State of California History
Link To This Page — Contact Us —
California Vital Records • California Court Records • California Church Records • California Cemetery Records
California Land Records • California Military Records • California Archives & Societies • California Publications
In 1769 a small group of military men and missionaries, sent by the Spanish crown, arrived at what was to become San Diego. California was inhabited at that time by various indigenous tribes. It was Spain's goal to conquer the natives and settle the area. They built missions a day's journey apart on El Camino Real (the King's Highway) in fertile valleys beside permanent streams. Inhabitants raised crops and livestock. Several missions were destroyed when a severe earthquake struck in 1812. However, construction continued until the Mexican government secularized the mission holdings in 1833 and the land passed into private ownership. Citizens of Spain and Mexico occupied the coastal area between San Diego and San Francisco Bay.
The first considerable gold discovery in California was made thirty-five miles north of Los Angeles in 1842 by a Mexican rancher named Francisco Lopez. This was followed by a larger discovery at Sutter's Mill in Coloma in 1848. California is not only known for its yellow ore. California's reputation as the "Golden State" came from the early sea otter and cattle-hide trade, the black gold of oil, the fruit growing industry in Southern California, and the large development of agriculture state-wide beginning in the nineteenth century.
In 1800 the Russian American Fur Company of Alaska loaned twenty Aleut natives to a New England ship captain to engage in the illegal but highly successful hunting of sea otters off the California coast. The Russians followed and built Fort Ross about eighty miles north of San Francisco Bay; some of their descendants are living in the area today.
On 31 July 1846, over 200 Mormons from New York landed in San Francisco after sailing around Cape Horn. These Mormons decided to stay on the Coast and worked in lumber camps on the Marin Peninsula across the Golden Gate from San Francisco.
Following the discovery of gold and the Mexican War in 1848, the United States acquired all of the southwestern Mexican possessions. A large number of immigrants, including a substantial influx of Italians, began arriving in California after the declaration of statehood on 9 September 1850. The acquisition of the southwestern lands resulted in many land claims, and much litigation was required both in the courts and in the regulatory agencies before these cases were adjudicated. Not until March, 1851 did Congress send land commissioners west to review all grant titles.
The Central Railroad (later Southern Pacific), after its completion in May 1869, brought thousands of new migrants and goods westward. Numerous towns grew up along the transcontinental route. Thousands of Chinese migrated to California providing cheap labor in the mines as well as on the railroads. Mormon migrating to the West added more to the population.
The most severe earthquake in California's recorded history occurred on 18 April 1906. The city of San Francisco was almost totally destroyed by the quake, and the subsequent fire caused the loss of much of the city as well as many important records.
The depression of the 1920s and drought of the 1930s were followed, with the advent of World War II, by an ever-growing demand for labor and military and naval personnel. Since 1945 the growth of the state has been phenomenal. The census bureau counted more than twenty-three million residents in 1980, increasing about three million since the 1970 enumeration. While early settlers may have been drawn to California for fishing, hunting otters, raising livestock, searching for gold, and engaging in grain agriculture, in this century many have been attracted to the “Golden State” because of the rapidly expanding markets for cotton, fruit, nuts, and vegetables, and the entertainment, aerospace and technological (computer) industries.
- ABRIDGED HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. - Discovery and Early Settlements.—Missions Established.—American Occupation. --Discovery of Gold and its Immediate Results.—California Admrtted into the Union.—The Vigilantes.—Military and Civil Governments
About California's Original 27 Counties
On January 4, 1850, a committee of California's first constitutional convention, chaired by General Mariano Vallejo, recommended the creation of eighteen counties. They were Benicia, Butte, Fremont, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Monterey, Mt. Diablo, Oro, Redding, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, and Sutter.
Between January 4 and February 18, 1850, the California legislature added nine counties to the list recommended by General Vallejo's committee, some of the changes based on additional recommendations by the committee. The nine added counties were Branciforte, Calaveras, Coloma, Colusi, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Trinity, and Yuba. This brought the total number of counties to 27. The legislature also approved several name changes. Benicia was renamed El Dorado, Fremont was renamed Yola, Mt. Diablo was renamed Contra Costa, San Jose was renamed Santa Clara, Oro was renamed Tuolumne, and Redding was renamed Shasta.
Effective February 18, 1850, twenty-seven counties were created in California. The new counties were Branciforte, Butte, Calaveras, Colusi, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Los Angeles, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, Sutter, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yola, and Yuba.
In early 1850, not long after the legislature adopted its first statute creating counties, new statutes were adopted changing some county names. Branciforte was changed to Santa Cruz, Colusi was changed to Colusa, and Yola was changed to Yolo.
