Civil Censuses in Mexico

Thanks so much for the information, Arturo. This affirms the need to search maternal names just as carefully. I believ I've read that it wasn't unheard of for a husband to take his wife's maiden surname, if she was the sole heir to land or fortune. Alice Blake

--- arturo.ramos2@gmail.com wrote:

From: arturoramos
To: research@lists.nuestrosranchos.com
Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] Civil Censuses in Mexico
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2006 07:33:31 -0700 (PDT)

Alice:

I think that beginning with the Porfirian government and certainly after the Mexican Revolution, the state developed its own civil registries and census functions and attempted to usurp these functions all together from the Church.

I would imagine that a census from 1930 by the state would be one of the first ones for that area. I know that in Totatiche, the post-Revolutionary government did a land census around 1920 that is quite good. I found out through that that the little land owned by my father's family in Mexico actually was his grandmother's, which she had inherited from her father.

That then led to me to research inheritance patterns and as it turns out, just like surnames, land did not transfer down the male side only... Lots of powerful women inheriting land, especially in the earlier days of the colony.