I'm new at this but I believe that in some cases (maybe old enough record
entries) separate books were kept for Espanoles and Blancos, while Mestizos,
Indios, Negros and Mulatos had reserved books for vitals.

-Esperanza
On 1/15/09 7:09 PM, "AliceBB" wrote:

> Dear Group, Today while researching the 1856 Aguascalientes bautiso records, I
> kept coming across entries that read, "los nombres de sus padres, abuelos
> paternos y maternos se hallan el libro recervado". These were in addition to
> the usual "hijo natural" entries in the same book. What does these libro
> recervado entries refer to? Thanks so much, Alice BB
>
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There were some priests or parishes that kept separate books for "espanoles" and castas (negros, mulatos, indios). In others, they kept the baptisms separate by whether the children were legitimate or "natural" (out of wedlock).

However, a libro reservado would not refer to either of these. I believe that a libro reservado was the "secret" book where testimony about incest, rape, etc. was kept, which was necessary to make determinations of consanguinity and such, but was not proper to have in the "public" baptism and marriage registers.

I have seen many such "secret dispensations" in the Sagrada Mitra. Had it not been for the Mexican government seizing those documents and allowing LDS to film them, I doubt the Catholic Church would have ever allowed them to be seen by laypeople. Some are quite shocking and/or entertaining. Proof that the old refrain about "back in our time..." is a stretch.