Mexico, Baja California and Baja California Sur, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

This wiki article describes a collection of records that is available for free online at FamilySearch Record Search – Pilot Site. To access the collection, see [Mexico, Baja California and Baja California Sur, Catholic Records, 1750-1983]

Foreign Language Title 
México, Baja California y Baja California Sur, registros parroquiales de la Iglesia Católica

Collection Time Period
This collection covers church records from parishes in Baja California and Baja California Sur from the dates 1750 to 1983.

Population Coverage
This collection covers the Catholic Church population living in parishes in the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. The majority of the population of these two states was Roman Catholic, and entries for them are found in parish registers. Only in the late 19th century did other religious groups begin to be established in the area.

Collection History
In 1527 the Roman Catholic Church was established in Mexico with the creation of the Tlaxcala and Mexico dioceses. Parish registers were kept by the priest at the parish level. Parishes were local congregations that may have included smaller villages within their boundaries. A large city may have contained several parishes. The parishes had jurisdiction over both vice parishes (vice parroquias) and chapelries (capillar foraneas). Multiple parishes (parroquias) were under the jurisdiction of a diocese. The highest level of government in the Catholic Church was the archdiocese (arquidiócesis), which was made up of several dioceses. In 1995 the Catholic Church in Mexico had 14 archdioceses; 58 dioceses; 5,345 parishes; and 1,611 chapelries (subparishes).

Why was this collection created?
Mexican Catholic parish registers were created to record the church sacraments of baptism, confirmation, marriage, and burial.

Collection Reliability
Catholic Church parish registers are the primary source for birth, death, and marriage records in Mexico prior to 1859. After 1859 parish records can be used as another source verifying information found in civil registers.

Collection Description
Separate books were kept for baptisms, confirmations, marriage information documents, marriages, and burials. The entries were normally made in chronological order. Confirmations were not consistently recorded. In larger parishes a separate book was usually maintained for confirmations, while in smaller parishes the confirmations may have been included with the baptisms. Similarly, marriage information documents may have been included with marriages.

Collection Content
Through the years the information found in Mexican Catholic parish registers may vary, however the most common genealogical information found are:

• Date of baptism, confirmation, marriage, and burial • Event place is the parish unless noted otherwise • Name of the person being baptized, confirmed, married, or buried and sometimes the names of the parents, spouse, and other relatives • Age of the person being baptized, confirmed, married, or buried • Sex of the participants except for witnesses (sex can be inferred from the given name • Place of residence of the family, marriage partners, or the deceased • Legitimacy of the child in baptismal entries • Social class of the parents in baptismal entries prior to 1820 • Marital status of the individuals

How to Use the Collection
Parish registers are the best Mexican record to identify individuals, parents, and spouses before 1859. After this date, civil authorities began registering vital statistics, and these become equally important. The information in civil sources confirms and supplements the information in church records. For instance, the parish registers may list the godparents while the civil records may list the grandparents. Be sure to search both the parish and civil records after 1860 since some families did not consistently register their children with either of them.

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Mexico Church Records Mexico Church History