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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 Thermal (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 Thermal. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Thermal is located in Riverside 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 Riverside County: La Paz (AZ), Imperial, Orange, San Bernardino & San Diego.

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

  • Riverside County     (The home county of Thermal)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thermal, with the one closest to Thermal listed first.
    • Sandy Korner
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandy Korner
      • Sandy Korner is located in Riverside County
    • Coachella
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Martinez
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martinez
      • Martinez is located in Riverside County
    • Indio
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indio
      • Indio is located in Riverside County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 91,919 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Indio <1>
    • Mecca
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • La Quinta
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Cactus City
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cactus City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cactus City
      • Cactus City is located in Riverside County
    • Bermuda Dunes
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Indian Wells
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Palm Desert Country
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Palm Desert Country have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Palm Desert Country
      • Palm Desert Country is located in Riverside County
    • Oasis
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oasis
      • Oasis is located in Riverside County
    • North Shore
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Shore
      • North Shore is located in Riverside County
    • Palm Desert
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Imperial County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thermal, with the one closest to Thermal listed first.
    • Coolidge Springs
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coolidge Springs
      • Coolidge Springs is located in Imperial County
    • Desert Shores
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Desert Shores have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Desert Shores
      • Desert Shores is located in Imperial County
    • Salton Sea Beach
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Salton Sea Beach
      • Salton Sea Beach is located in Imperial County
    • Salton City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Bertram
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bertram
      • Bertram is located in Imperial County
    • Pope ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pope have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pope
      • Pope is located in Imperial County
  • San Diego County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Thermal ...

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 65 newspapers that have been published in the area around Thermal.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Thermal. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Thermal and those printed in the larger area surrounding Thermal.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3> of Thermal.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Thermal:

Cemeteries Near Thermal ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Thermal.

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

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

  • Coachella Valley Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Coachella Valley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Coachella Valley Cemetery
  • Martinez Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Martinez Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Martinez Cemetery
  • Toro Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Toro Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Toro Cemetery
  • Desert Memorial Park
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Palm Springs District Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Palm Springs District Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Palm Springs District Cemetery

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

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

The official website for Riverside County: www.co.riverside.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>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- Thermal) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Thermal. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 33.6403, Longitude: -116.1423    
<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.




 

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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