Uruguay, Civil Registration Index Cards - FamilySearch Historical Records

What Is in This Collection?
This collection includes the national index of the civil registration books of birth, marriage, and death from all the departments in Uruguay from 1900 to 1937. This index was created from index cards created by the Dirección General del Registro del Estado Civil from the original books.

Reading These Records
These records are written in Spanish; also see the section For Help Reading These Records for translation helps.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:

Birth Records
 * Place and date of registration
 * Place, date, and time of birth
 * Name of the newborn
 * Names of the parents (maiden name of the mother)
 * Parents’ places of origin or residence
 * Occupation of the father
 * Names of the grandparents

Marriage Records
 * Place and date of marriage
 * Names and ages of the groom and bride
 * Civil statuses, places of origin, and residences of the groom and bride
 * Parents’ names, places of origin, and sometimes marital status
 * Sometimes the names of the grandparents
 * Witnesses’ names

Death Records
 * Place and date of death
 * Name of the deceased
 * Cause of death
 * Occupation, residence, and age of the deceased
 * Sometimes the parents’ names
 * Burial place

How Do I Search the Collection?
You can search the index or view the images or both. Before using this collection it is helpful to know:
 * Your ancestor's given name and surname
 * Identifying information such as residence
 * Estimated marriage or birth year
 * Family relationships

For Help Reading These Records

 * Spanish Genealogical Word List
 * Script tutorial for Spanish
 * Reading Spanish handwritten records

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

I Found Who I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate other church and land records.
 * Use the parents' birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * Compile information for every person who has the same surname as your ancestor; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.
 * Continue to search the records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify.

I Can’t Find The Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * New information is constantly being indexed, microfilmed or updated. Periodically check back and see if your ancestor’s records have been added.  You can see if the area you’ve been looking in has been recently updated by going to Historical Records Collections and notice the asterisk for recently added or updated records.
 * Check for variants of given names, surnames, and place names. Transcription errors could occur in any handwritten record; also, it was not uncommon for an individual be listed under a nickname or an abbreviation of their name.
 * Civil registration records are also a good source of genealogical information. You should obtain copies of both church records and civil registration, when possible, since they do not necessarily provide the same information. For example, baptismal registers sometimes provide the names of the fathers of illegitimate children when the civil registration does not.
 * There may be more than one person with the same name.
 * Even though this is an index there may still be inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.
 * A boundary change could have occurred and the record of your ancestor is now in a neighboring area. Search the records and indexes of neighboring cities, provinces, and regions.
 * Your ancestor may have immigrated to another country. Search the records of nearby countries or immigration/emigration records.

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.


 * Collection Citation: