Madeira Islands, Portugal Genealogy

Europe Portugal Madeira Islands

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

About Madeira Islands
The Portuguese Autonomous Region of Madeira is composed of Madeira Island, Porto Santo Island, Desertas Islands and Savage Islands. Funchal, the capital of Madeira Island, is on the south coast of the principal island. Read more on Wikipedia…

Getting Started With Madeira Islands Research
Welcome to the Madiera Islands page! FamilySearch Wiki is a community website dedicated to helping people throughout the world learn how to find their ancestors. Through the Madiera Islands page you can learn how to find, use, and analyze Madiera Islands records of genealogical value. The content is variously targeted to beginners, intermediate, and expert researchers. The Madiera Islands Page is a work in progress, your contributions and feedback are essential!

Research Tools
Online records

FamilySearch Historical Records:FamilySearch has many collections for Portugal. Begin your search by entering a name and searching indexed records. If you do not find the ancestor you seek, be sure to browse the images online as well. Many records have yet to be indexed and therefore are only searchable by browsing images. To browse images it is important to know the name of the town and an approximate date of an event such as birth, marriage, or death.

Tombo.pt The Portuguese website Tombo.pt has parish records as well as several other record types for the Madeira Islands. Start at http://tombo.pt/. On the left side of the page scroll down the page and choose Madeira. Next choose the island ilha. Next you will choose a municipality municipio. Next choose a parish freguesia. The number to the right of parish name is the number of books digitized. Choose a book to view from the list of available records. Only the words in blue are actual links to books. The images will open in a new tab in your browser. Use the navigation tools in the image viewer to navigate the books.

Arquivo da Madeira: The Arquivo da Madeira has many databases of indexed records available online. When entering names in the search engine, spelling is crucial. Be sure to spell names correctly. If you are unsure of how to spell a name or surnam you might want to try Googling the name to see spelling variations. The archive's online collections include the following:

Marriages early to 1911. This indexed collection includes all marriages for the entire archipelago of Madeira.


 * Marido = Husband
 * Mulher = Wife
 * Paroquia/Conservatoria = Parish/Repository
 * Ano = Year
 * Livro = Book

Baptisms 1860 to 1911 This collection is not complete for all parishes. Visit the archive's website to see a list of parishes that are included in this database.


 * Filho = Child
 * Pai = Father
 * Mae = Mother
 * Paroquia/Conservatoria = Parish/Repository
 * Ano = Year
 * Livro = Book



Research tip: When using these online indexes it is very important to view the original record. The original record for a baptism might contain the names of grandparents. A marriage record usually contains the names of the parents of the bride and groom as well as information about where the bride and groom are from. Death records might also contain information about parents and/or spouses.Some of the original images can be found on the Tombo.pt site mentioned above.

Language Resources:


 * Portuguese Genealogical Word List
 * Portuguese Letter-writing Guide
 * Learning Center Resources:
 * Portuguese Handwriting Lesson 1
 * Portuguese Handwriting Lesson 2
 * Portuguese Handwriting Lesson 3

Maps

 * Madeira Islands, Portugal, and Europe in the early 21st century