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Lompoc Landing is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lompoc Landing

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

Cemeteries Near Reeds ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Reeds.

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

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

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

  • Halcyon Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Old Mission Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • San Luis Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Luis Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the San Luis Cemetery is located outside and to the southwest of San Luis Obispo.
  • Sutcliffe Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sutcliffe Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Sutcliffe Cemetery is located outside and to the southwest of San Luis Obispo.
  • Santa Margarita Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Los Osos Valley Memorial Park
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Guadalupe Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Quintana Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Santa Maria Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Atascadero Pine Mtn. Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Atascadero Pine Mtn. Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Atascadero Pine Mtn. Cemetery is located in Atascadero.
    • The Atascadero Pine Mtn. Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Atascadero Cemetery
    • Pine Mtn. Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2154678 <4>
  • Cayucos - Morro Bay District Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Templeton Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • Ontiveros Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)

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.

Reeds itself is historic and was described in the Rand McNally Atlas as having railroad service and no post office.

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

  • Verde
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Verde is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Verde
  • Edna
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Edna is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edna
  • Arroyo Grande
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Miles
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Miles is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Miles
  • Los Berros
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Los Berros is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Berros
  • Summit ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Summit is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit
  • San Luis Obispo
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Nipomo
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Huasna
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Huasna is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huasna
  • Musick ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Musick is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Musick
  • Guadalupe
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Pozo
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Pozo is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pozo
  • Continue List   (11 more) ...
    • Santa Margarita
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Santa Maria
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Dove ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Dove is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dove

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

Newspapers Published in Reeds ...

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 76 newspapers that have been published in the area around Reeds.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Reeds, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Reeds.

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 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 Reeds:

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 Reeds, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<5>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- Reeds) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.