Re: Trip to Jalisco, Zacatecas

["Erlinda Castanon-Long" <longsjourney@...>]

Arturo, When I was in El Limon Jalisco in 2003 we went to the parish 
office and talked with the girl in the office who told us we could 
not look at the actual books even though they were on the shelf 
behind her.  The priest walked in and asked what family we were 
looking for? My cousin's husband was trying to find his Santana 
ancestors who turned out to be part of the priests family.  He asked 
what year and took out a book wrapped in plastic because it was 
frail.  We opened it and the pages started turning to dust and 
blowing away.  Needless to say we closed it immediately and thanked 
him for allowing us to try.  It's very dry there and no special 
precautions were taken to preserve the books.
We went to Tamazula de Gordiano Jalisco next and they were so busy 
that they gave very poor service telling us they tried but couldn't 
find the records.  They had no copy machine so would have to do a 
form letter for whatever information was found, came home and found 
the records at the local FHC.. 
In Jerez Zacatecas they didn't have a copy machine either but were 
willing to talk to my cousin who's Spanish was much better than 
mine. I found it was much easier to get the records at the FHC.  I 
didn't try to find land records or any other type of records though, 
that was beyond my abilities to read records. Our time was limited 
so I had to chose what to try to accomplish so I decided to enjoy 
the land and the people.
I hope you have better luck than I did.
Linda in Everett

--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Arturo Ramos" <arturo.ramos2@v...> 
wrote:
>
> I will be spending about three weeks this December and January in 
> Jalisco and Zacatecas and am hoping to make it to the parrishes in 
> Colotlan and Tlaltenango, perhaps Atolinga as well as the archives 
in 
> Guadalajara...
> 
> Question... has anyone ever asked to see the actual books held at 
the 
> parrishes?  I am thinking of asking to photograph some of them, 
but 
> don't know how well that would go over.
> 
> Any tips would be appreciated.  I am also going to try to do an 
> interview with Esteban Valdes Salazar who has published some very 
good 
> genealogy and history books on Totatiche.  He is the 
local "cronista" 
> and has obviously spent lots of time pouring over old archival 
> documents, including the transcription of the 1591 census of 
Tlaxcaltec 
> migrants to Colotlan and the entire 1770 Totatiche census (over 
3000 
> names).  So if there are any questions anyone would like to ask, 
please 
> let me know.
>