New Mexico Archives and Libraries

United States New Mexico Archives and Libraries

These archives, libraries, societies, and museums house sources, lists, and indexes, and provide services to help genealogists document their ancestors who lived in New Mexico.

National

Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
Telephone: 510-642-6481 Reference desk
Fax: 510-642-7589
Website: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/info/

Premier Western Americana, and Latin Americana collections, including Native Americans, Spanish encounter and colonial settlement, exploration of western America, maps and atlases, the Mexican War, westward migration, the Gold Rush, mining, land surveys, religious and Utopian communities, and ethnic communities. This library has more about western North America than any other site. Includes many sources about New Mexico.

Family History Library

35 N. West Temple St.
Salt Lake City, Utah 84150
Telephone: 801-240-6996 and 801-240-6996
Internet: https://FamilySearch.org

Holds 450 computers, 3,400 databases, 3.1 million microforms, 4,500 periodicals, 310,000 books of worldwide family and local histories, civil, church, immigration, ethnic, military, and Mormon records. Includes a good collection for New Mexico.

National Archives Rocky Mountain Region (Denver)
17101 Huron Street
Broomfield, CO 80023
Telephone: 303-604-4740
Fax: 303-407-5707
Internet: National Archives at Denver

Note that all the old federal court records for New Mexico are at the National Archives Rocky Mountain Region, not in Texas

National Hispanic Cultural Center

1701 4th Street SW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Telephone: 505-246-2261 or 505-724-4771
Fax: 505-246-2613
Internet: National Hispanic Cultural Center

The archives have photographs, maps, manuscripts, and genealogies. The library contains 12,500 book titles about the history and culture of the Hispano world from the U.S. Southwest, Mexico, Central America, Latin America to Spain, and Portugal.

Genealogy resources include 2000 films of Spanish colonial, Mexican, and American territorial history, Archdiocese of Santa Fe (and earlier Durango) records 1640-1955, Ayuntamiento de Hidalgo de Parral Chihuahua collection, U.S. federal censuses for New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, a list of over 50 Hispanic genealogy and heraldry Internet sites, Hispanic genealogical publications, historic maps of counties, towns, and land grants, and archival finding guides.

State

New Mexico State Records Center and Archives
1205 Camino Carlos Rey
Santa Fe, NM 87507
Telephone: 505-476-7948
Fax: 505-476-7909
Email: archives@state.nm.us

New Mexico's best genealogy repository because of their original territorial, state, and county records.

New Mexico State Library
1209 Camino Carlos Rey
Santa Fe, NM 87507
Telephone: 505-476-9700
Internet: http://www.nmstatelibrary.org/

Largest book collection in New Mexico including government documents, maps, periodicals, biographies, and genealogies.

Fray Angélico Chávez History Library (aka Museum of New Mexico History Library)

120 Washington Avenue
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Telephone: 505-476-7948 or 505-819-3563
Fax: 505-476-5104
E-mail: historylibrary@state.nm.us
Internet: Fray Angélico Chávez History Library

Exhibits and archives at the Palace of the Governors for the Spanish colonial (1540-1821), Mexican (1821-1846), U.S. Territorial (1846-1912) and statehood (1912-present) periods of history. Archive topics include NM celebrities, Santa Fe Trail, American Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I, Spain, Mexico, Central America, American Southwest, and American Indians. Manuscripts, papers, newspapers, rare books, maps, and photos—rivals in size the State Records Center and Archives.

New Mexico State University Library Rio Grande Historical Collections

4th Floor Branson Library
1305 Frenger Mall
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8006
Telephone: 575-646-3839 or 575-646-2932
E-mail: E-mail us
Internet: Rio Grande Historical Collections (RGHC)

Early colonial Spanish records starting in 1598 for families along the Camino Real (Spanish mission road) from the Sangre de Christo Mountains of Colorado down to Mexico City.

