Natalie, that is a good idea about a form to note info. I have just
been using thin ruled binder paper and at the top (by hand) I enter the film
number, name of the church, the locale, and community where the birth or
marriage took place and what type records are included in the
film (e.g. Baptisms 1831-1842). I then have room for 5 entries on
each page. I have filled out thousands of pages this way through the
years. A typical entry looks like this:
4/12/1839 - Maria Epifania
Roman (b.4/6/1839)
parents: Juan
Roman/Ma. Antonia Flores
pat. g.p. - Xavier
Roman/Yldefonsa Tinajero
mat. g. p. - Jose Ma.
Flores/Ma. Guadalupe Soriano
pnos - Francisco
Zalasar/Maria Alejandra de Orosco
I sure get tired writing "parents, pat g. p, mat g.p. and pnos" for each
entry although with abbreviations it doesn't take me that much more time, but it
does add to the writer's cramp. I envy the Director at my FHC who has made
a form on a database on her laptop and she types in the info in the fields so
quickly. I am jealous. But I will now make an abbreviated form
to write on. Why didn't I think of that sooner, duh?? This new
computer has Excel on it, so maybe I will take a crack at learning it.
I also have found out the value of learning the geography, communities,
culture, etc of our ancestral lands and ancestors as Dr. Ryskamp stresses. That
is why a forum like this is so helpful to me, whose father left Mexico almost
one hundred years ago, and since he died while I was still too young and stupid,
I never got to ask him about his town, his ancestors, his culture, how he felt
when he had to leave it, how they got to this country, why they left, what
happened in all those years before I was born, etc? All I know generally
is that the Revolution there caused people to immigrate to this country that
threw its doors open to the refugees. My father only took us to his
homeland once, but again, I was still too young and stupid to appreciate
it. I just felt uncomfortable in a place where I did not know the language
and where the hygiene, economy, etc was not up to our standards. Some of us
just grow too soon old and too late smart. I really depend on you all who
are more familiar with the customs and language and I am beholden to you all,
especially our guru, Joseph.
Emilie Garcia
Port Orchard, WA. ----
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 2:13
PM
Subject: [ranchos] Researching a
place
Wow! The messages have been amazing the past few days.
Thanks to all
who have shared their insights regarding
research.
(Confession: I am really bummed - I was writing this message, and
had
written quite a bit, then accidentally hit the wrong key, and lost
the entire message. Now I am going to try to reconstruct, and hope I
don't leave anything out.)
One of the things stressed by Dr. George
Ryskamp at the recent
Hispanic Family History Symposium held at the
National Archives in
Washington, DC, was the importance of
knowing/understanding the
locality of your ancestors. Learn about the
geography, community,
economy, culture, etc. Get to know about the
jurisdictional concepts
for your locality: political, ecclisiastical,
judicial, military,
etc. He highly recommended the preparation of a
written locality
report.
In another presentation he mentioned the
National Archives of Mexico -
it sounded amazing. Has anyone in this group
been there?
BTW, his bibliography was quite extensive.
On another
note - regarding lateral research. Last May, while
reviewing a film from
Valparaiso, Zac., on which my father's baptism
was recorded (and which I
had previously extracted), I decided to see
what other relatives might be
listed. So I went through the films
looking for all the baptism from
Astillero (Hacienda del Astillero).
This film was for 1911-1917. It
quickly became evident that there
were too many to take notes for so I
went home and put together a
form from which to record extracted
information. The form looked
something like this:
Page#
_______ Entry# _______
Name
____________________________________
Date of birth (dd-month-year)
___________
Place of birth __________________________
Date of baptism
_________________________
Place (of registration) _________________
Name
of father __________________________
Name of mother
__________________________
Paternal grandfather
____________________
Paternal grandmother ____________________
Maternal
grandfather ____________________
Maternal grandmother
____________________
Note: I failed to record the padrinos
Note: I
printed 4 forms per page
After extracting the information, I compiled a
list of the surnames
of the children born, listing the names of the
fathers under each
surname. You can see this example of a compilation of
surnames in the
FILES section, under my name, Natalie C. Coleman.
Extracting the information provides an indication of the community
for
a particular time period.
Thanks again, to all of you for sharing your tips
and experiences.
Take care,
Natalie Coleman, in Annandale,
VA
by Date 
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