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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 Summertown (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 Summertown. 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 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 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.

Summertown is located in Shasta 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 Shasta County: Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Siskiyou, Tehama & Trinity.

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

  • Shasta County     (The home county of Summertown)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Summertown, with the one closest to Summertown listed first.
    • Manzanita Lake
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
      • Manzanita Lake is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manzanita Lake
    • Viola ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Viola is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Viola
    • Old Station
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Shingletown
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Hat Creek
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Eudora Colony ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Eudora Colony is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eudora Colony
    • Whitmore
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Inwood
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Inwood is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Inwood
    • Fern
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Fern is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fern
    • Midway
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Midway is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Midway
    • Burney
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Bullskin ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Bullskin is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bullskin
    • Pawnee ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Pawnee is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pawnee
  • Lassen County
    • Peninsula Village
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Peninsula Village is located in Lassen County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peninsula Village
  • Plumas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Summertown, with the one closest to Summertown listed first.
    • Chester
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Lake Almanor West
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Lake Almanor West is located in Plumas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Almanor West
      • Lake Almanor West has also been known as:
      • Almanor West
    • Lake Almanor Peninsula
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Peninsula Village
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Lake Almanor Country Club
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Tehama County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Summertown, with the one closest to Summertown listed first.
    • Mineral
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Mill Creek
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Manton
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Dantuma Place
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Dantuma Place is located in Tehama County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dantuma Place
    • Paynes Creek
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Dales
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Dales is located in Tehama County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dales

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

Cemeteries Near Summertown ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Summertown.

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

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

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

  • Plateau Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Klotz Family Pioneer Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Whitmore Evangelical Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Fern Pioneer Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Whitmore Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Ogburn Inwood Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Burney Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burney Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Burney Cemetery is located in Burney.
    • The Burney Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Burney District Cemetery
    • Be careful not to confuse this cemetery with another one that is also named Burney Cemetery (located 69 miles to the north).
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2362619 <2>
  • Burney Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burney Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Burney Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located in Burney.
    • Be careful not to confuse this cemetery with another one that is also named Burney Cemetery (located 68 miles to the north).
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7866 <2>
  • Cameron - Davis Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Chester Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chester Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Chester Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located 2 miles [3.2 km]<3> to the southwest of Chester.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1976711 <2>
  • Oak Run Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Halcumb Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)

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>

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

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

  • Shingletown
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Manton
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Lyonsville
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Lyonsville is located in Tehama County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyonsville
  • Inwood
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Inwood is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Inwood
  • Paynes Creek
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
  • Cassel
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Oak Run
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Round Mountain
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Montgomery Creek
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Summertown ...

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 9 newspapers that have been published in the area around Summertown.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Summertown, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Summertown.

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 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 Summertown:

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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Summertown) 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 Summertown, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.