Volume 1 Appendix A
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- 1 Coding Manual for the Contact-Period Native California Community Distribution Model
Coding Manual for the Contact-Period Native California Community Distribution Model
Copyright © 2009 for this manual and accompanying ACCESS database design/contents belong to Randall Milliken
Introduction
The Contact-Period Native California Community Distribution Model (hereafter the Database) is a computerized transcription of the ecclesiastical records of California Indians and Hispanic settlers at eleven Franciscan missions (San Francisco Solano on the north to San Miguel Arcangel on the south). Two key tables of the database separately track baptismal/death record information and marriage information. (The Individuals Table tracks approximately 55,000 individuals, of which 46,370 were California Indians; the Marriages Table lists approximately 15,000 marriages, 12,560 where both spouses were California Indians) . The Database was built by Randall Milliken between 1978 and 2009. It is currently organized within the Microsoft ACCESS computer database software environment.
As background, each Franciscan mission in California kept a set of vital registers in which they entered the sacramental events of community members. One register was for baptisms, one for marriages, one for deaths/burials, and one for confirmations. They record events in the lives of individual California Indians of cismontane and desert California from Clear Lake south to the Mexican border. Most of the early registers were saved in archives of the Catholic Church in California, where they continue to exist today.
Computerization of the information in the Franciscan mission registers facilitates study in the following research domains:
- Colonial contact period Indian group sizes and relative locations
- Mission period Indian social and demographic history
- Church history, including assignments of missionaries and foundations of churches, chapels, and outstations.
- Family genealogy for Hispanic and California Indian descendants
Searching California mission vital records for all the references to each person in a genealogical sequence, or each member of a specific native Indian community, is akin to seeking the proverbial needle in a haystack. An individual may be mentioned in a number of different mission register entries – as the subject of a baptism in one, as a parent or other relative in another, and as a god-parent in still another. The same individual may appear as a spouse in a marriage register entry and as the deceased person in a death entry. A computerized database is the key to efficient study of the data.
The Database was initiated by Milliken in 1978, with the development of a stand alone baptism/death database and marriage database for the first 1,100 converts at Mission San Carlos Borromeo. A DEC mini-mainframe computer at U.C. Berkeley was used. The data were used to reconstruct inferred village locations in the Carmel Valley (Milliken 1981). Milliken next developed a similar database to track information about baptized San Francisco Peninsula Indians; those data were used for his M.S. thesis (Milliken 1983). Those two data sets were brought over to a dBASE program in the DOS operating system in 1984. Milliken added separate databases for missions Santa Clara, San Jose, and Santa Cruz between 1986 and 1989; those data provided the basis for his PhD dissertation (Milliken 1991).
During the 1990s funds became available for development of individual databases for missions San Juan Bautista, San Antonio, and San Miguel, through various Caltrans environmental mitigation and planning projects. Over 2002 and 2003 Milliken constructed dBASE databases for mission San Rafael and San Francisco Solano for studies supported by the National Park Service Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Milliken constructed a Mission Soledad dBASE database in 2005 without funding support.
Milliken transferred all of the above-mentioned databases to Microsoft ACCESS format in 2005 and unified them into the single comprehensive database that is documented here. Although duplications and inconsistent entry formats were repaired at that time, errors remain due to the complexity of the project.
Mission Register Contents
Mission register entries at all California missions follow fairly standard formats. Types of information common to baptismal, marriage, confirmation, and death register entries include:
- unique index numbers at the left margin of each individual register entry;
- date of the register entry (written only with the initial entry of the day);
- a statement about the place where the event took place (usually in a mission church, sometimes at the mission village, another mission, a tribal village, or in some other location away from the mission);
- the Spanish first name (and occasionally surname) given to Indian individual at their time of baptism or the full name of Hispanic infants;
- the signature of the priest of record. Handwriting indicates that most missionaries made their own register entries, yet at times unknown scribes wrote entries which were signed by other people.
Beyond the standard information required under canon law, records vary in the amount of additional detail. Each missionary priest developed his own unique approach to supplementary information. Because many of the priests moved from one mission to another, as much variation exists in the entry formats within a register of a given mission as exists between the registers of the various missions.
Information Specific to Baptismal Registers
Baptismal registers generally contain more information about individuals than the other registers. The following areas of information commonly appear in the baptismal registers but only rarely appear in others.
Indian Name. Most missionaries entered the native names of almost all converts over one year of age in their baptismal entries, male and female. A few priests, however, provided native names of males, but not females. Still fewer listed the father’s native name in native female’s baptisms as though they were the female’s own native names. One or two missionaries failed to list any native personal names for converts.
Age. The priests entered an estimated age for baptismal registrants. Junípero Serra noted the problem of assigning age to people whose birth dates had not been previously recorded:
Concerning the age of the Indian neophytes . . . it may be remarked that since most of them were baptized in adult age, we cannot know exactly how old they are because they themselves cannot give us the information. Accordingly, the age is put down at what they appear to be – no exact figures being possible – as has always been our practice in census and baptismal records [Serra 1956:3:171].
Disproportionately large numbers of persons at some missions were age "clumped," that is, with guessed ages such as "about thirty," "forty, more or less," or "more than fifty" years of age.
Home group or village. Some of the Franciscans provided the names of the home rancherías of each of their native converts. (The word ranchería as they used it is a very imprecise term; it could indicate a specific village or a political community, much as the word "pueblo" is used in the current Hispanic world.)
Godparent. Each baptismal registrant was assigned a godparent. In the early years all godparents were members of the Spanish community – soldiers, colonists, or visitors from the supply ships. Christian Indians became sponsors at some missions after 1786.
Other Relationships. The first converts of each particular political group were usually children whose parents were non-Christians. At some missions the native names of non-Christian fathers were recorded in the entry for the first child brought by a family. In cases where non-Christian parents continued to bring other children in for baptism over time, the relationship of those later children to the family was often indicated only by a cross-reference to the previously baptized siblings.
Common Information in Marriage Registers
Most priests were careful to note the prior marital history of everyone married in their churches. Three marriage statuses pertained – recruited couples renewing their tribal marriages before the Church, previously unmarried people, and people widowed from a Church marriage. Since marriages can only occur among Christians, Christian names of spouses are always listed. Marriage records list at least one set of witnesses, those for the wedding itself. Some priests also listed separately the witnesses who initially testified that there was no impediment to the marriage.
Some missionaries systematically entered the baptismal numbers of the spouses in a wedding. Others did not do so. A few missionaries supplied information about the parents of Indian spouses. That was done much more often in the case of marriages of Hispanics.
Common Information in Death Registers
Death register entries usually list the date of interment, or the date that the priest found out that a person had died away from the mission. Information about the cause of death was very seldom provided, and when it was, it was always deaths of violence such as a murder, from a snake bite, or from drowning. Some entries indicate that the deceased had been a runaway. Death register entries mention disease names or symptoms during only two periods, that of an unknown peste epidemic in 1802 and that of a measles epidemic in 1806.
Confirmation Register Information
Confirmation records are usually brief lists of the Spanish given names of large numbers of individuals confirmed on a specific date. Some confirmation registers provide valuable information for many Indian people, such as surnames not been assigned at baptism or Spanish given names of parents unstated at baptism. Confirmation record information has not yet been integrated into the Database, but could be done easily through linked tables or through a field in the Individuals table.
Padrons and Indexes
Some missions produced detailed census records, or padrons, listing all the individuals alive during a given year, in alphabetical groups. In some cases those padrons were updated by checking off people who had died and adding the names of newly baptized people. Such padrons do not, therefore, represent just the year that they were first created. Padrons verify that people are still alive after many years. Some padrons list the native names of some fathers or Spanish given names of fathers or mothers that do not appear in any other records. The current form of the Database maintains separate Padron tables for some missions, containing information that can be linked to the Individuals table through a common field
Central California Database Format
Individuals Table Fields
The Individuals table contains separate records for each baptism subject or "ego." Each record contains 43 fields. Some fields are dedicated to information found in the ego’s baptismal record. Other fields are dedicated to information regarding the ego’s death record. Still other fields allow marking of special information about the ego, or about the source and quality of some related field. Thus a particular record becomes a transcription of various linked primary sources regarding an ego (Table A-1).
Listed below are descriptions of each of the fields, their typical contents, and special codes:
Baptism Register Information (primarily)
Mission
This field indicates the mission that supplied the baseline baptism information of an individual, or if not the baptism, the other information that led to creation of the record (a death or a confirmation not linked to any baptism). The following codes differentiate the various missions:
|
AN = San Antonio |
JO = San Jose JB = San Juan Bautista |
BapID (Mission and Baptismal entry number of ego)
This field is the unique sequential entry number of every individual listed in the table. For the vast majority of entrants, the string begins with the two letter Mission code (see above) and then the unique entry number supplied by a priest at the time of baptisms. Four spaces leave room for numbers up to 9999. The fifth column is reserved for those few cases in which the priest repeated a baptismal number, either deliberately or by accident. Repeated numbers are further marked sequentially with "A," "B," etc. in column 5.
At Mission Santa Clara only, where baptismal numbers exceeded 9,999, letters are used to represent the two lead digits of numbers greater than 9,999. For instance, X999=10,999, Y999=11,999, and Z999=12,999.
Because the BapID field must contain a unique ID for everyone, BapIDs for records derived from non-baptismal sources (as death or confirmation records of people not baptized in central California) are created through a standard logic described here. Some represent records of individuals who died at a mission, but have no baptismal record in any of the above listed missions. Some of them moved into California from elsewhere and appear as egos in California mission burial registers. They are marked as follows:
| ## | = foreign-born Hispanics |
| && | = foreign-born Indians (usually Baja California) |
| == | = foreign-born, neither Hispanic nor Indian |
| -- | = a person, usually a child, probably born at a southern California mission |
| __ | = skipped death records |
BapIDs are provided for death records where no baptismal record was found. Such BapIDs begin with the two letters of the mission of the death record, followed by "D," then by the death record unique entry string (see DthNum field below).
DateBap
This is the date of baptism. Usually there is only one baptismal date, but occasionally people were conditionally baptized when at danger of death, with a later supplementary ceremony following recovery and completion of a catechism exercise (marked in the TypeBap field below).
TypeBap
This field is blank for normal baptisms. It is filled in to mark baptisms under special conditions, as follows:
An "e" notes a conditional baptism, usually where the person then died without going through a supplementary baptism (articulo mortis or moribundo).An "su" indicates a suplemental baptism that takes place to confirm that a person who was given conditional baptism has since been given full rights (seldom used in place of "e" by the data enterers).
A "p" may be placed in the second column if the ego was baptized at the mission, but was born while the missionized parents were "on paseo" (on holiday) – this code has seldom been used.
An "h" may be placed in the second column if the ego was baptized at the mission, but was born to missionized parents who have been huido (runaway).—this code has seldom been used
SiteBap
This field contains information about the site at which the baptism took place. There are two types of information: a) the specific location of the event, and b) the conditions of baptism.
- 1st column for Location:
- 1 = mission church (as default, usually not entered)
- 2 = mission ranchería
- 3 = home village of ego
- 4 = other native village
- 5-7 = specific outstations unique to each mission
- 8 = some other mission
- 9 = miscellaneous (in memo field)
The TypeBap and SiteBap information were entered together in a single field prior to 2007; as of 2009 the TypeBap information is still repeated in the SiteBap field for most records.
Sex
The missionaries marked the gender of their converts in so many ways that it is impossible for this bit of information to be missed.
| M = male | F = female |
AgeBap
This column contains numbers only. A "0" is entered for a child described as less than one year old at baptism. In the rare times when no age is given, a variety of cross-reference means are used to decide upon an estimated age, which is entered here, marked as a guess in the following field, and usually justified in "notes."
