CATALOGO DE PASAJEROS A INDIAS

["sgapodaca" <sgapodaca@...>]

As soon as I read on this board that the Westwood FHC had lots of 
Mexican films, I made a trip there as soon as I could. Of course, the 
traffic is terrible in that area (Santa Monica Blvd.)

I found lots of films from Jalisco, but none of them were needed for 
my research (for right now). I got really dissapointed while looking 
for two marriage records in Tlajomulco and Lagos de Moreno, and they 
had the films for the years around the time I was looking for, but 
not exactly the ones I needed. The good thing is that now I know what 
they have, and who knows, as my research progresses, I may need some 
of those films in the future.

They did have some films with info about my ancestors (Zacoalco and 
Atotonilco el Bajo), but I had already took all the information I 
needed from them months, or years ago. I did not find info on my 
ancestors, but still,I recommend you to go to this FHC just to spend 
a good time reading the books in their library and other microfilms. 
I found something that even though won't help me at this point, I am 
sure it will be an very valuable tool on my research in a couple 
years.

The series of books on film is called Catalogo de Pasajeros a Indias 
Durante los Siglos XVI, XVII y XVIII. According to this website: 
http://www.cubagenweb.org/e-pass.htm , it consists of 7 volumes. The 
Westwood FHC has three of them on film: Volumen I (1509-1534) Volumen 
II (1534-1538) Volumen III (1539-1559) It consists of a list of 
passengers who traveled from Spain to America in the 1500's. It 
includes everyone: men, women, children, white spaniards, servants, 
black slaves, foreigners, etc. I immediately realized the historical 
value of these documents.


> The optimist would say, "Oh yes that is absolutely true!! Very 
good!!"
> 
> The pessimist would say, "But they do not have all of them, 
especially not 
> the ones that I need."
> 
> There the realist would say,  "Expect to have a really good time, 
but not as 
> good as you had hoped."
> 
> I have been to the LA Family History Center many times before, with 
a list of 
> microfilms I had wanted to look at, and then discovered to my 
dismay that 
> they were not there.  So, not all the films are there.  But, yes 
they do have 
> quite a few.
> 
> Regards,
> Steven H.