California County Church and Cemetery Records

See Also Research In State Church & Cemetery Records - Church records rank among the most promising of genealogical records available. Indeed, for periods before the advent of civil registration of vital statistics (a very late development in many American states) , church records rank as the best available sources for information on specific vital events: birth, marriage, and death. They are also among the most under-used major records in American genealogy. Part of the reason lies in the number of denominations-there are hundreds of them. Identifying and locating the records of these various churches makes even professional genealogists hesitate......

There are no centralized repositories dealing with church records in California. Scattered records can be found in genealogical publications, the DAR compilations, and on microfilm. Three timely, comprehensive articles about church records can be found in the Summer, Fall, and Winter 1990 issues of Southern California Historical Quarterly, published by the Historical Society of Southern California, 200 East Avenue 43, Los Angeles, California, 90031. Entitled "Archival Sources for the History of Religion in California," Part 1 is subtitled "Catholic Sources" and was compiled by Monsignor Francis J. Weber; Part 2, "Jewish Religious Sources," is by William M. Kramer and Norton B. Stern; and Part 3, "Protestant Sources," is by Eldon G. Ernst.

The Spanish missions have played a central role in California's religious history. Father Junipero Serra, a Franciscan, raised the standard to his sovereign on 2 June 1769 and began the trek that led him the length of the state of California. He founded a string of missions that would lead the state in the settlement of the vast uncharted land and the conversion of its natives. About a third of the total missions built were founded by Father Serra.

Microfiche of an alphabetical list of some vital records from the missions is available at the FHL in addition to the microfilm entries below:

• Mission San Diego de Alcala—San Diego
• Mission Luis Rey de Francia—Oceanside
• Mission San Juan Capistrano—San Juan Capistrano
• Mission San Gabriel Arcangel—San Gabriel
• Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana—San Fernando Valley
• Mission San Buenaventura—Ventura
• Mission Santa Barbara—Santa Barbara [records can be located at the Santa Barbara Heritage Library (see Archives, Libraries, and Societies)]
• Mission Santa Ines—in the town of Solvang
• Mission La Purisima Concepcion—Lompoc
• Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa—San Luis Obispo
• Mission San Miguel Arcangel—nine miles north of Paso Robles
• Mission San Antonio de Padua—three miles southwest of King City
• Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad—three miles south of Soledad
• Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo—south of Carmel
• Mission San Juan Bautista—San Juan Bautista
• Mission Santa Cruz—Santa Cruz (microfilm of the original Records of Baptism and Correspondence, 1791–1814, is available from Library Microfilms, Palo Alto, California)
• Mission Santa Clara de Asis—Santa Clara
• Mission San Jose de Guadalupe—Fremont
• Mission San Francisco de Asis—also known as Dolores, in San Francisco
• Mission San Rafael Arcangel—San Rafael
• Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma—Sonoma State Park

• California Church Books at Amazon.com

Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Cemeteries - Printed secondary sources of transcribed cemeteries exist for most California counties. The California State Society of the DAR has collected hundreds of such records. Transcripts are housed both at the national DAR and with some local chapters and libraries. They are also available on microfilm through the FHL and the Sutro Library in San Francisco (see Archives, Libraries, and Societies). A complete set of the DAR records (over 180 volumes) is also in the California Room of the California State Library. Included in this collection are census, newspaper, cemetery, court, Bible, and family records.

Several cemeteries previously located in San Francisco were “moved” out of the city in the 1930s to South San Francisco and Coloa, for example.

• California Cemetery Books at Amazon.com

Cemetery records and gravestone inscriptions are a rich source of information for family historians. Cemetery and other sources of information associated with death include: