This collection comprises hand-written correspondence among members of the Amador, Yorba, López, and Cota families in the region of Orange County, San Diego County, and Baja California from 1853 to 1879. Items include personal letters and business receipts. The collection documents the family matters of several prominent Californio families in the decades following the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and the admission of California to the Union (1850). The correspondence largely concerns the health of family members, births, deaths, family events, family visits, and business transactions. Several letters also contain references to national boundaries, language problems, military movements, and epidemics. Members of the López family in San Diego are the recipients of more than half of the letters, while members of the Amador family, some of whom were based in San Juan Capistrano, are the largest group of letter writers, accounting for one-quarter of the collection.

The Amador, Cota, Yorba, and López families were four prominent Californio families who received land grants and settled in California in the nineteenth century. Bernardo Yorba was granted Rancho Yorba, Jose Antonio Yorba and Juan Pablo Peralta were granted Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, Francisco Cota inherited Rancho de Ballona in present-day Los Angeles, José María Amador was granted Rancho San Ramón, and Cornelio López and Bernardo Higuera were granted Rancho Rincón de los Bueyes.

0.4 Linear Feet (1 box)

Property rights reside with the University of California. These materials are in the public domain. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

The collection is open for research.