For many of you with Mexican heritage, exploring your family tree has likely been on your "Must-Do" list for a while. It would be a wonderful project for your extended family, especially if no one else has had the time, resources, or desire to lead the way. How do you begin? How much time will it require? Will it be challenging, costly, and time-consuming? Just contemplating this can feel overwhelming, even before you start! The short answer is that it can be as involved or simple as you wish, in terms of time and money. Those decisions are the easy parts. As for the difficulty, that depends on your project's goals and how you plan to achieve them.

Let me start with the Good News: Today there is so much material available, much of it online, which is great in that this information is readily available at your fingertips and you don't have to leave the comfort of your own home.

Now to the Bad News: Today there is so much material available, much of it online, which is great in that this information is readily available at your fingertips and you don't have to leave the comfort of your own home.

For the organized individual, the good news is great! "Hey, just tell me where everything is and I can get to work!" For those of you in the second group that are, let's say, a little more "free-spirited", the bad news is that there is so much information that it can sometimes lead to feeling overwhelmed and act as a mental barrier to starting your project or to accomplishing your goals. It doesn't have to be that way and this is where I believe I can help you.

Being organized and working efficiently are crucial for a satisfying research experience. Knowing where to find things, where to store them, and maintaining consistency in your methods can save you countless hours in the long run, as well as prevent some headaches. Consider how much time you spend searching for something like your car keys because you can't recall where you placed them, or trying to locate a document in your filing cabinet but not remembering its location. The same principle applies to collecting and compiling information for your ancestry project. If you organize yourself from the beginning and consistently use your own methodology, you will avoid wasting valuable time searching for what you already have but can't locate. With this in mind, I have outlined some strategies to help you manage your research time effectively. Exploring your ancestry should be enjoyable and thrilling, not frustrating and overwhelming.

Listed below are 10 ways to improve your efficiency as you explore your Mexican ancestry:

1. Find the Right Family Tree Software

2. Learn How and Where to Find Relevant Resources for Information

3. Use a Spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel to Organize Your Information

4. Use the Grid Feature in Reviewing Church Records at familysearch.org

5. When Reviewing a Record, Grab Everything!

6. Sometimes You Have To Go Sideways to Go Up!

7. Records Names and Places Using the Same Consistent Spelling

8. Don't Forget To Read the Margins!

9. Make Note of Any Extraneous Information

10. Backup Your Data!

Before you dive into the details below, do yourself a favor and go to https://www.texmexgenealogy.com/catholic-church-records and familiarize yourself with this page before you continue below. It will talk you through some more specific detail about how to get organized and other valuable tips especially as they relate to Catholic church records. If you're an impatient one, then I would urge you to have a look afterward.

1. Find the Right Family Tree Software - Although this probably goes without saying, do your research and find a platform in which you will create and store your family tree information. There are several platforms, both free and subscription-based, that are available if you just take the time to do a little research on them. Just keep in mind what you are trying to pull together and try and select the best fit. Think about the features and cost that fit your goals and then select from a slate of software including Ancestry.com, Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic or My Heritage. Of course there are others but with a little work, you can find the one that fits you best.

2. Learn How and Where to Find Relevant Resources for Information - Create a list of the resources from which you will draw your information. If you will have limited time to work on your project, then you should probably stick to Catholic church records as they will almost always be your best source and will more than fill up your available time. If you have more time or want to explore other sources in addition to the church records, you can research civil records, newspapers, university online portals or if you are deeper in your research you can investigate government websites from both Spain and Mexico. Links for many of these can be found at texmexgenealogy.com/other-sources. Create a "My Research" folder where you can bookmark each source so you can easily navigate to it when needed.

3. Use a Spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel to Organize Your Information - Use an Excel spreadsheet to record your information. This should be plenty of fire-power for most everyone. As long as you know how to create a basic spreadsheet, input data and know how to use the "Find" function, this should be all you need to start. Additionally, if you capture your information effectively in a spreadsheet, you can now have everything such as source, page number, type of record or anything else you wish to capture, all in one place! That way, you always know where your records are located and what is there and even display the information in different ways by sorting. Below is a sample header for a spreadsheet. It is wise to include a link to each volume of records so that you can get there more quickly. Nothing is more time-consuming than looking for something you know you have but can't find. I can help you get set up if you contact me at "contact@texmexgenealogy.com".

