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Mexico

Church Directories

What is a Church Directory?

A Catholic Church directory lists church archdiocese officials, dioceses, and parishes. Church directories:

• List the parishes in each diocese, so you can determine if your ancestor’s village had an established parish. It may also indicate if the village had a chapel but was not yet a parish.
• Sometimes provide the earliest dates for which the church records of each parish exist.
• May include historical information about each parish.
• Usually group parishes by diocese, so you can easily determine all neighboring parishes.
• Sometimes provide addresses of parishes, the diocese headquarters, and the diocese archives where additional records may be kept.

Online Directories

The following online directories provide information on the Catholic Church in Mexico:

• Catholic-Hierarchy.org for Mexico
• The Catholic Directory.com for Mexico
• GCatholic.org for Mexico

Printed Directories

The Catholic Church directory covering all the archdioceses of Mexico is published about every four years. The FamilySearch Library has the newest edition and several older editions. Church directories are often published by each archdiocese and also by individual dioceses. With the older directories, some information such as a priest’s name or address may be out of date; however, the parish histories are still valid.

Church directories are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog under:

MEXICO - CHURCH DIRECTORIES

MEXICO, [STATE], [CITY OF ARCHDIOCESE] - CHURCH DIRECTORIES

MEXICO, [STATE], [CITY OF DIOCESE] - CHURCH DIRECTORIES

To determine which Roman Catholic diocese has jurisdiction over the parish in which your ancestor lived, use:

• Directorio Eclesiástico de Toda la República Mexicana (Ecclesiastial Directory to the Republic of México). Mexico City: Arquidiócesis de México, 1995. 2 vols. (FS Library 972 K24i 1991). FS Library Collection
• Mexico Guía General: Divisiones Eclesiásticas (Mexico General Guide: Ecclesiastic Divisions). Salt Lake City, Utah: Instituto Genealógico e Histórico Latinoamericano, 1989. (FS Library 972 K2pL). FS Library Collection
  

For detailed information on the Archdiocese of Mexico, which includes all of the Federal District, use:

• Directorio Eclesiástico de la Arquidiócesis Primada de México (Ecclesiastial Directory of the First Archdiocese of Mexico). Mexico City: Arquidiócesis de México, 1994. (FS Library 972 K24i 1994). FS Library Collection