Ecuador, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Ecuador

What is in the Collection?
This collection of Catholic Church parish records includes the years 1565 to 2011. It includes baptism, confirmation, marriage and death records from several parishes in dioceses and archdioceses of Ecuador.

All the records of the sacramental ordinances were created, registered, and kept by the priest in authority of his parish jurisdiction. The parish jurisdiction may have included sub-parishes in nearby localities. One register was generally kept at the parish archive and another copy sent to the diocesan archive for preservation.

Catholic Church parish registers are the primary source for finding genealogical information of birth, death, and marriage in Ecuador prior to 1900, when the civil registration was implemented. For the most part, the records are handwritten in narrative form; only in later years are the records handwritten in formatted registers.

These records are written in Spanish; see the section For Help Reading these Records for translation helps.

Coverage Table
For a complete list all the parishes contained in this collection, see the Parishes of Ecuador coverage table.

As of 14 December 2016 this collection included records from the following provinces.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Baptism records may contain the following information:


 * Date and place of baptism
 * Name of child
 * Birth date of child
 * Gender of child
 * Parents’ names
 * Godparents’ names

Confirmation records may contain the following information:


 * Date and place of confirmation
 * Name
 * Parents' names
 * Godparents

Marriage records may contain the following information:


 * Date and place of marriage
 * Names of the groom and bride
 * Groom’s age
 * Bride’s age
 * Marital status of the groom and bride
 * Groom’s parents' names
 * Bride’s parents' names
 * Witnesses' names

Death and burial records may contain the following information:


 * Date and place of death
 * Name of deceased
 * Age and residence of deceased
 * Cause of death
 * Parents' names of deceased

How Do I Search the Collection?
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 and age, and family relationships.

There are indexes available in these collections. The indexes are located at the beginning of a group of images. Each year has it's own index. Find your ancestor's name and look for the year, certificate number and page number. This will help you find the record you are looking for in the collection.

These may be the only records available before the implementation of civil registration (about 1900).

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. 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.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page: Follow this series of links: ⇒Select the "Province" ⇒Select the "City or Town" ⇒Select the "Parish" ⇒Select the "Record Type and Years" which takes 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.

For Help Reading These Records
These records are in Spanish. For help reading the records, see the following wiki articles:

Spanish Genealogical Word List For more information about using civil records, view these lessons for free:
 * Spanish Genealogical Word List
 * Reading Spanish handwritten records
 * Script tutorial for Spanish


 * Documentos esenciales para buscar a sus antepasados - Spanish

I Found Who I was Looking for, Now What?

 * 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 birth date or age along with the place of birth to find the family in census records.
 * Use the death date or age along with the place of death to find birth records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * Occupations listed can lead you to other types of records such as employment or military records.
 * Use the parents' birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * The name of the officiator is a clue to their religion or area of residence in the county. However, ministers may have reported marriages performed in other counties.
 * Compile information for every person who has the same surname as your ancestor; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.
 * Continue to search the records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify.
 * Use the marriage number to identify previous marriages.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, Now What?

 * Civil registration records are also a good source of genealogical information. See Ecuador Civil Registration for further information. You should obtain copies of both church records and civil registration, when possible, since they do not necessarily provide the same information. For example, baptismal registers sometimes provide the names of the fathers of illegitimate children when the civil registration does not
 * Check for variant spellings of the surnames.
 * You ancestor may be using a nickname or alias.
 * A boundary change could have occurred and the record of your ancestor is now in a neighboring area. Search the records and indexes of neighboring cities, provinces, and regions.
 * Your ancestor may have immigrated to another country. Search the records of nearby countries or immigration/emigration records.

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Citing This Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection citation:

Record citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image citation: