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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 Rainrock (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 Rainrock. 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.

Rainrock is located in Lane 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 Lane County: Benton, Deschutes, Douglas, Klamath, Lincoln & Linn.

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

  • Lane County     (The home county of Rainrock)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rainrock, with the one closest to Rainrock listed first.
    • Mapleton
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Swisshome
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Deadwood
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Point Terrace
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
      • Point Terrace is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Point Terrace
    • Alpha
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Alpha is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpha
    • Walton
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Florence
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Glenada
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Glenada is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glenada
    • Dunes City
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Dunes City is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dunes City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,412 people
    • Blachly
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Westlake
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Noti
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
  • Benton County
  • Douglas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rainrock, with the one closest to Rainrock listed first.
    • Gardiner
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Reedsport
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Scottsburg ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Umpqua City ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Umpqua City is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Umpqua City
  • Lincoln County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rainrock, with the one closest to Rainrock listed first.
    • Yachats
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Westwood Village
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Westwood Village is located in Lincoln County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westwood Village
    • Tidewater
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Tillicum Beach
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Tillicum Beach is located in Lincoln County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tillicum Beach
    • Waldport
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Rainrock ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rainrock.

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

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

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

  • IOOF - Mapleton Lodge #3139 Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Indian Creek Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Deadwood Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Haring Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Linslaw Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Madera Grave
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Drew Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Pacific Sunset Memorial Park
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Chickahominy Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Glenada Odd Fellows Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glenada Odd Fellows Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Glenada Odd Fellows Cemetery is located outside and to the southeast of Glenada.
    • The Glenada Odd Fellows Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery
    • Odd Fellows Cemetery
  • Heceta Lodge #11 IOOF Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Alma Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alma Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Alma Cemetery is located 16 miles [25.7 km]<2> to the southwest of Veneta.
    • The Alma Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Layne Cemetery
    • Mound Cemetery
    • Pettit Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2242280 <3>
  • Continue List   (42 more) ...
    • Walton Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Spruce Point Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Lone Fir Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)

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

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

  • Siuslaw ‑ Historic
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Siuslaw is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Siuslaw
  • Point Terrace
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Point Terrace is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Point Terrace
  • Deadwood
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Alpha
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Alpha is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpha
  • Acme
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Acme is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Acme
  • Florence
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Walton
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Glenada
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Glenada is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glenada
  • Sulphur Springs
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Sulphur Springs is located in Douglas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sulphur Springs
  • Alma
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Alma is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alma
  • Long Tom
    (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Long Tom is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Tom
  • Elmira
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Alsea
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Crow
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Crow is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow
    • Gardiner
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Rainrock ...

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 20 newspapers that have been published in the area around Rainrock.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Rainrock, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Rainrock.

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 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 Rainrock:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Rainrock) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<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 Rainrock, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.