If you have Hispanic ancestors and you want to learn their history, consider yourself fortunate.
Hispanic countries share a history of similar similar record keeping practices and cultural customs inherited from Spain that allow for similar strategies. Many of the key record collections from the homeland have been preserved and digitized, and often provide more genealogical information that what we find in U.S. records.
This research guide is very much a work in progress, so please check back often.
Do you have Mexican ancestors? Visit my Mexican Genealogy Research Guide.
Getting Started with Hispanic Research
- Legacy Family Tree Webinar: “Finding Your Roots in Catholic Records”: Researching Hispanic ancestors involves a significant amount of time working with Catholic church records. Having a solid understanding of those records is essential to doing good genealogy. I highly recommend this webinar to anyone with Catholic ancestors.
General Research
- Documenting Padrinos (Godparents & Sponsors) in Your Ancestry Tree: Padrinos play an important role in Hispanic culture and family history. Identifying and tracking the names of padrinos found in the records of your ancestors can provide clues to help further trace your ancestral lines, and can help you develop a better understanding of the kinship ties in your ancestral hometown.
Researching Their Life in the Old Country
Finding and learning about your ancestral hometown.
- Using Facebook Groups to Research Your Ancestral Hometown: During lectures I gave this past August at my local genealogy society and at a conference, I polled the audience asking how many who are on Facebook had checked if there is an existing Facebook Group for their ancestral hometowns, and few people raised their hands. When I showed them the kind of information that I have obtained from one of my ancestral hometown Groups, they were amazed.
Learning More
Archived Webinars & Video Courses
- Hispanic Genealogy Research Study Group with DearMYRTLE
(recorded 14 and 21 March 2018)