Summary: The article researches and presents the various kinds of damage caused in the past to the historical archives of the Holy land Franciscans, resulting in the impossibility of retracing some potentially valuable elements of the documentation of the history of the Franciscan mission of the Holy Land, especially those that are not of direct legal relevance or othewise not "official". Understandably perhaps, though regrettably, the attention to preserving such documentation was not historically equal to that given to official and legally relevant records. Other damage was caused over the centuries by external factors, such as thefts initiated by the Ottoman authorities, the assaults on the Franciscan religious houses, distruction by fire etc. Losses were incurred also in the transportation of some documentation to Rome, by the order of superiors, or their transfer to Instabul in the context of relations with the Ottoman government.