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Catholic Church Records for New Mexico & select locations in the greater Southwest
The Catholic Church kept detailed records of baptisms, marriages, pre-nuptial investigations and burials which are very useful for genealogy research in the greater Southwest. Some of these records date back to the 1600s. Expert genealogist have extracted, indexed and translated many of these records in both online databases and print books. The NM State Library has a large collection of print extractions for use in the library Below are links to the most important database collections of this material freely available online.
New Mexico Roots Ltd: A Demographic Perspective from Genealogical, Historical and Geographic Data found in the Diligencias Matrimoniales or Pre-nuptial Investigations (1678-1869) of the Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe: Multiple Data Extracted and Here Edited in a Uniform Presentation by Years and Family Surnames by Fray Angelico Chavez.
All of the volumes are now available as downloads from the University of New Mexico's digital repository.
The Diligencias Matrimoniales from Guadalupe del Paso (Marriage Investigations, Juarez) 1715 – 1730, 1750 - 1769 are 400 pre-nuptial investigations conducted in the Juarez-El Paso area that include brief biographies of both bride and groom. They are important tools for Southwest genealogists and historians alike. More detailed information on using this collection is found on by following the links.
The Beyond Origins of New Mexico Families website (BONMF) is meant to add to and expand the work Fray Angélico Chávez (1910-1996), a modern Franciscan friar, twelfth generation New Mexican, genealogist and writer. First published in 1954, his book the Origins of New Mexico families: a genealogy of the Spanish colonial period continues to be an important starting point for many New Mexican genealogists. The BONMF website provides additions and corrections to the original book which can be borrowed from the NM State Libray, purchased digitally from Amazon for easy searchability, or borrowed freely from Internet Archive.