Finding Your Mexican Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide »

George R. Ryskamp, J.D., AG, teaches Latin American and southern European family history at Brigham Young University, where he also serves as director of the Center for Family History and Genealogy and the Immigrant Ancestor Project. He is a fellow of the Utah Genealogical Association, a Miembro Academico of the Acedmia Americana de Genealogia, and a corresponding member of the Academia Real Matritense de Genealogia y Heraldica.

Peggy Hill Ryskamp has done Hispanic family history in the United States and on numerous trips to Spain and Mexico for more than twenty years. Coauthor of A Student's Guide to Mexican-American Genealogy, a speaker at local and national conferences, and former coeditor of The Genealogical Journal, she juggles client work and writing.

Finding Your Mexican Ancestors is essential to any researcher looking to trace their heritage across the Rio Grande. In it, authors George and Peggy Ryskamp show how easy Mexican American research can be providing detailed descriptions of parish records, civil records, and other types of records common in Mexico.

Introduction     ix
Notes     xiii
Getting Started: Home, Family, and Internet Searches     1
The Home Search     1
Talk to Family Members     7
Internet Searches     8
What Next?     9
Finding and Working with Mexican Records     13
The Family History Library Catalog     13
No Matching Places Found     17
Working with Mexican Records     18
Reading Spanish-Language Documents     23
Civil Registration Records     25
Indexes     26
Civil Registration Birth Records     27
The Civil Registration Marriage Process     28
Civil Registration Death Records     32
Parish Records     37
Reading Parish Records     37
Parish Record Format     38
Parish Baptismal Records     41
Parish Confirmation Records     43
Parish Marriage Records     43
Parish Death Records     46
Parish Research Using the International Genealogical Index and Mexican Vital Records Index     50
Notes     53
Finding the Place in Mexico     55
Political Divisions of Mexico     55
Catholic Church Divisions     56
Historical Changes     58
Looking for Jurisdictional Information in the FHLC     58
Geographical Dictionaries, Atlases, and Gazetteers     61
Church Guides and Directories     67
Where Do I Go from Here?     67
Notes     67
Beyond the Parish: Church and Government Records     71
Archives: The Place to Find Original Records     72
Record Types Within Mexican Archives     77
Notes     85
Beyond the Parish: Notarial Records     87
Organization, Indexing, and Formatting of Protocolos     88
Where Can I Find Notarial Documents?     94
Notes     96
Searching for Your Mexican Surnames     99
Searching for Individuals     99
Searching for Family Histories and Biographies Online     100
Searching for Histories or Descriptions of Your Surname and Its Origin     103
Searching for Your Ancestors in United States Records     107
Border Crossing Records     107
United States Federal Censuses     113
Social Security Records     118
Naturalization Records     118
World War I Military Draft Registration     119
Alien Registrations of 1940     119
Military Service Records     119
Railroad Pension Records     121
Catholic Church Parish Records in the United States     121
United States Vital Registration Records     122
Other United States Record Sources     122
Notes     122
Research in Mexican Colonial Records     125
Mexican Colonial Records and Jurisdictions     126
Catholic Church Records     126
Using Government Records     131
Civil Legal Documents     134
Military Records     136
Race in Colonial Times     136
Locating Other Colonial Records of Genealogical Value     139
Notes     142
Glossary     145
Timeline of Mexican History     165
Research Forms     171
Research Log     179
Archives of the States of Mexico     181
Researching in the Archivo General de la Nacion from the United States     185
Published Indexes     191
Internet Sites for Mexican Genealogy     195
General Hispanic Genealogy Websites     195
General Archives and History Websites      195
Mexican and Mexican American Websites     196
Bibliography     199
Index     205
About the Authors     209