Philippines, Court Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Record Description
The records include court records from various provinces of the Philippines mostly dating from the Spanish Period (from 1838-1936). These records contain land records, guardianship records, wills, powers of attorney and other legal documents. Original records are located in the Record Management and Archives Office, National Library, Metropolitan Manila, Philippines.

There are many records, but few are indexed. Court names have changed over the years, and the records use many difficult legal terms and abbreviations. Search court records only after you have searched more helpful records.

Some records are in English and some are in Spanish; see the section "For Help Reading these Records" for access to translation helps.

Record Content
Wills may contain the following information:
 * Name of testator
 * Place of birth
 * Current residence
 * Spouse's name
 * Parents’ names
 * Marriage date and place of testators
 * Names of children/heirs and their vital information
 * Executor’s name
 * Witnesses’ names
 * Burial request

Guardianship records may contain the following information:
 * Name(s) of child/children
 * Name and residence of parents/orphanage(s)
 * Date and place parents died/divorced or date child/children was/were abandoned or found
 * Name(s) of person(s) made legal guardian or specifications regarding full-/part-custody of child/children
 * Date and place the guardianship was made legal
 * Name of judge, clerk, or mediator
 * Names of witnesses

Land records may contain the following:
 * Name of owner (this could be an individual or a government body/department)
 * Name(s) of buyer(s)
 * Names of witnesses
 * Date land was sold

How to Use the Record
These types of records are good for finding more historical information about your ancestors.

Land records are good for tracking your ancestor's migration to and from or within an area and understanding the wealth and occupation of the ancestor.

Of course, wills can be used to obtain more information about immediate and extended family members of a deceased. The information in wills is good for compiling family group sheets, determining ages and birth years of each individual named, finding the death record and burial place of the deceased, whether the ancestor was married, if so is the spouse alive or how long ago he/she passed away, locating the marriage record of the deceased, and learning the places where children/grandchildren were living at the time.

Guardianship records can help determine whether any name changes were made, who the parents were before (if they are known), and where everyone in the document lived at the time. The ages, marital status, citizenship, and everything else can be used to find civil and church records (which are the main source for birth, marriage, and death/burial information).

Search the Collection
To search by image: To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒ Select the appropriate “Court Jurisdiction” ⇒ Select the appropriate “Book Number and Years” which will take you to the images.

Search the collection by image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

When searching: As you are searching it is helpful to know such information as your ancestor's given name and surname, some identifying information such as residence, age, and family relationships. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.

For Help Reading These Records
For help reading the Spanish records see the following guides:
 * Spanish Genealogical Word List
 * Reading Spanish handwritten records
 * Script tutorial for Spanish

Using the Information

 * Use the marriage date and place as the basis for compiling a new family group or for verifying existing information.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth of each partner to find a couple's birth records and parents' names.
 * Use the name, locality, and age along with the place of birth to find the individual/family in census records Philippines Census.
 * Use the residence and name to locate civil (see “Related Wiki Articles” section below) and land records Philippines Land and Property.
 * Use the birthplaces to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * Use the marital status to determine if an individual was divorced (look for divorce record; see section "Unable to Find Your Ancestor" for more info), widow(er) (look for death record), or married (look for marriage record).
 * For land records, witnesses could've been relatives, neighbors, or friends of the buyer.

Tips to Keep in Mind
When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

Continue to search the indexes and records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have lived in the same area or a nearby area.

Unable to Find Your Ancestor?
Because divorce is not legal in the Philippines, there are no divorce records. Look for records in nearby countries where divorce is legal.

General Information About These Records
Philippine citizens are required to declare changes in civil status to their local civil registrar. The registrar writes down all changes in books. The law requiring the reporting of changes to the registrar has not been regularly kept or enforced.

Although the earliest court records and local civil registrar logs and registers date from 1900, most are dated after World War II.

Related Websites

 * Philippine Genealogy - Research your Family Tree
 * Philippine Research
 * Philippine Islands Death Records

Related Wiki Articles

 * Philippines Court Records
 * Philippines Church Records
 * Philippines Births and Baptisms (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Philippines Marriages (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Philippines Deaths and Burials (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Philippines Civil Registration- Vital Records
 * Philippines, Civil Registration (Archives Division) (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Philippines, Civil Registration, Local (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Philippines, Civil Registration, National (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Philippines, Civil Registration, Spanish Period (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Philippines

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again.

It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records.

A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the wiki article Help:How to Cite FamilySearch Collections.

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the information published in FamilySearch.org Historical Record collections. Sources include the author, custodian, publisher, and archive for the original records.