Record Types

While conducting genealogical research on Nahuatl parish records, it will quickly become evident that the research will need to be able to identify and navigate the differences in baptisms, marriages, and burials records. They each follow their own conventions and contain different information.

To the beginning researcher, this variety can be confusing: each record type is formatted in a way particular to that category, follows its own formulaic language, and records different details, all while written in a mix of Nahuatl and Spanish scripts that add their own layer of difficulty on top of the usual challenges of colonial paleography.

Despite the initial perplexity this may bring, researchers can quickly learn to recognize each type of record and the information it offers. This knowledge becomes a handy tool, helping the researcher know where to begin their research and which records are most likely to yield the information they seek.

This page and those that follow introduce these parish record types and include why they were kept, the information found within each record type, and gives examples from real Nahuatl-language documents.

This paleography tutorial only covers Catholic parish records, but a list of other records written in Nahuatl are below:

Testaments (Wills)
Individual wills were one of the most common and best-preserved genres of everyday Nahuatl writing, recording property, family relationships, and religious bequests.

Notarial Records
Beyond wills, notaries also recorded other everyday legal transactions including powers of attorney, dowries, and sales contracts. These records were not necessarily tied to land or death.

Land Documents
Records of land transactions, sales, and disputes, often overlapping with testaments since land was frequently bequeathed or contested at death.

Cabildo Records (Town Council Records/Actas)
Minutes and official records of indigenous town councils (cabildos), documenting local governance and civic decisions.

Annals
Year-by-year historical records continuing the pre-conquest annals tradition in alphabetic form, blending native and Christian chronology.

Cofradía (Confraternity) Records
Financial and membership records of religious lay brotherhoods (cofradías), which managed church properties, funded saints' celebrations, and organized communal religious life.

Petitions and Letters
Formal petitions to Spanish authorities and personal correspondence, often used to request redress, report grievances, or communicate between communities and officials.

Títulos (Community Land Titles)
A distinct genre of community-produced land-title documents asserting territorial rights.

Songs (Cantares)
Nahuatl song texts, blending pre-conquest poetic forms with post-conquest content.

Theater
Religious plays performed in Nahuatl for evangelization purposes.