This series consists primarily of nine volumes of sacramental records which register the baptisms, confirmations, marriages and burials administered by the Franciscan clergy (1777-1851) and the Jesuit clergy (1851-1903) as a fundamental part of their ministry at Mission Santa Clara. The nine volumes of sacramental records contain more than 30,000 individual records; three volumes correspond to baptisms (1777-1862), one to confirmations (1779-1896), two to marriages (1777-1903), and three to burials (1777-1894). The Franciscans kept the sacramental records in Spanish, while in the latter half of the 19th century the records were written in Latin and English. The records correspond to the sacraments dispensed to the Indians (indios) and individuals of Spanish origin (gente de razón) who lived in Mission Santa Clara and its vicinity. The records also include, starting in the mid-19th century, the growing number of new European and American immigrants. The sacramental records of Mission Santa Clara include basic information such as the name of the individual receiving the sacrament, his or her origin, the name of the minister, and the date. But they also reveal significant and diverse aspects of Mission Santa Clara’s history. The first baptismal record of June 6th, 1777 indicates, for example, that the first baptisms took place in the Indian villages surrounding the mission, for the Franciscan missionaries went there when they learned that many Indian children were ill. The first native baby was christened with the name Clara by the founder of Mission Santa Clara, Fray Tomás de la Peña. Another baptismal record of 1845 reflects the new Protestant immigration in the region; Alexandro Siros, a Presbyterian adult from Pennsylvania, was baptized in Mission Santa Clara after signing an “oath of faith.” Many marriage records of Indian couples such Gaspar and Cipriana (1790), reveal that in Santa Clara the Franciscans acknowledged existing Indian marriages and considered the Catholic marriage ceremony a “renewal” of the Indian “marital contract.” Marriage records also indicate that while the large majority of Indians in Santa Clara married other Indians, occasionally they married other groups: in 1856, for example, Catarina, Indian, married Ludovicus McCormick, an immigrant from Ohio. The burial records show, for instance, that Catholic Indians as well as individuals of Spanish origin were normally buried in the mission’s cemetery. However, burial records also reveal that Indians who had not converted to Catholicism sometimes continued to bury their baptized relatives in the Indian villages: in 1797 the “Pagan” relatives of 10-year old Egidia buried her in their village, despite the fact that she had been baptized in the mission five years earlier.