Guide to San Buenaventura de Cochiti Mission Church Records

Steven Perez
Jan 12
2 min read

Updated: Apr 7

The availability of Catholic Church records online through FamilySearch is a valuable resource for genealogists, but they can be difficult to navigate when they have not yet been indexed. One such book of records is the San Buenaventura de Cochiti Mission, which contains baptisms from 19 April 1736 to 18 November 1827, marriages from 22 May 1776 to 9 November 1827 and 3 November 1846 to 8 January 1873, and burials from 12 June 1776 to 24 May 1873. I have created this guide showing where records for each year can be found with their corresponding image numbers on FamilySearch. Hopefully this makes it easier to search for specific records in a particular time frame.

The original record books are not complete. Notably, the baptismal records are missing for June 1801 - May 1802, November 1802 - April 1810, June 1810 - December 1815 and the last half of 1816. Some of the records from 1818 are placed out of order between the years 1801 and 1802. Additional baptismal records can be found in the Santo Ana Mission marriages book (Film 17003, FamilySearch Film # 008251982, 454 images) for the years 1817-1819, 1825 and 1827. Some records can also be found in the Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe “Loose Documents” microfilm rolls for missions, and “Baptisms for Cochiti, San Felipe and Santo Domingo.” The Center for Southwest Research at UNM has copies of these microfilms.

The marriage records are missing for all of 1780, May 1810 - July 1816, and 1828 - October 1846. In addition, parish priest Father Juan Antonio Caballero appears to have made errors in recordkeeping during the late 18th century. There are several couples he recorded as being married in 1792-1793 who had several legitimate children baptized several years before then, or who baptized legitimate children within months of each other in the same year. It’s unclear when those marriages actually took place or why the records for those years seem to be incorrect.

The burial records are missing from June 1810 to December 1815, most of January 1827 through May of 1841, and all of 1842, 1846, and 1863. There were an extraordinary number of burials beginning in February of 1781 and through the rest of that year. This can likely be attributed to New Mexico’s smallpox epidemic of 1780-1781. There were also an unusually high number of burials in the early part of 1800 and again in 1816.

In 1816, Father Gerónimo Riega did not follow the proper form for recording burial entries as stipulated by the Council of Trent and Father Caballero continued this practice, for which he was severely rebuked by the padre visitador Father Francisco de Horión (See Image 514).

Happy hunting!

Film 16757, FamilySearch Film # 007854343 (584 images)

and Film 17003, FamilySearch Film # 008251982 (454 images)

Baptisms (1736-1827)