Finding Your Immigrant Ancestors from Spain to the Western Hemisphere

Many family history researchers are interested in finding out when their ancestors came from Spain and what part of Spain they came from.  For some people, this is the high point of their research journey. It’s not always possible to find that immigrant ancestor you are looking for, but there are resources available to help you find such records, and some of those records can be very detailed and interesting.

The following presentation was given in January 2024 and discusses various aspects of the Spanish settlement of Mexico from the beginning (1519) to the Twenty-First Century: 

https://www.indigenousmexico.org/articles/spanish-immigration-to-mexico 

Immigration from Spain

For centuries, the Spanish crown restricted immigration to its overseas possessions to Catholics with pure ancestry (limpieza de sangre). Prospective immigrants had to obtain a license from the Casa de Contratación (House of Commerce) in Sevilla, Spain, attesting to their religious status and ancestry.  

Casa de Contratación

The Casa de Contratación was organized in 1503 to serve as an instrument of the Spanish crown’s policy of centralization and imperial control. The Casa scheduled ships and shipping routes, collected duties, and maintained royal revenues. The Casa de Contratación was moved from Sevilla to Cádiz in 1717 and abolished altogether in 1790.  

Sources for the Records of Immigrants from Spain (1509-1559)

The first resource for the earliest people who came to Mexico, Peru, Cuba or other areas in the Western Hemisphere is the “Catálogo de Pasajeros a Indias.” The first three volumes were published in the 1940s in Sevilla and are arranged as follows:

·        Vol. 1. 1509-1534

·        Vol. 2. 1535-1538

·        Vol. 3. 1539-1559

Each of these books have been digitized and can be accessed from the comfort of your home at this link: 

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/349326?availability=Family%20History%20Library 

This link can also be accessed when you go to Spain in the FamilySearch Catalog, and then go to the subdivision, Emigration and Immigration.  You can then look for the keyword “Pasajeros” among the 75 or so items in that category.

Remember that these are indexes in Spanish. They are not the original copies {We will discuss that later.} As a sample, here is part of one page from the 1552 Pasajeros. It shows shows five people who were going to Nueva España (New Spain, or what was later called Mexico), one who went to Panama and another person who went to Peru, where many people were going to make their fortune.

Sources for the Records of Immigrants from Spain (1560-1599)

The indexes for the Pasajeros a Indias (Passengers to the Indies) for the years 1560 to 1599 have been published in book form and are available for sale on some websites and also available in some libraries. They include: 

·        Vol. 4: Pasajeros (1560-1566)

·        Vol. 5: Pasajeros (1567-1574)

·        Vol. 5: Book 2: Pasajeros (1575-1577)

·        Vol. 6: Pasajeros (1578-1585)

·        Vol. 7: Pasajeros (1586-1599) 

This is one of the covers for these volumes:

As an example, here is the 1593 departure of one Francisca Covarrubias who came from Jerez de la Frontera in Spain and arrived in Nueva España:

You may not be able to find some individuals. I looked for Juan de Luebana and Martin Gabay de Navarro without success, but some surnames have several spellings which may complicate your searches. In other cases, you may actually find a listing of a group of people coming together, in which case you may get very few details. 

How to Download the Books

As of April 2024, you can go to the following webpage “Listas de Pasajeros a Indias, Passenger Lists to the Indies,” featured by Moises Garza on the MexicanGenealogy.com website. If you want to collect downloads for your own research, you can go to this link: 

https://mexicangenealogy.com/listas-pasajeros-a-indias-passenger-lists-to-the-indies/ 

You can potentially download the following books: 

·        V. 1. 1509-1534 – Download

·        v. 2. 1535-1538 – Download

·        v. 3. 1539-1559 – Download

·        v. 4. 1560-1566 – Download

·        V. 5. 1567-1577 – Part 1  Download – Part 2 Download

·        v. 6. 1578-1585 – Download – Special thanks to Sergio Andres Elizondo for providing the source for this ebook.

·        v. 7. 1586-1599 – Download – Special thanks to Sergio Andres Elizondo for providing the source for this ebook.

What About the Originals?

Under Spain: Emigration and Immigration: Pasajeros a Indias:  Libros de Asientos, you will find the originals documents of the passengers to the Americas.  The online FHL films run from 1509 to 1701 and these are the original records of the passengers to the Western Hemisphere: 

https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/20763?availability=Family%20History%20Library 

There are eleven films that have been digitized. Legajos (Files) 5536 through 5538 cover 1509 to 1620 and consist of the first six films. Legajo 5539 covers 1607 to 1676 and includes two films. Legajo 5540 covers 1661 to 1701 and includes the last three films.

