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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 Shandon (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 Shandon. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Shandon is located in San Luis Obispo 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 Luis Obispo County: Kern, Kings, Monterey, Santa Barbara & Ventura.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Shandon ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Shandon.

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

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

  • Clark Memorial Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Clark Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Clark Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Shandon Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Shandon Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Shandon Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Parkfield Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Parkfield Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Parkfield Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Paso Robles District Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Paso Robles District Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Paso Robles District Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Templeton Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Templeton Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Templeton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Atascadero Pine Mtn. Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Imusdale Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Imusdale Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Imusdale Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Santa Margarita Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Santa Margarita Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Santa Margarita Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Adelaida Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Shandon had a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Cholame
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Annette
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Annette have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Annette
    • Annette is located in Kern County
  • Linne
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Creston
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Estrella
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Parkfield
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • Paso Robles
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Templeton
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Asuncion
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Asuncion have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Asuncion
    • Asuncion is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • San Miguel
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Dove ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dove have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dove
    • Dove is located in San Luis Obispo County
  • Santa Margarita
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • La Panza ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for La Panza. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Panza
      • La Panza is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to La Panza
      • From Shandon to La Panza
    • Pozo
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pozo have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pozo
      • Pozo is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Valleton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Valleton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valleton
      • Valleton is located in Monterey County

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

Newspapers Published in Shandon ...

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 Shandon.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Shandon, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Shandon.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These 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 Shandon:

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

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>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>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.
<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 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 Shandon, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>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- Shandon) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Shandon. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.6555, Longitude: -120.3748    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025