Granada, Spain Pre-Marriage Investigation Files

What is a pre-marriage investigation file?

The Catholic church records for the diocese of Granada, Spain located on FamilySearch.org include a large collection of expedientes matrimoniales, or pre-marriage investigation files. These records were created in preparation for the marriage of a couple and are treasure troves of genealogical information. Pre-marriage investigation files may contain transcripts of other documents (such as baptism records of the bride and groom), written permission from parents for the couple to marry, descriptions of how the couple were related, if applicable (sometimes including hand-drawn pedigrees), and more.

How do I find my ancestors in the pre-marriage investigation files of Granada, Spain?

The pre-marriage investigation files of Granada, Spain, have been indexed on FamilySearch.org. To view the original record, however, you must search through the collection page-by-page (as the index is not digitally connected to the images of each document). This process is made easier by the inclusion of a packet number in the document information in the indexed records. Use the following steps to find the original document corresponding to the indexed information you have found (note: you may need to be in a FamilySearch affiliate library or center to view the digital images):


 * 1) When you have found a record that you are interested in viewing in the digital index, click on “Document Information” (below the blank image of a document).
 * 2) In the document information, you will see a film number and an image number listed. The film number is the link to the collection of images in which the document you are looking for is located. The image number is NOT the image on that film where the document appears. Rather, it is the packet number based on where the pre-marriage investigation file falls in the order of the packets on the film. For example, if the pre-marriage investigation file for María Garcia and Juan Gomez was the first in the collection on the film, it would be assigned an image number of 1. Take note of the information listed here (you will need it later!).
 * 3) Right-click on the film number. In the menu that appears, select “open link in new tab.”
 * 4) Return to the original tab. Click on the document image above the document information to open the images of the film listed. An average pre-marriage investigation file has about 8-10 pages of content. Multiply the image number found in step 2 by 10 and advance to the image corresponding to the result (for example, if the image number you found was 52, you would advance to image 520).
 * 5) Click on the thumbnails icon to view the image you jumped to as well as the surrounding images. Using this view, you can more easily locate the beginning of a pre-marriage packet, which generally is a page mostly kept blank with the names of the couple being married included on it. Find the beginning of a packet and take note of the names of the couple being married.
 * 6) Click on the second tab you opened. Search for the names of the couple you found in step 5, as this page allows you to search the index of the film you were just looking at.
 * 7) When you find the pre-marriage investigation file for the couple in step 5 in the index, view the document information to identify the image number assigned to their pre-marriage packet.
 * 8) Based on the new image number you have found, you should know whether to advance further or go backwards in the film (for example, if the new image number is 38, but you were searching for number 52 as described above, you would need to advance further in the film to find number 52).
 * 9) Repeat steps 5-8 until you find the couple you are looking for.