AgeLVL
This "age level" field qualifies the information in the preceding field. It contains an "A" for años. Additionally, if specific age in months or days had been given for a "0" year old, additional information is provided here for "Dias-[number]" or "Meses-[number]" as appropriate.
Some infants are merely listed as recien nacido (recently born) in which case "Rec. nac." is added following the "A" in this field.
This is also the place where a guessed age number in the Age field is marked, using "A-guess."
Spanname
This is always the Spanish name provided at a person’s baptism. If the person is Hispanic or the child of an Hispanic mother, the given name is preceded by "#" and if a non-Hispanic immigrant it is led by "=." Given name is standardized to a form that allows alphanumeric sorting of all people who have been given the same name, irrespective of the idiosyncrasies of spelling by individual missionaries. Examples include the following:
| Theresa | changed to | Teresa |
| Vernavela | changed to | Bernabela |
| Josepha | changed to | Josefa |
Capitalized Spanish "I" usually looks identical to "Y." In these databases the keyboard letter "Y" is always typically used for both letters.
Prepositional links in names were used by most early priests, dropped by some later ones. Therefore they have been moved to the ends of given names. For instance:
| "Juan de Dios" | entered as | "Juan Dios -de" |
| "Maria de la Concepcion" | entered as | "Maria Concepcion -de la" |
Standardized Spanish name spelling allows alphabetical sorting and searching for all references to a person, as well as to all people who shared a specific name, regardless of variable spelling in the records.
Nativename
This is a dual purpose field. For California Indians, this field contain the native name of the baptized individual even if it was not recorded in the baptism. For Hispanics immigrants, this field contains the surname led by an "#," for non-Hispanic immigrants an "=". Spellings of Hispanic surnames have been standardized to the most commonly appearing form.
Some missionaries did not provide Indian names. They are so important for family studies and ethnographic studies, however, that they are entered in this field even if found elsewhere. The native name may have appeared in the earlier record of one of the individual’s children, or rarely in a later marriage or death record of the individual. If the name did not derive from the baptismal record, it is followed with "-H" (child’s record), "-M" (marriage record), "-N" (death record) or some other cross-reference code.
Indian names are sometimes difficult to transcribe, due to an individual scribe’s unclear hand-writing or idiosyncratic letter formation. Transcribers must become familiar with the script of each scribe, by making an alphabet of each capital and lower case letter that the scribe formed in known Spanish words. Especially difficult to differentiate are the letters "r" from "x," "a" from "o," and "c" from "e". Difficulties with unclear handwriting cannot always be overcome. Procedures for letters difficult to transcribe are as follows:
- Where a letter or group of letters in the original are ambiguous, the best guess is entered first, followed immediately be the second choice in parentheses. For example:
"Tiri??m" might be entered "Tiriu(o)m". - Where the letters in the original are ambiguous, without there being alternative guesses, guessed letters are entered in brackets. For example:
Toc??? might be entered "Toc[rum]" - Where a letter is completely indiscernible, dashes ("-") are entered within brackets. For example:
Tur??? might be entered "Tur[---]"
Surname
The surname field was added in 1999 to tables for missions San Antonio and San Miguel, the only central California missions that systematically gave surnames to their California Indian converts. For appropriate missions, the Indian surnames are placed in this field with standardized spellings.
As with native names, if the surname in this field did not derive from the baptismal record, it is followed with -H (child’s record), -M (marriage record), -N (death record), or some other cross-reference code.
OriginBap
Information about the home group of the ego is placed here, with the key word in the left-hand column. If no information was given, a "-" is entered in the left-hand column. In some cases the ego’s home group can only be identified from later marriage or burial register information. In such a case the information is added to this field to the right of a back-slash (/). The specific source of that supplemental information is indicated by a "-M" (from marriage), "-N" (from death record), or some other cross-reference code.
"*" indicates that a detailed entry is briefly characterized in this field, and more fully transcribed in the NOTES memo field.
FaBapID
This is the field for the unique BapID code of the father. Some missionary priests entered the baptismal numbers of a mission-born ego’s parents, others entered the parental names only. For most adult Indian converts, the parents were never listed. However, the parents of many people, especially young people, can be identified through a variety of cross-references to subsequent entries.
Special alphanumeric strings beginning with "H" are used to mark an unknown parent of two or more baptized siblings. The string "CLH2340," for instance, derives from embedding an "H" in the baptismal ID of the last of a group of siblings with a common parent who has no baptismal number; it is used in the parent field of all of the siblings.
CFFather
This field contains code letters marking the source of the father’s BapID as well as the confidence with which the identification was made; through this field cascading generational link queries can be constructed in ACCESS. See Table A-2 for the meaning of the code letters.
FatherName
This field contains the name of the ego’s father (Spanish and/or native), if available in some explicit record entry. In cases where the parent is a non-Christian, it would be a native name; such names are not always provided. If the parent is a Christian, that parent’s Christian name is provided, except where a missionary makes a mistake.
The father’s name in this field may derive from sources other than the ego’s baptismal record. If the name comes from some other source, however, it is followed by a "-M" (marriage record), " -N" (death record), "-I" (Index), " -T" (confirmation record), or some other source code.
