this appeared in the latest Somos Primos newsletter:

*Nuestros Ranchos: Jalisco, Zacatecas y Aguascalientes
*

Are you researching your ancestors that at sometime lived in or were
from Jalisco, Zacatecas, and/or Aguascalientes? If you are a
"/Serious/" researcher the http://nuestrosranchos.org group might be
an environment helpful to you. We are a group of about 150 individuals
researching this area and would welcome you if you are willing to abide
by the two simple requirements for membership:

1) State that you are willing to do your own work. There are many groups
on the internet for the "/Casual/" genealogist, but Nuestros Ranchos
is not such a group. By "/Casual/" I mean those that do very little or
nothing to advance their genealogy and are only looking for others to do
the work and then claim it as their own. The "/Casual/" genealogist is
not welcome in the http://nuestrosranchos.org group.

2) Demonstrate your willingness to do your own work by sending in a
small "/representative/" branch of your genealogy tree that shows your
connection to our area of research. [Note: no we are not wanting you to
send it every document you ever discovered or your gedcom or your years
and years of research findings, just a "/representative/" tree. The
group is open to all levels of researchers so if you are just beginning
and really have nothing to submit then we'll accept a short account from
your family's "/Oral History/" that gives you the understanding that
Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Aguascalientes are the states of your genealogy
research].

If you need time to think about membership I would encourage you to go
to the http://nuestrosranchos.org site and read through the extensive
"/Public/" archives. [Note: Submitted genealogies are considered the
copyright protected property of the submitter and are kept in a
"/private to group members only/" area of the group].

any questions or comments? Ask one of the moderators: Arturo Ramos,
Rosalinda Ruiz, Joseph Puentes at Moderator@nuestrosranchos.org

Submitted by MariaCortez on 10 November, 2006 to Nuestros Ranchos
Posted on: http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/

"The Library of Congress has a lot of documents, books and manuscripts
on their website. One manuscript of particular interest to this group is
the title in my subject line, written by Mexican lawyer, Matias de la
Mota Padilla in 1742. It is hand-written, but very legible. It contains
a lot of names of people and places dating from the Conquest to 1742 in
Nueva Galicia. The link to the Library of Congress is already in the
links section. You can find the book by clicking on "Collections" and
then browsing through the list of Selections from the National Library
of Spain."