Have you reached a “brick wall” in your genealogy research? Onsite genealogy research in Mexico may just be the key to extending your Mexican ancestry. We have genealogists in Mexico who can help!
Challenges in Mexican Genealogy Research
Family history research in Mexico relies primarily on civil registration and Catholic parish records. In many places, Catholic records in Mexico can extend back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Most of these primary records have been digitized; however, other helpful records—including military, land, and notarial records, most useful in earlier centuries—are largely still held only in archives onsite in Mexico, Spain, and United States which would require a Legacy Tree researcher to visit in person to obtain. If your ancestors migrated to Mexico from Spain or another country, it will usually be necessary to complete research in Mexico first, tracing the family line back to the immigrant generation. Depending how early your ancestors arrived in Mexico, this can take some time. Record destruction in many places can also be a challenging factor, especially pre-1800.
There are usually fewer detailed records for indigenous ancestors in the colonial period. Determining whether your ancestors were indigenous is usually possible, though learning the exact tribe or group to which they belonged is less common and often based on broader historical context.
Our Team of Professional Genealogists Can Help
If you have Mexican ancestry, our professionals can help track down the town of origin of your ancestors, determine where that location is today, and identify where the records for that place are currently kept. We can also do the preliminary research in immigrant destination countries to learn the Spanish hometown, if necessary. For those areas that don’t have records available online or on microfilm, our onsite genealogists in Mexico can visit that location to obtain any documents that are available.
Onsite Archive Access in Mexico
Our onsite genealogy researchers have access to the following archives, repositories, and libraries in Mexico to help track down the records you need to extend your Mexican family history:
- Archivo del Arzobispado de Guadalajara
- Archivo Casasola
- Archivo Central Militar del Servicio Histórico Militar
- Archivo Electrónico Ricardo Flores Magón
- Archivo General Militar de Segovia
- Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico City
- Archivo General de Notarías del Estado de Jalisco, Toluca
- Archivo Histórico de la Ciudad de México
- Archivo Histórico del Distrito Federal
- Archivo Histórico del Instituto Nacional de Arqueología e Historia
- Archivo Histórico de Notarías
- Archivo Histórico de la Provincia Franciscana, Zapopan
- Archivo de Instrumentos Públicos, Guadalajara
- Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco
- Carso Center for the Study of Mexican History
- Repositorio de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la UNAM
- Repositorio Nacional de Acceso Abierto a Recursos de Información Académica, Científica, Tecnológica y de Innovación (Mexico)
- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México