Portugal, Bragança, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Portugal

Image Visibility
Whenever possible, FamilySearch makes images available for all users. However, ultimate rights to view images on our website are granted by the record custodians. The Portugal, Bragança, Catholic Church Records collection is available to the Family History Library, FamilySearch Centers, and to members of the supporting organization, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The images can be viewed at a FamilySearch Center near you.

What is in the Collection?
This is a collection of church records from parishes in the Diocese of Bragança for the years 1541-1911 it includes baptisms, marriages, and deaths or burials. These parish records have been preserved relatively well. Some of the older registers may have some physical damage due to natural causes; therefore, some data may be difficult to read or some even may be lost. However, in general, they are in good condition for extracting genealogical information.

The original parish records were kept in the parish archive under the custody of the priest and a duplicate register was regularly sent to the diocesan archive where the records were centralized and kept at a higher state of preservation. These records are written in Portuguese. Earlier records were handwritten in narrative style, but newer records were handwritten in formatted registers.

Collection Content
Baptism records may contain the following information:


 * Date and place of baptism
 * Child's name and gender
 * Child's date and place of birth
 * Parents' names and their occupation
 * Names of paternal grandparents
 * Names of maternal grandparents
 * Names of godparents

Marriage records may contain the following information:


 * Date and place of the marriage
 * Names of the bride and groom
 * Groom's age, birth date and place of birth
 * Groom's civil status (widowed, single, or divorced)
 * Names of groom's parents
 * Bride's age, birth date and place of birth
 * Bride's civil status (widowed, single, or divorced)
 * Names of bride's parents
 * Names of witnesses, their civil status and residence

Death records may contain the following information:


 * Name and gender of deceased
 * Date and place of death
 * Civil status of deceased person
 * Spouse's name if married
 * Parents' names, their occupation and residence
 * Cause of death
 * 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.

To browse the collection by image

⇒Select the "Browse" link in the initial search page ⇒Select the "District" category ⇒Select the "Municipality" category ⇒Select the "Civil Parish" category ⇒Select the "Parish" category ⇒Select the "Record Type and Years" category 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.

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
 * Learning Center Resources:
 * Portuguese Handwriting Lesson 1
 * Portuguese Handwriting Lesson 2
 * Portuguese Handwriting Lesson 3

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * Use the estimated age to calculate a birth date.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.
 * Titles may be clues to property ownership, occupations, rank, or status within the community.

What if I Can't Find Who I'm Looking For?

 * 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.).

Citing this Collection
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information; that is, cite your sources. This will help people find the record again and evaluate the reliability of the source. 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. Citations are available for the collection as a whole and each record or image individually.

Collection citation:

Image citation: