Costa Rica, Civil Registration - FamilySearch Historical Records

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

Record Description
These records are in Spanish. This collection of civil birth, marriage, and death records includes the years 1860 to 1975.

The collection is organized by province, then by 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 for Varias Provincias includes indexes. The provinces contained in the collection are Alajuela, Cartago, Guanacaste, Heredia, Limón, Puntarenas, San José and Varias Provincias (various provinces).

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.

Record Content
Birth records usually contain the following information:


 * Name of child
 * Date, place and time birth
 * Gender of child
 * Parents' names and occupation
 * Presenter's name and occupation
 * Relationship of presenter to child

Marriage records usually contain the following information:


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

Death records usually contain the following information:


 * Name of deceased
 * Age, gender and residence of deceased
 * Date, place and time of death
 * Cause of death
 * Parents’ names, occupation and residence
 * Place of burial

Search the Collection
To search by index: Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors 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 compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

To search by image: To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒Select the "Browse" link in the initial search page ⇒Select the "Province" ⇒Select the "Record Type and Years" that takes you to the images.

Search the collection by image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors 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, 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 Spanish. For help reading the records, see the following resources:


 * Spanish Genealogical Word List
 * BYU Spanish Script Tutorial
 * FamilySearch Learning Center videos:
 * Reading Spanish Handwritten Records, Lesson 1
 * Reading Spanish Handwritten Records, Lesson 2
 * Reading Spanish Handwritten Records, Lesson 3

Related Websites

 * Online Maps
 * Online History
 * Costa Rica Genealogy
 * Tribunal Supremo de Elección, the official website of Costa Rica's election commission, allowing users to search for birth, marriage, and death registrations; the website is in Spanish—Chrome will not translate the main page, but it will translate the search pages

Related Wiki Articles

 * Costa Rica
 * Costa Rica Civil Registration

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Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the information published in FamilySearch.org Historical Record collections. Sources include the author, custodian, publisher and archive for the original records.