one of my third great grandfathers was born there, but not sure if his parents were.

Paul,
I recommend you get this book, "Mexico's Miguel Caldera: The taming of America's first frontier, 1548-1597" to learn about that time--it specifically mentions Tabasco (or Mecatabasco as it was then known)
http://www.amazon.com/Mexicos-Miguel-Caldera-Americas-1548-1597/dp/0816…

Google is also a wonderful starting point to learn about place you haven't come across before.

Tabasco was an important town since the earliest of Spanish colonial days because it was on the Camino Real between Guadalajara and the city of Zacatecas. It was part of the parish of Jalpa then its own parish. Because it was just west of Calvillo, many people from that part of the Jalpa parish would go to Tabasco before 1770; ditto for others in the parish of Jalpa that were geographically closer to Tabasco. So there were plenty of good "reasons" people went to Tabasco.

It's no surprise that many of the towns that are now on highway 54 (which is the original Camino del Real) have origins pre-dating the Spanish (used as migration routes by animals then the various Indian tribes). Some of these towns are Juchipila, Jalpa, Tabasco, and Villanueva. There are many roads that branch off from el Camino Real leading to Aguascalientes, Tlaltenango and Jerez. Again, it all makes sense from a big-picture point of view.

People moved around a lot so I have many connections to the parish in Tabasco as well. Check out my family tree in case you see any familiar names:
www.arturogonzalez.com/lavillitafamilies

Arturo

IN THE DIGITIZED FILMS, YOU NEED TO GO TO MEXICAN CATHOLIC CHURCH RECORDS, THEN ZACATECAS, THEN TABASCO.

Hi Paul,

There is an interesting story behind this place. In colonial times the jurisdiction was called Santa Maria de Mecatabasco which
was also the name for the parish. With the reforms of Benito Juarez the municipio was named Tabasco and the parish still
was named S. Maria de Mecatabasco. For some reason Villa del Refugio was also attached to this place. Have not found
this one yet. But all the records will be under Tabasco, Zacatecas. There was rapid movemento in this area which I call
the long lost zone. People from all over would travel to Tabasco it must have been an important site as far as I have studied.
People from Nochistlan, Juchipila, Tlatenango, Villanueva, Zacatecas, Colotlan, Calvillo, Aguascalientes, Jalpa and Teocaltiche
would travel to Tabasco for whatever reasons. I have many lines going in-and-out of this area. The church records start
1747 so I would assume everyone stayed in their parish.

What do you have on your Ibarra and Salas, we might share lines in this area.

Daniel Méndez Camino