RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of California >> Kern County >> Shafter >> 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 Shafter (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 Shafter. 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 southeast 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 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 east 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.

Shafter is located in Kern 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 Kern County: Inyo, Kings, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare & Ventura.

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

  • Kern County     (The home county of Shafter)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shafter, with the one closest to Shafter listed first.
    • Cawelo
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cawelo
      • Cawelo is located in Kern County
    • Minter Village
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Minter Village have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minter Village
      • Minter Village is located in Kern County
    • Crome
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crome
      • Crome is located in Kern County
    • Famoso
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Famoso
      • Famoso is located in Kern County
    • Wasco
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Rosedale ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rosedale have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosedale
      • Rosedale is located in Kern County
    • McFarland
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Greenacres
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Buttonwillow
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Oil Junction
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oil Junction
      • Oil Junction is located in Kern County
    • Vinland
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Vinland have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vinland
      • Vinland is located in Kern County
    • Semitropic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Semitropic
      • Semitropic is located in Kern County
    • Tupman
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Tulare County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shafter, with the one closest to Shafter listed first.
    • Richgrove
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Allensworth ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Earlimart
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Ducor
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Alpaugh
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Shafter ...

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 103 newspapers that have been published in the area around Shafter.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Shafter. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Shafter and those printed in the larger area surrounding Shafter.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3> of Shafter.

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 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 Shafter:

Cemeteries Near Shafter ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Shafter.

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

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

  • Shafter Memorial Park
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Pomfret Memorial Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Wasco Memorial Park
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Greenlawn Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Delano - McFarland District Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Delano - McFarland District Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located outside and to the southwest of Delano.
    • The Delano - McFarland District Cemetery has also been known as:
    • North Kern Cemetery
    • North Kern Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Delano - McFarland District Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #640421 <4>
  • Union Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • The Union Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Bakersfield Memorial Cemetery
    • Historic Union Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Union Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #8414 <4>
  • Greenlawn Southwest Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Engle Family Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Chinaman Gravesite
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Hillcrest Memorial Park
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
  • Allensworth Historical Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • West Side District Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Midway Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Blue Mtn. Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Weringer Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)

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.<5>

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

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

  • Lerdo
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lerdo have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lerdo
    • Lerdo is located in Kern County
  • Rosedale ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rosedale have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosedale
    • Rosedale is located in Kern County
  • Bakersfield
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Delano
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
  • Warren ‑ Historic
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Warren have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warren
    • Warren is located in Kern County
  • Woody
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)

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

The official website for Shafter: www.shafter.com/

The official website for Kern County: www.co.kern.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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Shafter) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Shafter. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.5027, Longitude: -119.2766    
<4>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.
<5>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 Shafter, 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