MoBapID
This is the field for the BapID code of the mother. Some missionary priests entered the baptismal numbers of a mission-born ego’s parents, others entered the parental names only. For most adult Indian converts, the parents were never listed. However, the parents of many people, especially young people, can be identified through a variety of cross-references to subsequent entries.
| Code Letter | Information Source (including Implication of Reliability) |
| Z | direct statement about ego in baptismal entry |
| Y | direct statement that one parent is from this place, other parent from another tribelet. |
| X | conflicting direct statements in various primary sources |
| W | key alias of group appears in register |
| V | direct statement that ego is mission Indian, but lists parent original home group (inconsistently used). |
| S | Codegp entry contradicts baptismal entry, based on over¬-whelming evidence |
| Q | interpretation of a direct statement leads to lumping the "group" entry with this code group |
| P | direct statement from some important Padron |
| N | direct statement in ego’s death record |
| M | direct statement in ego’s marriage record |
| L | statement in baptismal or death entry of ego’s child |
| K | civil or military correspondence identifies ego’s group |
| J | two or more siblings, parents, or children of ego identified with the group |
| H | one child identified with the group |
| G | one sibling identified with the group |
| F | one parent identified with the group |
| E | spouse identified with the group |
| D | indirect contradiction, two or more relatives identified from group, others with some other group (no direct evidence) |
| C | indirect contradiction, one relative identified with this place, another with another group (no direct evidence) |
| B | most others baptized the same day indirectly found to have been from the assigned group |
| A | special, complex, or uncertain source of information not described above |
| rexamination | Explanation occasionally found in the NOTES field |
Special alphanumeric strings beginning with "H" are used to mark an unknown parent of two or more baptized siblings. The string "CLH2340," for instance, derives from embedding an "H" in the baptismal ID of the last of a group of siblings with a common parent who has no baptismal number; it is used in the parent field of all of the siblings.
CFMother
This field contains code letters marking the source of the mother’s BapID identification as well as the confidence with which the identification was made; through this field cascading generational link queries can be constructed in ACCESS. See Table A-2 for the meaning of the code letters.
'MotherName
This field contains the name of the ego’s mother (Spanish and/or native), if available in some explicit record entry. In cases where the parent is a non-Christian, it would be a native name; such names are not always provided. If the parent is a Christian, that parent’s Christian name is provided, except where a missionary makes a mistake.
The mother’s name in this field may derive from sources other than the ego’s baptismal record. If the name comes from some other source, however, it is followed by a "-M" (marriage record), " -N" (death record), "-I" (Index), " -T" (confirmation record), or some other source code.
'Padrino
This field lists the godfather of the baptism ego (usually provided for males). This is a "placeholder" field, for the most part, as no attempt has been made to systematically enter these data in the Database as of 2009.
Madrina
This field lists the godfather of the baptism ego (usually provided for females). This is a "placeholder" field, for the most part, as no attempt has been made to systematically enter these data in the Database as of 2009.
PriestBap
This field is for the surname of the priest who signed the entry. Sometimes the handwriting of an entry is clearly not that of the priest who signed off on the bottom of the entry. Nevertheless, the signature name is added here. [This is not always the name of the person who conducted the baptism.]
Reconstructed Community, Geography, and Language Information
OriginStandard
Whereas the OriginBap field contains the spelling of the person’s tribe or village just as recorded in the baptismal record, this field contains the standardized spelling or more typical name for the person’s tribe. If various records have contradictory information about tribal membership, the most logical choice is entered in this field.
This OriginStandard field is the basis for counts of tribal size and for sorting community membership lists.
CFOrigin
This field points to the source location for the information about tribal group entered in the previous OriginStandard field. It also indicates the amount of guess work and contradiction involved in the decision about tribal group membership for the individual. Codes used and their meaning are found in Table A-3.
| Code Letter | Information Source (including Implication of Reliability) |
| Z | Parent baptismal number supplied in ego’s baptismal record |
| X | Parent baptismal number supplied in that parent’s baptismal entry |
| Y | Some cross referenced sibling of ego has this linked parent |
| W | Some non-parent relative links this person to linked parent |
| V | Parent Spanish name in baptism, link made to the only possible baptized individual |
| T | Direct data for this parent link in a confirmation register |
| S | Indian name of parent matches Indian name in linked baptismal record, parent weakly inferred |
| R | Indian names of both parents, supplied in ego’s baptismal entry, match a set of married Indian people baptized subsequent to ego (a strong parent linkage inference) |
| Q | Like V or K, but the parent name in the ego’s baptismal entry has been mutated. |
| P | Direct statement identifying the parent in some padron |
| N | Parent relationship indicated in death record (ego or this parent) |
| M | Parent relationship indicated in ego’s marriage record |
| L | Spanish names of both parents match a set of married people in a marriage record, parent baptismal numbers drawn from parent IDs in that marriage record |
| K | Parent Spanish name in ego baptism, link made to the most likely baptized person, out of more than one people with that name (little doubt in the match). |
| J | Parent Spanish name in ego baptism, link made to the most likely baptized person, out of more than one people with that name (but there is some doubt involved in the match). |
| I | Information for this link found in an index to the baptismal register |
| E | Parent ID made to spouse of the better-identified parent (weak inference) |
| D | Link made to most likely parent on the basis of evaluation of surname clusters (weak inference) |
| C | Parent ID link based on information in a parent’s marriage record |
| B | Contextual (see notes) |
| A | Special inference (see notes) |
Region
Physical area from which the ego’s community is believed to derive, one of approximately 700 GIS mapping units across California developed for the Community Distribution Model (CDM) project by Far Western Anthropological Research Group.
CFRegion
This new numeric field will state a radius, in miles, beyond the assigned Region that the ego’s "community" (noted in OriginStandard) may actually have been located. The lower the distance, the greater the degree of certainly regarding the community location on the land. AS OF 2009, THIS FIELD HAS ONLY BEEN USED EXPERIMENTALLY.
Lang (Language)
Two columns are used to indicate the probable language of the ego. Where the ego’s parents belonged to different language groups, the lead column marks the language of father and the second column marks the language of the mother.
