Peru Archives and Libraries


 * Archives collect and preserve original documents of organizations such as churches or governments. Libraries generally collect published sources such as books, maps, and microfilm.
 * If you plan to visit a repository, contact them and ask for information about their collection, hours, services, and fees. Ask if they require you to have a reader’s ticket (a paper indicating you are a responsible researcher) to view the records, and ask how to obtain one.
 * Although the records you need may be in an archive or library, the FamilySearch Library may have microfilmed and/or digitized copies of them.

National Archives

 * National Archives System

National Archives of Peru (Archivo General de la Nación) Palacio de Justicia Jirón Manuel Cuadros s/n Casilla No. 3124 Cercado de Lima Lima 1 Telephone: 511 426 7221 Website Facebook

Regional Archives

 * Regional Archives Directory

Municipal Archives
All records created by local governments in Peru, including birth, death, and marriage records, are kept in municipal offices. These offices are comparable to county courthouses and town halls in the United States. Copies of the municipal records are available to the public. For more information about these offices and their records, see Peru Civil Registration.

These archives also house the Libros de Cabildos (minute books), which contain information about local administration, founding of towns, commercial life, markets, sanitation, administration of justice, and social relations. The municipal records of the town of Huamanga are housed in the National Library.

You can get information about the records kept at a particular municipality by writing to the municipal office. See Spanish Letter Writing Guide for instructions on how to write for genealogical information.

Municipal Library and Historical Archive of Lima (Archivo de la Municipalidad de Lima) Jirón Conde de Superunda 141 Cercado de Lima 15001, Peru Telephone: 330-3988 and 632-1540 Email: library@munlima.gob.pe Website Historical Archive Digital Library

Piura Municipal Central Archive (Archivo Histórico de la Municipalidad de Piura) Jr. Ayacucho 377 - Basement of the Municipality Piura, Peru Telephone: 51 73 355899/73 307775 Email: jcornejo@munipiura.gob.pe Facebook

Church Archives
The Catholic Church has gathered the early church records from the dioceses into a centralized archive. Six of Lima's seven parishes store their pre-1900 records in the Archive of the Archbishopric of Lima (Archivo Arzobispal de Lima).

Archive of the Archbishopric of Lima (Archivo Arzobispal de Lima) Calle Luis Espejo 1064 Cercado de Lima 15034 Telephone: 51 471-4738 Email: [mailto:lagaguti@terra.com.pe lagaguti@terra.com.pe] Archbishop Archives of Lima
 * The Archive of the Archbishop of Lima has documentation since 1543 on visitations (visitas), holy works (obras pias), tithing (diezmos), property, and divorce. Parish records, particularly baptisms, are the most likely to be indexed. Additionally, there are eight volumes of indexes of marriage documents (expedientes matrimoniales). The diocese keeps the records of parishes that no longer exist.

See Peru Church Directories, Peru Church History, and Peru Church Records for more information.

Libraries
National Library of Peru(Biblioteca Nacional) Av. De La Poesía 160 San Borja 15034, Peru Telephone: 51 1 5136900 - Annex 7000 Email: [mailto:jefatura@binape.gob.pe jefatura@binape.gob.pe] Website: Peru National Library


 * The National Library has several large collections that are of particular interest to family historians. It is one of the main repositories for primary documents relating to the military. It has one of the most thorough collections of imprints dating from the independence and republican periods, and has extensive collections of pamphlets and memorias. Other documents of interest are land grants (encomiendas), judicial records (judiciales), succession rights (mayorazgos), chaplaincy records (capellanías), chieftainship records (cacicazgos), immovable property of Lima (propiedad inmóvil de Lima), dowries (dotes), parish registers (registros parroquiales), town council minutes (actas de cabildo), and books of the orders and decrees (libros de cédulas y proviciones). The National Library also has registers of the notaries (escribanos) of Lima, Arequipa, and Cuzco. A fire in 1943 destroyed a large part of the manuscript collection, but following the catastrophe the surviving documents were thoroughly cataloged.