On September 9, 1850, California became the State of California with the same twenty-seven counties. Of the original 27 counties, after 1850 only Marin neither added nor lost significant land to another county. Of the 32 California counties created after 1850, only seven counties neither added nor lost significant land to another county. The seven are Alameda, Alpine, Imperial, Madera, Modoc, Orange, and Riverside.
In addition to the substantial territorial changes listed, many small changes were made to boundaries. Several of these small changes were made at the time of the creation of new counties. Original county boundaries often followed geographic features such as mountain ridges. In the middle of the last half of the nineteenth century many of these boundaries were changed slightly so that they now run along township lines and section lines.
Immigration - California provided several ports and points of entry for immigrants. San Francisco, in the north, is the largest. In the south, at the mouth of the Los Angeles Harbor are the ports of San Pedro, Wilmington, and Los Angeles; however, these are considered one port of entry in passenger arrivals by sea. Southern land points of entry include San Ysidro, Campo, and Tecate in San Diego County, and Andrade in Imperial County from Mexico.
The California State Library has microfilms of the National Archives arrivals lists, and these are also available on microfilm at the FHL. Many immigrants in this period were from China and Japan, but a good number were from Europe, Australia, India, Chile, Peru, and elsewhere. Below is a list of NARA resources and some compilations.
Other record types can serve to document immigrants from outside the United States and emigrants from within the United States, such as records for the Russian Consular in San Francisco (1862–1928), which document Jews, Poles, Ukranians, Lithuanians, and Finns, among others.
| NARA Resources | ||
| Port/Point of Entry | Records | Source |
| Miscellaneous | 1906–35 | “Pioneer Card File” at State Library |
| San Pedro/Wilmington/LA | 1907–48 | Passengers List, NARA (M1763, M1764) |
| San Francisco | 1850–53 | Published in four volumes: Louis J. Rasmussen’s San Francisco Ship Passenger Lists, 1850–1984 (Colma, Calif.: San Francisco Historic Records, 1965–70; vol. 1. 1965; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1978) |
| San Francisco from Honolulu | 1902–07 | NARA (M1440) |
| San Francisco | 1903–18 | Customs Lists, NARA (M1412) |
| San Francisco from U.S. islands | 1907–11 | Passenger List, NARA (M1438) |
| San Francisco | 1850–53 | Published in six volumes: Peter E. Carr’s San Francisco Passenger Departure Lists, 1850–53 (n.p.: TCI Genealogical Resources, 1993–2000) |
| San Francisco | 1854–92 | Crew lists, 1854–56, 1861–62, 1883, 1886, 1892, U.S. Custom House, San Francisco |
| San Francisco | 1896–1921 | Admitted alien crew lists, NARA (M1436) |
| San Francisco | 1905–21 | Crew lists, NARA (M1416) |
| San Francisco | 1882–88 | Chinese laborers, NARA (M1413) |
| San Francisco | 1882–1914 | Chinese passengers, NARA (M1414) |
| San Francisco | 1903–21 | Chinese applying for admission, NARA (M1476) |
| San Francisco | before 1854 | Hamburg citizens arriving in California published in Renate Hauschild-Thiessen’s German work Die Ersten Hamburger in Goldland Kalifornien (n.p.: n.d.) |
| San Francisco | 1840–1954 | List of ships arriving, NARA (M1437) |
| San Ysidro, San Diego Co | 1908–52 | Arrivals across the border from Tijuana, Mexico, NARA (M1767) |
| Andrade, Imperial Co. & Campo, San Diego Co. | 1910–52 | Arrivals from Mexico, NARA (M2030) |
Naturalization - As with other states, prior to 1906 a person might have filed for naturalization in any court in the state; for this time period, there are no guides for locating a naturalization in the state other than for those records that were entered at federal district court. Many of those naturalization records have been gathered and are located at either of the National Archives regional branches: Pacific (San Bruno) or Pacific (Laguna Niguel). These collections include the Northern U.S. Circuit Court (1855–1905) in San Francisco; U.S. District—Northern District (1846–1989) at San Francisco and San Jose; and the U.S. District Eastern Court (1917–58). The FHL also has a large microfilm collection of the NARA microfilm as well as a large collection of citizenship records filed in California counties.
Native Americans - California’s Native American population was unique in that there were many small tribes living a pastoral life when the Spaniards arrived, founding missions and presidios. The missions fell into decay, and the natives dispersed after the Mexican revolution.
