I’m Ray Moralez and I am a native of West Texas. My journey started during the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2021, from scratch, with very little knowledge of my own family beyond a couple of generations back.
Since then I’ve spent thousands of hours scouring, transcribing and indexing church and civil records, specializing in the search and retrieval of records from Chihuahua, Mexico. I’ve traced various branches of my own family back to the early 1600s, with connections to Spain and southern Europe.
One of the more interesting discoveries: for the better part of 200 years, beginning around 1700, most of my ancestors remained in what is today the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, before later generations moved north into Texas.
Along the way
My great-grandfather, Benigno Quintela, was killed in a firefight south of Presidio, Texas, while fighting in the Mexican Revolution — the kind of detail that turns a name in a tree into a real person.
A Spanish military document from 1779 lists an ancestor, Fabian Quintana, among the soldiers of a northern presidio — a direct link to the colonial military records this site writes about.
The earliest solid connection so far: a 1640 marriage record that ties one branch of the family back to Malaga, Spain.
From Spain to the Southwest
Tex Mex Genealogy is meant to be a single place for the most useful tips and information for anyone researching Mexican family history, especially through Chihuahua. Understanding the historical context — who was where, and why — is just as important as the records themselves.
If you are working on your own family line and could use a second set of eyes, get in touch. I’m happy to help however I can.