I just wanted to write about something that caught my attention in the last few weeks. I used to think that Spanish was all that I needed to read Mexican church records. To my surprise, I was browsing some online films from Guachinango, Jalisco, and discovered that at a certain time, in the 1800's, whole parish books were written in Latin! Even the names of the people involved were latinized by the priest who recorded them. This caught me by surprise because I had never encountered this.
I thought, well, Latin sounds somewhat like Spanish, and I guess it won't be impossible to decipher if I ever need to look for an ancestor in one of those parish books. Well, just today, I was doing some indexing for familysearch, and I opened a batch from Mexico City to work on. To my surprise, it was all written in what appears to be a Native language, I assume Nahuatl! I tried to index it, but it was just impossible! I had to return the batch and work on another one. Has anybody encountered similar church records in Nahuatl, Latin or other languages? What do you do in these types of situations if you have a strong feeling your ancestor is in that particular book?
Latin records
I have seen marriage records from the 1870's and 1880's written in Latin, for the Church of Saint Agustin (Ecclesiae Sancti Augustini) in Laredo, Texas, just across the Mexican border. Some completely written, some printed with "fill in the blanks", depending on the year. Although they have the Latinized names and surnames, they also include the names in English or Spanish at the margin. In these cases, you just read them! If you know Spanish you may figure out a good deal of the text. In any case, you can just look for the names of bride, groom, their parents, ages and places of origin. It is not too different from reading Spanish records. The film number I have checked out is 0944276, but I don't think it is already online. Náhuatl records may be quite more challenging though!
Victoriano Navarro
Mexican Church Records in other languages!
Do you have a film number, not that i can read it, would just like to give it a look, sounds interesting.
Thanks,
Alicia
________________________________
From: "sgapodaca@yahoo.com"
To: general@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
Sent: Monday, February 6, 2012 7:15 PM
Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] Mexican Church Records in other languages!
I just wanted to write about something that caught my attention in the last few weeks. I used to think that Spanish was all that I needed to read Mexican church records. To my surprise, I was browsing some online films from Guachinango, Jalisco, and discovered that at a certain time, in the 1800's, whole parish books were written in Latin! Even the names of the people involved were latinized by the priest who recorded them. This caught me by surprise because I had never encountered this.
I thought, well, Latin sounds somewhat like Spanish, and I guess it won't be impossible to decipher if I ever need to look for an ancestor in one of those parish books. Well, just today, I was doing some indexing for familysearch, and I opened a batch from Mexico City to work on. To my surprise, it was all written in what appears to be a Native language, I assume Nahuatl! I tried to index it, but it was just impossible! I had to return the batch and work on another one. Has anybody encountered similar church records in Nahuatl, Latin or other languages? What do you do in these types of situations if you have a strong feeling your ancestor is in that particular book? -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Nuestros Ranchos General Mailing List
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Mexican Church Records in other languages!
The church records from Tula in Hidalgo are in Náhuatl for the 1500s
and 1600s. I posted a couple of them on my facebook page. I've not seen
any Nueva Galicia records in Náhuatl.
I too have seen Mexican records only in Spanish, not in Latin.
John P. Schmal
Mexican Church Records in other languages!
Hi, I don't have the film number for the Latin records in Jalisco, since I was just browsing during my free time and not looking for a specific ancestor. For the Nahuatl records, the indexing program lists the film as 004565460 Mexico, DF Bautismos 1536-1900. I've been indexing in this project since the Aguascalientes project disappeared. I'm glad I can be of help with this project, but I sure hope they bring something for Jalisco soon.
________________________________
From: Alicia Carrillo
To: "general@nuestrosranchos.org"
Sent: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 2:15 PM
Subject: Re: [Nuestros Ranchos] Mexican Church Records in other languages!
Do you have a film number, not that i can read it, would just like to give it a look, sounds interesting.
Thanks,
Alicia
________________________________
From: "sgapodaca@yahoo.com"
To: general@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
Sent: Monday, February 6, 2012 7:15 PM
Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] Mexican Church Records in other languages!
I just wanted to write about something that caught my attention in the last few weeks. I used to think that Spanish was all that I needed to read Mexican church records. To my surprise, I was browsing some online films from Guachinango, Jalisco, and discovered that at a certain time, in the 1800's, whole parish books were written in Latin! Even the names of the people involved were latinized by the priest who recorded them. This caught me by surprise because I had never encountered this.
I thought, well, Latin sounds somewhat like Spanish, and I guess it won't be impossible to decipher if I ever need to look for an ancestor in one of those parish books. Well, just today, I was doing some indexing for familysearch, and I opened a batch from Mexico City to work on. To my surprise, it was all written in what appears to be a Native language, I assume Nahuatl! I tried to index it, but it was just impossible! I had to return the batch and work on another one. Has anybody encountered similar church records in Nahuatl, Latin or other languages? What do you do in these types of situations if you have a strong feeling your ancestor is in that particular book? -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Nuestros Ranchos General Mailing List
To post, send email to:
general(at)nuestrosranchos.org
To change your subscription, log on to:
http://www.nuestrosranchos.org
Mexican Church Records in other languages!
I have yet to see Mexican church records in Latin, but it is quite common in Austria and Czechoslovakia. With just a little Latin vocabulary, those are pretty easy to read.
George Fulton
Mexican Church Records in other languages!
I have seen Latin in some baptisms of my ancestors in the late 1800s in a certain diocese that encomassed El Paso County Texas and Dona Ana County, in Mesilla Valley in Southern New Mexico. Carmen was Carmeli, Maria was Miriam, Eligio was Eligiam, Eulalio was Eulalius.
They were in a pre-printed fill-in-the'blanks form that read;
Ego infrascriptus baptizavi________________
nat_________ex_______________ex loco___________________et_________________ex loco______________Patrini Fuerunt_____________________.
I read these as the name of the child, when and where born, mother's Name, where mother lived, father's name, where father lived, and who the godparents were. The priest wrote in the information in latin, such as Septembris for September, close enough to Spanish or Italian so that I could make it out.
Emilie
Port Orchard, WA
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> To: general@nuestrosranchos.org
> From: gpf13@aol.com
> Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 22:12:57 -0500
> Subject: Re: [Nuestros Ranchos] Mexican Church Records in other languages!
>
>
> I have yet to see Mexican church records in Latin, but it is quite common in Austria and Czechoslovakia. With just a little Latin vocabulary, those are pretty easy to read.
>
> George Fulton
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