SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - Almost 2 million vital records from Mexico are now available on CD-ROM from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Middle America–Mexico Vital Records Index includes 1.9 million birth and christening and 300,000 marriage records from Mexico. The partial listing of records covers the years from 1659 to 1905.

Randy Bryson of the Family and Church History Department says the Index reflects the close-knit family culture of the Mexican people. "In most cases the Index contains between 100 and 150 years worth of records from a particular community. Some areas even cover over 300 years. Many of these records contain three generations in a single entry, which allows some families to be extended several generations. It's just a gold mine of information for people searching their family roots."

Amateur genealogist Nancy Gonzalez says as a young girl in Mexico she became fascinated with family history, a lifelong passion that led her to the Middle America--Mexico Vital Records Index. "I found one of my great-great-great-grandfathers on the Index and his wife and their parents. I was very excited. Once you start using it, you're hooked, because you can find so much. You can't put it away. You can't do anything but continue searching. You have so much available to you."

The Index also contains a powerful search engine that allows users to look at data in a variety of ways. Users can enter a last name, first name, parents, locality or date as a starting point to search for more information. Source data is provided for each entry, providing the microfilm identification number where a copy of the original document is found. These microfilms may be ordered from Salt Lake City and viewed at any of the Church's more than 3,400 family history centers worldwide. The set of 4 data CD's and viewer can be purchased online or by calling toll free 1-800-537-5971 and asking for item #50163. It can also be ordered on the Internet at

The Middle America–Mexico Vital Records Index is part a series of vital records for specific areas including the British Isles and North America. In the near future a vital records index will be released for Scandinavia. More CD's will be added to all of the indexes as data becomes available. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has worked with churches and governments in more than 100 nations to gather and preserve the world's heritage through the records of its diverse peoples. The Church is committed to producing high-quality products for the family historian. It maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources. To promote local and family history (genealogical) research, the Church also maintains the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and more than 3,400 Family History Centers in 64 countries.