Research at the Archive
Finding Guides
The Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library would like to thank the Academy of American Franciscan History and the California Missions Foundation for their generous support of our efforts to conserve the Junípero Serra Collection and the California Mission Documents Collection through digitization.
Mission Document Collections
The Finding Guides for these major collections are descriptive accounts of the official archive of the Franciscan Friars and the California missions.
This archive had its inception during the months when Joseph de Gálvez and Fray Junípero Serra planned the exploration of Alta California in 1768. The original archive remained in Serra's hands until his death in 1784. It was passed on to succeeding Presidentes of the mission system. As friars elsewhere confronted mission secularization and confiscation in the 19th century, they sent their missions' historical documents and materials to Mission Santa Bárbara, which has remained in the hands of the Franciscans from its founding in 1786 until the present day.
For purposes of utility and interest the Mission Document Collections are grouped as follows: The Junípero Serra Collection, 1713 to 1948; the California Mission Documents, 1640 to 1853; and the Apostolic College (Our Lady of Sorrows) Collection, 1853 to 1885.
The materials should be considered original manuscripts in Spanish, unless noted otherwise. These finding guides are the lifelong work and creation of historian and archivist, Fr. Maynard Geiger, O.F.M., Ph.D.
Click on a guide to view the collection's finding guide.
California Mission Documents Finding Guide
Our Lady of Sorrows College Finding Guide
Sacramental Registers
Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library holds original manuscripts and reproductions of many of the sacramental registers the Friars kept during the Mission Era. These important accounts record the celebration of sacraments at the Missions, such as baptism, marriage, and burial. These unique records provide information about the experiences of individual Native Californians during the Mission Era, and are researched extensively by scholars and genealogists alike.
California Missions Sacramental Registers
Baja California Missions Sacramental Registers
Mission Reports, Inventories, and Accounts
The following collections represent the official documents and records that the missionaries compiled to report on the goings-on at the missions. They include information on the numbers of sacraments performed, the number of livestock and crops produced, the number of Native and non-Native Peoples present, as well as other information.
Preguntas y Respuestas
In the early nineteenth century the Spanish government sent out questionnaires to its colonies seeking information on the customs of the Native Peoples living under its jurisdiction. The Friars at the Alta California Missions provided answers to these questionnaires and returned them to the President of the Missions. These documents provide unique insight into the lives and experiences of Native Californians living around the Missions during the Mission Era.
Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library’s diary collection primarily consists of the diaries of Franciscan Friars at the Alta California missions during the 18th and 19th centuries.