It seems that you have a fair deal of information that simply needs to be verified and then you can begin searching records in Mexico.

My first suggestion would be to try to find the border crossing record for your grandfather (Salvador Bernal) and his mother Antonia Cano. Ancestry.com has a "pay for service" index of most Mexican border crossing records beginning in 1903. There are some members that have a subscription that may be willing to do a look up for you or you can go to a library that subcribes and use it there.

Once you find the border crossing record, if you are lucky it will list the person's place of birth and perhaps even his/her parents names.

Once you have verified the names of Antonia's parents and found the name of the Mexican municipality where she was born, you can begin searching in the LDS's IGI and VRI databases which have pretty good coverage for Mexican parish records. However, knowing where to look is key.

You may have to order some films and look for the marriage/baptism document manually. For the mid, late 1800s the parish records often have indices at the beginning of each book and often baptism records list grandparents' names which allow getting back multiple generations at a time.

http://www.familysearch.org
http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=List&dbid=1082

Also look in the Files section of the site under Reference Materials... there are a couple of guides to doing genealogical research in Mexico. You will have to learn some basic Spanish to read records, but it is not daunting... and a bit of paleography, which becomes more important the further you go back in time as handwriting becomes harder and harder to read.

Chris, welcome to the Nuestros Ranchos Research group.

You brought back memories for me. My grandparents always told us to speak English, that we were Americans. They never guessed that loosing the language from the old country would one day hinder my search for our ancestors. They came stateside from Jerez Zacatecas in 1916 to escape the revolution when it hit their village.

In doing research I've learned Spanish and even went to Mexico for 30 days in 2003 with a Spanish speaking relative who was also helping me read records in Spanish from the Family History Center. I've learned more than I ever thought I would in 10 years of researching in Mexico through the Familysearch forum. My only advice to you is not to let the lack of speaking Spanish stop you in your search. The language translators online work great too as well as asking the group for help.

When I started doing reseach the stories started coming out. I found my grandfather was a bootlegger and had kidnapped my grandmother for marriage when her boyfriend kidnapped his girlfriend! After so many years it's now a funny story instead of a family secret.

Good luck in your search,
Linda Castanon-Long in Everett Wa.

Chris Goodson wrote:
Hi

I am new to the group although I have been doing research for many years. I have been successful with my mothers European ancestry search, but I had no idea how to begin research for my family in Mexico. ( I do not speak Spanish as my father believed we should only speak English)

My grandfather was Salvador Bernal born in Zaceteca Mexico in 1905. His mother (Antonia Cano b1881 in Mexico) brought him and his brother and sister to California, shortly after his birth. His father was Cresencio Bernal and there are many stories about him being a train robber. Antonia Cano's parents were Felipe Cano and Tirburcia Martinez. There is also references to the family having some French heritage through this line.
I do not have any other information on the family. I would appreciate any help as I have no idea where to start looking.

Chris