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The New Mexico Genealogical Society, founded in 1960, is composed entirely of volunteers. 2010 will be our 50th year of providing research materials and networking opportunities for family historians.

Etched in History: The Process New Mexico's archaic documents documents go through when being made available to researchers — from an inside viewpoint.

I am one of many names in New Mexico history. I started out—many, many years ago—just a handwritten word inked into a very large book. The writing was very elaborate and many abbreviated terms were used. I was joined over the weeks, months and years by more and more pages of names and events. Eventually the book I was in was stacked with many others on shelves in a storage room, all but forgotten. Several hundred years later, the information in these books was being sought after, and we were taken out of storage. The names were hand–copied and other information extracted with them, then translated and put into a readable form for the 20th century. I found myself coming alive as more and more people were excited to learn about (and make contact with) me and others like me. But, I've gotten ahead of my story. There was much more time–consuming work to be done, just to get to this place in time. All of the information had to be entered into a computer in a special, readable format, taking untold hours by many people. An index was needed. (Never has an index been a more valuable tool.) And then—more double–checking and proofreading. A lot of time and effort were expended to make these books as useful and accurate as humanly possible. When you purchase one of these books or look at them in a library, think about all the dedicated people who volunteered their time so you could connect with me, my parents, grandparents, and all the others whose names were placed in these books so many years ago. This work has been going on for over three decades by volunteers of the New Mexico Genealogical Society. Because there is no "payroll" involved, this is definitely a labor of love. Muchas gracias to past, present and future volunteers! . . .by Rose Holte The New Mexico Genealogist, December, 1998, p. 156.