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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 Renshaw Place (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 Renshaw Place. 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 Renshaw Place ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Renshaw Place: Renshaw Pl. (or less commonly used: Renshaw Plc.)

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 southeast 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 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.

Renshaw Place is located in 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 Renshaw Place. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Renshaw Place:

  • San Luis Obispo County     (The home county of Renshaw Place)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Renshaw Place, with the one closest to Renshaw Place listed first.
    • Musick ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Musick is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Musick
    • La Panza ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • La Panza is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Panza
    • Nipomo
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Arroyo Grande
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Reeds ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Reeds is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reeds
    • Simmler
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Simmler is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Simmler
    • Fairoaks
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Fairoaks is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairoaks
    • Callender
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Grover Beach
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Oceano
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Pismo Beach
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • San Luis Obispo
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Santa Barbara County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Renshaw Place, with the one closest to Renshaw Place listed first.
    • Santa Maria
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Garey
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Garey is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garey
    • Sisquoc
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Sisquoc is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sisquoc
    • Betteravia
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Betteravia is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Betteravia
    • Guadalupe
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Orcutt
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Casmalia
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Los Alamos
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)

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

Cemeteries Near Renshaw Place ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Renshaw Place.

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 Renshaw Place - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Santa Maria Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Halcyon Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Ontiveros Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Foxen Canyon Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
  • Guadalupe Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
  • Santa Margarita Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
  • Old Mission Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • San Luis Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • 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
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • 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.

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

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

  • Huasna
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Huasna is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huasna
  • Musick ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Musick is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Musick
  • Pozo
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Pozo is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pozo
  • La Panza ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • La Panza is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Panza
  • Summit ‑ Historic
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Summit is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit
  • Nipomo
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Verde
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Verde is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Verde
  • Los Berros
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Los Berros is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Berros
  • Arroyo Grande
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Santa Maria
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Reeds ‑ Historic
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Reeds is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reeds
  • Garey
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Garey is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garey
  • Continue List   (10 more) ...
    • Simmler
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Simmler is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Simmler
    • Edna
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Edna is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edna
    • Guadalupe
      (22 miles [35.4 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 Renshaw Place. See our List of 1890's Communities around Renshaw Place.

Newspapers Published in Renshaw Place ...

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 44 newspapers that have been published in the area around Renshaw Place.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Renshaw Place, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Renshaw Place.

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 helpful 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 Renshaw Place:

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 Renshaw Place, 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- Renshaw Place) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.