Biblioteca de Barranco - Municipalidad de Barranco Pedro de Osma Barranco 15063 Av. San Martín S / N, Parque Municipal Barranco, Lima, Peru Telephone: 51 1 2036730/719-2041/719-2046 Email: consultations@munibarranco.gob.pe Website Facebook

Bibliotecas Municipales - Municipalidad de Miraflores Av. Larco 770 Miraflores Lima 18, Peru Telephone: 51 6177261 / 6177260 Email: biblioteca@miraflores.gob.pe Website

Municipal Library of Ica (Biblioteca Municipal de Ica) Calle Acacias 194 San Isidro, Ica 11001, Peru Telephone: 51 239246/51 977 832 518 Email: bibliotecasanmartin.ica@hotmail.com Facebook

Museums
National Museum (Museo de la Nación) Av. Javier Prado Este 2465 San Borja 15021 Telephone: 51 1 4769878/1 6189393 annex 2306/2280/2484 Email: [mailto:dipm@cultura.gob.pe dipm@cultura.gob.pe] Website
 * The nation's museum houses an approximate collection of 15,500 works, most of which belong to the pre-Hispanic period such as metals, textiles and ceramics, the rest come from the colonial and republican times. The collection is of the archaeological, historical and ethnographic type of Peru.

Lima Metropolitan Museum (Museo Metropolitano de Lima) Av. 28 Julio with Av. Garcilaso de la Vega, Lima - Parque de la Exposicion, Av. 28 de Julio, Cercado de Lima Telephone: 51 1 3303899 Email: [mailto:museometropolitano@munlima.gob.pe museometropolitano@munlima.gob.pe] Lima Metropolitan Museum

National Museum of the Archaeology, Anthropology, and History of Peru, Lima (Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia del Peru) Plaza Bolivar s / n Pueblo Libre San Borgia, Peru Telephone: 51 321 5630 - Annex 5262/618-9393 Anexo: 5211 Contact Website
 * The National Museum of Archeology, Anthropology and History of Peru (MNAAHP) is the first museum in Peru; the largest, oldest and most representative of our country. It was the only one that Peru had in the first hundred years of the Republic. It has two different series: Historical Archive and Collections. The first preserves documents from the 16th century and the second, personal and career files of the most important researchers in the country.  Its importance lies in the valuable cultural heritage that it guards in its deposits and repositories, which houses approximately 300,000 pieces that make up the legacy of our pre-Hispanic, colonial and republican past.  The Museum building has an architecture that combines elements from the late Colonial and Republican periods. Along with its exhibitions, it makes this a meeting place with the history of Peru and the ideal place where everyone, regardless of age or place of origin, can discover, relive and question the experiences of our ancestors.

Record Offices
The Supreme Court of Justice (Corte Superior de Justicia) in Lima, Peru has duplicates of civil registration records. If your request to the municipality is unsuccessful, write for records sent to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Republic (Corte Superior de Justicia de la República).

Archivo de la Corte Suprema de la República Palacio de Justicia Jirón Manuel Cuadros s/n Cercado de Lima Lima 1, PERÚ Telephone: 51-14-28-3690

Public Archives Directorate, General Archive of the Nation The birth, marriage and death certificates of Lima Provinces, Metropolitana and its districts, as well as the Constitutional Province of Callao and its districts are guarded until 1997 (in some cases until 1999). Jr. Camaná 125 with Pasaje Piura s / n - Cercado de Lima communications@agn.gob.pe Telephone Central: (01) 426 - 7221

Writing to a Municipality for Records
Civil registration records are kept at the local civil registration office (Oficina del Registro Civil) in each municipality. You must determine the town where your ancestor lived before you can find the records. A civil registration district may include several towns or a small section of a large city. You may need to use gazetteers and other geographic references to identify the place your ancestor lived and the civil registration office that served it (see Peru Gazetteers). In addition to the town, you need to know an approximate year in which the birth, marriage, divorce, or death occurred.'This method is not always reliable. Officials might or might not respond.' Write a brief request in Spanish to the proper office using this address as a guide replacing the information in parentheses:


 * Oficino del Registro Civil
 * (street name, number)
 * (city), (region)
 * (postal code)
 * Peru


 * Find the Peru postal code here.

Archivos y bibliotecas de Perú