Introduction to:

Spanish Enlistment Papers 1770-1816
Filiaciones Español

by Evelyn Lujan Baca

From the New Mexico Genealogist, March 1998 pp. 9-18, and June 1998 pp. 50-56.

This work is based on New Mexico Archives Militia Papers, 978.908 N421M. Although the book itself is found only at the Center for Southwest Research (CSWR) at the University of New Mexico, it consists of records copied from microfilm of records of the Spanish Archives of New Mexico, Series II (SANM II). The microfilm may be searched at New Mexico State Records Center and Archives (NMSRCA) in Santa Fe, UNM's CSWR at Zimmerman Library in Albuquerque, and at the Special Collections Branch of Albuquerque Public Library.

Those Spanish enlistment records which were previously published were from the SANM collection of records, Reel #21, frames 741-1380. Extracted by Virginia L. Olmsted, they were published in four consecutive issues of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly: September 1979 through June 1980 (a compiled version is also found in booklet form).

The records in the following pages are of enlistments not included in the Olmsted work or, if duplicated, have modifications. A few of these records were transcribed by Jonathan A. Ortega and all were transcribed by J. Richard Gonzales. I compiled and translated as needed. The collaboration by three of us helped in cross-checking for accuracy, and the records are herein published in an easily searchable format.

A reminder to researchers: If you think one of the men in these records is an ancestor of yours, study the microfilm yourself whenever possible. Many words have as many different translations as there are translators.

Dictionaries used are: Velázquez Spanish and English Dictionary by Mariano Velázquez de la Cadena, Chicago, Follett Publishing Co., ©1974; The New World Diccionario Español/Ingles Ingles/Español, ed. by Salvatore Ramondino, New York, Signet ©1968; Larousse Español/Ingles English/Spanish by Ediciones Larousse; Houghton Mifflin & Co ©1989; Diccionario Moderno ed., Eduardo Cardenas, Editora Moderna, Inc., New York, ©1970; and The University of Chicago Spanish-English / English-Spanish compiled by Carlos Castillo & Otto F. Bond, Pocket Books, ©1948.

Also assisting in translation of some of the descriptive words were Manuel Vega, from Spain, and Hilda R. de Niño, from Colombia.

For those interested in the Mexican Archives of New Mexico, Julián Josué Vigil has compiled A Short Index to New Mexican Soldiers' Service Records and Enlistment Papers, 1821-1846, available for $10 from the Center for Land Grant Studies Press, P.O. Box 342, Guadalupita, NM 87722.

About the author:
Evelyn Lujan Baca is a retired teacher whose interest in genealogy began as a child, listening to stories about her ancestors and relatives while growing up in Las Vegas, NM. She learned Spanish before English and learned to read while praying novenas with her grandmother, Gertrudis Ulibarri Duran. Evelyn assists in the compilation, transcription and editing of several books in the ongoing publications projects by New Mexico Genealogical Society.
 

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