Archivo General de la Nación.

Hi Ed:

Regarding the Archivo General de la Nacion: It is the largest repository of files that originated since colonial times to the present. Record types are Church, civil, punishment, properties, immigrants, etc., etc. The source of information that Archivo General de la Nacion saves, is very rich in "historic documents", and "vital records". AGN is the place where the most important records are protected by the government of Mexico. The vital records from Mexico that are microfilmed, for instance, by "The Genealogical Society of Utah", are available at Archivo General de la Nacion. A copy of the microfilms from places in Mexico is donated to the AGN, but their copies are very deteriorated. They take very little care of their documents and microfilms, their explanation is: "It is too expensive to take care of them".

There are other several sources of information that are also being microfilmed, and are available at the Family History Library of Utah, and their Family History Centers. At the AGN, not all documents are well catalogued, but the majority of them are catalogued (there are references in cards). Many of the sources (there are more than 600 types, called "grupos" -groups- or "ramos" -branches-) are also indexed in several collections of digitized indexes (the documents are not being digitized, only the references are, in order to locate the source); This digitized collections are named "ARGENA", and are numbered according to their edition: I, II and III.

The information that you have about: "A copy of the Archivo is available locally at the University of California San Diego, not too far from my La Jolla home", that you mentioned, is probably a copy on CD's of ARGENA mentioned above, because the ARGENA's collections are available on CD's. There are indexes on INTERNET too. Go to the following link to see them:

http://www.agn.gob.mx/

I know that this is very brief explanation, but if you have a specific question about your investigation area, I can send you some information for your research via E-Mail.

Saludos desde México!

JRGL.

Mexico City.

Ed Serros wrote:

Susana:

I am interested in your comments on the "Archivo General de la Nacion" since it appears to have much information not available in the Mormon repository. A copy of the Archivo is available locally at the University of California San DIego, not too far from my La Jolla

home. (I hope it is there, as advertised).

My questions for you re: Archivo. How easy is it to use? Is it indexed in any way? Did you find much information regarding your family? Any tips? Any warnings?