Philippines, Court Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Philippines

What is in This Collection?
The records include court records from various provinces of the Philippines mostly dating from the Spanish Period (from 1838-1936). These records contain land records, guardianship records, wills, powers of attorney and other legal documents. Original records are located in the Record Management and Archives Office, National Library, Metropolitan Manila, Philippines.

There are many records, but few are indexed. Court names have changed over the years, and the records use many difficult legal terms and abbreviations. Search court records only after you have searched more helpful records.

Philippine citizens are required to declare changes in civil status to their local civil registrar. The registrar writes down all changes in books. The law requiring the reporting of changes to the registrar has not been regularly kept or enforced.

Although the earliest court records and local civil registrar logs and registers date from 1900, most are dated after World War II.

Reading These Records
These records are in Spanish. For help reading these records see the following guides:
 * Spanish Genealogical Word List
 * Reading Spanish handwritten records
 * Script tutorial for Spanish

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

Wills
 * Name of testator
 * Place of birth
 * Current residence
 * Spouse's name
 * Parents’ names
 * Marriage date and place of testators
 * Names of children/heirs and their vital information
 * Executor’s name
 * Witnesses’ names
 * Burial request

Guardianship
 * Name(s) of child/children
 * Name and residence of parents/orphanage(s)
 * Date and place parents died/divorced or date child/children was/were abandoned or found
 * Name(s) of person(s) made legal guardian or specifications regarding full-/part-custody of child/children
 * Date and place the guardianship was made legal
 * Name of judge, clerk, or mediator
 * Names of witnesses

Land
 * Name of owner (this could be an individual or a government body/department)
 * Name(s) of buyer(s)
 * Names of witnesses
 * Date land was sold

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 the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the marriage date and place as the basis for compiling a new family group or for verifying existing information
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth of each partner to find a couple's birth records and parents' names
 * Use the name, locality, and age along with the place of birth to find the individual/family in census records Philippines Census
 * Use the residence and name to locate civil (see “Related Wiki Articles” section below) and land records Philippines Land and Property
 * Use the birthplaces to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family
 * Use the marital status to determine if an individual was divorced (look for divorce record; see section "Unable to Find Your Ancestor" for more info), widow(er) (look for death record), or married (look for marriage record)
 * For land records, witnesses could've been relatives, neighbors, or friends of the buyer

I Can't Find the Person I'm Looking For, What Now?

 * Continue to search the indexes and records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have lived in the same area or a nearby area
 * Because divorce is not legal in the Philippines, there are no divorce records. Look for records in nearby countries where divorce is legal

Research Helps
The following articles will help you in your research for your family in Philippines.
 * Record Finder

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.