Portugal, Setúbal, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Portugal Setubal

Image Visibility
Whenever possible, FamilySearch makes images available for all users. However, ultimate rights to view images on our website are granted by the record custodians. The Portugal, Setúbal, Catholic Church Records collection is available to the Family History Library, FamilySearch Centers, and to members of the supporting organization, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The images can be viewed at a FamilySearch Center near you.

What is in the Collection?
This collection of baptisms, marriages, and deaths for Catholic Church parish records from parishes in Setubal covers the period of 1555-1911.

These parish records have been preserved relatively well. Some of the older registers appear to have some physical damage; therefore, some data may be difficult to read or some even may be lost. However, in general, they are in good condition for extracting genealogical information. These records are written in Portuguese.

Parish priests recorded the baptisms, marriages, deaths, and burials; they administered the baptisms, witnessed the marriages and gave nuptial blessings, and administered the other holy sacraments in the jurisdiction of their assigned parish or parishes. All the original parish records were kept in the parish archive under the custody of the pastor. However, a duplicate of these registers was regularly sent to the diocesan archive where the records were centralized and kept at a higher state of preservation. It is unknown whether this collection is from the parish record or from the diocesan transcript.

These Catholic Church parish registers were created to record the church sacraments of baptism and matrimony and to record the deaths and burials. Other actions taken by the authorized priest in his area of jurisdiction, such as dedication of a church, may also be recorded.

Catholic Church parish records are a reliable source for doing genealogical research in Setubal, Portugal, before 1911 when the civil registration was implemented. For records after 1911, it is suggested that you research both the civil registry and the church records to verify information.

Collection Contents
Baptism records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of baptism
 * Child's name and gender
 * Child's date and place of birth
 * Parents' names and residence
 * Father's occupation
 * Names of paternal and maternal grandparents
 * Names of the godparents, their civil status, occupation, and residence

Marriage records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of marriage
 * Names and ages of the bride and groom
 * Groom's birth date and place of birth
 * Groom's civil status, occupation, and residence
 * Names of groom's parents
 * Bride's birth date and place of birth
 * Bride's civil status and residence
 * Names of bride's parents
 * Names of the witnesses, their occupation, civil status and residence

Death records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of death
 * Name, age, and gender of deceased
 * Occupation, civil status, residence, and origin of deceased
 * Spouse's name, if married
 * Parents' names if deceased is a minor
 * Burial information

How Do I Search the Collection?
This section provides information on how to search the collection, what to do with information once found, some tips on how to find records, and what to do if no record is found.

To browse the collection by image: ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒Select the "District" category ⇒Select the “Municipality” category ⇒Select the “Civil Parish" category ⇒Select the "Parish" category ⇒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 which one is your ancestor. You may need to compare the information about more than one person 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 and 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
These records are in Portuguese. For help reading the records, see the following resources:


 * Portuguese Genealogical Word List
 * Portuguese Letter-writing Guide
 * Learning Center Resources:
 * Portuguese Handwriting Lesson 1
 * Portuguese Handwriting Lesson 2
 * Portuguese Handwriting Lesson 3

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.
 * Titles may be clues to property ownership, occupations, rank, or status within the community.
 * Use the estimated age to calculate a birth date.

What if I Can't Find Who I'm Looking For?

 * Check for variant spellings of the names.
 * Look for an index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume. In addition local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the records of nearby localities (or military unties, counties, parishes, etc.).

Citing this Collection
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information; that is, cite your sources. This will help people find the record again and evaluate the reliability of the source. 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. Citations are available for the collection as a whole and each record or image individually

Collection citation:

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