Bernal Family Papers

This collection chiefly documents business, legal, financial, and real estate-related activities of the Bernal family and their associates in the San Francisco Bay area of California in the mid-to-late 19th century.

The chronologically-arranged documents demonstrate the range of legal, financial, and real estate-related transactions initiated by or concerning the Bernal Family and their associates. Included in this series are legal contracts, mortgages, leases, title deeds, promissory notes, tax receipts, and general accounting records. The series also includes materials created and / or signed by California-based administrators, most notably by Jacques Antoine Moerenhout. The Belgian-born Moerenhout served as consul for France in the United States and Tahiti and authored The Inside Story of the Gold Rush (Campbell 85). Also represented is Henry Haight, the San Francisco-based banker and uncle of the tenth governor of California, Henry H. Haight.

The chronologically-arranged correspondence includes personal and business letters to and by the Bernal Family members and their associates. Many letters were directed to Geronima Rufino de Bernal, with a minority of letters directed to Carmen Sibrian de Bernal.

Two chronologically-arranged portraits comprise their own series. Both portraits were taken by San Francisco-based photographers, Charles Lake Cramer and George Daniels Morse, sometime during the last thirty years of the nineteenth century. Only the sitter in Morse's photograph was named and identified as Luis Ruffino.

Finally, ephemera are contained in the last folder of the collection. These items include: a blank indenture form signed by Charles C Moore; a "Compromisos" (or Obligations) printed card, filled in with pencil; an empty envelope addressed to Carmen Sibrian de Bernal, postmarked January 3, 1882; and two business cards, one for Mr. and Mrs. Aldrich and the other for Mr. and Mrs. Forbes.