Genealogical Resources: Spanish, Mexican, and Territorial Archives of New Mexico

Spanish Archives of New Mexico (SANM I), Land Records of New Mexico 1602-1855

SANM I includes the records of the Surveyor General and the records fo the Court of Private Land Claims. The records were translated from Spanish and put in a calendar by Ralph Emerson Twitchell and published in 1914. His work served as the basis for the Calendar of the Microfilm Edition of the Spanish Archives of New Mexico, 1621–1821. The calendar includes names and descriptions (in English) of the wide variety of documents that can be found in this collection, with “Twitchell numbers” linking items in the calendar to images of the actual record.The New Mexico State Library has this collection on microfilm and it is available digitally at Ancestry.com as New Mexico, Land Records of New Spain, 1692-1846.

Spanish Archives of New Mexico (SANM II), 1621-1821 

This collection contains the administrative and judicial records and journals of the Spanish government in New Mexico, 1621-1821. Census records, military, and financial records of New Mexico's Spanish Colonial Government are also included.  Records cover both the local and provincial levels, and include correspondence between officials in Santa Fe and Mexico. These microfilm copies reproduce the extant official Spanish archives of New Mexico in the custody of the Archives Division of the State of New Mexico Records Center concerning the administration of the region from the period of Spanish colonial sovereignty to the establishment of the Mexican national government in 1821. The New Mexico State Library has this collection on microfilm and it is available digitally at Ancestry.com as New Mexico, Civil Records of New Spain, 1621-1821.