Portugal Genealogy

Guide to Portugal ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records.

Country Information
Portugal, officially known as the Portuguese Republic is a country in Southwestern Europe bordered by Spain and includes the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira, island clusters in the Atlantic Ocean. Portugal was first established as a kingdom in 1139 AD, and has existed as a state under various forms of government since that date. The official language is Portuguese.

Finding Your Ancestors' Town in Portugal

 * 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, Portugal Finding Town of Origin, to search a variety of records that might provide that information.

Districts
Portugal has 18 districts (distritos, singular - distrito) and 2 autonomous regions* (regioes autonomas, singular - regiao autonoma).

More Portugal Research Tools
Research tools can include resources that assist in locating correct records to search and determining the correct locality to search in. Below are links and Wiki articles to research tools in Portugal.
 * tombo.pt- Website that provides links to parish records and passports digitized by mainland and regional archives. In Portuguese and English. To access english version of the website, click on the British flag icon.
 * Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo- Mainland national archive, with instruction on accessing their digital images and the archive's catalog. The website is in Portuguese.
 * Regional Archives of Madeira- Marriage indexes, parish records, and passports for the Madeira archipelago. Website in Portuguese.
 * Centro de Conhecimento dos Açores- Parish records and passports for the Azores archipelago. Website in Portuguese.
 * Cyndi's List - Portugal- Portuguese genealogy resources on the Internet (curated).
 * Portuguese Letter-writing Guide- Instructions on writing letters in Portuguese to request genealogical information from Portugal.
 * Grupo de História das Populações This website contains some genealogies for the Azorean islands of Pico, Faial, and Sao Jorge as well as a few places on mainland Portugal. Here you can find extensive family genealogy information that has been extracted from parish records and placed into family groups.

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Help Center Lessons - Online genealogy courses
 * Historical Records
 * Family History Center locator map
 * Index and images.