Codes for language groups: A= Chumash; B= Bay Miwok; C=Coast Miwok; D=Ipai/Tipai; E= Esselen; F=questionable between Chumash and Takic; G=Pomo; L= Lake Miwok; M = Sierra Miwok; N= Nisenan; O= Ohlone/Costanoan; P = Plains Miwok; Q=questionable between Takic and Ipai/Tipai; S= Patwin; T = Salinan; U = Numic; V=Takic; X=questionable between Miwok and Yokuts; W= Wappo; Y=Yokuts; Z= Playano; ## = Razon; "=" = non-Hispanic immigrant
Death Register Information
DthNum
This field is the death record entry number of a baptized individual. For the vast majority of entrants, the string begins with the two letter Mission field code (see above) and then the unique entry number supplied by a priest at the time of baptisms. Four spaces leave room for numbers up to 9999. The fifth column is reserved for those few cases in which the priest repeated a baptismal number, either deliberately or by accident. Repeated numbers are further marked sequentially with "A," "B," etc. in column 5.
Insertion of death register information into the record of a baptized individual is a critical linkage decision made by the modern data transcriber. Sometimes the transcriber is aided in making a link by the priest of record for a death register entry, who actually looked up and inserted the baptismal mission and number of the deceased in the death record. (The priests occasionally made mistakes in so doing, our experience indicates.) Many priests did not, however, provide such a cross reference; in such cases a number of techniques have been used to link the deceased to a baptismal entry (see CFDth field immediately below).
CFDth
This field contains a code that signifies how the link of the death record was made to the specific baptized individual. See the code choices in Table A-4 at the end of this document. The code letters were not consistently entered until the mid-1990s. In most records, therefore, the basis of a baptism/death linkage is not documented in the database as of 2009.
DateDth
The date of the entry in a register of deaths, for the most part. It is usually the date of the actual funeral ceremony and burial, which may be the day of death, but was often one or two days later. About one entry in fifty was made on the basis of hearsay evidence of death added to the register of deaths later, usually at the year end. In such cases, arbitrary death dates were assigned over the suggested earlier time period, for purposes of low-sensitivity statistical studies of seasonal death distribution.
| Code Letter | Information Source (including Implication of Reliability) |
| Z | Death Record contains ego’s baptismal number |
| X | Death Record contains confirming information (native name, home group, and/or parents), but not ego’s baptismal number |
| W | Death Record contains spouse’s name as weak confirming information, and there is only one available living person with this name |
| V | Death Record contains no confirming information, but there is only one available living child or adult with this name |
| Q | Death Record contains an impossible baptismal number; this alternative is almost certainly the correct person |
| R | No known death record, but this individual’s spouse remarries with explicit statement that this person has died. |
| P | Ambiguous death record link to this specific person is substantiate by cross-reference evidence from some padron. |
| N | Death record only, no baptismal record has been found for this person. |
| M | Death record name is somewhat different than this baptismal name, but it is certainly a mutation of this baptismal name |
| L | Death record name is not the same as this baptismal name at all, but this is the only possible child of this age from this set of parents identified in the death record. |
| K | This is the most likely of more than one alternative person, with a strong likelihood. |
| J | This is the most likely of more than one alternative person, with a weak likelihood. |
| B | This link is made on the basis of complex or tenous information. (Explanation usually found in the NOTES field). |
| A | Reasons for this link bare |
DateDthEntry
This field for the "Date of death record entry" is used for the date of record entry only when the DateDth contains an artificial death date because the record indicates the death occurred away from the mission, often weeks, months, or years prior to the date of entry (as discussed in DateDth above.)
SiteDth
This column notes the place of death. The field is usually empty, the default situation in which the ego was buried at the mission church without any comment regarding the place of death. Place of death is not always the same as the place of burial. Codes are the same as those for the field SiteBap above. Lower case letters following numbers indicate special information, found in memo field (p = died en paseo, i.e., on a holiday in the field; h = died while a fugitive; v = died under violent conditions).
Additional codes note deaths at other missions (see Mission field above) or Presidios:
- PB = Presidio at Santa Barbara
- PD = Presidio at San Diego
- PF = Presidio at San Francisco
- PM = Presidio at Monterey
CauseDth
Priests seldom provided information on cause of death, but when it was given, it was usually some atypical cause, such as some epidemic, a snake bite, or being thrown from a horse. Female deaths due to complication from birth delivery were occasionally mentioned, but circumstantial information suggests they were far more common than the amount of explicit statements would suggest.
OriginDthRec
Information in the death record about the home group of the ego is entered, if provided. As with OriginBap, the key rancheria name or other place name set in the left hand column, for sorting purposes. Fewer than half of the missionary scribes recorded this kind of information.
AgeDthRec
Numeric field for reported age of death in years. Very few priests actually noted the age of people in their death records, other than as adulto or parvula (children between about two and ten years old). On those few occasions when age in years was entered, the information was recorded in this field.
AgeDthLVL
Text field: General age at death information, such as adulto/a or parvulo/a. If the person is noted as "casada" (married) or "viuda" (widowed) at the time of death, that information is noted here. The string "Casada*" in this field indicates that the name of the person’s spouse was given in the record. Prior to 2002 any named spouse was transcribed in the NOTES field of this record. From 2002 forward the name of the spouse has been added to this field, for ease in noticing it.
PriestDth
This field is for the surname of the priest who signed the entry. Over the many years of the project, this field has not often been filled in.
Demographic Research Information
BAPTYEAR
Year of baptism, derived from DateBap field.
BRTHYEAR
Year of birth, arithmetically derived by subtracting age at baptism from BAPTYEAR. (This datum can be off by one year, due, for example, to the fact that some children baptized in January are listed as 0 years of age, but are stated in text to be two or three months old.)
YEARDTH
Year of death, derived from DateDth field.
DEATHAGE
Numeric Field: Age at death, arithmetically derived by subtracting BRTHYEAR from YEARDTH
Fields for Highlight Notation, Text Transcription, and Commentary
Special
This field is used to mark occasional and exceptional occurrences, such as the mention of a capitán or a person who was ciega (blind), or huida (runaway). For mission and Spanish children, births or deaths at outlying ranchos are often noted here. (Generally, data are placed in this field with an eye to catching researchers attention to interesting patterns.)