New Mexico Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 27559
Albuquerque, NM 87125
Internet: http://www.nmgs.org/

Regional

Albuquerque Bernalillo County Library

●Genealogy Center (Main Library)
   501 Copper Ave NW
   Albuquerque, NM 87102
   Telephone: 505-768-5131
   E-mail: librarygenealogy@cabq.gov
   Fax: 505-768-5191
   Internet: http://abclibrary.org/genealogy

This facility is devoted to genealogy and Southwestern history, including New Mexico vital records, history, biography, periodicals, and family folders.

●Special Collections (Local History)
   423 Central NE
   Albuquerque, NM 87102
   Telephone: 505-848-1376
   Internet: http://library.cabq.gov/specialcollections

Research collections on Albuquerque history and New Mexico history and culture. In-house use only.

Carlsbad Public Library
101 South Halagueno Street
Carlsbad, NM 88220
Telephone: 575-885-6776
Fax: 575-887-7706
Internet: Carlsbad Public Library

Strong genealogy collection acquired thanks to "snowbird" family history hobbyists bringing their genealogies from all over the United States.

Center for Southwest Research (UNM)
Zimmerman Library 1st Floor, West Wing
University of New Mexico
800 Yale Blvd NE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
Telephone:  505-277-6451
E-mail:  cswrref@unm.edu
Internet: Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections

Large manuscript collection in Spanish, including early Mexican records. Also, censuses, and early Anglo sources.

Hispanic Genealogical Research Center (HGRC) of New Mexico
Lourdes Hall, Archdiocese of Santa Fe Campus
4060 St Joseph Pl. NW
Albuquerque, NM 87125
Telephone: 505-833-4197
Internet: http://www.hgrc-nm.org

Maintains the Great New Mexico Pedigree Database (GNMPD)  for Hispanic ancestors of New Mexico and their descendants, and makes a variety of other genealogical and historical research/reference materials available.

Historical Society of New Mexico
P.O. Box 1912
Santa Fe, NM 87504
Internet: http://www.hsnm.org/

Portales Public Library
218 S Avenue B
Portales, NM 88130
Telephone: 575-356-3940
Fax: 575-356-3964
E-mail: dburnett@poralesnm.gov
Internet: Portales Public Library

A nice library of genealogies, periodicals, and family folders for New Mexico and out-of-state places such as Texas, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe
4000 Saint Joseph's Place NW
Albuquerque, NM 87120-1714
Telephone: 505-831-8100
E-mail: Contact us
Internet: Archdiocese of Santa Fe

Created in 1850 from the Archdiocese of Durango (Mexico), the Archdiocese of Santa Fe once included Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, but has been sub-divided and is now limited to only part of northern New Mexico.

Historical Society for Southeast New Mexico Archives

200 North Lea Street
Roswell, New Mexico 88201
Telephone: 505-622-8333
Internet: Historical Society for Southeast New Mexico

A good regional collection of manuscripts, histories, journals, and indexes of the earliest pioneers, cattlemen, range wars, and miners.

Online Records

	New Mexico Online Records

Links to online databases and indexes that may include vital records, biographies, cemeteries, censuses, histories, immigration records, land records, maps, military records, naturalizations, newspapers, obituaries, or probate records.

Guides

• Henry Putney Beers, Spanish and Mexican Records of the American Southwest: A Bibliographic Guide to Archive and Manuscript Sources (Tuscon, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 1979). Digital edition. At various repositories (WorldCat); FHL Book 973 A3bh. An historical account and description of records from the Spanish and Mexican periods of New Mexico history.
• New Mexico State Records Center and Archives (Santa Fe, New Mexico), Guide to the Microfilm of the Spanish Archives of New Mexico, 1697-1821 (Santa Fe, New Mexico : New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, 1967). At various repositories (WorldCat); FHL Films 468381-84. Includes index.
• To learn more about the history and record-keeping systems of New Mexico counties, use the 15 inventories of the county archives produced by the Historical Records Survey around 1940. Most of these inventories are cited in the FamilySearch Catalog under Historical Records Survey (New Mexico); United States. Work Projects Administration (New Mexico).

References