Philippines Civil Registration (Local) - FamilySearch Historical Records

Collection Time Period
This collection of records from local civil registry offices throughout the country includes birth, marriage, and death records for 1898 to 1980.

Record Description
This collection includes the local copies of birth, marriage, and death certificates housed at the Bureau of Records Management in Manila, Philippines. It comprises records of birth, marriage, and death certificates created at local civil registry offices throughout the Philippines. Records are not available for all localities and the coverage varies by city/locality. Additional records will be added to this collection, browse the collection in FamilySearch to determine current coverage. For local civil registration records for Metropolitan Manila, please see the collection "Philippines, Manila Civil Registration (Local), 1899-1980." Marriage and Death records are handwritten in English for the most part. A few of the earlier marriage records are in Spanish. Spanish is also used in sections of later records.

Record Content
The key genealogical facts found in birth records may include:


 * Date and place of the event
 * Name of the principal
 * Gender of principal and date of birth
 * Legitimacy
 * Parents names, their residence and/or place of origin
 * Names of witnesses

The key genealogical facts found in marriage records may include:


 * Husband’s name
 * Wife’s name
 * Date and place of the marriage
 * Names of the husband’s parents
 * Names of the wife’s parents
 * Names of the witnesses
 * Names of the persons who gave consent
 * Name of the person who solemnized the marriage
 * Beginning in 1945, birthplace of the husband and wife
 * Date of the marriage license
 * Date of the certificate (marriage contract)

The key genealogical facts found in death records may include:


 * Name of the deceased
 * Name of the surviving spouse
 * Date and place of death
 * The date and place of burial (cremation or removal)
 * Name of the informant
 * Name of the attending physician
 * Name of the undertaker
 * On death certificates after 1958, names of the father and mother
 * On death certificates after 1958, the birth date and birthplace of the deceased
 * Date of the certificate or the date the certificate was filed by the local civil registrar
 * Date of burial or transit permit

How to Use This Collection Records
Begin your search by finding your ancestors in the index. Name indexes to births, marriages, and death make it possible to access a specific record quickly. Remember that these indexes may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

When searching the index it is helpful to know the following: • The place where the event occurred. • The name and surname of the person. • The approximate date of the event. • The name of the parents or spouse.

Use the locator information found in the index (such as page, entry, or certificate number) to locate your ancestors in the records. Compare the information in the record to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination.

When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family.

For example:


 * Use the marriage date and place as the basis for compiling a new family group or for verifying existing information.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth of each partner to find a couple's birth records and parents' names.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth to find the family in census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * Occupations listed can lead you to employment records or other types of records such as military records.
 * Use the parent’s birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * The name of the officiator is a clue to their religion or area of residence in the county. However, ministers may have reported marriages performed in other counties.
 * Compile the marriage entries for every person who has the same surname as the bride or groom, this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.
 * Continue to search the marriage records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives of the bride and groom who may have married in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify.
 * Use the marriage number to identify previous marriages.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

Keep in mind:


 * The information in church records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from one record to another.

If you are unable to find the ancestors you are looking for, try the following:


 * Check for variant spellings of the surnames.
 * Check for a different index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.

Record History
Until 1889 there was no central civil administration to collect, interpret, and preserve the civil registration records. Most vital records from before 1889 come from Catholic parish and diocesan archives.

In 1889 the Spanish government created the Central Office of Statistics (Central Estadística). This subdivision of the Bureau of Civil Administration (Dirección General de Administración Civil) required each parish priest to periodically give the government a detailed list of the births, marriages, and deaths in his area. Although the Catholic clergy had previously maintained such records and even occasionally submitted them to the government, this was the first time that they had been required to regularly submit detailed reports. This system continued until the end of the Spanish administration in 1898.

After the Philippine Revolution of 1898, the church and state became separate. Within the first few years, officials responsible for civil registration were appointed in each municipality. In 1922 the Civil Records Centralization Act required “all municipal secretaries to submit quarterly reports on all registration matters to the Chief of the Division of Archives.” In 1930 civil registration became mandatory and in 1932 the Bureau of Census and Statistics was created to oversee all civil registration in the Philippines. It was not until 1940 that most registrations began to be recorded.

Why This Record Was Created
The records of birth, marriage and death provides important information of events in a person's life, therefore, it became necessary for legal authorities to record and keep these events in their citizens life, in formal books, for the benefit of civil and personal purposes.

Record Reliability
The recording of civil events in a person's life, such as birth, marriage and death, required valid evidence, therefore making these records very reliable.

Related Websites
This section of the article is incomplete. You can help FamilySearch Wiki by supplying links to related websites here.

Municipality of Itogon – Registry Office

National Archives of the Philippines Brief History

Philippines Genealogy

FamilySearch Philippines Research Outline

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should also 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 Create Source Citations For FamilySearch Historical Records Collections.

Examples of Source Citations for a Record in This Collection

 * “Delaware Marriage Records,” index and images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 4 March 2011), entry for William Anderson and Elizabeth Baynard Henry, married 23 November 1913; citing marriage certificate no. 859; FHL microfilm 2,025,063; Delaware Bureau of Archives and Records Management, Dover.
 * “El Salvador Civil Registration,” index and images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 21 March 2011), entry for Jose Maria Antonio del Carmen, born 9 April 1880; citing La Libertad, San Juan Opico, Nacimientos 1879-1893, image 50; Ministerio Archivo Civil de la Alcaldia Municipal de San Salvador.

Sources of information for This Collection
Philippines. Civil Registry Office. Local civil registration offices throughout the Philippines. Civil Registration, 1898-1980. Bureau of Records Management, Manila, Philippines.

Detailed instructions for adding citations are also listed in the wiki article: How to Create Source Citations for FamilySearch Historical Records Collections.