Notes
Memo field (open-ended text field): Important text information regarding the individual is found here. This includes all information about siblings and other relatives (excluding parents) found in a baptismal entry. It also includes information from death registers or any other important source mentioning this individual. "//" separates information from sources beyond the initial baptismal entry for the record.
Marriage Table Fields and Codes
The logic of the Marriages Table is somewhat different than the logic of the Individuals Table, in that each record contains information about two egos. The fields HusbID and WifeID are critical in the Marriage Table, as they hold the key information that ties the egos of the Marriages table to the egos of the Individuals Table.
MarrNum
This is a code for the mission in which the marriage was recorded, followed by the unique marriage number in the left margin of the marriage book. Mission codes here are the same as those for the Mission field at the beginning of the Individuals Table (above).
MarrDate
This is the date of final ceremony of marriage, as entered in the register.
HusbAge
Age in years of the male spouse, if provided in marriage record, is entered here. Such information was given very rarely.
HusbOrigin
Here is placed the home village/group/city/country of the male spouse, as provided within the marriage record entry. Some missionary scribes consistently provided this information while other missionaries never provided it. Of interest, it does not always match the OriginBap of a given individual, providing clues regarding synonymous rancheria names and family movements outside the mission.
PrevWife
The Spanish name of a widower’s previous Christian spouse is placed in this field, if it is provided in the marriage book entry. Given name precedes surname, except for genté de razón (people of reason, i.e. rational beings).
HusbSurname
This is the surname of the male spouse, a standardized spelling of the name as written in the entry. Surnames are usually taken from Hispanic surnames, but are occasionally derived from the native name of an Indian father or grandfather. For the northern missions, surnames were consistently applied only at Mission San Antonio and Mission San Miguel.
HusbName
For Indians, this is the Spanish given name of the groom in standardized spelling. For Hispanics, "#" leads, followed by surname, then given name.
CFHusb
This field marks the confidence/source regarding the linkage of the husband in this marriage to a given individual in the Individuals Table (through a unique BapID entered in the HusbID field below). The codes for this confidence field are found in Table A-5.
HusdID
The unique baptismal entry number (BapID) of the husband is placed here, if it can be found. Thus the field follows the rules from the Individuals Table BapID field. Note that artificial unique BapIDs, and therefore HusbIDs have been created for some Hispanic spouses born outside of California.
| Code Letter | Information Source (including Implication of Reliability) |
| Z | ID of Husb/Wife explicitly stated in the marriage record |
| Y | ID found, along with name and name of spouse, in the baptismal record of at least one of his/her children (seldom used, since there are quicker sources for ID) |
| X | ID and name included in spouse’s baptismal record (for renovaron [tribal marriage renewed in the church] marriages only, very rare) |
| W | Baptismal record contains spouse’s name (for renovaron marriages only, very rare) |
| V | Through search of Baptisms/Deaths table, this is the only logical person available for this marriage. |
| U | Through search of Baptisms/Deaths table, this is the only logical person available for this marriage, all other live people with the name being married or too young |
| T | ID reconstructed from information in a Confirmation Record |
| Q | No one with the marriage record name of ego is alive, but logic indicates that the ego is a person with a name that was significantly different at baptism (see Notes for specific logic) |
| N | ID reconstructed from information in a death record. |
| L | ID carried over for a widow/widower from an earlier marriage |
| K | This spouse is the most likely of more than one alternative possible person, with a strong likelihood. |
| J | This spouse is the most likely of more than one alternative possible person, with a weak likelihood. |
| I | Marriage tie explicit with ego’s name and ID in the Baptismal Padron/Index |
| H | ID clarified by some clue in one of their children’s later records |
| F | Marriage tie of ego explicit in the baptismal information of a parent (rare) |
| D | Problem. Identified ego’s previous wife is not listed as dead, yet this seems the correct ego ID |
| C | Problem. Identified ego has been linked to a death record, yet this seems the correct ego ID |
| B | Problem. The person identified in this record cannot possibly be correct (priest must be mistaken), The basis for my alternative ID is explicated in the Notes. |
HStatus
Husband’s marital status. The marital history of individuals placed them in one of three statuses relative to Roman Catholic marriage: married as pagans, widow/widower, or bachelor/bachelorette. The condition was usually stated by the entrant.
- R = renovar (renewing marriage)
- S = soltero (bachelor)
- V = viudo (widower)
In some cases this information was not made explicit in the record entry. Status can usually be determined through contextual analysis of the individual’s life history. When the status is determined on the basis of earlier mission register information, the letter "I" for "inferred" is added in the second column (RI, SI, VI).
WStatus
Wife’s marital status. The marital history of individuals placed them in one of three statuses relative to Roman Catholic marriage: married as pagans, widow/widower, or bachelor/bachelorette. The condition was usually stated by the entrant.
- R = renovar (renewing marriage)
- S = soltera (bachelorette)
- V = viuda (widow)
In some cases the information was not made explicit in the record entry. Status can usually be determined through contextual analysis of the individual’s life history. When the status is determined on the basis of earlier mission register information, the letter "I" for "inferred" is added in the second column (RI, SI, VI).
WifeID
The unique baptismal entry number (BapID) of the wife is placed here, if it can be found. Thus the field follows the rules from the Individuals Table BapID field. Note that artificial unique IDs and WifeIDs have been created for some Hispanic spouses born outside of California.
CFWife
This field marks the confidence/source regarding the linkage of the wife in this marriage to a given individual in the Individuals Table (through a unique BapID entered in the WifeID field above). The codes for this confidence field are found in Table A-5.
WifeName
For Indians, this is the Spanish given name of the female spouse in standardized spelling. For Hispanics, "#" leads, followed by surname, then given name.
WifeSurname
This is the surname of the female spouse for Indians at the few missions that provided Indian surnames (San Antonio and San Miguel). Surnames are usually taken from Hispanic surnames, but are occasionally derived from the native name of an Indian father or grandfather.
