Costa Rica, Civil Registration - FamilySearch Historical Records

Title in the Language of the Record
Registro Civil de Costa Rica.

Collection Time Period
This collection of civil birth, marriage, and death records includes the years 1860-1975.

Record Description
This collection of civil registration for Costa Rica is organized by province, then municipality (município) and the type of records with the inclusive years. Early records are handwritten in Spanish in narrative form; later records are handwritten in formatted records. The records also include indexes.

For a list of records by date or locality currently published in this collection, select the Browse link from the collection landing page.

The church records alone provided vital information of the people until the civil authorities established Civil Registration as an institution at the end of 1887. In January of 1888, the Central Civil Registration was established in the city of San Jose, implementing civil registration for the nation.

In December of 1949, the Supreme Court of Elections agreed to fuse the civil and the electoral registry into one institution under the name of Civil Registration. The compiled registry was organized into two sections: the civil section and the electoral section, which under the same institution provides the civil authorities with the civil lives events and electoral age of the citizens.

The civil registration could be performed at the Central Office of the Civil Registration Section or at any of the regional offices in the municipalities of the nation. Records created in the regional offices were later sent to the Central Office.

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the data and images published on FamilySearch.org Historical Records. It may include the author, custodian, publisher, and archive for the original records.

Digital copies of originals are also housed in different regional offices throughout Costa Rica.

Information about creating source citations for FamilySearch Historical Collections is listed in the wiki article: How to Create Source Citations For FamilySearch Historical Records Collections.

Record Content
The key genealogical facts found in most birth records are:


 * Date and place of the event
 * Name of the principal
 * Gender of principal
 * Date of birth
 * Legitimacy
 * Parents' names, residence, and/or places of origin
 * Names of witnesses

The key genealogical facts found in most marriage records are:


 * Date and place of the event
 * Names of the bride and groom
 * Their civil statuses (widowed, single, divorced) at the time of the event
 * Places of origin of bride and groom
 * Residence of bride and groom
 * Names of parents
 * Name of witnesses

The key genealogical facts found in most death records are:


 * Place and date of the event
 * Place and date of death
 * Name of the principal (deceased)
 * Civil status of principal at time of death
 * Civil status and name of spouse, if married at time of death
 * Parents’ names
 * Place of burial, occasionally

How to Use the Record
Begin your search by finding your ancestors in the index of birth, marriage, or death. Use the locator information in the index (such as page, entry, or certificate number) to locate your ancestors in the records. Compare the information in the record to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination. Be aware that as with any index, transcription errors may occur.

When you have located your ancestor’s birth, marriage, or death record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

For example:


 * Use the date along with the place to find the family in census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * The father’s occupation can lead you to other types of records such as employment records or military records.
 * The parents' birth places can tell you former residences and can help to establish a migration pattern for the family.

It is often helpful to extract the information on all children with the same parents. If the surname is unusual, you may want to compile entries for every person of the same surname and sort them into families based on the names of the parents. Continue to search the records to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who were born in the same town or nearby location.

Keep in mind:


 * The information in civil records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800s.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from record to record.

Why the Record Was Created
The civil registration in Costa Rica was created to record the events of birth, marriage, death, and other civil events that would determine and prove the existence, civil status, and age of citizens for the electoral section registration.

Record Reliability
The civil registration records are a very reliable source for doing genealogical research in Costa Rica after 1888.

Related Websites

 * Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones – Consultas de hechos y actos civiles y electorales
 * Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones – Registro civil

Related Wiki Articles

 * Costa Rica
 * Digital Library of Costa Rica

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. 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.

A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the Wiki Article: How to Cite FamilySearch Collections.

Citation Example for a Record Found in This Collection
"Costa Rica, Civil Registration, 1860-1975", (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-24119-23433-68?cc=1925429&wc=13004866:accessed 15 May, 2012) Alajuela > Defunciones 1896, vol. 9 > Image 10 of 354 images, Basilia Barrantes Barquero; citing Deaths, FHL microfilm 1,102,495; Costa Rica. Registro Civil, Archivo Nacional en San José.