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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 Rolands (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 Rolands. 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 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.

Rolands is located in Sonoma 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 Sonoma County: Contra Costa, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa & Solano.

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

  • Sonoma County     (The home county of Rolands)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rolands, with the one closest to Rolands listed first.
    • Rio Nido
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Guerneville
      (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Monte Rio
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Villa Grande
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Forestville
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Duncans Mills
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Cazadero
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Camp Meeker
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Trenton
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
      • Trenton is located in Sonoma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trenton
    • Occidental
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Graton
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Jenner
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Healdsburg
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Lake County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rolands, with the one closest to Rolands listed first.
    • Middletown
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Pine Grove
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Pine Grove is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Grove
    • Cobb
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Glenbrook
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Glenbrook is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glenbrook
    • Salminas Resort
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Salminas Resort is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Salminas Resort
    • Glenview
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Glenview is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glenview
    • Seigler Springs
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Seigler Springs is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seigler Springs
    • Hidden Valley Lake
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Hidden Valley Lake is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hidden Valley Lake
  • Marin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rolands, with the one closest to Rolands listed first.
    • Dillon Beach
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Tomales
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Hamlet
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Hamlet is located in Marin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamlet
    • Nicks Cove
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Nicks Cove is located in Marin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nicks Cove
    • Marshall
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Millerton
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Millerton is located in Marin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millerton
    • Inverness
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Mendocino County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rolands, with the one closest to Rolands listed first.
    • Hermitage ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Hermitage is located in Mendocino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hermitage
    • Yorkville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Napa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rolands, with the one closest to Rolands listed first.
    • Woodleaf
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Woodleaf is located in Napa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodleaf
    • Calistoga
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Deer Park
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Saint Helena
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Angwin
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Pope Valley
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Rutherford
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Rolands ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rolands.

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

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

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

  • Redwood Memorial Gardens
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • McPeak Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Duncans Mills Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Green Valley Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Forestview Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Druids Occidental Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Gilliam Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Santa Rosa Memorial Park - Shiloh Road Addition
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Oak Mound Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Spring Hill Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Steele Family Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Bodega Calvary Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bodega Calvary Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Bodega Calvary Cemetery is located outside and to the south of Bodega.
  • Continue List   (54 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 Rolands in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Rolands.

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

  • Guerneville
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Duncans Mills
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Forestville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Cazadero
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Occidental
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Trenton
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Trenton is located in Sonoma County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trenton
  • Windsor
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Freestone
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Fulton
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Valley Ford
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Seaview
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Seaview is located in Sonoma County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seaview
  • Geyserville
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Fort Ross
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Fort Ross is located in Sonoma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Ross
    • Bloomfield
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Bloomfield is located in Sonoma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomfield
    • Santa Rosa
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Rolands ...

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 63 newspapers that have been published in the area around Rolands.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Rolands, there are papers which were published within 20 miles [32.2 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Rolands.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Rolands:

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