PrevHusb
The Spanish name of a widow’s previous spouse is placed in this field, if it is provided in the marriage book entry. Given name precedes surname for Indians. Surname with "#" leads for genté de razón.
WifeOrigin
Here is placed the home village/group/city/country of the female spouse, as provided within the marriage record entry. Some missionary scribes consistently provided this information while other missionaries never provided it. Of interest, it does not always match the OriginBap of a given individual, providing clues regarding synonymous rancheria names and family movements outside the mission.
WifeAge
Age in years of the female spouse, if provided, is entered here. Such information was given very rarely.
Witnesses01
This field allows listing of the witnesses to the first stage of a wedding (the verification that the couple are free to wed), or to the only witnesses for those weddings that are not recorded with two stages. y. Over the many years of database development, this field has not often been filled in.
Witnesses02
This field allows listing of the witnesses to the second stage of a wedding (the verification that vows have been exchanged). It is left blank in the case of weddings that are recorded with only one set of witnesses. Over the many years of database development, this field has not often been filled in.
PriestMarr
This field is for the priest who signed the wedding entry. It contains the priest’s surname. These data have not been systematically entered as of 2009.
Supplementary Tables in Community Distribution Model
In addition to the basic information in the Individuals Table and the Marriages Table, the master copy of the Community Distribution Model also contains the following tables:
| Confirmations | Confirmation numbers cross-linked to BapID in the Individuals Table (minimally developed, only small number of San Antonio and Santa Clara confirmations as of 2009) |
| Regions | Attributes of the 710 or so GIS mapping regions of the Community Distribution Model Digital Map (partially developed as of 2009) |
| Rancherias | Information about the hundreds of rancherias referenced in the mission records (minimally developed) |
| Padron_CR1 | Rancheria information in an early Santa Cruz padron, cross-linked to BapID in the Individuals Table (partially developed) |
| Padron_CR2_1840 | Rancheria information in a late Santa Cruz padron, cross-linked to BapID in the Individuals Table (partially developed) |
| Padron_FR_1822 | Rancheria information in the 1818-1822 Mission San Francisco padron, cross-linked to BapID in the Individuals Table (well developed) |
| Padron_FS_Transfer | Rancheria information in the initial San Francisco Solano padron, which listed hundreds of temporary and permanent transfers from missions San Francisco and San Jose, cross-linked to BapID in the Individuals Table (well developed) |
| Padron_FS_Alternate | Rancheria information in a San Francisco Solano padron of 1826-1828, cross-linked to BapID in the Individuals Table (well developed) |
| Padron_FS_1837 | Rancheria information in the San Francisco Solano padron of 1837, cross-linked to BapID in the Individuals Table (well developed) |
| Padron_JB | Rancheria information in Arroyo de la Cuesta’s 1821-1827 Mission San Juan Bautista padron, cross-linked to BapID in the Individuals Table (partially developed) |
| Padron_JO | Rancheria information in an early Santa Cruz padron, cross-linked to BapID in the Individuals Table (minimally developed) |
Regions Table Fields and Codes
Mappable information in this Mission Database Regions Table is portrayed on a GIS map by linking the table’s contents to the "Regions Attribute Table" of the CDM GIS mapping program. Also through such a link, the conten of a "GIS_Area" (area in square miles/kilometers) field in this Mission Database Regions Table is supplied by one of the CDM GIS mapping program’s analytical tools. Below the 27 fields of the Regions Table are described in six logical sections.
Organizational/Locational Information
Type
Quick-sort field to separate true "year round habitation regions" from other types of polygons, such as seasonal use regions and lakes.
Analysis Zone
Region’s placement in one of fourteen organizational zones for documenting California ethnogeography. Zones are based on a practical combination of language and geographic affinities.
Region
This is a recognizable modern name label for the regions. It is usually derived from the largest current town in the region, although in rural regions it may derive from the name of a stream or distinctive mountain.
Cultural Information
Rancherias
The name of the local group of the region, be it a tribelet or loose regional community. A key village name is used here in cases where no regional name is documented or where the region is made up of a cluster of village locations without documented regional cohesion.
Language
The "language" field indicates the region’s language family or major sub-family of ethnographic California as portrayed by Kroeber in 1925. We cannot label the field "language family" because of the great variation in language group affiliation levels represented.
Specific Language
The specific language field indicates the language within the family or sub-family spoken in the region at ethnographic contact with the west.
Political Cohesion
Political cohesion within the drawn region, reflecting the four types of cohesion outlined in the CDM overview document: tribelet, loose regional community, artificial region of small local groups, and ambiguous region of large contiguous villages.
Land Use
Degree of sedentism within the region (e.g., .
Known Names
Total count of community names (group names and specific village names) documented in the archival record. This number is a proxy for the degree of work in a region by classical anthropologists.
Reference
The best current comprehensive sources for documenting the regions ethnogeography, including its boundaries, regional group, and villages.
Status Of Current Research
Research Investment
Amount of consideration given to constructing the present regional boundary, presented as the following three levels: Quick (reflects minimal consideration, much more work needed), Careful (reflects a careful consideration of secondary sources or first-pass consideration of primary sources), Intensive (reflects full-scale research consideration of all sources).
Info Quality
Confidence level regarding the general legitimacy of the region’s boundaries and accuracy of identification of the groups within the region. This rating is divided into two parts, one part for regions thought to reflect ethnographic bounded territories, another for artificial regions in portions of California where regional boundaries did not pertain.
For areas with territorial groups: Good (strong confidence in accurate boundary), Fairly good (probably reflects accurate boundary), Weak (limited information renders this boundary a guess)
For areas without territorial groups: Artificial-Fairly good (a well-thought-out practical analytic unit), Artificial-Weak (a hurridly-applied unit applied with no research investment)
Historical Information
Missionized*
This field marks the degree to which people of the region are believed to have moved to Franciscan missions. Six self-evident classes are: 0% none, 1-5% trace, 6-30% some, 31-65% many, 66-90% most, 91-100% all.
