Portugal, Porto, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in the Collection?
This collection of church records includes the years 1535-1949.

This collection includes baptism, marriage, and burial records from the Catholic Diocese of Porto created at several parishes. It also includes an index of parish records for the city of Porto. These church records are housed at the Porto District Archives.These records are written in Portuguese. Additional images will be published as they become available.

Parish priests performed the baptisms, marriages, deaths and/or burials, and other holy sacraments in their assigned parish or parishes. All the original parish records were kept in the parish archive; however, the older records were centralized in the archdiocesan archive. The records in our collection were acquired from the District Archive of Porto.

Catholic Church parish registers were created to record the church sacraments of baptism, marriage, death, and burial in the life of their parishioners. These and other ordinances were performed by an authorized priest in his area of jurisdiction.

The Catholic Church parish records are an excellent source for genealogical research in the District of Porto. These may also be the only records available before the implementation of the civil registration in 1911.

Image Visibility
Whenever possible, FamilySearch makes images available for all users. However, rights to view images on our website are granted by the record custodians. These images can be viewed by members of the supporting organization(s). The Portugal, Porto, Catholic Church Records, the images are also available to all viewers at Arquivo Nacional (National Archive). For additional information about image restrictions, please see the Restrictions for Viewing Images in FamilySearch Historical Record Collections page.

Collection Content
Baptism records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of baptism
 * Child's name and gender
 * Child's date, time and place of birth
 * Father's name, occupation, residence and origin
 * Mother's maiden name, residence and origin
 * Names of paternal grandparents
 * Names of maternal grandparents
 * Godparents names, their civil status, occupation and residence

Marriage records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of marriage
 * Names of the bride and groom
 * Groom's age, civil status, occupation, residence and origin
 * Names of groom's parents
 * Bride's age, civil status, occupation, residence and origin
 * Names of bride's parents
 * Names of witnesses, their occupation, civil status and residence

Death records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of death
 * Name, age and gender of deceased
 * Legitimacy of deceased
 * Residence and origin of deceased
 * Civil status and name of spouse, if married
 * Names of parents if deceased is a minor
 * Parents' place of origin
 * Burial information

How Do I Search the Collection?
This section provides information on how to search the collection, what to do with information once found, some tips on how to find records, and what to do if no record is found.

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information in the boxes on the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the individuals in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to look at the information on several individuals comparing the information about them to your ancestors to make this determination.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page: ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒Select the appropriate "District" ⇒Select the appropriate "Municipality" ⇒Select the appropriate "Civil Parish" ⇒Select the appropriate "Parish" ⇒Select the appropriate "Record Type and Years" which takes you to the images.

Search the collection by image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine which one is your ancestor. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to make this determination.

When searching: 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 and 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.

What Do I Do Next?
When browsing this collection it is helpful to know the following:


 * The place where the event occurred
 * The name and surname of the person
 * The approximate date of the event
 * The name of the parents or spouse

I Found Who 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 parents’ birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * Check for variant spellings of the names.
 * Look for an index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume. In addition local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the records of nearby localities (or military unties, counties, parishes, etc.).

For Help Reading These Records
These records are in Portuguese. For help reading the records, see the following resources:


 * Portuguese Genealogical Word List
 * Portuguese Letter-writing Guide

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:

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Known Issues with This Collection
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