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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 San Luis Obispo (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 San Luis Obispo. 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.

A Few Details for San Luis Obispo ...

While it's still very early in our research, we found that:

  • San Luis Obispo was established in 1772.
  • It was incorporated on February 16, 1856.

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 doctors and 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.

San Luis Obispo is located in San Luis Obispo County and is the County Seat.

To see how the shape of California's counties 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 San Luis Obispo. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to San Luis Obispo:

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

Cemeteries Near San Luis Obispo ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of San Luis Obispo.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

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.<4>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that San Luis Obispo had a population of 2,995 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, San Luis Obispo had a population of 47,590 people.

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

  • Edna
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Edna have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edna
    • Edna is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Miles
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Miles have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Miles
    • Miles is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Santa Margarita
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Reeds ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Reeds have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reeds
    • Reeds is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Verde
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Verde have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Verde
    • Verde is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Arroyo Grande
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Dove ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dove have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dove
    • Dove is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Los Berros
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Los Berros have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Berros
    • Los Berros is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Musick ‑ Historic
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Musick have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Musick
    • Musick is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Summit ‑ Historic
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Summit have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit
    • Summit is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Pozo
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pozo have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pozo
    • Pozo is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Asuncion
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Asuncion have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Asuncion
    • Asuncion is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of San Luis Obispo ...

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 105 newspapers that have been published in the area around San Luis Obispo.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of San Luis Obispo. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of San Luis Obispo and those printed in the larger area surrounding San Luis Obispo.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<5> of San Luis Obispo.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we 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 San Luis Obispo:

The official website for San Luis Obispo: www.slocity.org/

The official website for San Luis Obispo County: www.co.slo.ca.us/

The official website for State of California: https://www.ca.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<4>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 San Luis Obispo, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>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- San Luis Obispo) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in San Luis Obispo. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.2819, Longitude: -120.6594    









 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025