Campo Maior, Portalegre, Portugal Genealogy

This is a historical and genealogical guide to the municipality of Campo Maior.

History

 * Campo Maior is a municipality in the Portalegre District, Alentejo Region, Portugal.
 * Campo Mior was certainly a Roman setting, with the ancient Muro Dam close by.
 * In 1219, it was conquered by Christian knights, the Pérez de Badajoz family.
 * In 1255 King Alfonso X of Castile promoted the village to town status.
 * In 1260, the Town Lord, Bishop Friar Pedro Pérez, granted the first charter (Foral) to Campo Maior.
 * May 31 1297, the Treaty of Alcanizes was signed by King Ferdinand IV and King Denis of Portugal. Campo Maior, with Olivença and Ouguela, was transferred to the Kingdom of Portugal.
 * In 1383-1385 King John I of Portugal and Constable Nuno Álvares Pereira, with their armies besieged the town for six weeks, finally occupying it at the end of 1388.
 * In 1512, King Manuel I renewed the charter of Campo Maior.
 * The 15th century saw many take refuge in Campo Maior due to the Inquisition in Castile.
 * The 16th century saw a New Christian community so numerous that it provided most of the accused of Judaism.
 * In 1640 there was a war with Spain that brought major changes to the fortress.
 * The late 17th century, found one out of four inhabitants of Campo Maior was employed by the military.
 * The 18th century saw more changes where the town was divided in 1766 into the present two parishes, Our Lady of Expectação and Saint John the Baptist.
 * In 1865, a cholera epidemic killed 150 people in two and a half months.
 * In 1867, an attempt to extinguish the municipality of Campo Maior and integrate it in the municipality of Elvas, caused a popular uprising, with the population staging a strike and in December on the 13th the municipality survived.
 * In 1926, a fourth rural freguesia (parish) is added to the municiplaity. Our Lady of the Graça dos Degolados (Grace of the Beheaded).
 * The population of Campo Maior is roughly 8,500 people.

Online Records
After 100 years, all civil registration records are sent to the municipality's district office.

To view online civil registration records, visit Portalegre Civil Registration.

Contact a Civil Registration Office
The following is a list of civil registration offices within the municipality.

Conservatória do Registo Civil de Campo Maior R. Combatentes G.G. 24, 1º Cp Maior 7370-050 Campo Maior PORTUGAL Phone: 268686653

Communicate your request in Portuguese whenever possible. For writing a letter or email in Portuguese, use the translated questions and phrases in this Portuguese Letter-writing Guide.

Online Records
In 1910, the Portuguese government transferred all birth, marriage, and death records from all the country's parishes to the district offices. These records are now in either District or National archives. Many of these records have been digitized and can be viewed at the District Archive's website or on FamilySearch.

To view online records, visit Portalegre Church Records.

Contact a Parish
If you are seeking church records created more recently than 1910, it is possible to obtain them by writing to the parish where the record was created. Writing to a parish is not always a reliable way to obtain information, because officials may or may not respond.

Conferência Episcopal Portuguesa lists websites for the 20 Dioceses of Portugal. Once on the Diocesan website, use the listing of parishes (paróquias) to locate contact information for the parish in question.

Communicate your request in Portuguese whenever possible. For writing a letter or email in Portuguese, use the translated questions and phrases in this Portuguese Letter-writing Guide.

Cemeteries
Cemeteries did not become popular in Portugal until the late nineteenth century. Prior to this, individuals were buried in their parish church cemetery, and their bones were later removed to an unmarked burial place.

FamilySearch Centers
Badajoz Spain Family History Center C/ Botánico Vicente Cervantes, Edificio Eurodom BADAJOZ BADAJOZ 06011 PORTUGAL Phone: 34 924-245-517 Email: [mailto:ES_Badajoz@familyhistorymail.org ES_Badajoz@familyhistorymail.org] Website: Badajoz Spain Family History Center