Mexico, Baja California and Baja California Sur, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records: Difference between revisions

*If possible, look at the actual image of the record to verify the information found in the online description.

*Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth to find the family in [https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1307314?collectionNameFilter=true 1930, Mexico National Census].

*Use the residence and names of the parents to locate other church and land records.

*Use the parents' birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family.

*Compile information for every person who has the same surname as your ancestor; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.

*Continue to search the records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify.

*Check for variants of given names, surnames, and place names. Transcription errors could occur in any handwritten record; also, it was not uncommon for an individual be listed under a nickname or an  [http://broadcast.lds.org/elearning/FHD/Community/en/FamilySearch/Handwriting/Spanish/Lesson2/SpanishNameAbbreviations.pdf abbreviation of their name].

*Civil registration records are also a good source of genealogical information.  You should obtain copies of both church records and civil registration, when possible, since they do not necessarily provide the same information. For example, baptismal registers sometimes provide the names of the fathers of illegitimate children when the civil registration does not.

*There may be more than one person with the same name.

*Even though this is an index there may still be inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

*A boundary change could have occurred and the record of your ancestor is now in a neighboring area. Search the records and indexes of neighboring cities, provinces, and regions.

*Try looking through records in the surrounding localities. Baja California shares a small part of its northeastern border with [[Sonora]] and its northern border with [[California, United States Genealogy|California]]. Baja California Sur is surrounded by water excepting the northern border it shares with Baja California.

*Civil registration records are also a good source of genealogical information. You should obtain copies of both church records and civil registration, when possible, since they do not necessarily provide the same information. For example, baptismal registers sometimes provide the names of the fathers of illegitimate children when the civil registration does not.

*Your ancestor may have immigrated to another country. Search the records of nearby countries or immigration/emigration records.