Archive Portal

The Linealist has used the following archives and libraries and sites, some of which have records available online. Use the hyperlinks below.

• Cíbola Project.  The Cíbola Project is one of the most important scholarly projects on New Mexico. The project team is locating significant documents from the Spanish colonial period, transcribing those documents, and making the documents and transcriptions available for free online.  UC Berkeley’s Research Center for Romance Studies administers the project.

• Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico), Guia General subpage.  (Directions: Once at this site, click on “Fondo, Expendientes y Documentos, then click + to expand the folder titled “Archivo General de la Nación,” then either peruse the subfolders or click “Buscar” to search; then click document to see a digital file, if available.)

• PARES.  Portal de Archivos Españoles.  A limited number of records are available online.  These records would be even better without the watermarks.  To search this archive, select “Búsqueda Avanzada.”

• Fondo Colonial, Parral Archives.  This collection is now available online thanks to the Archivo Histórios de Hidalgo del Parral and the Hispanic Heritage Project.  The PDF of the catalog is HERE.

• Archivo de la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (Mexico, Archivo Historico Militar).  This archive is online, on occasion.  This site goes off-line for several weeks at a time, then temporarily comes back online for a few days, then returns to off line.  Once it returns, the search tool will point you to wrong document, and you will have to tweak the document number in the url address to land on the right spot.

• Biblioteca Nacional Digital de México.  Books and documents.

• BNE.  Biblioteca Nacional de España.  Beautiful books in digital form.

• University of Texas, El Paso, Special Collections.   Microfilms of the Juarez Archives are available at UTEP.   These documents are very important for scholars researching history of the the U.S. Southwest/Mexican North.  The finding guides are available by clicking HERE.  If you are doing serious research, you will either have to travel to UTEP, or ask the head of Special Collections for contact information for a UTEP student who is available for hire to make copies of microfilm pages.  (These are the options provided by UTEP.)  Essentially, the records are available to you if you have the financial resources — which makes this collection a “hidden” collection.

• Rio Grande Historical Collection, at New Mexico State University, Archives and Special Collections.  The microfilms of the Archivos de Durango are available at NMSU.  These documents are essential to scholars doing research on the U.S. Southwest/Mexican North.  This archive also has searchable photograph collection.  Unfortunately, the Durango microfilms are another hidden collection, as they are not digitally available.

• New Mexico Digital Collections.  An archive portal by the University of New Mexico.

• Documentary Relations of the Southwest, University of Arizona.  Search the DRSW Master Index.

• Bexar Archives, University of Texas, Austin.  Some digital documents available.

• Mission 2000 Database, Spanish Mission Records.  Includes some records from Janos.  Be patient: this database suffers from very slow search and download speeds.

• Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley.  The Bancroft has some microfilms from the Archivo General de la Nación, some from Chihuahua Archives, and some from the Archivo Españoles, such as the Archivo General de Simancas.  Many of the microfilm collections at Bancroft appear to be incomplete and represent a sampling of certain subject areas.   For finding aids, see HERE.

• John Carter Brown Library.  The JCB at Brown University hosts a collection of historical records and books pertaining to Mexico, the U.S. Southwest and other subject areas.  Many of the materials are now available online at JCB Online and at the JCB Spanish America landing page at the Internet Archive.

• Mapoteca Manuel Orozco y Berra.  The Mapoteca has an extraordinary collection of maps of Mexico, New Mexico and other parts of North America.  The maps are available online via the Mapoteca’s search engine.  (This site was reconfigured in 2022, and now not now offering the best resolution for all maps.  The old site was better.)

• Hemeroteca Nacional Digital de México.  Historical Mexican newspapers.

• Internet Archive.  A massive number of free books and records in need of smart curating.  Lots of great items.  Use the “Universal Access to Knowledge” search button (as opposed to the Wayback Machine search button).  Now available on the Internet Archive:
  • Reel 1 of Archivo del Ayuntamiento de Chihuahua

• New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, public historical records of the Spanish colonial and Mexican Republic periods behind paywall, via ancestry.com.
  • New Mexico Records, 1621-1821.  For guidance, see Ralph Emerson Twitchell, Spanish Archives of New Mexico, Volume Two (The Torch Press, 1914).
  • New Mexico Records, 1821-1846.  For guidance, see Myra Ellen Jenkins, Calendar of the Microfilm Edition of the Mexican Archives of New Mexico (1970).
  • New Mexico Land Records, 1821-1846.

• FamilySearch.  Church and public records and at https://www.familysearch.com.  To read about the collections of Mexican church records at familysearch, click HERE.   Records from these subpages were particularly helpful:
  • Records from Catholic Churches in the State of Chihuahua, available HERE.
  • Records from Distrito Federal, Mexico, which includes records from Mexico City, available HERE.
  • Records from Catholic Churches in Durango, available HERE.

• Wayback Machine, Internet Archive. Helpful extracts that were once posted on the Web are (still available) and digitally archived by the Internet Archive:
  • Extracts of Church records from about 1728-1821 of Paso del Norte by Aaron Magdaleno.  Click HERE.
  • Beyond Origins of New Mexico by José Antonio Esquibel, including some Paso census extracs. Click HERE.
• New Mexico Archives Online.  This site provides access to findings guides to certain archives in New Mexico.  This site replaced the Rocky Mountain Online Archive (RMOA), which once enabled users to search records in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.

• Place of the Governors Photo Archives.  (New Mexico)

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