Dominican Republic Civil Registration - FamilySearch Historical Records

Title in the Language of the Records
Registro Civil de la República Dominicana

Record Description
These records are in Spanish. This collection will include records from 1801 to 2006.

For a complete list of all the provinces contained in this collection, see the Provinces of the Dominican Republic - Civil Registration coverage table.

With the adoption of the Napoleonic civil code of 1804, the Dominican Republic began the practice of civil registration, creating the offices of the civil state (oficialías del estado civil) in charge of registering the events of birth, marriage, and death in the life of its citizens. However, only some civil registration books dating back to 1823 have been found in the Bayaguana Civil Registry (Oficialía del Estado Civil de Bayaguana). Before that time, the Dominican Republic was under Haitian dominion. It wasn’t until June of 1944 that the National Congress created civil registration law 659, which provided new regulations for the functionality of the civil registration institution. One of the regulations was the creation of the Central Office of the Civil State (Oficina Central del Estado Civil), with civil registration headquarters in the capital city and one or more offices in each municipality. The registration of civil records was to be made in duplicate, and one of the original registers was to be sent annually to the Central Office for preservation. The civil records in this collection cover several municipalities (municipios) throughout the country and may include approximately 370,000 names. The birth of a child must be registered within 30 days of the birth. After that, it is considered a late registration and has penalties. However, to avoid the penalties, many children were not registered.

Each civil registrar (Oficial del Estado Civil) is required to keep a duplicate registry of the original records of birth, marriage, divorce, and death. At the end of each year, the original registry, together with its corresponding index book, is sent to the Central Office of the Civil State. These civil registrations allow people to be identified as citizens and therefore able to receive governmental benefits in the future.

The civil registration in the Dominican Republic is considered a great and reliable source for genealogical research. The records are written both in narrative style and in formatted records. Some records appear damaged; however, genealogical information may still be extracted.

For a list of records by date or locality currently published in the Dominican Republic Civil Births collection, select the Browse link from the collection landing page

Record Content
Birth records usually contain the following information:


 * Date, place and time of registration
 * Registrant's occupation and residence
 * Date, place and time of birth
 * Name and gender of child
 * Child’s legitimacy
 * Parents’ names
 * Parents’ occupations and residence
 * Grandparents' names (sometimes)

Marriage records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of marriage
 * Registrants' names (in this case the couple)
 * Groom’s age, marital status, and occupation
 * Groom’s legitimacy
 * Groom's parents' names
 * Groom's residence
 * Bride’s age and marital status
 * Bride’s legitimacy
 * Bride's parents' names
 * Date of betrothal promise
 * Witnesses’ names
 * Witnesses’ age, marital status, and occupation
 * Name of civil official

Death records usually contain the following information:


 * Date, place and time of registration
 * Registrant's name
 * Registrant's age, marital status, occupation, origin, and residence
 * Name of deceased
 * Age, marital status and legitimacy of deceased
 * Date, place and time of death
 * Cause of death
 * Parents of deceased
 * Parents' origin and residence
 * Witnesses' names

How to Use the Records
To begin your search you will need to know the following


 * Name
 * Residence
 * Date of the event

Search the Collection
To search the Dominican Republic, Civil Registration, 1801-2010 collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒ Select the "Browse" link in the initial search page ⇒ Select the "Province" ⇒ Select the "Locality" ⇒ Select the "Volume and Year Range" which takes you to the images

Indexes are available on some of these groups of images. If indexes are available, check these for the name first. Indexes are usually located at the beginning of a group of images or at the end. Find your ancestor’s name and look for the locator information next to the name (such as page, entry, or certificate number). This will help you find the record you are looking for in the collection.

Look at the images one by one 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.

Using the Information
The registration of birth, marriage, and death are a great source for extracting important genealogical information such as: dates, places, given names and surnames, residence of the parents, and sometimes the residences of the grandparents. Witnesses often were relatives of the parents. In order to find a record, it is necessary to know the name and year of the event of an ancestor. It is recommended to first search for the name in the corresponding register’s index.

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

Spanish Genealogical Word List

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.

Related Websites
Dominican Republic Genealogy GenWeb Project

Related Wiki Articles
Dominican Republic

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
Citations for individual image records are available for this collection. Browse through images in this collection and click on the "Show Citation" box: Dominican Republic, Births

When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. 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.

A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the wiki article Help:How to Cite FamilySearch Collections.

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the information published in FamilySearch.org Historical Record collections. Sources include the author, custodian, publisher and archive for the original records.

Suggested citation format for a record in this collection.