Editing Mission San Gabriel Arcángel (section)

==Matrimonial Investigation Records==
As part of the William McPherson Collection<ref>[http://libraries.claremont.edu/sc/collections/mcpherson.html William McPherson Collection]</ref> in the Special Collections<ref>[http://libraries.claremont.edu/sc/default.html Special Collections]</ref> at the [[Claremont Colleges]]' Honnold/Mudd Library, the San Gabriel Mission<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/collection.php?alias=mir |title=Matrimonial Investigation Records of the San Gabriel Mission |access-date=November 3, 2010 |archive-date=January 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110235802/http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/collection.php?alias=mir |url-status=dead }}</ref> are a valuable resource for research on the pre-statehood activities of the Mission.<ref name="CCDL">Claremont Colleges Digital Library. [http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/collection.php?alias=mir Claremont Colleges Digital Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110235802/http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/collection.php?alias=mir |date=January 10, 2012 }}.</ref>  William McPherson was a rancher, scholar, and collector from [[Orange County, California]], who donated his extensive collection of mission documents, primarily from the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, to Special Collections in 1964.<ref name="CCDL" /><ref name="Special Collections">Special Collections. [http://libraries.claremont.edu/sc/collections/mcpherson.html William McPherson Collection].</ref>  

The matrimonial records span 1788 to 1861 and are notarized interviews with couples wanting to marry in the Roman Catholic Church, performed to establish the couples' freedom to marry.<ref name="CCDL" /> The collection includes 165 investigations, with 173 men and 170 women.<ref name="CCDL" /> Because the donated records are fragile, they are no longer available to be photocopied. The [[California Digital Library]] has an online guide available to search the collection.<ref>[http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0199r2cc online guide]</ref>