Compiled and Annotated by Lee V. Douglas,
Local History and Genealogy Reading Room
Humanities and Social Sciences Division,
Library of Congress Washington 2002
Research Guide No. 40 Introduction

This bibliography lists titles for research on two primary topics: histories of American families of Hispanic origin, and histories of places in the United States settled by people of Hispanic origin. The nature of these topics requires research far beyond the borders of the United States, into countries of Spanish America, Spain, Portugal, and in some instances as far afield as Corsica and Sweden. The broad sweep of this research makes the titles here contained potential sources for secondary topics as well, their scope limited only by the needs of the researcher.

Part I lists handbooks for genealogical research in the United States and in some Spanish American countries.

Part II deals with personal names and place names and will benefit equally the genealogist, the historian, and the linguist.

Part III lists books on Hispanic history of the United States of America.

Parts IV-X list materials for research on specific American states, most of them former Mexican or Spanish territories.

Parts XI-XV list materials on Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Spain, many of which are relevant to emigration or immigration.

Part XV, "Emigration from Spain," merits a section of its own because it touches on the beginnings of the Spanish movement across the Atlantic, reasons for its continuation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and because it helps to trace emigration routes; relatively few people emigrated directly from Spain to the United States, but hundreds of thousands traveled from Spain to Spanish colonies in the Americas, and thence to territories that now lie within U.S. borders.

Part XVI treats of Spanish Jewish emigration and the unique circumstances that shaped it.

Part XVII lists catalogs and archives outside the Library of Congress that contain significant numbers of local histories, censuses, and land records.

Parts XVIII and XIX list materials on Spanish American countries not covered in preceding sections and materials not easily categorized under the preceding headings.

It should be emphasized that the titles in this bibliography are those that the compiler hopes will be of most help to researchers, but the Library of Congress contains thousands of additional works on these subjects that may be found in the library's catalogs by using the subject headings that appear in the catalog displays of the works here listed.

Sent by Johanna de Soto

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