Scope and Contents
Through the course of their research, the Rowlands created over nine thousand index
cards that capture their notes on the history prominent figures and locales of Santa
Cruz County.
This set of 9,327 index cards has been transcribed and indexed. See the Rowland Card
Database for transcriptions of the cards. See the Index to Rowland Cards for a
comprehensive index to any person or subject referred to in the cards.
The cards are arranged in alphabetical order, divided according to surnames of people
and subjects. See Card Categories for a complete list of the categories.
Boxes A-1 through A-5 contain 3x5 inch index cards with descriptions of people. Box A-6
contains larger cards that also describe people, mostly late in the alphabet from M
through Z. Many of the entries on these cards have been crossed out in pencil;
presumably, as the information was transferred at a later time to smaller cards in the
red boxes. [The transcribers have included the crossed-out information.] Rowland used a
standard set of abbreviations on his cards. See Rowland Abbreviations for a list of
abbreviations used in his cards.
The cards in boxes B-1, B2, and B-3 describe selected subjects, in categories ranging
from Banks through Taxes, including such diverse categories as Land Grants, County
Roads, Railroads, and Padrónes (a census of people or animals).
Box C includes transcripts of the Pre-Statehood Documents in Spanish. Some have been
translated from the Spanish by Leon Rowland, but many of the cards in Box C have not
been translated. [Researchers may wish to compare Rowland's translations with California
pre-statehood documents relating to Santa Cruz County, 1790-1850; English translation of
Spanish documents by Starr Pait Gurcke. Spec Coll MS105]. See Spanish Terms for
definitions of many Spanish terms on the cards. Box C also contains a set of cards
illustrating California cattle brands. See Cattle Brand Images for a list of these brand
illustrations.