Lyman Platt wrote a great book that includes great information on the Padrones de Jalisco, Zacatecas y Aguascalientes. You can find the pages to that book on the nuestrosranchos.org website.

Log in to the website and then go to the top of the page and you’ll see “FILES”: http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/filespage

Then go to “Books and Articles”: http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/15163

Then go to “Census Records for Latin America by Lyman Platt”: http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/15262

On the Acronyms and Bibliography page you’ll find the location of the Census records. But for our purpose we’ll concentrate on those available online via the FamilySearch.org website

As an example lets look at the Jalisco Padrones at http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/system/files/private/active/5/Jalisco.pdf specifically Colotlan for the year 1817

On this line you find this info: Colotlan Jalisco Mexico 1817 168809 that number at the end is the film number on which you can view the Padron

Copy that number and then go to https://www.familysearch.org/en/ (if you haven’t already sign up for a free account) and after logging in go to “Search” and down to “Catalog”: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog

Click on “Film/Fiche Number” and insert 168809 and click on “Search” which takes you to: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/32677?availability=Family%2…

Here you’ll see a page for very many Census records for Jalisco: Padrones, 1639-1875

If you scroll down the page a bit to the item on the 7th line you’ll find the Padron for film 168809 and to the right of it you’ll see the “camera” icon which means the film is available online.

If you click on the “camera” icon (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BF-QN4Q?mode=g&cat=3…) then your work begins because this film does not just include Colotlan but many Ranchos around the Guadalajara Diocesis.

So now to duplicate the above for Aguascalientes and Zacatecas you would click on the link for Aguas and Zacatecas: http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/system/files/private/active/4/Aguascalie…

And you’ll notice that the film 168809 that we chose just as an example above also has Census/Padron records for both states so lets chose a different one for this example, Let’s say Jalpa, ZAC: 168839

Put it into the Catalog search for a film and it takes you to back to: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/32677?availability=Family%2… and here you will see you can find most of films listed for all three states. But for practice try a film that is not listed here for Pánuco, Zacatecas.

Joseph

Ps: here are some entries in the “Files” area of the nuestrosranchos.org site that members have listed for various Padrones ---

http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/18950
http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/19051
http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/15101
http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/21959
http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/23412
http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/22941
http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/17340
http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/tlaxcalan_census_1591
http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/13650