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The Birthdays of the California Missions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
Since 1773 various official and semi-official lists of the California missions with their founding dates have been compiled, but the lists do not all agree with one another nor with the founding reports. This paper is an attempt at a critical and analytical study of the founding dates based on the founding reports, on the annual reports (estados) of the individual missions, on the beginning dates (comenzadas) on the title pages of the parochial books, on the traditional lists, and on the factors involved in the founding of the establishments. In the 1920's Father Engelhardt made some study of these lists in his various histories of the missions, but some of the findings may be questioned.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1964
References
1 Bolton, H.E., Palou’s New California (Noticias)(Berkeley, 1926)Google Scholar; Anza’s California Expedition (Berkeley, 1930). FatherGeiger, M.J., Palou’s Life of Serra (Washington, 1955).Google Scholar La Perouse, J.G., Voyage Round the World (London, 1798).Google Scholar California Archives (MSS, Bancroft Library), A, 16, XXIV, 13 f; 50, Tom. II, 90; 52, Tom. I, 8; 53, Tom. II, 68. Arch, de Arzob. (MSS, Bancroft Library), V, part 2, 84. Arch, de Santa Barbara (MSS, Bancroft Library), I, 92 f. Jones Report in U. S. S. Does., 31 Cong., 2 Ses., III (18), 7, 52. Estados and other statistical reports (MSS) in the Archives of Mission Santa Barbara. Private land grant cases in the U. S. District Court Clerks office, San Francisco (now in the Bancroft Library) ; the list of the missions was copied in Alta California, June 15, 1855, 2/2 with the Purisima date as January 8, 1787, Santa Clara as July 18, 1777, and Santa Barbara as October 4, 1786. The parochial books of Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths during the mission period down to the end of 1834 are extant, except for individual volumes from two missions (San Diego and Soledad) and all of those of San Luis Rey, and a few pages in different volumes in different missions. They are to be found scattered in the chanceries of the Archdioceses of San Francisco and Los Angeles and of the diocese of Fresno-Monterey, and in the missions at San Diego, San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Santa Ines, San Luis Obispo, San Miguel, San Antonio, San Juan Bautista, Dolores, and Santa Clara; those of Somoma are in the Bancroft Library as part of the Vallejo Documentos. The lists of Father Engelhardt are in his histories of the individual missions and in his Missions and Missionaries of California (San Francisco, 1913), p. 653. The estado of 1832 is also in the Docs, para la historia de California (MSS, Bancroft Library), p. 753. Reports of the foundings in addition to those of Palou are in FatherEngelhardt’s, Soledad (Santa Barbara, 1929), p. 7;Google Scholar San Luis Rey (San Francisco, 1921), p. 8; Santa Ines (Santa Barbara, 1932), p. 10, in the report of Father Tapia. Lasuén’s reports are also found, for San Jose, in California Archives, A, 56, XVIII, 29; A, 24, VI, 190; for San Juan Bautista also in Engelhardt's history of that mission (Santa Barbara, 1913), p. 5; for Fernando, San also in his San Fernando (Chicago, 1927), p. 10 Google Scholar; for Mission San Miguel also in California Archives, A, 56, and XVIII, 27 and in Engelhardt’s, San Miguel (Santa Barbara, 1929), p. 6;Google Scholar for San Rafael, in Arch, de Santa Barbara (MSS, Bancroft Library), IV, 157 and in California Archives, A, 25, IX, 177. For Sonoma, in Arch, de Arzob. (MSS, Bancroft Library), IV, part 2, 47 f, in the report of Padre Altamira. For San José also in California Archives, A, 56, XVIII, 29, and in 9, Tom., XVI, 31 in the Diary of Prado Amador.
2 Father M.J. Geiger, Archivist of the Old Mission Santa Barbara, who knows intimately the handwriting of the padres, has identified the date as 24. Lasuén made his 1 and 4 in a very similar manner.
3 Bolton, , Talou, 2, 324;Google Scholar III, 218.
4 Estado of 1832 in Docs, para la Historis de California, 6.
5 Bowman, J.N. “Determination of Urban Birthdays,” Cal. Soc. Hist. Quarterly, 27 (1948), 51 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8 U. S. Supreme Court Reports, 18. Howard 543; 23 Law Ed. 359.
7 Geiger, , Palou’s Life of Serra, pp. 119, 75.Google Scholar
8 Pictures of title pages of the Books of Baptisms are found in Engelhardt, San Francisco (Chicago, 1924), pp. 61, 275, 279;Google Scholar San Juan Capistrano (Los Angeles, 1922), p. 14; Santa Barbara (San Francisco, 1923), p. 296; San Fernando (Chicago, 1927), p. 85; San Diego (San Francisco, 1920), p. 141 (Marriages with the full title); San Luis Obispo (Santa Barbara, 1933), p. 181. The title pages for the existing books are in the missions and chanceries except for San Luis Rey; for Sonoma it was probably never written and for San Rafael there is a substitute for them.
9 This number, 82,985, is the corrected total; the Book total is 82,845, but due to the errors in numbering in six missions this total has been corrected.
10 Geiger, , Palou’s Life of Serra, pp. 187, 188.Google Scholar
11 Bolton, , Palou, 4, 132;Google Scholar Geiger, , Palou’s Life of Serra, p. 187;Google Scholar Bolton, , Anza, 3, 399.Google Scholar
12 See supra, n. 11.
13 Bolton, , Anza, 3, 400;Google Scholar Palou, IV, 132. Geiger, , Palou’s Life of Serra, p. 188.Google Scholar
14 Arch, de Arzob., I, 17 f. California Archives, A, 54, Tom. II, 137.
15 See supra, n. 4.