Philippines, Lingayen-Dagupan Catholic Archdiocese Parish Registers - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
These records include indexes to baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and burials from the Catholic Church parish registers of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan covering the years 1615-1982. Baptism records are only available for the years 1900-1914.

Entries for baptisms, marriages, and deaths (burials) usually consist of a narrative paragraph. Dates are usually spelled out and the name of the principal person is usually written in the margin next to the entry. After about 1920, preprinted forms with columns were sometimes used.

Catholic Church parish registers in the Philippines were created to record the church sacraments of baptism, confirmation, marriage, and burial.

See the Philippines Church Records article for more details.

Reading These Records
These records are in Spanish. For help reading these records see the following guides:
 * Spanish Genealogical Word List
 * Reading Spanish handwritten records
 * Script tutorial for Spanish

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:

Baptism
 * Name
 * Gender
 * Age
 * Approximate year of birth
 * Place and date of baptism
 * Names of parents

Confirmation registers/lists
 * Name
 * Date and place of confirmation
 * Names of parents
 * Names of godparents

Marriage Death/burial
 * Name of bride and groom
 * Gender and ages of bride and groom
 * Approximate years of birth
 * Names of bride and groom's parents
 * Place and date of marriage
 * Names of the godparents
 * Name of deceased
 * Gender of deceased
 * Age at time of death
 * Approximate year of birth
 * Place and date of death
 * Name of the spouse
 * Names of parents
 * Cause of death

View the Images
View images in this collection by visiting the :
 * 1) Select Province
 * 2) Select Barangay
 * 3) Select Parish
 * 4) Select Record Type Year Range (Volume Number) to view the images.

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

What Do I Do Next?

 * Use the marriage date and place as the basis for compiling a new family group or for verifying existing information
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth of each partner to find a couple's birth records and parents' names
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth to find the family in census records Philippines Census
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate civil (see “Related Wiki Articles” section below) and land records Philippines Land and Property
 * Use the parents' birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family
 * The name of a marriage officiator is a clue to their religion or area of residence in the province. However, ministers may have reported marriages performed in other provinces
 * Compile the marriage entries for every person who has the same surname as the bride or groom; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual
 * Use the marital status to identify previous marriages (whether a divorce or death dissolved a previous marriage)
 * Witnesses often were relatives of the parents

I Can't Find the Person I'm Looking For, What Now?

 * Consult the Philippines Record Finder to find other records
 * Note the founding date of the parish you are searching. If the date is after your ancestor would be recorded, search records of the parent parish. See the Catholic Directory of the Philippines. If your ancestor lived before the beginning date of the church records, the older parish may be far from the new one
 * Or your ancestor may have immigrated to another country. Search the records of nearby areas or immigration/emigration records
 * Philippines Emigration and Immigration
 * Civil registration records are also a good substitute when church records are insufficient
 * Philippines, Civil Registration, Local - FamilySearch Historical Records

Research Helps
The following articles will help you in your research for your family in Philippines.
 * Record Finder

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * Usually, marriages occurred about one year before the first child was born
 * When looking for your ancestor’s baptismal record, remember that the entries are arranged chronologically
 * The parish registers may list the godparents while the civil records may list the grandparents
 * Be sure to search both the parish and civil records after 1860 since some families did not consistently register their children with either the church or the government.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct
 * For death records, the information in records is usually reliable, but depends upon the knowledge of the informant
 * For marriage and death records, your ancestors may have used shortened names or nicknames, so pay attention to other relationships (parents, spouse, siblings, children, etc.) that can confirm whether you have the right person/record
 * Continue to search the marriage records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives of the bride and groom who may have married in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify
 * Continue to search the indexes and records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have lived in the same area or a nearby area

General Information About These Records
Since about 1600, up to 85 percent of people living in the Philippines have been members of the Roman Catholic Church.

There was no separation of church and state in the Philippines until the end of the Spanish administration in 1898. Generally, parish priests recorded civil and ecclesiastical documents.

Parish registers are the best records in the Philippines to identify individuals, parents, and spouses before the nineteenth century. After this date, civil authorities began registering vital statistics, which became equally important. The information in civil sources confirms and supplements the information in church records.

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.