Santo Tomas de Abiquiu Church

Baptisms: Vol I: 1754 to 1811
       NMGS Press Item #A14, 264 pages, $26.00.

Baptisms: Vol II: 1821-1824; plus
     Loose Documents: 1794; 1817-1853; and
     Folios and Fragments: 1837-1850.
        NMGS Press Item #A15, 264 pages, $26.00.

Marriages: 1756-1826. NMGS Press Item #C6, 154 pages, $26.00.
Transcribed from AASF #26 and Loose Documents AASF #52.

Each book is fully indexed by names of all persons in the record:
Person being baptized or married, parents, godparents, grandparents, and witnesses.
Spiral bound.
NMGS members pay no additional charges for sales tax or shipping.

Map of the Area, by Ernie Jaskolski
See also: AASF Loose Documents for Abiquiu area

From the Introduction, by Laurianne Huffman:
Geographically, Abiquiu is located 18 miles northwest of Española on US Highway 84, "on a terraced, rocky mesa (elevation 6,060 feet) overlooking the Rio Chama, approximately 20 miles upstream from the confluence of the Rio Chama and the Rio Grande." [Alvar W. Carlson, The Spanish-American Homeland: Four Centuries in New Mexico's Rio Arriba , p p. 160-162.] The town of Abiquiu Grant was given in 1754 to the Spaniards and genizaros jointly and is one of the last Spanish-American community grants still functioning and owned by the residents.

Throughout the years covered by these baptisms, Abiquiu served as an active gateway to the Hopi lands (in present-day Arizona), and to the northwestern interior. It was in the church of Santo Tomas de Abiquiu on July 19, 1776, that Escalante and Dominguez knelt to celebrate mass prior to their departure on a six-month expedition to find a possible route between New Mexico and California. [Though the desired new route to the Pacific Coast was not found] they mapped much of Colorado and Utah in the process, and their efforts have had a significant impact on western American history.

These baptisms represent Abiquiu's most active and productive years, and the names you will read are those of pioneers in the truest sense. They encountered a harsh wilderness, saw its promise, and succesfully overcame its obstacles. They were marrying and raising families in the beautiful Chama Valley when the American Colonies declared their independence from England in 1776. They were defending their homes and families against Indian raids while the young American nation was defending its coastal waters in 1812. . . .

Hispanic researchers, often in search of their Native American heritage and hoping to establish a tribe of origin, may find that tribe named in the early marriage and baptismal records of Abiquiu. If the tribal origin was known, it was indicated [in the record]. If the individual was of mixed ancestry, other designations, such as mestizo, color quebrado (broken color) and coyote were given. . . .

The records in this book were extracted by Virginia Langham Olmsted and Evelyn Lujan Baca, and compiled by Margaret Leonard Windham and Evelyn Lujan Baca. Introduction by Laurianne Huffman; map by Ernie Jaskolski. Published by the New Mexico Genealogical Society.