My roommate's last name is Gamez (odd name) how can she trace her ancestors?

Question:

My roommate's last name is Gamez (odd name) how can she trace her ancestors?

She is 1st generation mexican american. She has no idea of her family's history. However,the only thing she knows is that Gamez is "supposedly" from spain. She does not know where to begin her search...she needs some advice. Can anyone help?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Mexican genealogy is very difficult to trace from the US, unless you want to take a trip down there for a week or two. Very few of the records needed to do normal genealogy are on the internet. But then again, most of us have been doing genealogy long before there was an internet so it's not the most daunting thing in the world.

To start, she needs to figure out where in Mexico her family last lived. The records can either come from family members or from Immigration records (which are public domain and not covered by privacy laws). If family can't help then she needs to request the Declaration of Intent and Naturalization petitions for her immigrant ancestors from the National Archives for the region where they lived when they applied for citizenship.

Once the town is identified, then she can contact them for the civil registrations on her family members. They're only consistently kept for the last 125 years. There was also a census for 1921 that might be able to help her, but she has to request that through the Mormon's Family History Center nearest her.

Once she hits the wall on civil records, then she needs to go to Catholic sacramental records. To do that she has to identify actual parishes in the area and contact the parish office of each for the records she needs. The only time the diocese or archdiocese can help is if the parish has closed. In that case the records will be in the archives for the diocese or archdiocese.

As for the Spanish connection, it's dubious at best. When the Spanish came over to conquer lands they brought missionaries. The missionaries had a list of acceptable Christian names (including surnames) to give to natives who converted to Christianity. Eventually all natives ended up with Spanish surnames in a span of less than 50 years. Most have no genetic links to Spain at all. It doesn't mean it's not possible, but don't go into the search assuming it's true.

If your friend's family stayed put for the last 400 years, then it's very possible to trace her tree back that far through Catholic records. If they moved around or if there was just a traveling missionary performing sacraments, she may have a lot of digging to do to find what she needs.

I hope this helps...