Consists of correspondence, broadsides, baptismal certificates, land records, ephemera, and other materials created by and documenting the Pico, Castro, and Sanchez families—from which Geil J. Norris was descended—between the years 1828 to 1969, with the bulk of the materials dating from the nineteenth century. Collection materials document the military and political life of California in the Mexican era; the Mexican War; land tenure and transactions in Monterey County; and familial and social relationships between prominent Californios in the nineteenth century. Correspondents include: Agustin V. Zamorano, Thomas O. Larkin, Pío Pico, Manuel Castro, Juan B. Castro, Rafael Sanchez, Maria Antonia Castro de Sanchez, and Catalina Castro.

Geil J. Norris of Salinas, California, was a descendent of the Cota, Pico, Castro, and Sanchez families, prominent Mexican American families who settled in California, mostly in the Monterey area, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Members of these families, among them Pío Pico, Manuel Castro, Juan B. Castro, and Rafael Sanchez, were important figures in the military and political life of California in the Spanish and Mexican periods.

1.0 box (0.5 linear feet)

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