Links to Ancestral Acreage

Los Angeles’ “first century families”--traditionally low-key and proud of their heritage--have genealogical branches so intertwined as to make most descendants “kissin” cousins today.

The Dominguez links to such Southland families as the Carsons, Watsons and Del Amos are traceable to the days before the “gringos” when gallantry, bravery and loyalty were prerequisites for grant land favors from the Spanish kings.

Juan Jose Dominguez, a Spanish soldier who protected Junipero Serra and other Franciscan padres in the founding of the chain of California’s Missions, was among the first to receive such favors after he retired in 1782 from 30 years of military service, receiving a tract of more than 75,000 acres.

Rancho San Pedro, the name chosen by Dominguez for his vast holdings, included nearly 30 square miles of Los Angeles County, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, part of Long Beach and San Pedro, the entire cities of Carson, Compton and Torrance.

Not only was Rancho San Pedro (later named the Dominguez Ranch) the first land concession made in Southern California under Spanish rule but the first of the original rancho grants in Los Angeles County to receive a clear patent of title from the United States. It was signed on Dec. 18, 1858 by President James Buchanan, making Don Manuel Dominguez (grand nephew of Don Juan Jose) the sole owner of a 43,000-acre Rancho.

What remains today as the surviving rancho-home of the family is called the Dominguez Adobe, built by Don Manuel as his new home after marrying Maria Engracia Cota in 1827.

The adobe rancho, now open for public tours, is one story high, L-shaped, contains six rooms of good size. Its original flat roof was built of hewn timbers, topped with tules from the nearby marshes and tarred and sanded to make it waterproof.

The walls were made of large adobe blocks with a thickness of almost two feet and reinforced at points of stress with heavy planks. Water was originally drawn from artesian wells.

The six daughters of Don Manuel and Dona Engracia survived their parents by many years, inherited the land and donated some of it and the old adobe structure to the Claretian Missionaries.

Today’s descendants of Manuel Dominguez continue to prosper in diverse ways because of the doggedness of the man who fought most of his life to defend his title to Rancho San Pedro.

His legacy to his heirs was to hold onto the land.