NYTN Field Guide
Tejano & Mexican-American Roots
Your family didn't cross the border — the border crossed them. Trace ancestors through Spanish colonial, Mexican, and Texas records.
Where Are You Starting?
Tejano genealogy spans three empires — Spain, Mexico, and the United States — each with different records, languages, and naming conventions. Choose the path that matches what you know.
"I have a family surname"
You know surnames like García, Treviño, or De León and want to understand their origins and where to search.
Surnames unlock regional origins. Many Tejano surnames trace to specific towns in Nuevo León, Coahuila, or Tamaulipas. Understanding the surname's origin tells you which archives will have your family.
"My family has been in Texas for generations"
You know they were in Texas before it was Texas — Spanish or Mexican period.
Original Tejano families often trace to the founding of San Antonio (1718), the ranching families of the Rio Grande, or the settlers brought by empresarios. Spanish and Mexican land grants are your key — they document entire family networks.
"I need to cross into Mexican records"
You've hit a wall in U.S. records and need to trace back into Mexico.
The key is identifying the specific town — Mexico's civil registration didn't begin until 1859, and church records are organized by parish, not region. Death records often name birthplaces. Marriage records list parents' origins.
"My DNA says Indigenous/Spanish mix"
You have DNA results showing Native American and Iberian ancestry and want to understand your mestizo heritage.
Colonial records often documented racial mixing through the casta system. These labels — mestizo, castizo, coyote — appear in baptismal and marriage records. The label could change generation to generation and was often negotiated, not fixed.
Surname Origins
Tejano surnames often reveal regional origins in northern Mexico. Search a surname to learn its history and where to look for records.
Understanding Spanish Naming Patterns
María Josefa García de Treviño y Salinas
María Josefa
Given Names
García
Father's Surname
de Treviño
Husband's Surname
y Salinas
Mother's Surname
Key insight: Women didn't lose their surnames at marriage — they added their husband's with "de" (of). Children carried both parents' surnames. This means a child named "Juan García Salinas" had a father surnamed García and a mother surnamed Salinas. When you find one ancestor, you've found two family lines.
Which Era Are You In?
The records available — and where to find them — depend entirely on which government was in power. The same land changed hands three times.
1519 – 1821
Spanish Colonial Period
Records are in Spanish, maintained by the Catholic Church and colonial administrators. This is your deepest genealogical layer. The Church recorded baptisms, marriages, and burials — often with racial classifications and parents' origins. Land grants from the Spanish crown document entire extended families settling together.
Key fact: Mission records exist for Indigenous converts. Presidio records document soldiers and their families. Villa records cover civilian settlers.
Church Baptisms
Marriage Dispensations
Burial Records
Land Grants
Census (Padrones)
Mission Records
1821 – 1836
Mexican Period
After independence from Spain, Mexico secularized the missions and opened Texas to colonization. This short period (only 15 years) saw empresario land grants bringing Anglo settlers alongside established Tejano families. Church records continued, but civil records began emerging.
Key fact: The casta system was officially abolished. Records may no longer show racial categories — but earlier Spanish records for the same families still will.
Empresario Records
Land Grants
Church Records
Military Rosters
Secularization Docs
1836 – 1845
Republic of Texas
Texas independence created legal chaos for Tejano landowners. Many Spanish and Mexican land grants had to be re-validated — these "land grant confirmation" records are genealogical gold because they required proving chain of ownership through family.
Key fact: Some Tejano families lost land during this period. Court records documenting land disputes often contain detailed family histories.
Land Grant Confirmations
Republic Claims
Court Records
Military Service
1845 – Present
U.S. Period
After annexation, English-language records began. But Catholic Church records continued in Spanish in many parishes well into the 20th century. The 1850 census is your first federal snapshot of Texas families — use it to identify households, then work backward into Mexican and Spanish records.
Key fact: Spanish land grants remained legally valid and were adjudicated in U.S. courts. The Bourland-Miller Commission (1850-1852) records document thousands of Tejano families proving their land claims.
Federal Census
Church Records
County Records
Naturalization
Land Patents
Church Record Decoder
Catholic sacramental records are the backbone of Tejano genealogy. They recorded baptisms, marriages, and burials — often with details no civil record captured.
Bautismo (Baptism)
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Fecha
Date of baptism — usually within days of birth. The actual birth date may be listed separately as "nació" (was born).
Baptism dates cluster around feast days. If the date seems odd, check the Catholic calendar.
Nombre
Given name. Often saints' names matching the baptism date. "María" and "José" were almost universal first names — look at the second name for identification.
Hijo/Hija legítimo/a de
"Legitimate son/daughter of" — both parents' full names follow. If "natural de" or "de padre no conocido" appears, the child was born outside marriage.
Illegitimate children often took mother's surname only. This isn't a dead end — it's a clue.
Padrinos
Godparents. These weren't random — they were usually relatives or people of influence. Track godparent relationships across families to find hidden connections.
When siblings share godparents, those padrinos are likely close relatives.
Calidad / Casta
Racial classification in colonial records — español, mestizo, mulato, indio, etc. This field disappeared after Mexican independence but appears consistently in Spanish colonial records.
Vecino de
"Resident of" — the town or ranch where the family lived. Critical for tracking families who moved between parishes.
Matrimonio (Marriage)
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Contrayentes
The bride and groom. Full names including both surnames — this gives you four family lines in one record (his father, his mother, her father, her mother).
Hijo/a de
Parents' names for both bride and groom. May include "difunto/a" (deceased) indicating a parent had died. Watch for variations in surname spelling.
