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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 South Trona (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 South Trona. 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 South Trona ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for South Trona: S. Trona

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 doctors 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.

South Trona is located in San Bernardino 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 Bernardino County: La Paz (AZ), Mohave (AZ), Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside & Clark (NV).

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

  • San Bernardino County     (The home county of South Trona)
    • The following are listed by their distance from South Trona, with the one closest to South Trona listed first.
    • Westend
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westend
      • Westend is located in San Bernardino County
    • Argus
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Argus
      • Argus is located in San Bernardino County
    • Pinnacle ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Pinnacle. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinnacle
      • Pinnacle is located in San Bernardino County
    • Searles Valley
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Searles Valley have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Searles Valley
      • Searles Valley is located in San Bernardino County
    • Trona
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Spangler ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Spangler. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spangler
      • Spangler is located in San Bernardino County
    • Copper City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Copper City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copper City
      • Copper City is located in San Bernardino County
    • Red Mountain
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Inyo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from South Trona, with the one closest to South Trona listed first.
    • Valley Wells
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valley Wells
      • Valley Wells is located in Inyo County
    • Homewood Canyon - Valley Wells
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homewood Canyon - Valley Wells
      • Homewood Canyon - Valley Wells is located in Inyo County
      • Homewood Canyon - Valley Wells has also been known as:
      • Homewood Canyon
    • Reilly ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reilly
      • Reilly is located in Inyo County
    • Millspaugh ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Millspaugh have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millspaugh
      • Millspaugh is located in Inyo County
    • Ballarat ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ballarat
      • Ballarat is located in Inyo County
    • Indian Ranch
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Ranch
      • Indian Ranch is located in Inyo County
    • Junction Ranch
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Junction Ranch
      • Junction Ranch is located in Inyo County
    • Linnie ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Linnie have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linnie
      • Linnie is located in Inyo County
    • Pearsonville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pearsonville
      • Pearsonville is located in Inyo County
  • Kern County
    • The following are listed by their distance from South Trona, with the one closest to South Trona listed first.
    • China Lake
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Ridgecrest
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • China Lake Acres
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for China Lake Acres have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for China Lake Acres
      • China Lake Acres is located in Kern County
    • Inyokern
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Johannesburg
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Randsburg
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Freeman ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freeman
      • Freeman is located in Kern County
    • Garlock
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Garlock. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garlock
      • Garlock is located in Kern County

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

Cemeteries Near South Trona ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of South Trona.

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

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

  • Searles Valley Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Desert Memorial Park
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Roger McGavin Gravesite
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Roger McGavin Gravesite
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Roger McGavin Gravesite. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2386701 <4>
  • Ballarat Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • Rand District Community Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rand District Community Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Rand District Community Cemetery is located in the vicinity of Johannesburg
    • The Rand District Community Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Johannesburg Cemetery
    • Rand District Cemetery
    • Randsburg Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #685739 <4>
  • Mt. Owens Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 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.<6>

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

  • Freeman ‑ Historic
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freeman
    • Freeman is located in Kern County

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

Newspapers Published in South Trona ...

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 20 newspapers that have been published in the area around South Trona.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of South Trona, 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 South Trona.

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 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 South Trona:

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

The official website for San Bernardino County: www.sbcounty.gov/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<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>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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>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 drawn from Point A (ie- South Trona) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in South Trona. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.7155, Longitude: -117.3973       In this case, the coordinates for South Trona 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 South Trona, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025