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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Sentinel. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Sentinel to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Sentinel, please Contact Us.

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 Sentinel (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 Sentinel. 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 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Sentinel is historic, it would have been located within present day 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 Sentinel. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Sentinel:

  • Fresno County     (The home county of Sentinel)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sentinel, with the one closest to Sentinel listed first.
    • Prather
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Tollhouse
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Auberry
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Meadow Lakes
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Meadow Lakes is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Lakes
    • Pineridge
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Pineridge is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pineridge
    • Piedra
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Friant
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Dora Belle
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Dora Belle is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dora Belle
    • Shaver Lake
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Gravesboro
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Gravesboro is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gravesboro
    • Gordon
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Gordon is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gordon
    • Bretz Mill
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Bretz Mill is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bretz Mill
  • Madera County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sentinel, with the one closest to Sentinel listed first.
    • Millerton ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Millerton is located in Madera County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millerton
    • O'Neals
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • North Fork
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Yosemite Lakes Park
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Yosemite Lakes Park is located in Madera County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yosemite Lakes Park
      • Yosemite Lakes Park has also been known as:
      • Yosemite Lakes
    • Bonadelle Ranchos - Madera Ranchos
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Wishon
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Wishon is located in Madera County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wishon
    • Coarsegold
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • The Pines
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • The Pines is located in Madera County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Pines
    • Bass Lake
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Oakhurst
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Knowles ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Knowles is located in Madera County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knowles
    • Knowles Junction
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Knowles Junction is located in Madera County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knowles Junction
  • Nevada County
    • Cedar Crest
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • 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 Sentinel, with the one closest to Sentinel listed first.
    • Dinuba
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Sultana
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)

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

Cemeteries Near Sentinel ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Sentinel.

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

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

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

  • Academy Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Tollhouse Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Auberry Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Watts Valley Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Big Sandy Rancheria Tribal Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Winchell Cove Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 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.
  • Hughes Creek Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Winchell Cove Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Redbank Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Hazelton Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Acres Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Clovis Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (33 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.

Sentinel itself is historic and was described in the Rand McNally Atlas as having a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Letcher ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Letcher is located in Fresno County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Letcher
  • Tollhouse
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Auberry
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Sanger
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Fresno
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Lone Star
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Lone Star is located in Fresno County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lone Star
  • Yokuts
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Muscatel
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Muscatel is located in Fresno County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Muscatel
  • Malaga
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Malaga is located in Fresno County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Malaga
  • Herndon
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Herndon is located in Fresno County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Herndon
  • Fowler
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Reedley
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (9 more) ...
    • Dunlap
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Oleander
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Oleander is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oleander
    • Easton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Sentinel ...

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 79 newspapers that have been published in the area around Sentinel.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Sentinel, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Sentinel.

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 Sentinel:

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Sentinel, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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>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- Sentinel) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.