Catholic Churches in New Mexico and Southern Colorado
Research Guidance

Films:

Types of films; how they are identified, boundaries of each diocese, where the records are available for searching, and the address of each diocese office.

Film Codes:
(For locations of the research facilities, see Records.)
AASF: Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
     FHL: Catholic church records filmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).

Go! Now that I know the film number I need, where can I see it?

LDS Family History Centers

State Records Center and Archives

National Hispanic Cultural Center

New Mexico Genealogical Society
Hispanic Genealogical Research Center

Special Collections Branch of Albuquerque Libraries

Center for Southwest Research, UNM

Rio Grande Historical Collections, NMSU

Two Bonuses: "Orphaned" Records, and Known Lost or Missing Records.

Sources and Volunteers:

A list of sources and volunteers may be found here.

County:

Bernalillo County was one of the seven original partidos established under Mexican rule, and became a U.S. county on January 8, 1852. It probably was named for the Gonzáles-Bernal family that lived in the area before the Reconquest in 1692. Its county seat is Albuquerque, founded in 1706 and named after the Spanish Duke of Alburquerque. This county absorbed Santa Ana County in 1876, and three counties were created from parts of Bernalillo County: McKinley, Sandoval, and Torrance.

The Bernalillo County Courthouse is at One Civic Plaza NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102. Phone (505) 768-4090; FAX (505) 768-4329.

Diocese:

This county is within the Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe (see map). Where can you search the records, books, and microfilm? See Records for the sources and addresses known to date.

Books:

New Mexico Genealogist: Since its first issue in 1962, the Genealogist has been publishing a continuous stream of county, state, and church records as well as other informative articles. Now available:
1) a CD containing every issue published in the first forty years of publication:  See NMG-CD.
2) a printed topic index 1962-1999: Book #E4b at NMGS Press.
3) An index for each current year is provided within the Genealogist in that year's December issue.
4) There are also some articles from the Genealogist being published on this web site. For a list, see Genealogist online.

The 1850 Bernalillo County census is on FHL microfilm #16603 and is also available as a published book with surname index from the New Mexico Genealogical Society. See Book B-1 at NMGS Press.

Most Catholic church records are available on microfilm, and volunteers have extracted, translated, and published many of those records with indexes. Click on the links below to see which other books are already available from these societies:

Other Assistance:

Due to the volume of incoming mail, this webmaster is not able to answer online research questions. Instead, please try our extensive link section, or contact one of two other volunteer groups, New Mexico GenWeb and New Mexico Ancestors. Both are linked to larger networks of sites covering the entire state of New Mexico.

To the best of our knowledge, the information presented here is accurate and up to date. If you have corrections or additions to contribute, please specify your source reference, and email to: webmaster@nmgs.org.  Locating Catholic Church Records in New Mexico is a work-in-progress and the pages will be updated as additional information is received.