Are You Looking in the Right Place?

When California was admitted to the Union in 1850, Southern California consisted of only four counties: San Diego (which was huge!), Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo. Take a look at this map from the California State Association of Counties website:

From 1850 to 1907, six additional counties were created. If you are not finding a particular record in one county, perhaps you should be looking in the parent county. Although it does not list all the boundary changes that have taken place over the years  (click here for that), the chart below may be helpful in determining what other counties to check:

County	Created	Parent(s)	County Seat
Imperial	6 Aug 1907	San Diego	El Centro
Kern	2 Apr 1866	Tulare; Los Angeles	Bakersfield 1874-present Havilah 1866-1874
Los Angeles	18 Feb 1850	Original	Los Angeles
Orange	11 Mar 1889	Los Angeles	Santa Ana
Riverside	11 Mar 1893	San Diego; San Bernardino	Riverside
San Bernardino	26 Apr 1853	Los Angeles	San Bernardino
San Diego	18 Feb 1850	Original	San Diego
San Luis Obispo	18 Feb 1850	Original	San Luis Obispo
Santa Barbara	18 Feb 1850	Original	Santa Barbara
Ventura	22 Mar 1872	Santa Barbara	Ventura

There have been no changes in the location of the county seats, except in Kern County, and I don't believe you'll find what you need in Havilah!

Museum, Kern County Court House, Havilah, California; photo from Wikipedia.

Sources:

1. “California County History,” California State Association of Counties  (http://www.counties.org/default.asp?id=5 : accessed 12 January 2012).
2. “California County Creation Dates and Parent Counties” FamilySearch Research Wiki, (https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/California_County_Creation_Dates_and_Parent_Counties : accessed 12 January 2012)

© 2012 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research