RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of California >> San Diego County >> Scissors Crossing >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
California

The Commemorative Quarter for California





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 Scissors 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 Scissors 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 Scissors 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 have occurred.

  • A typical abbreviation for Scissors Crossing: Scissors Xing.
  • While the name of this community is Scissors Crossing, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Scissors Crossing may originally have been Scissor's Crossing.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Scissors Crossing might be written as Scissor 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.

Scissors Crossing is located in San Diego County.

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 Diego County: Imperial, Orange & Riverside.

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

  • San Diego County     (The home county of Scissors Crossing)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Scissors Crossing, with the one closest to Scissors Crossing listed first.
    • Banner
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Banner
      • Banner is located in San Diego County
    • Julian
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Ranchita
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ranchita
      • Ranchita is located in San Diego County
    • Stonewall ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Stonewall. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stonewall
      • Stonewall is located in San Diego County
    • Santa Ysabel
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Borrego Springs
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Warner Springs
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Mount Laguna
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Guatay
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Guatay have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Guatay
      • Guatay is located in San Diego County
    • Mesa Grande ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa Grande
      • Mesa Grande is located in San Diego County
    • Descanso
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • San Diego Country Estates
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for San Diego Country Estates have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Diego Country Estates
      • San Diego Country Estates is located in San Diego County

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

Newspapers Published in Scissors 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 31 newspapers that have been published in the area around Scissors Crossing.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Scissors Crossing, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Scissors Crossing.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Scissors Crossing:

Cemeteries Near Scissors Crossing ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Scissors 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.

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 Scissors Crossing covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Julian Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Julian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Julian Cemetery
  • Memory Gardens Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Memory Gardens Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Memory Gardens Cemetery
  • Indian Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Indian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Indian Cemetery

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.<6>

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

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

  • Banner
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Banner
    • Banner is located in San Diego County
  • Julian
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Ranchita
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ranchita
    • Ranchita is located in San Diego County
  • Cuyamaca ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cuyamaca have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuyamaca
    • Cuyamaca is located in San Diego County
  • Wynola
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wynola have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wynola
    • Wynola is located in San Diego County
  • Santa Ysabel
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Ballena
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ballena have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ballena
    • Ballena is located in San Diego County
  • Mesa Grande ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa Grande
    • Mesa Grande is located in San Diego County
  • Descanso
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • El Capitan ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for El Capitan have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Capitan
    • El Capitan is located in San Diego County
  • Alpine
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Oak Grove
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oak Grove have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
    • Oak Grove is located in San Diego County
  • San Pasqual
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for San Pasqual have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Pasqual
    • San Pasqual is located in San Diego County

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

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Scissors Crossing. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for San Diego County: www.sdcounty.ca.gov/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<4>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.
<5>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 from Point A (ie- Scissors Crossing) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Scissors Crossing. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 33.0964, Longitude: -116.4753       In this case, the coordinates for Scissors Crossing have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>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 Scissors Crossing, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

Copyright 2024
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

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: 07 Apr 2024