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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 Thorn Junction (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 Thorn Junction. 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 Thorn Junction ...

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 Thorn Junction: Thorn Jct. (or less commonly used: Thorn Jctn.)

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 southeast 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 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.

Thorn Junction is located in Humboldt 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 Humboldt County: Del Norte, Mendocino, Siskiyou & Trinity.

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

  • Humboldt County     (The home county of Thorn Junction)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thorn Junction, with the one closest to Thorn Junction listed first.
    • Whitethorn
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Briceland
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Briceland
      • Briceland is located in Humboldt County
    • Ettersburg
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Ettersburg. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ettersburg
      • Ettersburg is located in Humboldt County
    • Shelter Cove
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Redway
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Garberville
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Cooks Valley
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cooks Valley have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cooks Valley
      • Cooks Valley is located in Humboldt County
    • Miranda
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Phillipsville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Myers Flat
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Honeydew
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Harris
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harris
      • Harris is located in Humboldt County
    • Fruitland
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fruitland
      • Fruitland is located in Humboldt County
  • Mendocino County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thorn Junction, with the one closest to Thorn Junction listed first.
    • Piercy
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Leggett
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • South Leggett
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Leggett
      • South Leggett is located in Mendocino County
    • Bell Springs ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bell Springs
      • Bell Springs is located in Mendocino County
    • Bowman Place
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bowman Place
      • Bowman Place is located in Mendocino County
    • Westport
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
    • Spyrock
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Spyrock. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spyrock
      • Spyrock is located in Mendocino County
  • Trinity County

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

Cemeteries Near Thorn Junction ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Thorn Junction.

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

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

  • Ettersburg Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Garberville Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Lilley Grave Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lilley Grave Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lilley Grave Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Harris Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Roscoe Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Bull Creek Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
  • Jewett Valley Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • William Barnwell Sr. Memorial Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Petrolia Pioneer Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Martin Ranch Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Bridgeville Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bridgeville Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bridgeville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Bridgeville Cemetery is located outside and to the northeast of Bridgeville.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2310284 <4>

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 Thorn Junction in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Thorn Junction.

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

  • Briceland
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Briceland
    • Briceland is located in Humboldt County
  • Kenny
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kenny have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kenny
    • Kenny is located in Mendocino County
  • Phillipsville
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Harris
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harris
    • Harris is located in Humboldt County
  • Fruitland
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fruitland
    • Fruitland is located in Humboldt County
  • Blocksburg
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Rockport
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rockport have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockport
    • Rockport is located in Mendocino County
  • Cummings
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cummings have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cummings
    • Cummings is located in Mendocino County
  • Englewood
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Englewood have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Englewood
    • Englewood is located in Humboldt County
  • Petrolia
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Pepperwood
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Pepperwood. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pepperwood
    • Pepperwood is located in Humboldt County
  • Scotia
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Bridgeville
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in Thorn Junction ...

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 10 newspapers that have been published in the area around Thorn Junction.

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Thorn Junction:

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

The official website for Humboldt County: www.co.humboldt.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>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.
<3>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.
<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 '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- Thorn Junction) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Thorn Junction. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.0635, Longitude: -123.9636       In this case, the coordinates for Thorn Junction 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 Thorn Junction, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025