Natural de / Vecino de
"Native of" vs. "Resident of" — these are different. "Natural de" tells you where they were born. "Vecino de" tells you where they lived at marriage.
When these differ, you've found a migration. Follow it.
Dispensas
Marriage dispensations — required when bride and groom were related. The Church required disclosure of consanguinity (blood relation). These documents detail the exact family relationship, sometimes going back three or four generations.
Dispensation records are genealogical jackpots. Seek them out.
Testigos
Witnesses — usually relatives or close family friends. Like godparents, these names reveal social networks.
Viudo/Viuda de
"Widower/widow of" — if either party was previously married, the first spouse's name appears. This connects you to another family line.
Entierro / Defunción (Burial/Death)
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Edad
Age at death. Calculate backward to estimate birth year. Be cautious — ages were often approximated, especially for older individuals.
Estado
Marital status — soltero/a (single), casado/a (married), viudo/a (widowed). If married or widowed, spouse's name should appear.
Natural de
Birthplace. This is often your bridge back into Mexican records — when someone died in Texas but was "natural de" a town in Nuevo León, you know exactly where to search for their baptism.
Recibió los Santos Sacramentos
"Received the holy sacraments" — indicates whether they received last rites. "Muerte repentina" (sudden death) explains absence of sacraments.
Párvulo
Indicates a child's burial. Infant deaths were common. Parents' names usually listed for párvulo entries — even when the child has no surname of their own yet.
Common Latin & Spanish Terms
▼
Legítimo / Natural
Legítimo = born to married parents. Natural = born to unmarried parents. Espurio = unknown father.
Difunto/a
Deceased. When a parent is listed as "difunto," they died before this record was created.
Abuelos
Grandparents. Sometimes listed in baptismal records — instant two-generation jump.
Parroquia
Parish. Records are organized by parish, not town. A town might have multiple parishes, or one parish might cover several villages.
Libro
Book. Church records were kept in bound volumes: "Libro de Bautismos" (book of baptisms), "Libro de Matrimonios" (marriages), "Libro de Entierros" (burials).
The Casta System
Spanish colonial records classified people by racial mixture. These terms appear in baptism, marriage, and census records throughout the colonial period. The categories were social as much as biological — and people could move between them.
Español / Española
Spanish / European descent
Full Spanish ancestry — or close enough to pass. Importantly, "español" in the colonies didn't always mean Spanish-born. Criollos (Spanish born in the Americas) were also "español." Some families achieved "español" status through social position, wealth, or simply a cooperative priest. If you see "español" in one record and "mestizo" for the same person elsewhere, it's not an error — it's the system working as intended.
Mestizo / Mestiza
Spanish + Indigenous
The most common classification on the frontier. Spanish father, Indigenous mother (or their descendants). Mestizo families could achieve "español" status over generations through strategic marriages and accumulating wealth. The term carried less stigma in frontier Texas than in central Mexico — on the edge of empire, labor mattered more than lineage.
Indio / India
Indigenous
Indigenous people, including those living in missions. Note that "indio" could refer to both nomadic groups and settled mission Indians. In Texas, Coahuiltecan, Lipan Apache, and other tribal affiliations sometimes appear. Mission records often give both the Spanish baptismal name and Indigenous name.
Mulato / Mulata
Spanish + African
Spanish and African ancestry. On the Texas frontier, this category appears less frequently than in central Mexico or the Caribbean, but it's present — particularly in coastal areas and among military families. Some "mulato" families transitioned to "mestizo" or "español" classifications over generations.
Coyote
Mestizo + Indigenous
Child of a mestizo and an Indigenous person. This term appears frequently in frontier records where mestizo settlers intermarried with local Indigenous populations. The category shows the complexity of identity — three continents of ancestry meeting on the Texas frontier.
Lobo / Loba
Indigenous + African
Indigenous and African mixture. Less common in Texas records but present, particularly in areas where enslaved Africans and Indigenous peoples interacted. Sometimes also called "zambo" in other regions.
Castizo / Castiza
Mestizo + Spanish
Child of a mestizo and a Spaniard — theoretically 3/4 Spanish. In the colonial imagination, a castizo marrying a Spaniard produced "español" children. This was the path of "whitening" that some families pursued over generations.
⚠️ Important Context
How to interpret these terms
The casta system was never as rigid as the paintings and charts suggest. Priests assigned categories based on appearance, social status, and their own assumptions. The same person might be "mestizo" in one record and "español" in another. A family's classification could change when they moved to a new parish. What matters genealogically is that these terms appear — they tell you something about how your ancestor was perceived and how they navigated colonial society, even if the biological reality was more complex.
Find Your Archives
Where you search depends on where your family lived and when. Use the finder to identify your most likely sources.
Key Record Checklist
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FamilySearch (free)
Millions of Mexican church records now digitized and indexed. Start here.
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Texas General Land Office
Spanish and Mexican land grants online. Search by surname or grant name.
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Bexar Archives (Dolph Briscoe Center)
Colonial San Antonio records — municipal, military, and legal documents.
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San Fernando Cathedral Archives
Oldest parish in Texas — records from 1731. Many now on FamilySearch.
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Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico City)
Colonial administrative records, military rosters, land grants. Some digitized.
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Diocesan Archives (Monterrey, Saltillo)
Church records for Nuevo León and Coahuila — many indexed on FamilySearch.
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Ancestry.com — Texas collections
Border crossing records, naturalization, some Catholic parish records.
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Find A Grave / BillionGraves
Cemetery records often have birth years and maiden names that records lack.