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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Waldo. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Waldo to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Waldo, please Contact Us.

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 Waldo (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 Waldo. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Waldo is historic, it would have been located within present day Josephine County.

To see how the shape of Oregon's counties 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 Waldo. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Waldo:

  • Josephine County     (The home county of Waldo)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waldo, with the one closest to Waldo listed first.
    • O'Brien
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Brown City ‑ Historic
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Brown City have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brown City
      • Brown City is located in Josephine County
    • Cave Junction
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cave Junction have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cave Junction
      • Cave Junction is located in Josephine County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,986 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cave Junction <2>
    • Kerby
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Selma
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Williams
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Wilderville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Murphy
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • New Hope
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Hope
      • New Hope is located in Josephine County
    • Redwood
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Redwood have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redwood
      • Redwood is located in Josephine County
    • Fruitdale
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fruitdale have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fruitdale
      • Fruitdale is located in Josephine County
    • Grants Pass
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Jackson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waldo, with the one closest to Waldo listed first.
    • Copper ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Copper have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copper
      • Copper is located in Jackson County
    • Provolt
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Provolt
      • Provolt is located in Jackson County
    • Applegate
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Del Norte County (CA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waldo, with the one closest to Waldo listed first.
    • Gasquet
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Smith River
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Hiouchi
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Fort Dick
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Siskiyou County (CA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waldo, with the one closest to Waldo listed first.
    • Happy Camp
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Seiad Valley
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Waldo ...

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 26 newspapers that have been published in the area around Waldo.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Waldo, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Waldo.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Waldo:

Cemeteries Near Waldo ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Waldo.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

  • Laurel Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Laurel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Laurel Cemetery
  • Deer Creek Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Deer Creek Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Deer Creek Cemetery
  • Selma Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Selma Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Selma Cemetery
  • Hartley Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hartley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hartley Cemetery
  • Steamboat Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Steamboat Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Steamboat Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #39456 <5>
  • Gotcher Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Gotcher Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Gotcher Cemetery
  • Sparlin Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sparlin Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sparlin Cemetery
  • Wilderville Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wilderville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wilderville Cemetery
  • Sloan Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sloan Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sloan Cemetery
  • Missouri Flat Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Missouri Flat Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Missouri Flat Cemetery
  • Ferrydale Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ferrydale Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ferrydale Cemetery
  • Indian Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Indian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Indian Cemetery

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.

Waldo itself is historic and was described in the Rand McNally Atlas as having a population of 29 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Althouse ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Althouse have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Althouse
    • Althouse is located in Josephine County
  • Browntown ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Browntown have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Browntown
    • Browntown is located in Josephine County
  • Kerby
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Gasquet
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Steamboat
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Steamboat have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Steamboat
    • Steamboat is located in Jackson County
  • Williams
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Happy Camp
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
  • Wilderville
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • Murphy
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Smith River
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
  • Seiad Valley
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Applegate
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)

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

The official website for Josephine County: www.co.josephine.or.us/

The official website for State of Oregon: https://www.oregon.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Waldo, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<4>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 from Point A (ie- Waldo) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Waldo. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.0616, Longitude: -123.6478    
<5>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.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024