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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 Ross Crossing (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 Ross Crossing. 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 Ross Crossing ...

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 Ross Crossing: Ross Xing.

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

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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Ross Crossing is located in Fresno 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 Fresno County: Inyo, Kings, Madera, Merced, Mono, San Benito & Tulare.

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

  • Fresno County     (The home county of Ross Crossing)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ross Crossing, with the one closest to Ross Crossing listed first.
    • Bretz Mill
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Bretz Mill is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bretz Mill
    • Dora Belle
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Dora Belle is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dora Belle
    • Shaver Lake
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Pineridge
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Pineridge is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pineridge
    • Tollhouse
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Big Creek
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Big Creek is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Creek
      • Former names for Big Creek:
      • Big Creek Flats
      • Cascada
      • Manzanita Park
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Big Creek <1>
    • Huntington Lake
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Dunlap
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Piedra
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Meadow Lakes
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Meadow Lakes is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Lakes
    • Lakeshore
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Hume
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
  • Madera County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ross Crossing, with the one closest to Ross Crossing listed first.
    • North Fork
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Millerton ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Millerton is located in Madera County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millerton
    • Wishon
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Wishon is located in Madera County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wishon
  • Nevada County
    • Cedar Crest
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Cedar Crest is located in Nevada County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Crest
  • Tulare County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ross Crossing, with the one closest to Ross Crossing listed first.
    • Grant Grove Village
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Grant Grove Village is located in Tulare County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grant Grove Village
    • Badger
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Hartland
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Hartland is located in Tulare County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hartland
    • Stony Creek Village
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Stony Creek Village is located in Tulare County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stony Creek Village

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

Cemeteries Near Ross Crossing ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ross Crossing.

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 Ross Crossing - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Watts Valley Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Hughes Creek Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Tollhouse Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Squaw Valley Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Big Sandy Rancheria Tribal Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Hazelton Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Auberry Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Academy Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Acres Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • North Fork Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Redbank Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Sanger Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Winchell Cove Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Winchell Cove Cemetery
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the Winchell Cove Cemetery is located outside and to the east of Friant.
    • Winchell Cove 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.<3>

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

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

  • Tollhouse
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Dunlap
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Yokuts
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Auberry
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Sentinel ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Sentinel is located in Fresno County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sentinel
  • Letcher ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Letcher is located in Fresno County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Letcher
  • Auckland
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Auckland is located in Tulare County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Auckland

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

Newspapers Published in Ross Crossing ...

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 7 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ross Crossing.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Ross Crossing, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Ross Crossing.

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 either 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 Ross Crossing:

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 Ross Crossing, 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Ross Crossing) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.