* CONTENTS ARE TENTATIVE AS OF JUNE 2010, REFLECTING VARIABLE LEVELS OF RESEARCH WITH PRIMARY DATA FROM ONE REGION TO ANOTHER
Missions
Specific missions that took people from this region. Find codes for the mission abbreviations, for instance "FR," in the "Individuals" table of this coding manual under "Mission."
Missions for Mapping
This field presents a simplified version of the previous "Missions" field, allowing space for the code for only the one most important one in the region’s history. This field is important for mapping, the "Missions" field containing so many mixes of missions that problems are created for displaying them on large-area maps.
0sTreaties*
Regions whose groups signed one or another of the 1851-1852 Unratified Treaties are marked by the letter of the appropriate treaty (A-R).
*CONTENTS OF THIS FIELD REFLECT AN INCOMPLETE STUDY AS OF JUNE 2010.
Demographic Information
Adults Baptized
Number of adults from the region baptized at all missions. This count is produced by an algorithm described in Appendix B.
AveAdultYr
Average year of adult baptism from this region at all missions. This year is determined by an algorithm described in Appendix B.
PopFactor
Manually-assigned factor representing constant reduction of "potential" baptizable population over time from 1770, reflecting disease and warfare in tribal areas around the missions.
Contact Adults deduced
Contact-period adult population of the region, deduced through an algorithm described in Appendix B.
Contact Population*
Full contact population of the region. This number has been derived in two quite-distinct ways, reflecting of the differing nature of the source information.
- Method One: Contact population is deduced by an algorithm applying PopFactor (see above) to Adults_Baptized; used only for areas with 91-100% missionization.
- Method Two: Contact population is inferred by Randall Milliken for each specific region outside of the intensive missionization zone through consideration of the published projections of A. L. Kroeber, Sherburne Cook, Martin Baumhoff, and the authors of the chapters in the 1978 California volume of the Handbook of the Indians of North America.
- *THE RESULTS IN THIS FIELD ARE PRELIMINARY AS OF JUNE 2010.
GIS Area
This field gives the precise area of a region in square miles. It is produced by an algorithm in the CDM GIS package. Needless to say, this information can quickly be converted to square kilometers.
PopDensity*
Population per square mile is generated by an algorithm in which the number in the field "Contact Population" is divided by the number in the field "GIS Area."
*RESULTS ARE TENTATIVE AS OF JUNE 2010, AS THEY ARE BASED UPON VARIABLE-QUALITY INFORMATION CURRENTLY IN THE "CONTACT POPULATION" FIELD.
Geographic/Locational Information
Geography Geographic area type labels that allow simple grouping of clusters of regions by geography. Types include: Riverine [Colorado River], Basin, Desert, Cascades, Sierra, Transverse, Central Valley, Hills [Coast Range], and Coast.
Upland Elevation, in feet, of the upland boundary. This field is only used for "year-round" regions and is only applicable if the region borders a seasonal upland (see Volume 1). Field value is null for all other regions.
County Counties within which this region is found. Counties that make up less than 5% of the region’s area are not noted in the field.
Caltrans District Caltrans districts within which this region is found, coded by Caltrans district numbers from 01 to 12. Caltrans districts that make up less than 5% of the region’s area are not noted in the field.
Bibliography
Milliken, Randall
| 1981 | Ethnohistory of the Rumsen. Chapters 2 and 3 in Report of Archaeological Excavations at Nineteen Archaelogical Sites for the State 1 Pacific Grove-Monterey Consolidation Project of the Regional Sewerage System. Limited distribution technical report prepared by Archaeological Consulting and Research Services, Inc. Copies available from Northwest Archaeological Information Center, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park. (Reprinted as "Ethnohistory of the Rumsen," Papers in Northern California Anthropology, Number 2. Northern California Anthropological Group, Berkeley, California. Available through Coyote Press, Salinas, CA.) | |
| 1983 | The Spatial Organization of Human Population on Central California’s San Francisco Peninsula at the Spanish Arrival. Masters Thesis in Cultural Resource Management. Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California. | |
| 1990 | Ethnogeography and Ethnohistory of the Big Sur District, California State Park System, during the 1770-1810 Time Period. Manuscript submitted to the State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation | |
| 1991 | An Ethnohistory of the Indian People of the San Francisco Bay Area from 1770 to 1810. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. | |
| 1994 | The Costanoan-Yokuts Language Boundary in the Contact Period. Pp. 165-182 in The Ohlone Past and Present: Native Americans of the San Francisco Bay Region. Lowell John Bean, editor. Ballena Press Anthropological Papers No. 42. Sylvia Brakke Vane, Series Editor. Ballena Press, Menlo Park, California. | |
| 1995 | A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Region, 1769-1810. Ballena Press, Menlo Park, California. | |
| 1999 | Inigo of Rancho Posolmi: The Life and Times of a Mission Indian. Lawrence Shoup and Randall Milliken. Ballena Pres, Menlo Park, California. | |
| 2002 | History of Indian Assimilation into Mission Santa Clara. Pp. 45-63 in Telling the Santa Clara Story: Sesquicentennial Voices, Russell Skowronek, editor. University of Santa Clara Press. | |
| 2002 | The Spanish Contact and Mission Period Indians of the Santa Cruz-Monterey Bay Region. Pp. 25-36 in Gathering of Voices: The Native People of the Central California Coast. Santa Cruz County History Journal, Issue Number 5. Linda Yamane, editor. Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, California. | |
| 2006 | Ethnogeography of the South Coast Ranges, with Special Attention to Priest Valley, Monterey County. Limited distribution technical report prepared for California Department of Transportation, District 5, San Luis Obispo by Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc., Davis, California. |
