The hand-drawn diseños rancho claimants filed to establish their grants, held by The Bancroft Library. Filter by county; click any to zoom. Every map links to its archival original.
Every land grant and claim we hold, mapped or not. Type to search, filter, click a column to sort, and open a row for its record. Claims with no surviving boundary are still listed, tagged no boundary.
| Rancho | Year | Granted by | Grantee | Acres | County | Case | U.S. | Diseños |
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A small, interrelated elite held the land. Click a family to see its members and every grant they held.
Grouped by the grantee's surname. Among the Californio elite a shared surname is usually one interrelated family (the Vallejo grants, for instance, went to the brothers Mariano Guadalupe, Salvador, and Jose de Jesus Vallejo, sons of Ignacio Vallejo), but this is a surname grouping; verified genealogies are being researched now.
Every rancho registered a cattle brand, a hierro, in the district's book of Marcas y Señales. It was burned into the herds and stood for the rancho itself. Below are the real registered brands we have sourced so far. Click one to find its rancho on the map.
Our own brand rides at the top of every page. A rancho was known by its mark; so is this project.
The hand-drawn diseños rancho claimants filed to establish their grants, held by The Bancroft Library. Filter by county; click any to zoom. Every map links to its archival original.