This came from another list... "LOPEZ mailing list" At Las Porciones Society meeting held on Monday, June 19 Rene Escobar from Pharr gave a report on newly available transcribed church baptism, marriage, and death records from Mier, Tamaulipas, Mexico. After talking with both Escobar and Dennis Carter, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Family History Center in McAllen, I would like to share the following information with you. [Comments, additions or corrections to me are encouraged.] 1. The original records from the church in Mier are located in the old church in Mier - safely stored and overseen by the parish priest. However, because of their age and use over the years (in combination with the natural deterioration of the paper on which they are recorded, previous careless handling or even theft) some of these original records (sections, pages or portions of pages) have been lost with time. 2. At some point an unknown to me historian transcribed these records (baptisms, marriages and deaths). [Note that through transcribing, errors may be made when reading and writing down the information contained within the original records.] After his death, these transcriptions [I have been told] were given by the historian's widow to Israel Cavazos Garza of Monterrey. Cavazos Garza lent them to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for microfilming in 1978. Copies of this microfilm is available through LDS Family History Centers throughout the world. 3. Using the microfilm copies of Israel Cavazos Garza's transcriptions (number 2 above) Martha Gonzalez Ramirez, with the permission of Israel Cavazos Garza, transcribed marriages from 1767 through 1805 and published them as... AUTHOR: Cavazos Garza, Israel. TITLE: First book of Mier marriages = libro primero de matrimonios de            Mier : 1767-1805 PUBLISHER: M. Magalí González, c1988. No further volumes were published. 4. In 1926 Luis Garcia, grandfather of Joe McDonald (McAllen), also transcribed the same records: Baptisms: 1767-1874 1,464 pages Baptisms: 1874-1888 199 pages Marriages: 1767-1875 319 pages Deaths: 1767-1867 561 pages Total of 2,535 pages Xeroxographic copies of Luis Garcia's transcription (a total of 2,535 legal sized pages) were made by Dennis Carter, Family History Center, LDS in McAllen. Copies of the Luis Garcia transcription of these Mier records may be consulted at the Family History Center in McAllen. Also, these photocopies are soon to be microfilmed by the LDS Church and will be available to researchers through Family History Centers world-wide. ***** ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Through various investigations undertaken by Carter and Rene Escobar, it has been determined that the transcription undertaken by Garcia are, in general, superior to those owned by Cavazos Garza because: Garcia's transcription was undertaken in 1926, probably at an earlier time that the transcription as owned by Cavazos Garza, hence... Some pages or portions of pages MAY have existed in 1926 which did NOT exist when the Cavazos Garza transcription was made. Hence, the Garcia transcription is probably more complete. It appears that Garcia undertook, in general, a more careful transcription than that undertaken to produce the Cavazos Garza copy. [Escobar has verified this by comparing the Cavazos Garza copy against the Garcia copy and then comparing what was found against the original church records in Mier.] Escobar, through his own personal research when undertaking research for his book on the Saenz family, also noted that Garcia, for some unknown reason, did NOT record parent's names within the marriage records from 1824 through 1842. The Cavazos Garza transcription DOES include parent's names as do the original church records. [Thanks to both Rene Escobar and Dennis Carter for both providing me with requested information as well as to both of them for proofing this document prior to it being shared with you.]