Sri Lanka, Civil Registration - FamilySearch Historical Records

Sri Lanka

What is in the Collection?
This collection includes civil registration records of births, marriages and deaths in Sri Lanka from 1768-1990. The original records are located in various civil registration division offices throughout Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is an island country in the Indian Ocean. Because of its beauty and location, Sri Lanka is home to many different languages and cultures. These records contain four different languages: Sinhala, Tamil, English and Dutch. For help with translations see the section titled, “For Help Reading These Records” of this wiki article. To learn more about the people of Sri Lanka, see India Minorities.

The records in this collection are in several languages: Sinhala, Tamil, English, and a few in Dutch. For language helps, please see the For Help Reading These Records section of this article.

How Do I Search the Collection?
As you are searching it is helpful to know such information as your ancestor's given name and surname, some identifying information such as residence, age, and family relationships. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.

Search the Collection
To search by image:

To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links:

⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page

⇒ Select the 'Civil Registration Division' category

⇒ Select the 'Record Type and Date Range' category which takes you to the images.

Search the collection by image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

For Help Reading These Records
These records are in Sinhala, Tamil, English and Dutch. For help with reading the records, see the following resources:
 * Sinhala Online
 * MyLanguages Sinhala dictionary
 * Tamil Dictionary
 * India Language and Languages

What Do I Do Next?

 * Use the estimated age to calculate a birth date.


 * Use the place of marriage to estimate a place of residency.


 * Use the language used in the record to determine a more specific location within Sri Lanka, as well as a possible hint to ethnicity. Distribution of Languages and Religious Groups of Sri Lanka shows how the different dialects that may be found in these documents are dispersed throughout Sri Lanka.

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.


 * Check for variant spellings of the names.


 * Search the records of nearby localities (for example: Colombo District, Tamil Nadu)

Citing this Collection
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information; that is, cite your sources. This will help people find the record again and evaluate the reliability of the source. 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. Citations are available for the collection as a whole and each record or image individually.

Collection Citation:

Image Citation: