Mexico, Distrito Federal, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

This wiki article describes a collection that is scheduled to become available for free online at FamilySearch Record Search – Pilot Site.

Foreign Language Title
Registros Parroquiales de la Iglesia Católica en el Distrito Federal de México.

Collection Time Period
This collection of Catholic Church parish records only includes baptisms for the years 1886-1933.

Collection History
In 1527 the Roman Catholic Church was established in Mexico with the creation of the Tlaxcala and Mexico dioceses. It was only in the late 19th century that other religious groups began establishing in Mexico. The bound registers hold baptisms, marriages, death/burials and other ecclesiastical documents in separate volumes. Each record is written in narrative style and in more recent years these are written in formatted records. These registers are created and kept by the priest at the parish level and later sent to the diocesan archive for preservation.

Why This Collection Was Created
Mexican Catholic Church parish registers were created to record the baptisms, confirmations, marriages, burials, and other ecclesiastical documents; these records were also used for statistical purposes.

Collection Reliability
Mexican Catholic Church parish registers are the most reliable and accurate family history sources before 1859, when Reformation Laws established and enforced civil registration. After that date both parish registers and civil registration should be researched and verified with each other.

Collection Description
Although this collection only includes baptismal records, in general separate books were kept for baptisms, confirmations, marriage information documents, marriages, and burials. The entries were normally made in chronological order. Confirmations were not consistently recorded; however, these can generally be found in the baptismal registers. Sacramental ordinance entries, such as baptisms, are handwritten in narrative style following an established format.

Collection Content
Key genealogical facts found in most baptismal records: • Date of baptism • Name of the baptized • Age of the baptized or the date of birth • Place where baptized and/or place of birth • Gender of the baptized • Legitimacy • Parent’s names and sometimes their residence or place of origin • Grandparent’s names and/or Godparent’s names • Witness’s names

How to Use the Collection
Parish registers are the best Mexican records to identify individuals, parents, and spouses before 1859 when the civil registration was implemented. Be sure to search both the parish and civil records after 1860, since some families did not consistently register their children with either of them. In order to find information in the parish registers it is necessary to know the place where the ancestors lived, the name of the person, and approximate year of the event.

Related Websites
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Bibliographic Information
Digital images of original records housed at the archive of each of the parish mentioned in the collection, namely: • Iglesia Católica. Nuestra Señora de Lourdes (Centro, Distrito Federal). Registros parroquiales, 1897-1933. • Iglesia Católica. San Pedro Apóstol (Cuajimalpa, Distrito Federal). Registros parroquiales, 1886-1923. • Iglesia Católica. San Diego (Tacubaya, Distrito Federal). Registros parroquiales, 1908-1919.

Related Articles
Mexico Church Records