Sometimes taking a trip to an exotic location involves sitting in front of your computer. If you are doing Mexican genealogy, and you have Mexican ancestors, let the trip begin!
History Lesson
Mexico was a Spanish colony from 1521 when the Spanish took over the land from the Aztec empire. The area was named New Spain and ruled by a viceroy for Spain. Catholic priest Father Hidalgo, Father of Mexican Independence, started a revolt leading to a coup.
Afterwards, a different monarchy was put in place ruled by the military The Roman Catholic Church was the other pillar of institutional rule. Later, after several revolts, a federal republic was formed. October 4, 1824, the United Mexican States (Estados Unidos Mexicanos) was established. The new constitution was partly modeled on the United States constitution.
Because Mexico is a representative federal republic, responsibilities are divided between a central government and smaller units called states. It also defined Catholicism as the official religion. This is a plus for genealogists as Catholic records are an excellent source of information.
Records
The records you will find to trace your Mexican ancestors start in the place the immigrant ancestor settled after leaving Mexico. Most Mexican migrated to the United States though some went to Canada, Spain, Germany, Italy, and other countries, including Central and South America. Search records in those countries first to find the Mexican town of origin. Because there is no central location for records, you need to know the town of origin to find the records. See our beginning genealogy posts for more information.
FamilySearch, Ancestry, FindMyPast, and MyHeritage have some church records and civil registration records. Civil registration began in 1861 for birth, marriage, and death. Most online records are organized by state and then municipality. Civil registration was not strictly enforced until 1867 so there are some gaps in early records. Church and Civil records are in Spanish, the official language. Some of these sites have indexes and some records you can browse online. Not all records are online. If you don’t find it online, you may need to contact the civil registrar or church parish.
Word lists are also available to help you extract information from the records. We will have an example in a future post. Many researchers get nervous when dealing with records in another language, but it is easy to extract data from these records. Other records you may find are border crossings and Mexico census records. Information you may find on civil/church records:
| Birth Records Place of registration Child’s name Gender Date of birth Legitimacy Parents’ names residence Names of witnesses | Marriage Records Date and place Names of the bride and groom Marital status (widowed, single, divorced) Residence of the bride and groom Names of parents Names of witnesses | Death Records Date and Place of event Date and Place of death Name of Deceased Name of spouse, if married Names of parents |
Do you have Mexican ancestors? Let us know in the comments below!
FamilyFinders