For research on Native Americans in California, there are several websites that provide links to the tribes themselves: “Tribes and Villages of California” <www.hanksville.org/sand/contacts/tribal/CA.php> and “California Tribes Contact Information by Rancheria (Reservation) Name” <www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/ca/sacramento.html> has valuable maps showing location of tribes in the state and contact information for the Sacramento Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Central, Northern, Southern, and Palm Springs agencies.
A large collection of the National Archives Indian agency records on microfilm is at the FHL. This includes a group of various censuses in one collection. Miscellaneous California Census (1907–15) is part of the NARA microfilms with copies at the FHL. The list “Native American Agency Records” refers to the tribe, Indian agency and years of collection, and the NARA location of records. Some tribes are additionally mentioned in the agency records for the border states of Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon. This includes the Colorado River Agency, Fort Yuma Agency, and the San Carlos Agency, which take in tribes in both Arizona and California.
- CA-INDIAN-TRIBES. A mailing list for anyone researching their Indian ancestors to discuss and share information regarding Indian tribes that lived in or traveled through California. To subscribe send "subscribe" to ca-indian-tribes-l-request@rootsweb.com (mail mode) or ca-indian-tribes-d-request@rootsweb.com (digest mode).
Other Ethnic Groups - By the time of the first census in 1850, California’s nonnative population swelled to 92,600. Of this population, 70,000 were Americans living mostly in Northern California.
Migrants, from every ethnic group in the country, continued to arrive at roughly the rate of 300,000 annually until 1900. Many were farmers from the southern tier of the United States including Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. The population increased at an even higher rate for the next four decades.
The Golden Promised Land, as California has been thought of, has not always been a paradise for minority groups. Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, and other Asians from many eastern lands came to work on the railroad projects and were subject to the prejudices of the resident population. The Okies, from the drought-stricken dust bowl, tried to find work in southern California and the San JoaquinValley in the 1930s. The demand for workers rose abruptly during World War II, bringing many African Americans, Mexicans, and more recently Latin Americans, and Southeast Asians. The public records of California include all ethnic groups, and most libraries can be helpful in focusing research on any particular group. In addition to Ryskamp’s resource guide and Beers’ guide, the following are sources or contain background information for
some California ethnic groups:
- Beasely, Delilah Leontium. The Negro Trail Blazers of California. New York: Negro University Press, 1969.
- Burchell, R. A. The San Francisco Irish, 1848–1880. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
- Goode, Kenneth G. California’s Black Pioneers: A Brief Historical Survey. Santa Barbara: McNally & Loftin, 1974.
- Nicosia, Francesco M. Italian Pioneers of California. Italian American Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Coast, 1960.
- Northrop, Marie E. Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California: 1769–1850. Vol. 1. Burbank: Southern California Genealogical Society, 1986. Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California: 1769–1850. Vol. 2. Burbank: Southern California Genealogical Society, 1984.
Gold Rush - For anyone seeking an ancestor who left for the California gold fields in 1848–50, it would be wise to examine the emigrant companies from Massachusetts and the available lists of Argonauts. Northern California pioneers were called Argonauts in reference to those in ancient Greek mythology who sailed with Jason on the ship Argo. Octavius Thorndike Howe's Argonauts of '49: History and Adventures of the Emigrant Companies from Massachusetts, 1849–1850 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1923) includes a list of the mining companies going from Massachusetts to California in 1849. The list gives the name of the company, the ship's name, the ship's master, and the date of sailing. It catalogs 124 sailings and the number of persons in the company.
In 1890 Charles Warren Haskins published his personal memoirs, The Argonauts of California. Being the Reminiscences of Scenes and Incidents that Occurred in California in Early Mining Days; by a Pioneer (New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1890). In his narrative, Haskins included the names of number of persons who arrived in California from both land and sea routes. Original sources are not indicated for entries because many sources which might have been used were lost in the San Francisco earthquake and fire. J. Carlyle Parker's preface in Society of California Pioneers' Index to the Argonauts of California, (New Orleans, La.: Polyanthos Press, 1975) is a discussion the problems with Argonaut lists and has an index.
The Libera Martina Spinazze index cards were deposited in the California State Library and, in time, the Sequoia Chapter, DAR, acquired four incomplete copies of these files. The files were finally completed and bound into four sets, copies of which were given by the DAR to the DAR Library in Washington, D.C., the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley, the California Historical Society, the California State Library in Sacramento, and the Los Angeles Public Library.
The 1852 census, the card catalog, and manuscript and published material in the California State Library are other useful sources regarding the gold rush era. The Bancroft collection of diaries at the University of California, Berkeley, is also useful. The San Joaquin Genealogical Society published five volumes of probate records, newspapers, and vital records, covering the period of 1850–66 for their county in Gold Rush Days, is available from Western Reserve Historical Society, 10825 East Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44106.
California History by County
