If you are currently exploring your ancestry rooted in northern Mexico, chances are some of your ancestors arrived in the U.S. thru the Ojinaga area. This small town sits directly across the Rio Grande river from Presidio, Texas where it became the Mexican side of an official U.S. border checkpoint separating Texas and Mexico in 1917. While many people see it only as a major border crossing between the two countries, it has a rich history dating back several hundred years, well before lines were drawn on a map and certainly well before the Spanish or anyone from outside the Americas ever stepped foot there. Understanding the history of how this area evolved can provide you with some interesting insight into where your ancestors lived and how they moved about the area.

Quick History on the Ojinaga Area:

Much of what we know about this region is derived from archaeological studies and more directly from the writings of the earliest Europeans who explored the area. After the Aztecs fell in 1521, Spain worked to expand its territory in the New World, launching several expeditions across the Americas in an effort to size up the landscape for future claims. Most initial expeditions stayed well south of this desert region in the central and southern parts of today's Mexico. It wasn't until 1534 that Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, one of the few survivors of the ill-fated Narváez expedition to Florida, led a small group of surviving men west, initially landing near present-day Galveston, Texas. They eventually traveled westward along the Texas coast and then northwest through the area they would eventually refer to as La Junta de los Rios, or the "meeting of the rivers," marking the confluence of the Rio Grande and Conchos rivers (see map below). This area later became known as "Presidio del Norte" in the late 1760s with the establishment of a Spanish garrison and eventually to Ojinaga, in the mid-1840s, when the map boundaries became official marking the new U.S.-Mexico border at this site.

Today, we know about the La Junta (Ojinaga) area because Cabeza de Vaca eventually documented this information in a written account of his journey, upon his return to Spain two years later in 1537. In this account, he describes an area with a significant population, likely a few thousand people, from various native groups settled along the Rio Grande and Conchos rivers. One of the more intriguing observations he makes in his account is that this area was the first, since leaving the Galveston coast, in which the inhabitants appeared to lead a more sedentary lifestyle compared to the more nomadic natives they had previously encountered on their journey. It is reasonable to assume that these native groups likely chose to settle here largely due to its geography and climate, where the desert sun combined with the availability of consistent water resources from the Rio Grande and Conchos rivers created a kind of desert oasis. The supply of fresh water for drinking and irrigation, along with fertile land along the rivers and abundant sunlight, created an ideal environment for cultivating crops such as corn, beans, and squash. Having these resources available allowed them to grow food year-round and encouraged settlement, as these tribes had most everything they needed nearby. Remarkably, this lifestyle persisted for several centuries and is as significant in this region today as it was in the 1500s, and likely for millennia before that.

How Does This Help Me in My Ancestry Search?

Gaining insight into where and how your ancestors lived in this region is crucial for locating information about them. When examining church and civil records from Ojinaga, you'll encounter settlement names such as El Mulato, La Mula, San Ysidro, Tierras Nuevas, Coyame, and Cuchillo Parado, among scores of other small settlements and communities. All of these are considered part of the Ojinaga area and interestingly enough, most people from these communities chose Ojinaga as their place of worship. While many managed to reach the church if they lived within a reasonable distance, records indicate that the priest would often travel to the more distant locales outside of Ojinaga to conduct multiple ceremonies in these remote communities, from time to time. Regardless, most individuals made sure their place of worship was reached or ensured that events like births, marriages, or deaths were documented in the Catholic church records. Today, this area still consists of numerous small communities spread across the desert much like they were a few hundred years back. The church helped unify the area, despite its vastness, and this is reflected in the records and information available today. For those researching their Mexican ancestry, these church records will likely be the primary resource for identifying your ancestors. Now, let's look at the records available from Ojinaga:

The table below details the three very large volumes of church records for Jesús Nazareno in Ojinaga, which by the way had jurisdiction over many of these surrounding settlements. The church records include information such as record types (baptism, marriage, death, burial, etc.) with their respective years, volume numbers which are key to locating the right book, and the number of pages for each. The earliest records in this area begin in 1776 and extend until 1949. Additionally, two of the three volumes have been indexed allowing for some decent search results but some of the indexing is inaccurate resulting in poor search results. The third volume, 1511700, is challenging to search as it has not been indexed, meaning that without locating and transcribing your own records from this volume, you might not find a record or even be aware of its existence.

