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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 Virgilia (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 Virgilia. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals 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.

Virgilia is located in Plumas 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 Plumas County: Butte, Lassen, Shasta, Sierra, Tehama & Yuba.

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

  • Plumas County     (The home county of Virgilia)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Virgilia, with the one closest to Virgilia listed first.
    • Twain
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Rich Bar ‑ Historic
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
      • Rich Bar is located in Plumas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rich Bar
    • Paxton
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Paxton is located in Plumas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paxton
    • Caribou
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
      • Caribou is located in Plumas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caribou
    • Silver Creek ‑ Historic
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Silver Creek is located in Plumas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Creek
    • Spanish Ranch
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Spanish Ranch is located in Plumas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spanish Ranch
    • Seneca ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Seneca is located in Plumas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seneca
    • Meadow Valley
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Indian Falls
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
      • Indian Falls is located in Plumas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Falls
    • Keddie
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
      • Keddie is located in Plumas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keddie
    • Belden
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Moccasin
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Moccasin is located in Plumas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moccasin
  • Butte County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Virgilia, with the one closest to Virgilia listed first.
    • Merrimac
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Merrimac is located in Butte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merrimac
    • Big Bar
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Big Bar is located in Butte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Bar
    • Pulga
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Butte Meadows
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Inskip ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Inskip is located in Butte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Inskip
    • Stirling City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Brush Creek
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Brush Creek is located in Butte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brush Creek
    • Powellton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Powellton is located in Butte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Powellton
    • Lumpkin ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Lumpkin is located in Butte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lumpkin
    • Magalia
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • De Sabla
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • De Sabla is located in Butte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Sabla
    • Big Bend
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Big Bend is located in Butte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Bend
  • Lassen County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Virgilia, with the one closest to Virgilia listed first.
    • Peninsula Village
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Peninsula Village is located in Lassen County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peninsula Village
    • Pine Town
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Pine Town is located in Lassen County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Town
    • Westwood
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Sierra County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Virgilia, with the one closest to Virgilia listed first.
    • Gibsonville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Gibsonville is located in Sierra County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gibsonville
    • Queen City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Queen City is located in Sierra County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Queen City
    • Poker Flat
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Poker Flat is located in Sierra County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poker Flat
  • Tehama County

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

Cemeteries Near Virgilia ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Virgilia.

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

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

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

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

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

  • Spanish Ranch
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Spanish Ranch is located in Plumas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spanish Ranch
  • Meadow Valley
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Quincy
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Crescent Mills
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Greenville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Longville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Longville is located in Plumas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Longville
  • Prattville
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Taylorsville
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Genesee ‑ Historic
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Genesee is located in Plumas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Genesee
  • Merrimac
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Merrimac is located in Butte County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merrimac
  • Gibsonville
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Gibsonville is located in Sierra County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gibsonville
  • Butte Meadows
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Inskip ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Inskip is located in Butte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Inskip
    • La Porte
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Saint Louis
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Saint Louis is located in Sierra County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Louis

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

Newspapers Published in Virgilia ...

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 14 newspapers that have been published in the area around Virgilia.

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

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 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 Virgilia:

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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Virgilia) 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 Virgilia, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.