Costa Rica Gazetteers

Online Gazetteers

 * FamilySearch Places at FamilySearch
 * World Gazetteers Archive.org
 * List of Costa Rica Cities at govisitcostarica.com
 * Biolley, Paul. Costa Rica Comisión Conmemorativa de Costa Rica en el Siglo XIX. San José: Tipografía Nacional, 1902. Online at: Archive.org
 * Ministerio de Economía y Comercio. Anuario estadístico de Costa Rica. San José, Costa Rica : Ministerio de Economía y Comercio, Dirección General de Estadística y Censos, 1887. Online at: HathiTrust
 * Nelson, Harold D. Costa Rica, a country study. Washington, D.C.: Headquarters, Dept. of the Army, 1983. Online at: HathiTrust
 * Niederlein, Gustavo. The Republic of Costa Rica. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Commercial Museum, 1898. Online at: Archive.org
 * Pan American Union. Costa Rica, General Descriptive Data Prepared in 1909. Washington: Governement Printing Office, 1909. Online at: HathiTrust

Print Only Gazetteers

 * U.S. Board of Geographic Names. Costa Rica : official standard names approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Office of Geography, 1956.
 * Noriega, Félix F. Diccionario geográfico de Costa Rica. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmado por la Socidad Genealógica de Utah, 1996.
 * Rodríguez, César. Geografía ilustrada de Costa Rica. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmado por la Socidad Genealógica de Utah, 1973.
 * Calvo, Joaquín Bernardo. República de Costa Rica : apuntamientos geográficos, estadísticos é históricos. San José, Costa Rica: Imprenta Nacional, 1887.

Why Use Gazetteers
A gazetteer is a dictionary of place-names. Gazetteers list or describe towns and villages, parishes, states, populations, rivers and mountains, and other geographical features. They usually include only the names of places that existed at the time the gazetteer was published. Within a specific geographical area, the place-names are listed in alphabetical order, similar to a dictionary. You can use a gazetteer to locate the places where your family lived and to determine the civil and religious jurisdictions over those places.

There are many places within a country with similar or identical place-names. You will need to use a gazetteer to identify the specific town where your ancestor lived, the state the town was or is in, and the jurisdictions where records about the person was kept.

Gazetteer Contents
Gazetteers may also provide additional information about towns, such as:


 * Different religious denominations
 * Schools, colleges, and universities
 * Major manufacturers, canals, docks, and railroad stations
 * The population size.
 * Boundaries of civil jurisdiction.
 * Ecclesiastical jurisdiction(s)
 * Longitude and latitude.
 * Distances and direction from other from cities.
 * Schools, colleges, and universities.
 * Denominations and number of churches.
 * Historical and biographical information on some individuals (usually high-ranking or famous individuals)