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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 Fruitdale (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 Fruitdale. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Fruitdale is located in Josephine County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Josephine County: Del Norte (CA), Siskiyou (CA), Curry, Douglas & Jackson.

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

  • Josephine County     (The home county of Fruitdale)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fruitdale, with the one closest to Fruitdale listed first.
    • Grants Pass
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • New Hope
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • New Hope is located in Josephine County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Hope
    • Redwood
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
      • Redwood is located in Josephine County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redwood
    • Murphy
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Merlin
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Wilderville
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Three Pines
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Three Pines is located in Josephine County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Three Pines
    • Hugo
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Hugo is located in Josephine County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hugo
    • Williams
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Placer
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Placer is located in Josephine County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Placer
    • Greenback ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Greenback is located in Josephine County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenback
    • Sunny Valley
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Douglas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fruitdale, with the one closest to Fruitdale listed first.
    • Glendale
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Azalea
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Jackson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fruitdale, with the one closest to Fruitdale listed first.
    • Rogue River
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Rock Point ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Rock Point is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Point
    • Provolt
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Provolt is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Provolt
    • Wimer
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Wimer is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wimer
    • Gold Hill
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Applegate
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Sams Valley
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Sams Valley is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sams Valley
    • Jacksonville
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Ruch
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Central Point
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • White City
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Spikenard ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Spikenard is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spikenard

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

Cemeteries Near Fruitdale ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fruitdale.

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

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

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

  • Tokay Heights Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Hillcrest Memorial Park
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Granite Hill Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Hawthorne Memorial Gardens Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Woodville Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Sloan Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Wilderville Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Foots Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Missouri Flat Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Pleasant Valley Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Ferrydale Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Hays Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (41 more) ...
    • Hays - Gall Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Rock Point Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Gold Hill IOOF Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)

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.<2>

While we didn't find Fruitdale in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Fruitdale.

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

  • Grants Pass
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Murphy
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Wilderville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Merlin
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Draper ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Draper is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Draper
  • Rock Point ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Rock Point is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Point
  • Wimer
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Wimer is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wimer
  • Williams
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Applegate
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Gold Hill
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Leland
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Leland is located in Josephine County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leland
  • Tolo
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Tolo is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tolo
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Sams Valley
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Sams Valley is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sams Valley
    • Jacksonville
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Wolf Creek
      (19 miles [30.6 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 Fruitdale. See our List of 1890's Communities around Fruitdale.

Newspapers Published in Fruitdale ...

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 33 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fruitdale.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Fruitdale, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Fruitdale.

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 Fruitdale:

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>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 Fruitdale, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Fruitdale) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.