6Fray Angélico Chávez was an American Franciscan priest, historian, researcher, author, poet, and painter. As archivist for the Santa Fe Archdiocese, he undertook the cataloguing and translating of Spanish archives that allowed for a reevaluation of the history of New Mexico. His contributions to New Mexico history and literature earned him honorary degrees including Master of Arts and Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University. Chavez' definitive work Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period was originally published in 1954 and a revised and expanded edition was issued in 1992 by the Museum of New Mexico Press and has been continually in print since. Origins of New Mexico Families is the starting place for Nueveomexicanos exploring their ancestry and for anyone interested in New Mexico history during the 17th and 18th centuries.

"The full stories behind each name and note, too lengthy to include here, have furnished me with a knowledge of Spanish [colonial] times that I could not have been acquired in any other way.... [The] compilation will also prove useful to others...working in any field of research having to do with the first two centuries of New Mexico's existence as a Spanish colony...New Mexicans interested in their remote forebears will find it intriguing as well as revealing-- Fray Angélico Chávez, from the Introduction