Cordero-Donahue family history I

The Corderos--The Founding of a Santa Barbara Family in the 18th Century

Compiled and written by Mary Dunlap, born Mary Frances Donahue, January 1911, died May, 1996. Mariano Antonio Cordero (1750-1821), the founder of the California Cordero Family, was born in Loreto, Baja California and is buried at the Santa Barbara Mission in California. His father, a soldier in the Garrison at Loreto, was Miguel Cordero, and his mother was Angela Nunez Cordero. The first entry in the marriage register of the Mission Dolores in San Francisco, California, records that on November 28, 1776, the couple, Mariano Antonio Cordero and Juana Francisca Pinto, daughter of the soldier, Pablo Pinto, had appeared and announced their intention to wed; that on examination no impediments were discovered; that the banns were published on three successive Sundays at Holy Mass; that the marriage was contracted before Holy Mass on January 7, 1777; that the nuptial blessing was bestowed during the Mass; and that the witnesses were Gabriel Peralta, Francisco Sinova, Raimundo Inoxante, and others. Father Palou officiated. To a student of local history all the names are of the greatest interest. Cordero thus became the first white man married in the Dolores Mission. Juana Francisca's father was a corporal of the guard at Mission Dolores at the time of her marriage. Later he served at the Santa Clara Mission for seven years. He retired and moved to Santa Barbara, where he became a tailor. The last seven of his children were born in Santa Barbara, beginning in 1795.

Berkeley, California, May 7, 1995 © 2001, Marianna Scheffer