CENSUS RECORDS

The U.S. census will help you build your family tree. With 70 million names, the census is the best place to find basic information about your relatives. Start you search by filling in the form below. The search box below will search U.S. Federal Census records as well as Birth, Marriage, death records and historical newspapers. The search results will be displayed on Ancestry.com's website.

The first federal census for New Mexico was in 1850, continuing every ten years thereafter. They are currently available through 1920 (excepting the mostly destroyed census of 1890). All are indexed except 1910.
There are Spanish and Mexican colonial censuses which can be found at the New Mexico Records Center and Archives. The originals are in Spanish, but the New Mexico Genealogical Society has published Spanish and Mexican Censuses of New Mexico, 1750–1830, translated by Virginia L. Olmsted. Copies are available at the Albuquerque Public Library, Special Collections; University of New Mexico, The Center for Southwest Research, Special Collections; and the FHL family history center in Albuquerque, as well as many other libraries.
The New Mexico State Records Center and Archives also houses the 1885 state census, which was actually a federally sponsored census and includes all members of the household. However, some schedules are missing. It is also available through the Albuquerque Public Library, Special Collections; University of New Mexico, Special Collections; the National Archives; and the FHL.

New Mexico Research Sources

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. Arizona and New Mexico, 1530–1888. San Francisco: History Publishing, 1888.
Beck, Warren A. New Mexico: A History of Four Centuries. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962.
Myers, Christine. New Mexico Local and County Histories: A Bibliography. Albuquerque: New Mexico Library Association, 1983.
Roberts, Calvin A., and Susan A. Roberts. A History of New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986.
Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. The Spanish Archives of New Mexico. 2 vols. 1914. Reprint. New York: Arno Press, 1976.
Ryskamp, George R. Tracing Your Hispanic Heritage. Riverside, Calif: Hispanic Family History Research, 1984.
Chavez, Fray Angelico. Origins of New Mexico Families in the Spanish Colonial Period. 1954. Reprint. Santa Fe, N.M.: William Gannon, 1975.

Archives, Libraries and Societies
New Mexico State Records Center & Archives
404 Montezuma
Santa Fe, NM 87503

New Mexico State Library
325 Don Gaspar
Santa Fe, NM 87501-2777