Puerto Rico Genealogy
| Puerto Rico Wiki Topics | |
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| Beginning Research | |
| Record Types | |
| Puerto Rico Background | |
| Local Research Resources | |
Guide to Puerto Rico ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.
Country Information[edit | edit source]
Puerto Rico is a United States Territory in the Caribbean whose nearest neighbors are the Dominican Republic, British Virgin Islands, and Anguilla. It was formerly a colony of Spain. The official languages are Spanish and English.[1]
Getting Started[edit | edit source]
Getting Started with Puerto Rico ResearchLinks to articles on getting started with Puerto Rico research. |
Puerto Rico Research ToolsLinks to articles and websites that assist in Puerto Rico research. |
Finding Your Ancestors' Town in Puerto Rico[edit | edit source]
- Genealogical records are organized by geographical locality. Civil registration (government birth, marriage, and death records) and church records (christenings/baptisms, marriages, and burials) were kept at the local level. To search these records, you must know the town where your ancestors lived.
- If you do not know your ancestors' town, follow the advice in the Wiki article, Puerto Rico Finding Town of Origin, to search a variety of records that might provide that information.
Puerto Rico Map[edit | edit source]
Municipalities[edit | edit source]
Sovereignty. Spain 1493, United States 1898.[2]
Subdivisions. Puerto Rico is a territory of the US with commonwealth status. There are 78 municipalities (municipios).
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FamilySearch Resources[edit | edit source]
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
- Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
- Historical Records
- Family History Center locator map
Online Records[edit | edit source]
Civil Registration[edit | edit source]
- 1805-2001 Puerto Rico, Civil Registration, 1805-2001 - at- FamilySearch - Puerto Rico, Civil Registration - FamilySearch Historical Records; index and images; Also at Ancestry($)
Births, marriages, deaths, indexes and other records created by civil registration offices in Puerto Rico. Some records may date prior to 1885 as a few municipalities began civil registration before that date. Some of these records have been indexed and are searchable as part of this collection. Additional indexed records will be published as they become available.
Church Records[edit | edit source]
- 1645-1969 Puerto Rico, Catholic Church Records, 1645-1969 - at- FamilySearch - Puerto Rico Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records; index and images
Baptisms or christenings, marriages, and burials created by Catholic churches.
Other Resources[edit | edit source]
- Online Court Records for 5,000 documents
- Puerto Rico Genealogical Resources
- Puerto Rican Hispanic Genealogical Society
- Puerto Rican Genealogy Society
Research Tutorials[edit | edit source]
- Introduction to Hispanic Research
- U.S. Hispanic Immigrants: Finding their Place of Origin
- Improve your Search Results in FamilySearch Hispanic Records
- Relatives Masked in the Indexes of Ancestry
- Reading Spanish Handwriting
- Spanish Genealogical Word List
- Spanish Records Extraction Manual. Practice reading documents
- BYU Spanish Documents Script Tutorial
- Spanish Letter Writing Guide
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Puerto Rico," in Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico, accessed 17 May 2016.
- ↑ Christina K. Schaefer, Genealogical Encyclopedia of the Colonial Americas: a Complete Digest of the Records of All the Countries of the Western Hemisphere (Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing, 1998), 127. WorldCat 39622039; FHL Ref Book 929.11812 D26s.
