If your ancestors lived in the Texas, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila region and had a marriage dispensation before 1779 it had to be granted by the Bishop of Guadalajara since this huge area was under its ecclesiastic jurisdiction.
The good thing is that you do not have to browse through the thousands of records since Raul J. Guerra, Jr., Nadine M. Vasquez, and Baldomero Vela, Jr. have already done it for us. All you have to do is to get a hold of their two volumes titled;
INDEX TO THE MARRIAGE INVESTIGATIONS OF THE DIOCESE OF GUADALAJARA PERTAINING TO THE FORMER PROVINCES OF; COAHUILA, NUEVO LEON, NUEVO SANTANDER AND TEXAS VOLUME ONE: 1653 – 1750
Check availability at the University of Texas Pan American
INDEX TO THE GE INVESTIGATIONS OF THE DIOCESE OF GUADALAJARA Provinces of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Nuevo Santander, Texas 1751- 1779
Check availability at the University of Texas Pan American
When Crispin Rendon told me in an email that these two books had been the best investment he ever made, I was a bit skeptical until I had the opportunity to browse, search, and find my ancestors in its pages.
Just as a small tip I have noticed that these two books go hand in hand with the following website, http://www.guadalajaradispensas.com/ when trying to locate the original document.
If you live in the Rio Grande Valley you are in luck since both books are available at the University of Texas Pan American to check availability check the above mentioned links.
Does any body knows if these two books are available for sale?
INDEX TO THE MARRIAGE INVESTIGATIONS OF THE DIOCESE OF GUADALAJARA PERTAINING TO THE FORMER PROVINCES OF; COAHUILA, NUEVO LEON, NUEVO SANTANDER AND TEXAS VOLUME ONE: 1653 – 1750
INDEX TO THE GE INVESTIGATIONS OF THE DIOCESE OF GUADALAJARA Provinces of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Nuevo Santander, Texas 1751- 1779
I’ve only seen them at libraries. Everyone that has one is not willing to part with them.
I was lucky enough to have Volume Two 1751:1779 for a couple of days. But I could not find the way to know where can I find the film number in the book.
Does anybody know.?
In each page there are several records, where they mention Place and Date, but not the film number of FamilySearch, where I can find the document.
In Volume One, it does contain the film number in every single page.
Film number is at the top of every page.