Exploring Mexicanroots.Com It S All There by Mimi Lozano Holtzman

Exploring MexicanRoots.com “It’s All There” by Mimi Lozano Holtzman [email protected] www.SHHAR.net www.SomosPrimos.com

MexicanRoots.com site is dedicated to helping family historians trace their Mexican ancestry and build their Hispanic family trees. Mexico has an incredible amount of genealogical records because of records kept by the Catholic Church, but finding those records can be difficult if you don't know where to look. This website is a resource which brings all this different information together onto one site.

Homepage Geography of Mexico Genealogy of Mexico Links Genealogy of Hispanic United States Sitemap Catholic Church Records Booklist History of Mexico Genealogy & DNA Blog

Genealogy of Mexico FamilySearch.org is a FREE website run by the Church of Later Day Saints in Utah. They have scanned thousands of copies of original Catholic Church Records from Mexico. Records can be found using their Search tool, but many of the records are viewable only.

Genealogy of Hispanic United States: Tracing your Mexican ancestors in the U.S. Ancestry.com has one of the largest database of North American genealogical records on the web. In the past few years they have added more records related to Mexico. You can find records of U.S.-Mexico border crossings, ship manifests, passport applications, and census records for the southwest United States. They will give you a 2 week FREE trial - you can start creating your family tree by entering your ancestor's name below (will take you to Ancestry.com):

Border Crossings: From Mexico to U.S., 1903-1957 This database contains an index of aliens and some citizens crossing into the U.S. from Mexico via various ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexican border between 1903 and 1957.

For more information about these Familysearch collections, click on these links to the Vital Records of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas. For more history on the old Spanish southwest read these articles about Spanish California, New Mexico, Texas, and The Southwest's Mexican Roots.

Catholic Church Records Guide Individual registries were used for baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and burial/ death records. Entries were usually made in chronological order, by date.

Catholic Church records from Mexico are mostly in good condition, except for some of the oldest records that were damaged or deteriorated, making them difficult to read or having missing information. Some pages will be marked 'Paginas rotas' or Paginas 'manchadas', meaning torn or stained pages.

The older records (pre-1900) are handwritten in narrative style and follow a common text with some variations depending on the style used by the priest. Handwriting changes can be seen between older and more recent registries, as well as between different parishes. More recent records are handwritten in formatted registers, and some are even written in ledger style registers.

Read our pages on Spanish Names, Spanish Terminology, and Spanish Missions to learn more or open the PDF files at the bottom of the page to learn about reading Spanish Catholic Church records.

SPANISH RECORDS EXTRACTION GUIDE (WWW.FAMILYHISTORY.BYU.EDU)

Chapter One: Old Spanish Records – Introduction Section Three - Given Names and Surnames

Chapter Two: Christening, Marriage and Other Entries Chapter Five: Gender Section One - Christening Entries Sections Two - Marriage Entries Chapter Six: Dates Section Three - Other Entries Section One - Months, Days, Years Section Two - Variations in Dates Chapter Three: Spanish Handwriting and Spelling Section One - Easily Confused Letters Glossary: Sections Two - Spanish Handwriting Style Section One - Spanish and Latin Terms Section Three - Variations in Word Spelling Section Two - Christening and Marriage Phrases

Chapter Four: Name Identification Section One - Identifying Names Section Two - Deciphering Personal Names History of Mexico: Important Events in Mexican History

Mexico was conquered and ruled by Spain from 1519 until Mexican Independence in 1821. Click here to read the Mexican Declaration of Independence. Independence led to important cultural and governmental changes. Benito Juárez, an indigenous Zapotec and the President of Mexico from 1858 to 1872 was the first president with indigenous roots in the Americas.

Geography of Mexico

To locate your ancestors in Mexico, you first need to know where they lived. Looking at maps and studying the geography of Mexico is a good way to familiarize yourself with your ancestor's homeland. Mexico is divided onto 31 separate states: Baja California Sur, Baja California Norte, Sonora, Chihuahua, Caohuila, Nuevo Leon, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potasi, Tamaulipas, Nayarit, Veracruz, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Guerrero, Queretara, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan, Qintana Roo, Puebla, Colima, Aguascalientes, and the Districto de Mexico.

