Por Corrine Ardoin |

I finally found some records for my Martin del Campo ancestors from
microfilms I ordered through the LDS church. In Film No. 1950892, Deaths
1941, in the civil register for the municipio of Guadalajara in Guadalajara,
Jalisco, I found my great-grandfather's death record. It coincides with the
information I placed on my ancestral chart in the members genealogy files.
The record confirms that Alberto Martin Del Campo died on July 30, 1941. I
had put the 31st in my ancestral chart, but that was the day of his burial,
because that initial information I had gotten was from his death notice from
the church where his funeral took place. He died of "miocardibis"? I guess
it's "myocardia," which I think is a heart attack. It is wonderful, because
this record verifies his parent's names, Ismael Martin del Campo and Rita
Robles, and that he lived in Guadalajara, even his address at the time of
his death.

The second record was from Film No. 1950873, Deaths & Marriages 1936 in the
civil register for the municipio of Guadalajara in Guadalajara, Jalisco. It
is of my great-grandmother's death record, Francisca Cabral. The record
confirms her date of death as it is given on her headstone at the Municipal
Cemetery in Guadalajara, October 20, 1936. It states her cause of death was
"cirrosis atrofica de Leenes"? I don't know what that is. But, it also
confirms her parents being Benigno Cabral and Pioquinta Gonzalez.

In both records, it states their race as being "mestizo mexicano" which I
guess means they were of Spanish and Indian ancestry?

Anyways, I have kept notes on other Martin del Campos found in microfilms I
have searched through. The family history center where I live has
microfilms there for parish records in Tepatitlan, Jalisco, baptisms
1877-1900, Fillm No. 0218470, Film No. 0218468, and 1844-1877, Film No.
0218469. There aren't any Martin del Campos on those films, but they are
readily available for me to look at.

>From Film No. 38493, Parish Records for the Santuario de Nuestra Senora de
Guadalupe Church in Guadalajara, baptisms 1929-1933, there were four Martin
del Campo records:

Leopoldo Martin del Campo born April 20, 1929 in Guadalajara, baptized on
April 29, 1929. His parents were Cesilio and Joaquina Martin Del Campo;
paternal grandparents were Ursulo Martin del Campo and Leo-dia Huerta;
maternal grandparents were Tomas Martin del Campo and Paul Castallano.

Felipe de Jesus Martin Del Campo born May 13 1929, baptized September 19,
1929. Parents were Manuel and Maria Jimenez Martin del Campo; paternal
grandparents were Felipe Martin del Campo and Petra Fernandez; maternal
grandparents were Gregorio Jimenez and Petra Orozco.

Crisanto Martin del Campo born September 23, 1929, baptized September 25,
1929. Parents were Crisanto and Maria Luz Padilla Martin del Campo;
paternal grandparents were Ygnacio Martin del Campo and Margarita Guerrero;
maternal grandparents were Francisca Padilla and Maria Jesus.

Elena Martin del Campo born February 2, 1930, baptized February 13, 1930.
Parents were Francisco and Josefina Moreno Martin del Campo; paternal
grandparents were Vicente Martin del Campo and Leandra Gutierrez; maternal
grandparents were Ygnacio Moreno and Maria de los Angeles Alderete.

I have more notes form Film No. 1950483, Deaths 1906, Births 1907
Guadalajara, which contain 11 records on the following surnames I searched
for: Cabral, Martin del Campo, Alatorre, and Rivera. Too much information
to keep listing here.

I also found a wonderful photo of the Santuario de Nuestra Senora de
Guadalupe Church in Guadalajara on Guadalajara.net. It is in Spanish,
telling the history of the church. I found it on the Guadalajara city map,
located about ten blocks north of the Cathedral just off of Avenida Alcalde.

Corrine Ardoin

Corrine:

Congratulations and thank you for sharing that information with the group.

Your message brought up something interesting that I found when looking at civil records. Up until recently I had stuck to church records since they are pretty complete and very good for the most part in the region on which I am focused (Colotlan, Tlaltenango and Totatiche).

However, the church records for Villa Guerrero, a new parrish founded around 1920 are not filmed (and I am told were destroyed in the Cristero War). So I went to look at the civil records (which survived since they were copied and sent off to Guadalajara--as is customary for civil records).

I found in those records that many of my ancestors are described as indigenas, even when the church records describe their ancestors as mestizos or espanoles. I had thought that after independence they had done away completely with the caste system and as such there would be no more race information in the records, which is the case with church records for the most part...

However, my find and your information confirms that they continued to keep this information in the civil records. I wonder if they generically refered to everyone as mestizo mexicano as a way of affirmatively erasing the previous caste designations? I wonder why they would designate my ancestors as indigenas if that were the case, unless perhaps as part of the Revolution ideology that was considered a good thing.

Arturo,

I don't know. This is the first record I have come upon that designated race as mestizo mexicano. I have done most of my research on the paternal line of my mother's family, in Chihuahua. In civil records from that part of Mexico, dating back to 1861, I have come across "indigenas" and "mexicanas no indigenas." I always took the first to mean they were an indigenous tribe member and the second meant they were Mexicans that were not indigenous tribe members nor had any indigenous ancestry.

Corrine Ardoin

Genealogy Research