-= NMSU PANORAMA - Summer 2005 =- Around Aggieland: NMSU Launches Fourth Microfilm Project in Mexico

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› NMSU Launches Fourth Microfilm Project in Mexico
› HRTM Department Upgraded to a School
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NMSU Launches Fourth Microfilm Project in Mexico

Photo by Dennis Daily

This 17th century Franciscan convent in Sombrerete, Mexico, is one of several spectacular late 17th century churches built during the height of Sombrerete’s silver-mining boom. NMSU has recently started a project to microfilm the Sombrerete town archives.

NMSU has begun filming a fourth archive from Mexico.

The archives of the mining town of Sombrerete, Zacatecas, contain a wealth of historical data concerning the early days of northern Mexico and New Mexico. NMSU worked with the Sombrerete town council to gain permission to film those documents to add to its rich and growing collection of Mexican archives on microfilm.

Dennis Daily, who is overseeing the technical aspects of the project for NMSU, estimates the actual filming will take about two years and will produce about 200 reels of film.

“The archive houses little used, but incredibly rich documentation for the period of the late 17th century through the end of the 18th century,” Daily says.

Photo by Dennis Daily

Among the materials NMSU is microfilming in the Sombrerete archive are church sacramental records, such as this book of marriage records from 1738-1764. Such records are heavily used by genealogical researchers.

Located on the border of the Mexican states of Durango and Zacatecas, Sombrerete was, for a time, one of the most important silver mining centers in all of colonial Mexico. The riches from the mines in Sombrerete partially funded Don Diego de Vargas’ expedition to reconquer New Mexico in 1695. Vargas recruited many of his New Mexico colonizers from Sombrerete and the surrounding area, so many New Mexicans trace their roots to that region.

NMSU has already filmed three collections in Durango, Mexico – the archives from the Durango Cathedral, the state’s notary records and a portion of the colonial materials from the state historical archives.

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