Portugal Church Records

Catholic Church Records
From the dark ages until the mid 1500's, parish priests recorded the births, marriages, and deaths but only for royalty and the nobility. In 1563 the Council of Trent was convened by the Catholic Church to consider some of the reforms urged by Martin Luther. One of the edicts of this council was that henceforth, parish priests would record the events of birth, marriage and death for everyone. About seven percent of the parishes in Portugal had already commenced keeping vital records of the commoners, some as early as 1520.

In 1910 a revolution rejected the royal family, abolished all titles of the nobility, wrote a constitution, and passed new laws. The result of the revolution was that all documents with vital information that were previously recorded and held by the Catholic Church were turned over to the government. Some of these records are now in the national archive in Lisbon, called the "Torre do Tombo", some are in archives that were established in each district, and some unfortunately were lost in this transfer.

In December 1993 the national archive printed a two volume book under the title, Inventario Colectivo dos Registros Paroquais, (Collective Inventory of the Parochial Records, Family History Library book ) listing each parish church and which of its records were in the national archive and which were in one of the district archives.

Many of these original records in the national archives and the various district archives have been microfilmed and are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog.

Online Catholic Church Records
The following three indexes include various Portuguese localities. The year range is an overall range, some localities may be from earlier or later years. In 2006, the Portuguese government signed an agreement with the Genealogical Society of Utah, allowing the society to microfilm and digitize the parish record books within their collections. The digitized records are organized by District, and most have not yet been indexed.
 * Portugal Baptisms, 1570-1910 at FamilySearch — index
 * Portugal Marriages, 1760-1910 at FamilySearch — index
 * Portugal Deaths, 1640-1910 at FamilySearch — index

Marriage Proceedings (Processos de Casamento)
Research use: Augments information found in marriage records which in Portugal are less complete than in Spain, and provided additional vital information left out of marriage records.

Record type: Church records.

General: The pre-nuptial documentation was compiled by potential partners and provided to church authorities in order to qualify for marriage.

Time period: 1612-present.

Contents: Names of contracting parties and their parents; dates, places of birth; civil status and reference to former marriages; biographical data not contained in marriage records.

Location: National archive and district archives.

Population coverage: Approximately 80% of the adult population in later periods, and less in earlier periods because of record loss.

Reliability: Excellent.

Wiki Articles Describing Online Collections

 * Portugal,Diocese of Aveiro Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal Baptisms (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal Marriages (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal Deaths (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal, Diocese of Braga Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal, Diocese of Braganca Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal, Diocese of Coimbra Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal, Évora, Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal, Diocese of Faro Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal, Diocese of Guarda Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal, Diocese of Lamego, Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal Diocese of Leiria Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal, Diocese of Guarda Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal, Diocese of Porto Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal, Diocese of Setubal Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal, Diocese of Viana do Castelo Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal, Diocese of Vila Real Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal, Diocese of Viseu Catholic Church Records, (FamilySearch Historical Records)