Bill
I too have ancestors in Aguas. Thank you so much for your research!

Mickey

In a message dated 12/31/2009 1:52:20 P.M. Central Standard Time,
auntyemfaustus@hotmail.com writes:

Bill-

Thank you so much for the trouble and expense you went through to find
this out for us. I had traced my husband's family back to Encarnacion de
Diaz, and other places in Jalisco, then found in records in microfilms mention
that many of them had come from Aquascalientes originally in the early
1700s. I had looked and looked in many Aguacalientes films and never found
them, now I know why.

Emilie
Port Orchard, WA
----- Original Message -----
From: bill_figueroa@usa.net
To:
research@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2009 9:59 AM
Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] What ever happened to the missing
1719-1733baptismal records from Aguascalientes?

To: all members of Nuestros Ranchos

Te following excerpts are from a letter I sent to the Family History
Library in Salt Lake City, UT in August of 2008. It contains important
information for those focusing their research in Aguascalientes. Since I didn't
get a reply or noticed any corrective action taken, I decided to post it in
this forum for the benefit of all members of Nuestros Ranchos.

"For several years I had been trying to find the baptismal record of my
4th great grandfather Vicente Ruiz de Esparza, but soon realized that it was
missing. As a matter of fact, all the baptisms of “Españoles” from
1719-1733 from “Parroquia de la Asunción de Aguascalientes” seemed to be
missing. I searched over and over for these records, carefully combing through a
number of microfilms, to no avail. Finally, in desperation, I decided to
take a trip to Aguascalientes in central Mexico (I live in Texas) to find
out if the book had been lost or never filmed by the LDS."

"The original records are kept by the Catholic Church in a building
adjacent to the Cathedral. Unfortunately, these records are not accessible to
the public, as the Church is trying to preserve them for future generations.
An exception was made in my case, considering that I had embarqued in such
a long journey to look for a specific record. It took the librarian less
than 30 minutes to locate the record, which he found in an “insert” with
records for the 1781-1786 time period. The following paragraphs will
explain what happened."

"Sometime during the late 19th or early 20th century the Catholic Church
in Aguascalientes decided to organize hundreds of records by rebinding them
with new hardcovers. The number on the original volumes, numbered
sequentially #1 thru ?? was displayed on the spine of the new books. It is
important to mention that in colonial times the records for descendants of
Spaniards or “Españoles” were kept in separate books from those of “Indios,
Negros, Mulatos, Mestizos, Castizos...etc.” Record Book #12 consisted of
baptisms for “Españoles” for the years 1719-1733. This book was inadvertedly
left out and later bound with books #39-43 which were for baptisms for the
years 1781-1786. This book covers the periods 1781-1733 and 1719-1733 as
shown on the enclosed pictures." (not included here)

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints’ crew that microfilmed
these records in the 1970s must have realized that they were out of order
because they kept them separate. The records for 1781-1786 are included in
microfilm #299445. The baptisms for “Españoles” for 1719-1733 ended up in
microfilm #299530, erroneously identified as being from La Cieneguilla. La
Cieneguilla is a rural community and farming area some 20 miles SW of
Aguascalientes."

"The baptismal records for 1719-1733 have been extracted and recently
included in the new FamilySearch Pilot site, improperly identifying each record
as being from La Cieneguilla instead of Aguascalientes. This is very
confusing and should be corrected."

"I have found other errors that I plan to report separately, but do not
include them in this letter to keep it simple. If you have any questions do
not hesitate to contact me."

Regards,

BILL FIGUEROA