Costa Rica, Civil Registration - FamilySearch Historical Records

Costa Rica

What is in This Collection?
This collection of civil birth, marriage, and death records includes the years 1823 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). Please note that many of the province locations are incorrect in the index due to a number mapping error (as of this edit, May 2016). See "Known Issues with This Collection" below for a link to the known issues page, which has instructions for determining the correct province.

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.

Reading These Records
These records are written in Spanish. For help reading these records see the following guides:
 * Spanish Genealogical Word List
 * BYU Spanish Script Tutorial
 * FamilySearch Learning Center videos:
 * Reading Spanish Handwritten Records, Lesson 1
 * Reading Spanish Handwritten Records, Lesson 2

If you speak Spanish, the following free online lesson may be helpful to learn how to use the information in these records:
 * Registros Civiles y Parroquiales – Spanish

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


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


 * Marriage records
 * 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
 * Parish of baptism

Death records
 * 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

Sample Images
Click on images for a larger view.

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before using this collection it is helpful to know:
 * Ancestor's given name and surname
 * Residence
 * Age
 * Family relationships

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.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Add any new information to your records
 * Check the image the index was taken from to see if there is additional information
 * Make sure to fully transcribe and cite the record entry for future reference; see the section Citing This Collection for assistance. Save or print a copy of the image
 * Use the information to find more. For instance, use the age listed in the record to estimate a year of birth, if that is yet undetermined
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth of each spouse to find a couple's birth records and parents' names
 * It is often helpful to extract the information on all children with the same parents. If the surname is unusual, you may want to compile entries for every person of the same surname and sort them into families based on the names of the parents
 * Continue to search the records to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who were born in the same town or nearby location

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

 * Switch to a different record collection. Depending on the time period, one or the other collection may be more helpful
 * Keep in mind that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images. Pay special attention to how the name should have been pronounced and try variations on the pronunciation
 * Check for variants of given names, surnames, and place names. Transcription errors could occur in any handwritten record; also, it was not uncommon for an individual be listed under a nickname or an abbreviation of their name. Click here for a list of Spanish name abbreviations
 * Here are some tips and techniques that will help you Improve your Search Results for Hispanic Ancestors in FamilySearch.org
 * New information is constantly being indexed, microfilmed or updated. Periodically check back to see if your ancestor’s records have been added.  You can see if the area you’ve been looking in has been recently updated by going to Historical Records Collections.  Watch for an asterisk for recently added or updated records

Research Helps
The following articles will help you in your research for your family in Costa Rica.
 * Costa Rica Guided Research
 * Record Finder
 * Research Tips and Strategies

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.