History

Mendocino County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. Due to an initially minor white American population, it did not have a separate government until 1859 and was under the administration of Sonoma County prior to that. Some of the county's land was given to Sonoma County between 1850 and 1860.

The county derives its name from Cape Mendocino (most of which is actually located in adjacent Humboldt County), which was probably named in honor of either Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of New Spain, 1535–1542 (who sent the Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo Expedition to this coast in 1542), or Lorenzo Suárez de Mendoza, Viceroy from 1580 to 1583. Mendocino is the adjectival form of the family name of Mendoza. This description was taken from a Wikipedia article about Mendocino County, which has much more detail.There is also this Brief History of Mendocino County".

Cities

There are four incorporated cities, within the county: Fort Bragg, Point Arena, Ukiah (county seat) and Willits. See more at Wikipedia..

Adjacent Counties

In doing genealogy research, it is helpful to know adjacent counties, as relatives frequently live nearby.

• To the north: Humboldt and Trinity counties
• To the north-east Tehama County
• To the south: Sonoma County
• To the east: Lake and Glenn counties

Starting Your Research

USGenWeb (http://usgenweb.org) is a great place to begin your genealogical journey. There are many dedicated volunteers across the U.S. who cover topics you are just beginning to wonder about. This Mendocino County site was produced by Lewis M Ruddick from 1996 to early in 2017. His good work was continued by Bill George, and in June 2018, Phil Carnahan joined as co-Mendocino County Coordinator for the CAGenWeb project. Phil brings much experience in Mendocino County Genealogy, having worked on his Mendocino County indexes over many years.

In addition to the Mendocino County Indexes and the Mendocino County Historical Society Genealogy Links, the following sites should be quite helpful to your research.

• Cyndi's List, Mendocino County
• Findagrave and Billion Graves
• Interactive Map of California Formation History
• FamilySearch Wiki, Mendocino County
• Mendocino County Genealogy, History and Facts
• Mendocino County Historical Society Genealogy Links
• Mendocino County Indexes
• Mendocino County Indian Reservations
• Mendocino County Message Board (Ancestry)

About this Web Site

This is a USGenWeb web site and is part of California's Genweb and county web pages. It was most recently updated updated after a change in County Coordinators in 2017 from Lewis M. Ruddick to Bill George. Some of the previous Mendocino County coordinator, Lewis M. Ruddick's web pages, have been assembled and are called the "Mendocino Archives". Phil Carnahan's Mendocino County Indexes were re-added in 2018, after RootsWeb's outage caused them not to be available. A "snapshot" of this web site prior to 2017 can be found on "Archive.org's Wayback Machine", where the Mendocino County CAGenWeb website was backed up 56 times from 2001 to 2016.

The CAGenWeb Project thanks you for visiting and hopes this website contributes to your genealogy research. Phil Carnahan and Bill George are Mendocino County Co-Coordinators.

Sponsorship

This web page is sponsored by the CAGenWeb Project, part of the USGenWeb Project. Although believed to be correct as presented, if you know of any corrections, changes and additions, or find that any links provided on this page are not functioning properly, please contact the Webmaster for prompt attention to the matter. If necessary the California State Genweb Coordinator can be contacted by email.

How to Use this Web Site

The "Home" or starting page starts with History of Mendocino County. Return to it by clicking on "History (home)" in the Area Resources. To navigate after that, click on links in "Area Resources" where each page has navigation with all web site links. All other links on the web pages will start up other web pages that you have to "back up" with your browser, to return to the main web site.