Family trees?

Question:

Family trees?

Im looking to start a family tree. I've never done it before butreally want to start now. Part of my families origins are in Mexico and maybe some ancestors in Spain. Any ways (books, websites, places, etc.) that i can trace my families roots far far back. Please help and suggesstions are welcome..really want to get this started. Thankyou!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Traditional genealogy sites won't be helpful to you in either Mexico or Spain. Both did not begin civil registration of births, marriages or deaths until the 1870s. Almost none of those records are on the internet. To find them you'll have to contact the town hall or district archives for copies.

From that point back the only records you will find are in the hands of the Roman Catholic Church and they are NOT happy to post them on the internet. To get the records you need to contact the first parish you find a link to and get all of the sacramental register information on person after person. Be particularly careful to ask for the "home parish" of any person who was not baptized in that parish but later received sacraments there. In Catholicism the parish where a person is baptized is responsible for keeping track of the person until death. All sacraments received by a person, regardless of parish, are ultimately kept by the parish where that person was baptized. So many parishes may have touched that person sacramentally, and all will have a copy of what sacrament was received in that parish, but they will also note the baptismal parish and will notify the priest of that parish before giving a sacrament...because they have to verify that the individual is a Catholic in good standing with the Church (ie not ex-communicated).

There was a census carried out in 1921 but I have never seen the results of that census released. You can check with the LDS to see if they have copies of the census, otherwise you'd have to check with the archives for the Mexican state where your ancestors lived.

I hope it helps. Very Catholic countries that were under Spanish and/or French common law as late into the 1800s as Mexico was are really best researched from religious sources or you'll beat your head against a brick wall.

BTW, the common protocol is that when the parish does respond to your query you request a mass in memory of your ancestors at some point in the next year and send an honorarium for the mass (usually $10 in the US) and you should send them a pre-addressed large manila envelope and enclose more than enough postage for whatever records they can copy for you or any sacramental certificates that they type up for you.