By Carolyn Paschal
Special to The PREVIEW
The Southwest Colorado Genealogical Society and the Archuleta County Genealogical Society will host a presentation entitled “Discover Our Southwest Heritage” by Henrietta Martinez Christmas.
It will be held at the Pine River Public Library in Bayfield on Saturday, July 14, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Christmas, a native New Mexican, is a well-known genealogical and historical researcher. She descends from soldiers who came with Oñate in 1598.
She has written several books about New Mexico’s small towns and history and over 160 articles about New Mexico’s colonial families. She is a longtime member and the current president of New Mexico Genealogical Society. She has worked with the History Museum of New Mexico, the Albuquerque Museum and the El Camino Real Heritage site in preparing exhibits and researching historical data.
She is a frequent contributor to other authors’ books, providing biographical information she has researched. She works with a group that honors historic women for the New Mexico Historic Marker Program. Honored by the Daughters of the American Revolution for historic preservation, she has extracted and transcribed over 50 books which consist of hundreds of thousands of records. Her latest award-winning book, “The Genealogy Checklist,” won two awards in 2017. Christmas also has a blog at http://1598nm.blogspot.com/.
The following is the schedule for the day:
9:30 a.m. Doors open. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
9:45-10:45 a.m. Hispanic Genealogy: Is it different?
11 a.m.-noon. How to use Catholic church records in New Mexico.
1:15-2:15 p.m. Land Grants in the Hispanic Southwest.
2:30-3:30 p.m. Camino Real, from Mexico City to Santa Fe.
A salad potluck lunch hosted by the Southwest Colorado and Archuleta County genealogical societies will be available at noon at the library. The event is open to the public at no charge. Donations are welcome.
