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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 Verde (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 Verde. 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 and hospitals 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.

Verde is located in San Luis Obispo 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 Luis Obispo County: Kern, Kings, Monterey, Santa Barbara & Ventura.

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

  • San Luis Obispo County     (The home county of Verde)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Verde, with the one closest to Verde listed first.
    • Reeds ‑ Historic
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Reeds was located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reeds
    • Arroyo Grande
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Fairoaks
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Fairoaks is also located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairoaks
    • Grover Beach
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Grover Beach is also located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grover Beach
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 13,325 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Grover Beach <1>
    • Oceano
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Pismo Beach
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Pismo Beach is also located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pismo Beach
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,955 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pismo Beach <1>
    • Shell Beach
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • San Miguelito
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
      • San Miguelito is also located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Miguelito
    • Callender
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Musick ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Musick was located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Musick
    • San Luis Obispo
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Avila Beach
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Nipomo
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Nipomo is also located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nipomo
      • Nipomo has also been known as:
      • Nipoma
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Nipomo <1>
  • San Mateo County
  • Santa Barbara County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Verde, with the one closest to Verde listed first.
    • Guadalupe
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Santa Maria
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Betteravia
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Betteravia is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Betteravia
    • Orcutt
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Casmalia
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Garey
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Garey is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garey
    • Lompoc Landing ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Lompoc Landing was located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lompoc Landing

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

Cemeteries Near Verde ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Verde.

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

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

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

  • Halcyon Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • San Luis Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Old Mission Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Sutcliffe Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Guadalupe Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Santa Margarita Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Los Osos Valley Memorial Park
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Santa Maria Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Quintana Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Atascadero Pine Mtn. Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
  • Ontiveros Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Cayucos - Morro Bay District Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Templeton Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
  • Foxen Canyon Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)

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.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Verde had railroad service and no post office.

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

  • Reeds ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Reeds was located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reeds
  • Edna
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Edna is also located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edna
  • Arroyo Grande
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Los Berros
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Los Berros is also located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Berros
  • Summit ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Summit was located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit
  • Miles
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Miles is also located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Miles
  • Huasna
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Huasna is also located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huasna
  • Musick ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Musick was located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Musick
  • San Luis Obispo
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Nipomo
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Nipomo is also located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nipomo
    • Nipomo has also been known as:
    • Nipoma
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Nipomo <1>
  • Pozo
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Pozo is also located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pozo
  • Guadalupe
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (11 more) ...
    • Santa Margarita
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Santa Maria
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Dove ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Dove was located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dove

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

Newspapers Published in Verde ...

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 76 newspapers that have been published in the area around Verde.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Verde, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Verde.

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 Verde:

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>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 Verde, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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 from Point A (ie- Verde) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.