Mexico Archives and Libraries


 * Archives collect and preserve original documents of organizations such as churches or governments. Libraries generally collect published sources such as books, maps, and microfilm.
 * If you plan to visit a repository, contact them and ask for information about their collection, hours, services, and fees. Ask if they require you to have a reader’s ticket (a paper indicating you are a responsible researcher) to view the records, and ask how to obtain one.
 * Although the records you need may be in an archive or library, the Family History Library may have microfilmed and digitized copies of them.

Mexico Archives
Mexico has several major types of genealogical repositories:

National Government Archives
Archivo General de la Nación Eduardo Molina y Albañiles Col. Penitenciaría Ampliación Deleg. Venustiano Carranza C.P. 15350 México, D.F.  Telephone: 5133 9900:Citizen Attention: Ext. 19326Website

Records of genealogical value at the National Archives include:

Some helpful guides to Archivo General de la Nación collection include:

Argena II: Documentos Coloniales (Argena II, Colonial Documents). Colima, México: Cenedic, 1995. (FHL compact disc no. 420.) Describes 322 documental record groups in the National Archives. The records in the New Spain section of the archives consist of 115 record groups containing more than 41,000 volumes.

Archivo General de la Nación Guía General (General Guide to the National Archives). México, D.F.: Difusión y Publicaciones del Archivio General de la Nación, 1981. (FHL book 972 A3gg).

State Archives
Branches of the Archivo General de la Nación collect records dealing with specialized subject matter such as military records, industry, trade, commerce, and so on. The states in Mexico have archives that serve as repositories for their own records. Each state has jurisdiction over its own archives, which are separate from the national archives, and its own criteria for retaining, archiving, and housing records.
 * Links to State Archives

Local Civil Offices/Municipio Records Offices
Many records in Mexico are created by the local government. Civil registration, including birth, marriage, and death records, started in 1859. Every municipio in Mexico has jurisdiction over its own archives, which are separate from the state archives. Each municipio has two kinds of archives: A list of all the municipal archives in Mexico can be found in:
 * El Archivo del Municipio, which keeps important genealogical record that includes wills and probate inventories, and lransfers and deeds.
 * El Archivo del Registro Civil, which records vital records.
 * Guía General de los Archivos Estatales y Municipales de México (General Guide to the Archives of the States and Municipalities of Mexico). México, D.F.: Achivo General de la Nación, ca. 1988. (FHL book 972 A3a.) Contains the addresses of the archives as well as the kind of records they have and the dates the records cover.
 * Los Municipios de México (The Municipios of Mexico). México: Centro Nacional de Desarrollo Municipal, 1998. (FHL compact disc number 114.)

El Archivo del Registro Civil (Civil Registration)

 * The Civil registration which began in 1859 is recorded in the Archivo del Registro Civil.
 * Some Municipios had sub-offices (oficialia) in other towns within its borders. These sub-offices kept their own records. The sub-office records are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog under the name of the municipio civil registration office.
 * Copies of the civil registration in the Archivo Municipal were sent to the state archives.
 * You can get information and copies of the civil records by writing to the municipio. If the local registration office does not have the early records, you may want to write to the state civil registration office. See the Spanish Letter Writing Guide.

Libraries
There are two types of libraries in Mexico, those sustained by government funds, and those owned by private institutions or individuals.

The Asociación Mexicana de Archivos y Bibliotecas Privadas, A.C. (Mexican Association of Private Archives and Libraries, A.C.) has a publication called "Guía de Archivos y Bibliotecas Privados" that lists some of their libraries. The association’s address is:

Calle Guadalajara #104 Colonia Condesa CP 06140 México DF México Telephone 286-8339 Fax 286-8558

The following archive has an extensive collection of records on the southern Mexican states

Archivo General de Centro América 4a Ave 7-41 zona 1 Ciudad de Guatemala Guatemala Mexico Telephone 2-30-37 51-66-95

The following library has an extensive collection of manuscripts and published sources

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Biblioteca Central Ciudad Universitaria 04510 Villa Obregón México

The Instituto Tecnológico has microfilmed a considerable number of records on northeastern Mexico The institute’s address is

Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Biblioteca Carretera Nacional km 982 Sucursal de Correos J Monterrey Nuevo León México

Other Archives
Helpful genealogical resources that cover Latin American History are also available at institutions in the United States and Spain.

United States
The library of the University of Texas at Austin has over 600000 volumes in their Latin American history collection. In addition to the book collection they have many microfilmed records from southern Texas and Northern Mexico

University of Texas at Austin Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection Sid Richardson Hall 1-109 Austin, TX 78713-7330 Telephone: (512) 495-4520 Fax: (512) 495-4520

Website

The Bancroft Library has a large collection of Latin American records. The library’s address is:

University of California Bancroft Library Berkeley, CA 94720 Telephone: (510) 642-3781 Website

The University of Arizona in Tucson has some of the parish records of the state of Sonora. It also has a large collection of Latin American records. The university’s address is:

University of Arizona in Tucson Tucson, AZ 85721 Telephone: (520) 621-2211 Search Engine 

Spain
Records about the European discovery, exploration, and colonization of Mexico are found in the following archives:

Archivo General de Indias Edificio de la Lonja Av. de la Constitución, 3 Edificio de La Cilla C/ Santo Tomás, 5 41071 Sevilla Telephone: (34) 95 450 05 28 Fax: (34) 95 421 94 85 Archivo General Militar de Segovia Alcázar 40071 Segovia, Spain Telephone: 43-65-11 Fax: 44-31-49

Archivo Central Militar del Servicio Histórico Militar C/Mártires de Alcalá 9 28015 Madrid, Spain Telephone: 247-0300 Fax: 559-4371

Archivo Histórico Nacional C/Serrano 115 28006 Madrid, Spain Telephone: 563-5923, 261-8003-5 Fax: 563-1199

A summary of the records preserved at the Archivo General de Indias is found in:

''Peña y Cámara, José María de la. Archivo General de Indias de Sevilla: Guía de Visitante'' (General Archive of the Indies of Seville: Visitor’s Guide). Madrid: Dirección General de Archivos y Bibliotecas, 1958. (FHL book 946 A2s; film 0896895.)

An additional description of the records at the Archivo General de Indias, and other Spanish and Latin American archives that house documents of the Spanish American colonial period is found in:

Documentación y Archivos de la Colonización Española (Documentation and Archives of the Spanish Colonization). Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura, 1980. (FHL book 946 A3d.)

There are other published guides of the many archives in Spain. Look for these in your local libraries.

Archivos y bibliotecas de México