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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 Santa Rosa (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 Santa Rosa. 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 hospitals and 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.

Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Santa Rosa:

  • San Luis Obispo County     (The home county of Santa Rosa)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Santa Rosa, with the one closest to Santa Rosa listed first.
    • Cambria
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • East Village
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
      • East Village is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Village
    • Tin City
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Tin City is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tin City
    • Harmony
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • West Village
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • West Village is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Village
    • San Simeon
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Cayucos
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Lake Nacimiento
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Morro Bay
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Morro Bay is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morro Bay
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 10,560 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Morro Bay <1>
    • Bee Rock
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Bee Rock is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bee Rock
    • Templeton
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Los Osos
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Atascadero
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
  • Monterey County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Santa Rosa, with the one closest to Santa Rosa listed first.
    • Pleyto ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Pleyto is located in Monterey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleyto
    • Bradley
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Lockwood
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Martinus Corner
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Martinus Corner is located in Monterey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martinus Corner
    • Jolon
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • San Mateo County

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

Cemeteries Near Santa Rosa ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Santa Rosa.

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 Santa Rosa - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Santa Rosa Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Cambria Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Cayucos - Morro Bay District Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Adelaida Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Quintana Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Templeton Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Paso Robles District Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
  • Los Osos Valley Memorial Park
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Atascadero Pine Mtn. Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • 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 <2>
  • Old Mission Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
  • San Luis Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • 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
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • 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
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
  • Lockwood Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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

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

  • Cambria
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • San Simeon
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Cayucos
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Adelaida
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Adelaida is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Adelaida
  • Bryson
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Bryson is located in Monterey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bryson
  • Templeton
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Asuncion
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Asuncion is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Asuncion
  • Paso Robles
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
  • Pleyto ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Pleyto is located in Monterey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleyto
  • Dove ‑ Historic
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Dove is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dove
  • San Miguel
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Bradley
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Santa Margarita
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Linne
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Linne is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linne
    • Estrella
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Estrella is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Estrella

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

Newspapers Published in Santa Rosa ...

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 40 newspapers that have been published in the area around Santa Rosa.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Santa Rosa, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Santa Rosa.

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 Santa Rosa:

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 Santa Rosa, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Santa Rosa) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.