[Granville-Hough] 7 May 2009 - California Primary Military Records after 1906

[Trustees and Executors for Granville W. Hough]

  From time to time, I have to explain some basic California history. We 
have some original mission records, and there are likely primary source 
military records in Mexico City or Spain which have not been identified, 
but there are no primary military source records known to exist in 
California. This is a fundamental fact of history which many people find 
hard to understand, especially when they understand the centralized 
top-down Spanish inclinations to record everything. Meticulous records 
were kept as long as there was paper available, but paper was a monopoly 
usually in short supply. But better records were indeed kept by the 
Spanish before the Mexican War than later under the U. S. What happened 
to them?

Enter the annals of history of a book-seller named Hubert Howe Bancroft, 
who could see profits galore in the sale of history books about 
California and later the whole Spanish Empire. He hired so-called 
historians who could read some Spanish and set them to writing up 
various periods of the Spanish domains in California, the Southwest, 
Mexico (New Spain), Central America, etc. These historians became 
traveling merchants for buying manuscripts, borrowing them, copying 
them, or purloining them. They eventually cornered all the primary 
military records for California and concentrated them in the San 
Francisco headquarters for Bancroft’s operations. When I found great 
sections of Guatamala history missing, my thought was “Bancroft’s 
operators must have been here first.” They wrote at least five books on 
California and then moved into the larger arena.

Then came the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906. The collection 
of California primary source records went up in flames. What survived 
after the fire were in a horrible mess, but were moved to UC Berkeley as 
the foundation of the Bancroft Library. At least two efforts to index 
the residue were unsuccessful. I knew a person, Eddie Grijalva, who was 
interested in his family history and he went to the Library and found 
someone who was sympathetic enough to take him into boxes of 
undocumented material where he could search for what he wanted. Eddie 
was a former school custodial worker who was soon overwhelmed, but he 
was convinced there might be gems in the unclassified boxes at the 
Bancroft Library.

As I have been unable to travel since becoming involved in this history, 
the Bancroft Library has been of no assistance whatever. At no time have 
they ever responded to my correspondence, except to add me to their list 
of possible contributors.

All the work I have been able to do has been from mission records, or 
from secondary sources of military records. The mission records mention 
the guards assigned to the mission, the military sponsors for marriages, 
births, burials, etc, but was always in a secondary role. It did not 
include all soldiers of the presidios, nor even all their families. So, 
in California, we have to rely on copies of primary military records 
designed for some other use or reference to soldiers.

My records show that I explained all the references I used on pages 
64-69 of Part 1, Spain’s California Patriots in its 1779-1783 War with 
England – During the American Revolution, 1998. Specifically:
1782SF, “Garrison List for San Francisco Presidio, 1782,” copied from 
the Eldredge papers of the Bancroft Library by Rudicindi Ann Lo Buglio 
(the Eldredge source was Provincial State Papers, Benicia Military, toma 
(volume) iv, page 601.) (Rudicindi Ann Lo Buglio was a noted researcher 
in California families in the 1970-2000 era. I do not know that 
Rudicinda Ann is still active, but the Bancroft Library should be able 
to locate the Eldredge papers. This is where I would start if I were to 
prove the service of Mariano Cordero as close as I could get it. 
However, I would defer to Rudicinda Ann as the better authority.)
Mutnick #458 is the family number for a California immigrant prepared by 
Dorothy G. Mutnick, Some Alta California Pioneers and Descendants, 
privately published by the author in 5 volumes, including 2300 families, 
1982. Dorothy actually studied the church records and quoted them. If 
she found someone recorded as a soldier, she included the source, and 
her work is considered to be the most accurate of anyone who studied the 
Spanish idiom of the early California era.

I gave Los Californianos my copies of her work. Los Californianos is the 
organization for descendants of CA pioneers.
N2:52 refers to Marie Northrop, Spanish-Mexican Families of Early 
California, 1769-1850, Volume II, 1984, page 52, published by Southern 
California Genealogical Society, Burbank, CA. This is a secondary 
source, but it can be helpful for subsequent generations.
D:6, refers to the 6th of 8 rolls covering 38 volumes of collections by 
Adam C. Derkum’s Spanish Families of Southern California. It would cover 
a Cordero family, but it may be a different one.
BP refers to the list of California Pioneers in Bancroft’s work on 
History of California. I no longer have that work, so I cannot verify 
that the cutoff year was 1773.
Rowland:23 refers to page 23 of Leon Rowland, Los Fundadores, Fresno 
Academy of Church History, 1951.
O must be a mistake in typing, as I do not find it used for any other 
soldier or immigrant, nor for Mariano Cordero on page 76. Instead I find 
Rowland:23.

I believe we have an accurate account of about 95 percent of the Spanish 
soldiers who served during the period of eligibility. Some came and died 
before being recorded, and some returned to Mexico before they were 
recorded. There may be a few who recorded their service under a 
different name.

May I wish you good luck in your efforts. Granville W. Hough, author and 
researcher.