These states have have mostly remained unchanged for several hundred years. One change was the separation of Sinaloa and Sonora in 1833 (previously known as Sonora y Sinaloa). The state of Coahuila was once part of Coahuila y Tejas, until Texas succeeded from Mexico. Click here to read the 1790 Census statistics for New Spain.

Each state has a capital city and is divided into districts (similar to counties). Each district has also has a capital. For example, the state of Sinaloa is divided into districts. One of those districts is Rosario, with the city of El Rosario being the capital of the district. The capital of Sinaloa State is the city of Culiacan.

For a complete list of Mexican villages/towns/cities/pueblos/ranchos, by State and Municipality (County), try pueblosamerica.com (this site is in Spanish). This site also has satellite photographs and satellite maps of each town (many of which you won't find on most maps). Click on the map and it will take you to a clickable version to find out more about each state.

Included is a list of the postal abbreviations and Capital cities of the States of Mexico, and a link to Google maps.

Links Mexican Genealogy Research: FamilySearch.org Records Search Pilot FamilySearch.org Catholic Church Records – Mexico Search U.S. Mexico-Border Crossing Records Search 1930 Mexican Census

California Naturalization Records: Northern, Southern

Mexican-American Genealogy Research:

Arizona Births and Christenings, 1909-1917 Arizona Deaths and Burials, 1910-1911, 1933-1994 Arizona Deaths, 1870-1951 Arizona Marriages, 1888-1908

New Mexico Births and Christenings, 1726-1918 New Mexico Deaths and Burials, 1788-1798, 1838-1955 New Mexico Deaths, 1889-1945 New Mexico Marriages, 1751-1918

Texas Births and Christenings, 1840-1981 Texas Deaths and Burials, 1903-1973 Texas Deaths, 1890-1976 Texas Marriages, 1837-1973

California Death Records Social Security Death Index Western States Marriage Search (pre-1930)

Genealogy Software: FamilySearch.org Genealogy Software MyHeritage FamilyTree Builder Microsoft Excel Family Tree Template Microsoft Office 'How to Create a Family Tree' DEMO Video

U.S. Southwest Hispanic Genealogy: California Spanish Genealogy Genealogy of Pio Pico Last Governor of Mexican California Texas Genealogy Hispanic Genealogy Society New Mexico Genealogy Society (includes So. Colorado) Kiva, Cross, and Crown - History of Spanish New Mexico Forgotten Frontier: Spanish New Mexico and Colorado Spanish Language & Text: Google Translator - Spanish to English BYU Spanish Script Tutorial BYU Spanish Script Tutor – Surnames BYU Spanish Script Tutor - First Names

Maps & Geography: Pueblos America - Satellite Maps of Mexico by state/district/city Google Maps – Mexico Clickable Map of Mexico Atlas of Historical New Mexico Maps World Index – Mexico Mexico Travel and History

General Hispanic Genealogy: Genealogy of Mexico - Gary Felix History and Genealogy of South Texas and Northeast Mexico SomosPromos - Hispanic Heritage & Diversity Hispanic Organization for Genealogy & Research (HOGAR)New Spain Genealogy History and Research by John P. Schmal

MexicanRoots.com Book List Click on a book to purchase at Amazon.com:

Read Gary Felix's page about the DNA Surname Project, which aims to trace the genetic origins of specific Spanish surnames in Mexico and the U.S. southwest (Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Utah prior to 1848). Early result from this project show that male genetic origins are: 49% Western European, 23% Semitic (Jewish), 13% Native American, 7% Nordic, and 8% miscellaneous.

According to recent studies done on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), Mexicans have a Native- American female "eve" 85% of the time, while only 15% of the tests show a European "eve". Thus suggests that most of the early unions in post-Conquest Mexico were between Native- American women and Spanish males. It has been estimated that 50% of the male population of Spain came to the Americas as conquistadors or settlers, while large number of Native- Americans died of disease. ON THE BLOG

Featured Posts Native Zacatecas Spanish Terminology Clickable Map of Mexican States Spanish Names Mexico Municipalities Map Mexico: The Best Records in the World Browse 1930 Mexico Census Mexican Americans Finding Their Roots Browse Familysearch Church Records Pueblo Revolt of 1680 Indigenous Jalisco: Living in a New Era Yaqui Resistance Ancestry.com Mexico Church Records 1912 Census of Mexico Ancestry.com Border Crossing Records Native Mexico