Now, let's examine some of the actual records as a sort of preview into what is contained in the un-indexed volume. Whenever I review and transcribe records in this volume, I'm reminded of the old Clint Eastwood movie title, "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," because that's exactly what you find in this and most other volumes across all Catholic churches. Records were documented in book volumes, which were used until filled, then shelved, and a new one started. You can imagine what these volumes looked like after a few hundred years sitting in church storage! The records I have chosen below are from the same un-indexed volume, 1511700:

Below is what I would consider "The Good" record for the following reasons:

• First of all, the record is legible and it is in a standard format that I see in a lot of records which makes transcription much easier.

• It contains everything that you would hope to see in a marriage (matrimonio) record including: the location(Nuestra Padre Jesus del Norte ie. Ojinaga), the date (Sept 29 1862); the marriage parties and ages (Juan Basques, 20, Felisitas Rodrigues, 21); parents of each (Jose Basques, Gregoria Tarin (deceased) & Teodoro Rodrigues (deceased), Benita Fernandes)

• Although there is no shortage of records that adhere to this format, when you do see it, just be thankful! When you go through as many records as I have, you will understand why I say that.

Next (below) is what I would consider one type of "The Bad" record for the following reasons:

• Again, this is a marriage record and although it is legible, it doesn't contain the information necessary to help you expand your tree.

• This record is contained in the Jesús Nazareno unindexed volume (1511700) and the marriage is recorded as having taken place in San Ysidro del Mulato (location) which falls in the Ojinaga jurisdiction and is something good to know. It took place on May 15 1920 (date) and the marriage parties were Apolonio Herrera and Catarina Ramos. There are no parents listed here so unless you have the parent information or know that these two people were parents to an individual, this record will sit alone isolated until you can connect other family members to it.

• This record is from an un-indexed volume from the table above so search may not turn up anything. In many cases with unindexed information, you may not even know these people exist unless you find this record on your own.

Finally, below is one page from the same unindexed volume,1511700, from the table above. This is "The Ugly" record so let me explain what is on this page:

• First of all, this is not a marriage record but rather a listing of "defunciones" or deaths that have occurred.

• Pages have bled from one to the other on many of these pages so entries are difficult to discern.

• While death records are generally brief, this particular page features exceptionally short entries, yet it is quite revealing. All the deaths listed (25 on this page with a name) occurred in 1811 and 1812, typical of records I've seen where disease began to increase mortality rates. Here, you find only a list of individuals, the date, and occasionally the cause of death. Several pages like the one below continue sequentially through 1815, indicating the peak of what was believed to be a smallpox epidemic during this time. It is clear that the church scribe was struggling to keep up, recording something about each death before moving on. Often, especially for very young children, there were no names attached to the entry, leaving those children unidentified. It's hard to imagine the scene of so many bodies accumulating and trying to organize some form of funeral and burial service. It must have been utterly overwhelming.

• As mentioned earlier, there are 25 entries just on the page shown below. Some are infants and young children (parbulos, parbulas) with and without names, but others are significant to my family tree and originate from this single page. This is why I have devoted so much time to these records. Without transcribing them, you and I would likely miss information on many individuals who are recorded in Ojinaga or, in some cases, not even know they existed. Here are some of the names I discovered just on this page, and although not listed below, each includes dates and in some cases spouses and cause of death.

• Martin Calderon

• Maria Gertrudis Montoya

• Petronila Romo

• Jose Maria Griego

• Simon Salinas

• Maria Almodovar

• Tomasa Lujan

• Jose Ornelas

• Andres Naranjo

• Juan Flores

I have been able to transcribe and record most of this entire 2173-page volume to date and have recorded thousands of records from this volume alone. If you have missing records from ancestors you know lived in the Ojinaga area, they are likely to be buried in this particular volume. Furthermore, there may be records here for some ancestors that you may not even know existed. Either way, you are likely to be missing information that could be part of the brick wall you have encountered.

If you would like to know if you have ancestors listed in this volume, contact me contact@texmexgenealogy.com