Here is a sample record for one person who came over in March 1607. Juan de Cespedes, a corregidor [Mayor] from the Province of Los Andes de Cuzco, was travelling to Peru. Apparently, he had been in Peru at an earlier date and was in the process of returning there. This reminds us that some people who came to the Americas had gone back to Spain for a period of time, only to return to Peru or Mexico at a later date.

Here is one example of an indexed person who came to Mexico in 1593 (Lope Ruiz de Esparza) as a native of Pamplona. His original record is found beneath the indexed record (in the second paragraph).

PARES (Portal of Spanish Archives)

In this portal you can find many kinds documents, including passengers to the Indies up to the late 1700s. PARES is the online search catalog in which you may be able to locate items held in the collections of the national archives of Spain. PARES is not a comprehensive tool, but it is a useful resource to try finding information on your ancestors. The website is at this link: 

http://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/search 

Select the Simple Search (Búsqueda Sencilla) option. A search example for “Pasajero a Indias: Terrazas” can be used as follows:

You can show 25, 50 or 100 records on one page. Most importantly, you can sort the results, and I advise sorting them by date as follows:

The above search in PARES yielded results for Terrazas that included the following records:

Digital copies of the documents are frequently available. [You can see on the left side that digital copies are shown, meaning that a digital record is available.] In this context, “Contratación” means “Booking” for the journey to the Americas. The year shows the date of their booking. So, if you are looking for Pasajeros, “Contratación” is the word you want to see to differentiate it from other archive documents. It is believed that they stopped keeping these records in 1790, when the Casa de Contratación was closed in Cadíz.

For the best results, use the singular “Pasajero a Indias” instead of the plural search “Pasajeros a Indias,” but I encourage you to experiment and try both. The result page will show a title, the Contratación number, the date, reference code and the “Scope and Content.” This Pasajero from the “Terrazas” search was Diego de Terrazas Delgadillo, who came from Valladolid in Spain and went to Peru. Note that the search word “Terrazas” is highlighted in yellow.

For the search: “Pasajero a Indias: Delgadillo,” I had thirty hits, including the citations. As noted earlier, you can see the year of their journey under “Dates.”

Among these results was a  summary for “Antonio Delgadillo,” who was booked on 1576-06-07. Under the “Scope and Content,” you can see the details for Antonio. This Pasajero came from Valladolid in Spain and went to Nueva España. As usual, the search term Delgadillo was highlighted in yellow.

My Search for Cabeza de Baca

I did my own search for pasajeros with the surname Cabeza de Baca who came from Spain to Mexico in the late 1600s or early 1700s.  I was able to find a document dated 1706-2-3 for one Francisco Godines Cabeza de Vaca. [Remember that V and B were very interchangeable in these days, so spell surnames with both a V and B during your searches]. The scope and content indicated that Francisco Godines Cabeza de Baca was the Alcadia Mayor of Jacona, a city in Michoacán. However, he was going to Nueva España, so he was probably on a return trip from Spain.

The first part of the document is shown below and it tell us that he was going to Villa de Zamora in Nueva España.  Jacona and Zamora are only ten miles from each other. Cabeza de Baca is a surname known in Zamora, Michoacán after 1725, but does not seem to be recorded in parish books before that time. It is possible that he may have been one of the progenitors of this family in Zamora and the surrounding areas. The Cabeza de Baca family of Zamora also spread to Ixtlán [Michoacán] and to La Barca [Jalisco].

Spain: Consular Records of Emigrants (1808-1960)

At FamilySearch.org, you can find the consular records for Spaniards who went to Mexico starting in 1808 and ending in 1960: 

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/index?owc=M6KP-STL%3A221597401%3Fcc%3D1928310 

The Consular Records of Emigrants include records from the consulates in Veracruz, Mexico City, Tampico, Durango, Querétaro and Puebla and contain passport registers (1878-1949), nationality cards, registers of citizens, military records, and civil registration births, marriages, and deaths. The Mexico City collection is extensive. This collection does not have an overall searchable index, but some films include indexes for specific years.

The following records are mainly available at the Mexico City link: 

1.     Cédulas de nacionalidad (Nationality Cards)

2.     Indice de cédulas de nacionalidad (Index of Nationality Cards)

3.     Indice de matrículas de españoles (Spanish Enrollment Index)

4.     Matrículas de españoles (Spanish License Plates)

5.     Quintas y alistamientos (Fifths and Enlistments)

6.     Registros de pasaportes (Passport Records)

Finding Your Spanish Ancestor

In the 16th century, it is believed that 240,000 Spaniards entered ports in the Americas. They were joined by another 450,000 in the 17th Century. It is likely that half a million people made their way from Spain to Mexico during the coloinial period.  And from 1850 to 1950, 3.5 million Spaniards left for the Americas, with Mexico as one of the chief destinations. 

Using these records may help you find some of your ancestors. There is no guarantee of success, but it’s a challenging journey because first you have to trace your ancestral line back to that ancestor in the Mexican records.