Finding Your Hispanic Roots

Finding Your Hispanic Roots is quite possibly the most useful manual on Hispanic ancestry ever published. Building on the previously published Tracing Your Hispanic Heritage (1984), it provides detailed information on the records, sources, and reference works used in research in all major Hispanic countries. Starting with an examination of basic research principles and techniques, illustrated with examples from actual Hispanic research experience, it goes on to discuss such important subjects as language and handwriting, Hispanic surnames, methods of tracing Hispanic immigrants in U.S. records, and, most importantly, how to conduct Hispanic genealogical research in LDS Family History Centers, where the researcher has access to the largest body of Hispanic records in the United States. With this foundation in place, the work proceeds with an examination of the types of records found in all Hispanic countries, using examples from many of them and indicating where particular record types are found. Covered here are such indispensable records as civil registers of births, marriages, and deaths; church records of baptisms, marriages, and burials; census records; military records; and the often under-utilized notarial records. This discussion is enriched by the introduction of numerous documents that have been transcribed and translated, allowing the reader to teach himself to read and work with old records. George R. Ryskamp, the author, is an Assistant Professor of History at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and an Accredited Genealogist specializing in Spanish language research and United States probate and legal systems.