   

4. Use the Grid Feature in Reviewing Church Records at familysearch.org - If you are using Catholic church records from FamilySearch.org for your research, look for a breakdown of each volume using the Grid feature. With this feature, you can scroll through an entire volume and quickly spot the starts/stops for each section, which is usually associated with a separate physical book that was scanned within the volume. In addition, you will usually see a scanned image at the beginning of each section which details the next set of documents along with their date range. This is especially important when you are looking for a record within a certain date range.

   
   

   

5. When Reviewing a Record, Grab Everything! - When you review and input a record, make sure you collect all pertinent information. Many records contain more information than you may have expected, delivering a wealth of information, some of which you might not seem important at the time only to have you wish later that you had captured it.  Everything from Pads.(padrinos), Mad.(madrina), orig.(originalmente) and vec.(vecino) information can be vital in determining possible family members, place of birth or where an individual lived.

6. Sometimes You Have To Go Sideways to Go Up! - If you have ever climbed a mountain, you know that sometimes you have to take the path of least resistance and go left or right before you head back toward the top. Well, ancestry research is no different. Sometimes you have to find the siblings and expand his/her family to discover or confirm certain pieces of information regarding your own direct bloodline. I have made countless discoveries using this tip! The hope here is that you can find some useful information or tip, in their records, that you can investigate further.

7. Records Names and Places Using the Same Consistent Spelling - Record the names in your spreadsheet by entering ALL of the given first names (usually from the baptismal record); however, utilize the same consistent spelling for surnames. Let me explain. In Mexican ancestry, multiple first names were usually the norm for baptismal records. It's not unusual to find three or four first names for an individual. Future records for this person, such as marriage and burial records may include just one or some combination of these first names. You can't assume that Juan Jose Deciderio Garcia was called by that set of first names in future records. He may have simply been called Jose by some and Juan or Deciderio by others. As for the surnames, you have to remember that many scribes spelled both first and last names differently. Especially when it comes to last names, I suggest using one consistent version of Gonsales, Gonzales or Gonzalez both for your family tree and for input into your spreadsheet. Why? Well, simply because it is much faster to search people in your software platform as well as in your spreadsheet. Imagine trying to find someone and not remembering if you spelled their last name with a "z" or an "s". You would have to search each version of the various spellings. Pick one version for spelling of first and last names. You can then decide later how you want to deal with the spelling of these within each generation in your family.

8. Don't Forget To Read the Margins! - Record any extraneous information from the margins of each page. Don't disregard any writing on the page! Many times you will see a reference to someone or something in the margin, however it may not be noted in the record itself or noted differently. For example, the calidad (race) is noted in many records before 1821 and is useful although not always accurate. You will see entries such as Ynd. (yndios), Mul. (mulato), Mest. (mestizos) or Esp. (espanoles). Other times, you may find an additional first name in the margin however it might not appear in the record itself. Things like this are common throughout. Below is one example of the value of margin data.

   
   

   

9. Make Note of Any Extraneous Information - Find your own consistent methods for noting things that are out of the ordinary.  Sometimes there is information that may not be a defined input for your family tree software or for your spreadsheet. Find a consistent way to capture this information so that you can easily recognize it in the future. For example, I use (parentheses) around the surname of someone who has been adopted. I do this in both my family tree as well as in my spreadsheet. When I see the last name in either, I know exactly what that means to me. When I see a mistake that the scribe made in a given record, I will highlight it in 'red' to alert me that there was a problem with that particular piece of information. I also include a "Notes" column in my spreadsheet for anything I deem potentially important to know. While I'm talking mostly about exceptions, find your own way to alert yourself to these types of issues and try and be consistent with it.

10. Backup Your Data! - Backing up your data is about the most important thing you can do to preserve your sanity! This is easily done by utilizing Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or by using a portable hard drive or flash drive.

If you need help getting started or advice on anything related to your Mexican ancestry research, please contact me at contact@texmexgenealogy.com

Buena Suerte!