Oakah Jones on Genealogists, Historians and Historical Sources of New Mexico

I had the opportunity to meet the well-respected historian Oakah L Jones, Jr. in the early 1990s at an annual conference of the Historical Society of New Mexico and we immediately hit it off well. Professor Jones, as he was more frequently referred to, authored several important books on the history of Spain’s northern American frontier region, including “Nueva Vizcaya: Heartland of the Spanish Frontier” (Albuquerque: UNM Press, 1988) and “Los Paisanos: Spanish Settlers on the Northern Frontier of New Mexico” (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press 1979 and reprinted 1996). I highly recommend both, especially “Los Paisanos,” most of which can be read on Google Books.

Professor Jones maintained and expressed an appreciation of the work of genealogists and of historians who studied people of New Mexico’s past. Read his brief article titled “Genealogists, Historians and Historical Sources” online at http://www.nmgs.org/artoak.htm. He puts forth a case for the value of research conducted by genealogists and historians studying the people of New Mexico’s past. My friend and colleague the late John B. Colligan and I managed to get a couple of references by this esteemed historian in the article.

You’ll be shocked at the opening quote, which Jones goes on to dispute.

Professor Jones passed away in November 2010 in Colorado Springs. Read his obituary at http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/gaze....