I Would like to find out if anyone could please tell me what would be the most complete and efficient manner for accessing the data base for: birth/baptism/death records located at La Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico.
For example, a phone number, a fax number, a website, any means whatsoever would be very, very appreciated. Thank You!!!

Please inform me when you find out where to obtain baptismal, marriage, and birth records of the 1800 - 1900's from the Catholic churches of Chihuahua, Mexico. I am against a brick wall.

My family line - still a mystery waiting to unravel.

Vivian Chavez Tanis
15112 51st Ave NE
Marysville WA 98271 (originally from Santa Ana, CA)
360-659-6359
wildflower001@hotmail.com

It has been my experience that the Mormon Chrch has very limited information when it comes to hispanic Surnames. Especially from very old records.

Go to your local LDS Stake, the Mormon Church has the old church records on microfilm.

Be prepared with the following information: full name and surname, place and date of birth as well as Church they attended. Most likely the film will have to be ordered from Salt Lake City. It should cost around $3 each. Good Luck!

There are many factors that determine whether or not you will find any baptismal information at your local FHC at LDS. Your first road block may be whether or not Salt Lake City has the records you need. I have found pages missing from books, stained pages, illegible pages, and even whole books missing. There is also the problem of whether or not the parish priests allowed LDS to photograph the records. The Mormon Church does not have control over all these problems. Even so, I myself have found a lot of records to search.

First of all, the microfilm you need, will have to be ordered from Salt Lake City, unless someone before you has already ordered it. Then you will have to spend many hours searching the entire microfilm. I take notes on anyone with the same surname. My strategy involves looking for any relatives, instead of my direct ancestors only. For instance, I found out who my g.g.g.grandparents were, on the birth record of my g.g.aunt; (this info wasn't on my g.grandfather's birth record.)

I am still searching in the civil records and I hope to find even more information in the baptismal records. Good luck and patience on your search, and I hope you find many family members.

The University of Texas at El Paso [UTEP] has a film library on Chihuahua records and currently are filming at Parral.

Also try HISPANIC GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH CENTER OF NEW MEXICO [HGRC] at http:/www.hgrc-nm.org and view the INDEX to their Journal HERENCIA. In Volume 4 Issue 4 October 1996 thy published "Various Chihuahua Extractions" by Samuel Sisneros. Keep in mind that extractions are secondary sources and should be viewed only as guides to your own research of origional documents.

She's correct about the Mormons having whatever is given to them and nothing more.

Finished a 35 year search during these last two weeks in both CHIH and GTO (Guanajuato). I found cronistas or historians in each and every village who not only know your family names but their habits, gossip and ancestry.

In Parral, I discovered that the French side on my Mom's family arrived in 1690, and had been sent by the Sun King Louis XIV as a gift to the Spanish Crown. The bottom line was that these French were from Normandie and Louis had just finished capturing the port of Calais from the British and wanted to get rid of disloyal subjects on a wholesale basis.

As for the other side of Mom's family,I stumbled on the fact that they were Polish Ashkenazi Jews who married Sephardic conversos between 1860-1880. That's why I couldn't find them in the "Church" records.

In Guanajuato, I discovered that my Dad's side arrived in 1590 from Spain and controlled the villages around southern Guanajuato to this day. Have an uncle who was Mayor of Salamanca for 30 years. Another cousin, who looks just like my Daddy is running for Mayor of the industrial city of Silao, GTO. All this information for a budget of not more than 8,000 pesos=U$800.00 Feel free to read my notes to others in this chat room.

You may want to contact the cronistas in these little villages and big ciudades and save yourself a trip.

Good luck,

Gerardo Mosqueda Russek

I wonder if you are still interested on information regarding Guadalupe Church in Juarez. If it is useful, here is their address and phone #
CATEDRAL DE N.S. DE GUADALUPE
Av. Carranza y Vicente Guerrero
Colonia Centro
32000 Ciudad Juarez, Chih. Mexico
Phone +52 1 615 5502
Fax +52 1 614 6512

Good luck

I was not familiar with the address Rogelio provided and it's great to have all the contacts we can. Here is one I have used:
Pbro. Isidro Payan M.
Catedral
Apartado Postal Num. 53
Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua 32000
OR
Pbro. Isidro Payan M.
P.O. Box 1145
El Paso, TX 79947
I had dates and names and they sent me nice, newly typed, letterhead copies @$5/copy. I sent my U.S. check to the Texas address.
Also, here's a great, free resource: the First Book of Baptisms of the Parish of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe del Paso del Rio del Norte, 1662-1688 compiled by Jack Colligan on Jose Esquibel's website which is wonderful at: http://pages.prodigy.net/bluemountain1/beyondorigins.htm
Aaron and Sylvia Magdaleno have done extensive research in that area and have a book of marriage and death records from Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe 1728-1775, and several others in Chih. There email is: aaronsyl@pacbell.net or contact La Familia Ancestral Research Association at: http://www.familiaancestralresrch.org
There is a book called Libro de Difuntos 1663-1684 by Fray Garcia de San Francisco translated by Frank Dugan that I ordered from UTEP for about $6 from their special collections library dept and you can contact: Roberta Sago at: rsago@LIBR.UTEP.EDU
Hope some of this helps someone.
Gloria Falcon
Pueblo, CO
Sombrerete, Zac.: researching FALCON, JUAREZ, RODRIGUEZ, RIOS, LUJAN, NAVARRO 
Juarez, Chih.: researching GARCIA, BUSTAMANTE, CANO, ABALOS, LAINAS, APODACA, TRUJILLO, AGUINO

Did you ever find a cronistas in Torreon, Mexico. I sure would like to hear fron you. I really enjoyed your story of research.