Spain, Consular Records of Emigrants - FamilySearch Historical Records

Spain

What is in This Collection?
Spain has an extensive network of Consulates and Embassies abroad that provide a series of services for Spaniard citizens and for foreigners that want to travel to Spain. Some of these services include the registration of births, marriages, and deaths of Spaniards living abroad, residence certificates, citizenship, passports, notary public documents, visas for foreigners, and others. The civil registration created at a consular office has the same validity and follows the same legal codes as the one in the mother country. One month after the civil event has been registered in a consulate abroad, a duplicate record is sent to the Central Civil Registry in Madrid, from where copies can be requested.

Travelers sometimes had to present proofs of birth and marriage when traveling abroad. Proofs of death were needed to transport the bodies of deceased travelers and/or family members of the traveler. For more information about Spain civil registrations, see the article Spain Civil Registration - Vital Records. The information in vital records presented at consulates were used to create the records you see here, wherein the information was extracted and officials signed their approval. Moreover, some of the documents you will find in this collection will be those pertaining to official consulate actions.

Consular services are necessary for Spaniards living or traveling abroad for legal documentation, protection, and other related needs while abroad. All records created in a consular office are as valid and legal as if created in Spain

These record types vary depending the business of the traveler it is documenting. Not all of the record types listed below will be available from each consulate solely because they were never recorded; they were never recorded because they weren't required. The information in each record varies by year.

The records are currently housed at the Archivo General de la Administración in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.

As of May 2018, this collection covers the 1808 to 1960. More images will be published as they become available and comply with the 50 year cut off restrictions.

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:

View the Images
View images in this collection by visiting the :
 * 1) Select Country
 * 2) Select Consular Office
 * 3) Select Record Type and Years 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.

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

 * 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

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

 * Search the records and indexes of neighboring cities, provinces, and regions
 * 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
 * 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 Spain.
 * 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.