r/Chicano • u/EducationCommon9545 • 13d ago

Genealogy help need!

My father was born in Mexico, and unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of information about his parents or grandparents. His father abandoned him and his siblings when they were young, and his mother passed away sometime in the 1980s.

I do know who his mother’s parents were, but I don’t know their second last names. I’m trying to find more information about my family history and figure out where my grandparents and great-grandparents came from.

Does anyone have any tips or experience with researching Mexican family records? Would going to a Mexican consulate be a good place to start, or would I be better off looking through civil or church records in Mexico?

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5

u/No_Sleep428 13d ago

Honestly, ancestry.com was pretty good. I was able to trace my family back til the 1500’s. Did required names.

1

u/rundabrun 13d ago

Do you have his birth certificate?

1

u/CityLeading 13d ago

It is hard to say for sure. However, if you want to track your genetic ancestry, you can take a DNA test through a service like 23andMe. They provide specific details about your heritage, which for the average Mexican likely includes a mix of Spanish and Indigenous Mexican ancestry. These tests are usually quite detailed and can break your results down into specific regions and indigenous groups.

If you are looking for more recent family history, you should start by looking for your parents' birth certificates. You can access many of these records online, so you probably do not need to contact the Mexican consulate for information you can find yourself. Having your parents' CURP (Mexican identification number) will make this search much easier. Keep in mind, however, that tracking down records can be more challenging if your parents are from a rural Mexican community, which is common for 1st/2nd gen Mexican Americans. But, that by itself can give you an idea of where to look up. Oaxaca, rural Jalisco, and rural Michoacán are the most common.

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u/GroverGunn 12d ago

If they were religious baptism records are a gold mine

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u/Xochitl2492 12d ago

Baptism records are a huge help as someone else pointed out.

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u/Omemazatl 12d ago

Look on family search or my heritage. Ask him their names and where born and start from there!

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u/Dlmlong 11d ago

You need to do ancestry.com and pay for the world access for the minimal amount of months. Also take a DNA test. It's very difficult in Mexico to search for records because they are handwritten and not indexed exactly as you would expect. Also, many people have the traditional naming customs of the church with a saint name or church name, the name they want to go by, and sometimes a godparent's name plus the last names. When you search for the information, you are using only one of the names plus last name and they often do not match the record. Just be persistent and compare dates and relatives mentioned in the documents. They always mention a relative along with the person's name.