Visit to Guadalajara Archives

I just returned last night from a visit to my parents' home in Mexico and had the pleasure of spending a couple of days in the archives in Guadalajara with the town historian (cronista) of Totatiche, Esteban Valdes Salazar. We visited the Biblioteca Publica del Estado as well as the Archivo Historico del Estado de Jalisco.

The former archive has the archives of the Real Audiencia de Guadalajara, including records of civil and criminal legal proceedings. At that archive, I was able to locate a copy of the 1711 will of Pedro Carlos de Godoy, which was included as part of the litigation documentation over that will. A transcription of the will is included in my file folder. It includes a wealth of genealogical information about the Carlos de Godoy family as well as some interesting information about customs related to property and inheritance. For example, he takes account of what each of his two wifes brought the respective marriages, compared to his wealth, presumably to show that what he was willing was in fact his and not his wife's... Also he leaves his unmarried daughters a disproportionate amount of wealth, presumably so that they can pay their dowries, which he makes clear he had paid for his married daughters.

http://www.nuestrosranchos.com/node/13649

The latter archive includes the Fondo de Tierras y Aguas which includes "mercedes de tierra" or land grants made by the Spanish Crown as well as later divisions, sale and clarification of land boundaries. The collection has many documents related to families in our region. I reviewed the indices which the archive has compiled on the collection, paying special attention to the Jerez and Tlaltenango jurisdictions and read through a couple of documents related to land grants to Francisco Escobedo and Felipe Lemus... This collection is all filmed and available through LDS though a good index is key.