La Rioja Civil Registration - Vital Records

La Rioja La Rioja Civil Registration - Vital Records

Introduction
Spanish civil registration records (births, marriages, and deaths) began in 1870. In recent years some large cities in Spain have begun to gather Civil Registration records in large central Civil Register archives.

Researchers can solicit the Ministerio de Justicia online for copies of certificates. For further information on how to do this see the section Order Certificates Online found on this page.

Births, marriages, and deaths were recorded by the local Juzgado de la Paz, or Oficinia del Registro Civil. The records are still housed in each municipality in their local municpal archives, Juzgado de la Paz or Oficina del Registro Civil should be contacted if a certificate copy request to the Ministerio de Justicia fails.

Larger cities may have multiple civil registration districts, and smaller towns may have their own civil registration office, or belong to an office of a nearby town. To determine the political jurisdiction for the town where your ancestors came from please see the Spain Gazetteers article.

Some municipios may have civil registration records beginning as early as 1837. These births, marriages, and deaths are normally found in the municipal archive. Some of them have been microfilmed and/or digitized by FamilySearch. These early civil registration records can be found in provincial collections labeled as Municipal records. To view the complete list of records for Spain click here.

Births
Spanish civil registration birth records are among the richest genealogical records in the world. Birth records typically provide the following information:


 * Place and date of child's birth (often times they provide the exact time of birth)
 * Full name, profession and place of birth of the child's father
 * Full name and place of birth of the child's mother
 * Full name and place of birth of the child's maternal and paternal grandparents

Birth Record Tip:

Be sure to check marginal notes in the birth record of your ancestor. Often recorders will note the marriage and/or death dates of the individual.

Marriages
Marriage records are also very valuable in Spanish genealogical research. Marriage records provide the following information:


 * Date when the marriage occurred
 * Full names, marital status (single or widowed) and places of birth for both the bride and groom
 * Full names, and places of birth for the parents of the bride and groom

Marriage Record Tip:

Couples usually married in the home town of the bride (if the family still lived there).

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

Spain Marriages (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Deaths
Death records should not be overlooked. Death certificates often provide additional information about the deceased and his or her family. You can expect to find the following information in Spanish death records.

If the deceased was single:


 * Full name, age, occupation (if applicable), place of birth, and death date of the deceased
 * Full name of the deceased parents, and often times their places of birth
 * Cemetery where the deceased was buried

If the deceased was married or widowed:


 * Full name, age, occupation (if applicable), place of birth, and death date of the deceased
 * Full name of spouse (whether deceased or living), and often their place of birth
 * Cemetery where the deceased was buried
 * If the deceased created a will and the name of the Notary that notarized the will.
 * Sometimes living descendants (could include name of living children and other heirs)

Obtaining Civil Registration Records
Most civil registration records have not been microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, however, if you are researching from outside of Spain you should perform a Place Search in the Family History Library Catalog to determine if the civil registration records for the town you are researching in have been microfilmed.

If the records you need have not been microfilmed you will most likely need to write to the archive where the records are housed. The best way to find out if civil registration records are available in the town you are researching in, and to get the address of the archive is through the Directorio de Archivos in the Censo-guia.

Order Certificates Online
It is possible to order copies of birth, marriage, and death certificates online from Spain through the website of the Ministry of Justice (Ministerio de Justicia). To order copies of these vital records click on the corresponding link below:


 * Birth Certificate or Certificado de Nacimiento.
 * Marriage Certificate or Certificado de Matrimonio
 * Death Certificate or Certificado de Defunción

Before going to the website you will need to determine in which autonomous community and province your ancestor’s event took place. Click here to see a list of provinces and their corresponding autonomous communities. After you have chosen the Comunidad Autónoma [Autonomous Community] and the Provincia [Province] click Continuar [Continue] to choose the city. All fields marked with an asterisk * are required.

Tipo de Certificación [Type of Certificate] – Always choose Literal for an exact copy of what is written in the certificate.

Finalidad del certificado [Purpose for the certificate] - Leave this blank

Datos de la persona sobre la que se solicita la certificación [Information about the person whose certificate you are requesting]


 * Nombre [First Name]
 * Primer apellido [Paternal surname]
 * Segundo apellido [Maternal surname] Optional
 * Nombre del padre [Name of father] This can be just a first name.Optional
 * Nombre de la madre [Name of the mother] This can be just a first name. Optional

Datos registrales del hecho: [Information relating to the event]


 * Tomo [Book or Volume] If you don’t know, put in desc for unknown.
 * Folio [Page] if you don’t know, put in desc for unknown.
 * Municipio del hecho [Town in which the event took place]
 * Fecha del hecho [Date in which the event took place] you can approximate this date if you don’t know. The date must be in the format indicated Day-Month-Year. Provide two digits for the day and month and four digits for the year. May 1, 1890 would be 01/05/1980.

Datos del solicitante: [Information about the person requesting the certificate]


 * Nombre [First Name]
 * Primer apellido [Paternal surname]
 * Segundo apellido [Maternal surname] Optional
 * D. N. I. o semejante [Passport or government issued ID number]
 * Email [Email]
 * Telefono de contacto [Telephone number]

Be sure to check the box next to '''Al realizar la solicitud telemática acepta la recepción de información relacionada con su solicitud por correo electrónico. '''This tells them that you are willing to receive the information about your request electronically.


 * Domicilio: [Home address information]
 * Tipo via [Type of street] This refers to street, drive, highway, etc
 * Nombre Via [Name of the street, drive, highway, etc]
 * Numero (Km) House number
 * Piso [Floor, if you live in an apartment building] Optional
 * Puerta [Door] Optional
 * Codigo Postal [Postal zip code]
 * Localidad [City or town]
 * Provincia [Province, department, or state]
 * Pais [Country]

'''¿Cómo desea recibir el certificado solicitado? [How do you wish to receive the requested certificate?]'''


 * Por correo postal en la direccion señalada por el solicitante [Via regular mail through the postal service]
 * Recoger personalmente en Registro Civil [Pick it up personally in the Civil Registration office]

Número de Certificaciones que se solicitan: [How many copies would you like?]


 * Una [One]
 * Dos [Two]
 * Tres [Three]

Once you have filled out the form click on Enviar [Send] to send the form. The next screen will confirm your request. Review all the information and correct any errors indicated.

You will then click on Enviar [Send]. A new screen will pop up with the following:


 * Su solicitud ha sido procesada con éxito. Cualquier consulta sobre esta solicitud deberá indicar la clave de identificación. Para resolver cualquier duda, diríjase al registro civil de: [Name of town] [Your request has been processed successfully. Any questions regarding this request must be accompanied by the identification key. For any queries, please contact the civil registration office of [name of town] Followed by the email address of the civil Registration office in the town.
 * Número de Entrada al Registro [Entry number of the request]
 * Clave de identificación [Identification key]

IMPORTANT: Write this information down or print the page to save a copy of the request, the identification key, and the email address of the civil Registration office of the town.

Other Online Sites
The following links can be used to order a certificate for any of the three provinces in the autonomous community of País Vasco – Álava, Guipúzcoa, and Vizcaya.


 * Birth certificate
 * Marriage certificate
 * Death certificate

The Archive Directory (Directorio de Archivos) will allow you to search for nearly any archive in Spain. Each archive entry will give you an inventory of the records in that archive as well as the archive's contact information. Municipal archives may have civil registration records prior to 1870.