Question Home

Position:Home>Genealogy> Mexican Genealogy website?


Question:Does any one know where I can research mexican roots on the web? Specifically in the area of Monterey Mexico.


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Does any one know where I can research mexican roots on the web? Specifically in the area of Monterey Mexico.

I don't know of a Mexican Genealogy site, but I do know that the Family History Center libraries have excellent resources for Monterrey, Mexico in the following subjects (on microfilm):

[They have filmed or digitized ORIGINAL records, so if they have the area that you need, it is not necessary to contact Mexican authorities.]

- Archives and libraries - Inventories, registers, catalogs
- Census
- Census - 1745 - Indexes
- Census - 1900 - Statistics
- Church directories
- Church records
- Civil registration
- Colonization
- Description and travel
- Directories
- Genealogy
- History
- History - Sources
- Maps
- Migration, Internal
- Minorities
- Notarial records
- Notarial records - Inventories, registers, catalogs
- Officials and employees
- Probate records
- Vital records

NOTE: The Civil Registers are especially important. They are available from 1861 to 1961. According to familysearch.org: "Births were usually registered by the infant’s father or by a neighbor of the family within a few days of the event. A birth record includes the day and time of the birth; the names of the child and parents, the birthplace, which may be different from where it was registered; and the address of the house or hospital in which the birth took place. Family information may be included, such as the parents’ ages, birthplaces, residences, marital status, and professions, and the number of other children born to the mother. You may also find information about the grandparents."

Familysearch.org also includes Mexican vital records in their IGI database. You can search for names online.

Familysearch.org also has a great online guide to doing research on Mexico, see:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/R...

Note: The correct spelling is Monterrey and it is in Nuevo León, Mexico

Nope, unfortunately Mexico is a dry spot for genealogy research on the internet. Here's the crux of the issue:

Mexico only gained its independence from Spain in the mid-1800s. At that time, there wasn't much in the way of "centralized record keeping." The way that all strongly Catholic countries had always handled record keeping was to make the parish priest responsible for it. But that also means that all of those records are the property of the Catholic Church.

Now if you think about the vastness of Mexico, it didn't matter to them for years to actually document births, marriages and deaths in a systematic way. There were a couple of attempts at census enumeration tried, but differentiating one Jose Gomez from another wasn't the purpose. It was only undertaken to obtain a reasonable count of the population. The information in those early censuses is um...skimpy.

So if you actually want to trace back before 1910 when the records started being kept more on a civil level (mainly because the literacy rate rose greatly and the parish priest was no longer the only educated person in the area), then you have to work through the parishes to get the records.

That's not the hardest thing to do...but remember that genealogy research isn't something that most parish secretaries put a major focus on in their daily activities. And you don't get to walk in and just see the sacramental books very often (it's only happened once to me in my whole career).

So you have to find the first parish. That might be easier or harder depending on what you know about your family. Then you write to the parish and request records one or two generations at a time. When you find that someone was from another parish, then you very nicely ask if they can help you identify the other parish. Some can help...some can't. It depends on how well the priest back in the day kept records. The secret is that every woman is always listed by her maiden name in Church records. So every record you get will list a child's mother and a bride or groom's mother by her maiden name and you'll be able to have the link back to the next generation. It could take you a year, but I'll guarantee that there is a church record on every sacrament received by every Mexican who was ever baptized...and those records are intact all the way back to the days of the Conquistadores. The trick for you is keeping on top of this and remembering to reimburse them for their time and for the costs of copying and postage. Common practice is to send them $10 for a mass in honor of the people they find for you. It keeps the goodwill going as they keep getting more and more requests from you for more generations.