Campeche Archives and Libraries

Municipal Archive (Archivo Municipal)
Genealogy researchers searching in Campeche county on the Municipal Archive to foster a closer understanding of the cultural history of the local people of Campeche. The archive is excellent because of its large pool of documents, not to mention the architectural footprint of the beautiful historic archive building.

Address:
Calle 63 núm 48 entre 16 y 18 Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de Campeche. CP 24000, Campeche, Campeche Tel.: (981) 811 40 53 Fax 816 15 3

Campeche General State Archive (Archivo General del Estado de Campeche)
In about 1685, many Campeche records were destroyed when the pirate Laurent Graff looted the city and the archives of Campeche. Many historical documents of the colonial period were lost.

In 1877 the Ayuntamiento secretary, Francisco Alvarez Suárez, began to rescue and organize the documents of the Ayuntamiento (local civil government) and of the state government. He worked for 26 years, from 1877 to 1903; during this time he was able to organize, inventory, and catalog the collection of documents. He also wrote 'Los Anales Históricos de Campeche', a record of the most important happenings of the city of Campeche from 1810 to 1910.

From 1904 to 1939, the archive was left abandoned. Much of the collection deteriorated due to neglect.

In 1941, the Public Archive of the State was established. Forty years later, in 1981, it was reestablished as the General State Archive. Since that time a permanent intitiative to organize and conserve the documents has been carrried out.

Today about 4.5 million documents are kept, generated between 1820 and 1992. Of this number, 1.5 million are historical documents of public interest and 3 million are documents generated by the public state administration from 1973 to 1993. This archive includes a photographic collection of more than 40,000 photographs, a collection of the Periódico Oficial del Estado since 1861, and a newspaper archvie with newspapers and magazines circulating since 1975.

Address:
Calle 12 núm. 159 Centro Histórico CP 24000, Campeche, Campeche Tel.: (981) 816 09 39 Fax number the same

Schedule
Open to the public : Monday to Friday 8:00 am to 3:00 pm Closed to the public : January 1, February 5, March 21, 24, and 25; May 1, September 1 and 16, November 20, December 12 and 25

Services
Photocopies: yes Microfilms: no Photographs: no 60% of the documents have an inventory

For more information:
For more information about the archive, visit Censo-Guía de Archivos de España e Iberoamérica, which has information about many archives in Mexico.

You can also visit the website of the state government of Campeche: Gobierno del Estado de Campeche.