Portugal Genealogy

Europe Portugal

Guide to Portugal ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records.

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country in southwestern Europe, on the Iberian Peninsula. Being the westernmost country of mainland Europe, Portugal is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are also part of Portugal.

The land within the borders of today's Portuguese Republic has been constantly settled since prehistoric times. Some of the earliest civilizations include Celtic societies, followed by incorporation into the Roman Republic dominions in the 2nd century BC, and subsequently into Germanic Kingdoms, such as the Suebi and the Visigoths, from the 5th to the 8th century. The Moors occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula from the early 8th century when they first arrived and conquered the Christian Kingdoms of Germanic background. After the Reconquista started in the early 1100s, Portugal appeared as a kingdom independent of its Christian neighbors, Castile and Leon. In little over a century Portugal had nearly established its modern-day borders by conquering territory from the Muslim Moors.

Research Tools

 * BYU Research Guide for Portugal
 * Listing of all records collections for Portugal available on FamilySearch.org.
 * Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo - Portugal National Archives
 * tombo.pt a list of links and resources for Portuguese genealogy.
 * Regional Archives of Madeira Marriage indexes, parish records, and passports for Madeira.
 * Centro de Conhecimento Dos Acores Parish records and passports for the Azores

Historical Records Resources
FamilySearch has many historical records collections for Portugal. Links to collections and related wiki articles for each province are available from the province's landing page (see below).

Featured Content

 * See tutorials in FamilySearch Learning Center for "Reading Portuguese handwritten Records"

Jurisdictions
Portugal has 18 districts (distritos, singular - distrito) and 2 autonomous regions* (regioes autonomas, singular - regiao autonoma).

Websites

 * Wikipedia article on Portuguese People
 * Portugal Genealogy links on genealogylinks.net
 * Portuguese Genealogy - Tracing Your Family Tree &amp; History in Portugal - about.com
 * Cyndi's List - Portugal
 * Genealogy : Portugal : Selected Internet Resources (Portals to the World, Library of Congress)
 * Directory of Parish Records (for the continent of Portugal)
 * Centro de Conhecimento dos Açores: Church Records, Emigration etc. (Azores)
 * Regional Archives of Madeira (ARM)
 * Directory of Royal Genealogical Data
 * Letter-writing Guide
 * Word List
 * Websites

Things you can do
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