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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 California (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 California. 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 hospitals and 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.

California is located in Aroostook County.

To see how the shape of Maine's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Aroostook County: Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset & Washington.

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

  • Aroostook County     (The home county of California)
    • The following are listed by their distance from California, with the one closest to California listed first.
    • Stockholm
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Cyr Plantation
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Cyr Plantation is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cyr Plantation
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 94 people
    • New Sweden
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • North Lyndon
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • North Lyndon is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Lyndon
    • Westmanland
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Westmanland is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westmanland
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 58 people
    • Van Buren
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Sinclair
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Caswell
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Caswell is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caswell
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 281 people
    • Barretts
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Barretts is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barretts
    • Hamlin
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Hamlin is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamlin
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 202 people
    • Lille
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Lille is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lille
    • Saint Agatha
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Caribou
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)

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

Cemeteries Near California ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of California.

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

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

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

  • First St. Theresa Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Theresas Catholic Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for St. Theresas Catholic Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the St. Theresas Catholic Cemetery is located outside and to the south of Stockholm.
    • The St. Theresas Catholic Cemetery has also been known as:
    • St. Theresa Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1967632 <2>
  • Stockholm Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • West Jemtland Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Hedman Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Jemtland Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • West Road Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Westmanland Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Capitol Hill Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Nilsen Ackerson Family Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Williams Family Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Sacred Heart Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sacred Heart Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Sacred Heart Cemetery is located in the vicinity of North Lyndon
  • Continue List   (105 more) ...
    • Grand Riviere Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • St. Josephs Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Johnson Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)

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

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

  • Jemtland
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Jemtland is located in Aroostook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jemtland
  • Acadia
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Acadia is located in Aroostook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Acadia
  • New Sweden
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • North Lyndon
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • North Lyndon is located in Aroostook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Lyndon
  • Van Buren
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Caswell
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Caswell is located in Aroostook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caswell
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 281 people
  • Hamlin
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Hamlin is located in Aroostook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamlin
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 202 people
  • Caribou
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Perham
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Hurd
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Hurd is located in Aroostook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hurd
  • Limestone
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • East Lyndon
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • East Lyndon is located in Aroostook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Lyndon
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Washburn
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Saint David
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Frenchville
      (19 miles [30.6 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 California. See our List of 1890's Communities around California.

Newspapers Published in California ...

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 California.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of California, there are papers which were published within 22 miles [35.4 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for California.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful 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 California:

  • Genealogy information for nearby counties

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' (or 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- California) 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 California, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.