Venezuela, Archdiocese of Mérida, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

This wiki article describes a collection that is available for free online at FamilySearch Record Search - Pilot Site. To access the collection see Venezuela Merida parish registers 1654-1992

Foreign Language Title
Venezuela, Mérida Registros Parroquiales de la Iglesia Católica

Collection Time Period
The Family History Library collection of the Catholic Church parish records of the Archdiocese of Mérida, covers the years from 1654 to 1992.

Collection History
Parish priests performed the baptisms, marriages, deaths, burials, and other holy sacraments in their assigned parish or parishes. All the original parish records were kept in the parish archive; however, the older records were, and currently are, sent annually to the archdiocesan archive to be preserved and centralized in one place. Most of the earlier population was Roman Catholics; therefore parish records cover 95 to 100% of a city’s population. This collection only includes the parish records that were centralized at the archive of the Archdiocese of Merida (Arquidiócesis de Mérida).

Why was this collection created
Venezuelan Catholic Church parish registers were created to record the church sacraments of baptism and marriage, and also death, burial, and other ordinances.

Collection Reliability
Catholic Church parish records are a reliable source for doing genealogical research in Merida, Venezuela.

Collection Description
The parish records of the Archdiocese of Merida have been preserved relatively well. Some of the older registers may appear to have some physical damage; therefore some data may have been lost or may be very difficult to read, however, in general they are in good condition to extract genealogical information.

Collection Content
Important genealogical information found in Catholic baptismal records include: • Date and place of the event • Name of person baptized • Gender and date of birth • If legitimate or illegitimate • Parents’ names, their residence or/and place of birth • Names of godparents

Important genealogical information found in the Catholic Church marriage records include: • Date and place of the event • Names of the bride and groom • Sometimes the civil status (widowed, single, divorce) at the time of the event • Place of birth and residence of the bride and groom • Parents’ names • Name of witnesses

Important genealogical information found in the Catholic Church death records include: • Place and date where the person died • Name of the deceased • Civil status and name of spouse, if married at time of death • Place of burial • Parents’ names

How to Use the Collection
The Catholic Church parish records are an excellent source for genealogical research in Venezuela. These may also be the only records available before the implementation of the civil registration in 1873.