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 Sorrento (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 Sorrento. 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 doctors and hospitals 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.
Sorrento is located in San Diego 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 Diego County: Imperial, Orange & Riverside.
Below are the counties that are near Sorrento. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Sorrento:
- San Diego County (The home county of Sorrento)
- The following are listed by their distance from Sorrento, with the one closest to Sorrento listed first.
- University City
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
- University City is located in San Diego County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for University City
- Linda Vista ‑ Historic
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
- Linda Vista is located in San Diego County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linda Vista
- Mira Mesa
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
- Del Mar
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
- Elvira
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
- La Jolla
(5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
- Fairbanks Ranch
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
- Fairbanks Ranch is located in San Diego County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairbanks Ranch
- Solana Beach
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
- Pacific Beach
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
- Pacific Beach is located in San Diego County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pacific Beach
- Clairemont
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
- Clairemont is located in San Diego County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clairemont
- Cardiff-by-the-Sea
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
- Bayside Village
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
- Bayside Village is located in San Diego County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bayside Village
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Sorrento, see our County-by-County Page for Sorrento.
Cemeteries Near Sorrento ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Sorrento.
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 Sorrento - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Sorrento covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Sorrento, with the one closest to Sorrento listed first.
- Miramar National Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
- El Camino Memorial Park
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
- Carmel Valley Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
- Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
- Olivenhain Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
- Dearborn Memorial Park
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dearborn Memorial Park
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Dearborn Memorial Park is a large cemetery that is located in Poway.
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7932 <2>
- Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
- Home of Peace Cemetery
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
- Mt. Hope Cemetery
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mt. Hope Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Mt. Hope Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located in San Diego.
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #8175 <2>
- Holy Cross Cemetery
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
- Greenwood Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
- Greenwood Memorial Park
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
- Continue List (12 more) ...
- La Vista Cemetery
(18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
- San Marcos Cemetery
(18 miles [29 km] to the north)
- El Cajon Cemetery
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
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.<4>
The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Sorrento had a post office and railroad service.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Sorrento, with the one closest to Sorrento listed first.
- Selwyn ‑ Historic
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
- Selwyn is located in San Diego County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Selwyn
- Linda Vista ‑ Historic
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
- Linda Vista is located in San Diego County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linda Vista
- Del Mar
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
- Pacific Beach
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
- Pacific Beach is located in San Diego County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pacific Beach
- Old Town San Diego
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Old Town San Diego is located in San Diego County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Town San Diego
- Encinitas
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
- Poway
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
- Leucadia
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
- San Diego
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
- Coronado
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
- La Mesa
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
- Santee
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
- Continue List (18 more) ...
- El Cajon
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
- National City
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
- Spring Valley
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Sorrento. See our List of 1890's Communities around Sorrento.
Newspapers Published in Sorrento ...
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 412 newspapers that have been published in the area around Sorrento.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Sorrento, there are papers which were published within 19 miles [30.6 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Sorrento.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Sorrento:
- Websites specific to California
- Pages specific to San Diego County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for California
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> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Sorrento) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |
| <4> | 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 Sorrento, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |