Spain, León, Civil Registration - FamilySearch Historical Records

Title in the Language of the Record
Registro Civil, Provincia de León, España

Record Description
These records include copies of original civil registration records of births, marriages, and deaths from several districts in the province of León, Spain. The originals are kept at the Archivo Histórico Provincial de León in Spain.

For additional details about the history of these records and help using them, see the wiki article Spain, Municipal Records (FamilySearch Historical Records).

Record Content
The information in each record varies by year.

Birth Records generally include the following information:
 * Child’s full Name and Gender
 * Date and Place of birth
 * Names and Ages of Parents
 * Birthplaces of Parents
 * Witnesses of birth

Marriage Records usually include the following:
 * Names and ages of groom and bride
 * Date and place of marriage
 * Birthplaces of groom and bride
 * Names and Ages of groom’s Parents
 * Names and Ages of bride’s Parents
 * Who performed the marriage
 * Names of Witnesses

Death Records may include:
 * Deceased’s Name and Age (keep in mind that death records for women may be filed under their married name)
 * Date and Place of Death
 * Date and Place of Birth
 * Marital Status/Name of Spouse
 * Names of Parents
 * Birthplaces of Parents
 * Names of Informant/Witnesses
 * Date and Place of Burial

How to Use the Record
To begin your search you should know the following:
 * The person’s name.
 * The approximate location of an event.
 * An approximate time frame of an event.
 * Indexes are available on some of these groups of images. If indexes are available, check these for the name first. Indexes are usually located at the beginning or end of a group of images. Find your ancestor’s name and look for the locator information next to the name (such as page, entry, or certificate number). This will help you find the record you are looking for in the collection.
 * Some record sets have indexes; these indexes were created at the end of the year. Copy errors could have been made in the index, so you want to find the actual record to verify the information is correct.

Keep in mind:
 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * The information in records is usually reliable, but depends upon the knowledge of the informant.
 * Regarding marriage and death records, name changes, shortened names, or nicknames may have been used by your ancestors, so pay attention to other relationships (parents, spouse, siblings, children, etc.) that can confirm whether you have the right person/record.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

Search the Collection
To browse the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page. ⇒Select the Municipio (City or Municipality) category ⇒Select the Tipo de registro y años (Record Type and Years) category which takes you to the images.

Look at the images and compare the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine which one is your ancestor. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to make this determination.

Using the Information

 * 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.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * 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 county. However, ministers may have reported marriages performed in other counties.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Use the marital status/marriage number (how many times a person was married) to identify previous marriages.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.
 * Witnesses often were relatives of the parents.
 * 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.

Unable to Find your Ancestor?
If you are unable to find your ancestor(s) in these civil registers, then try searching in the areas surrounding León. These countries/provinces neighbor León:
 * Portugal on the west,
 * Galicia, Cantabria, and Asturias in the north,
 * the Autonomous Community of Aragon, the Autonomous Community of Pais Vasco (the Basque Country), and La Rioja in the east,
 * Madrid in the south with
 * the Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha and the Autonomous Community of Extremadura to the southwest.

Church records are also a good substitute when birth, marriage, and death records can’t be found or are unavailable.
 * Spain Baptisms
 * Spain Catholic Church Records

Or your ancestor immigrated to another country. Search the records of nearby areas or immigration/emigration records.

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

Related Websites
Spain Genealogy Links
 * Hispanic Genealogy Blog is written in English.
 * Blog de Genealogía Hispaña Blog is written in Spanish.
 * Genealogía Española-España GenWeb Website is in Spanish.

Related Wiki Articles

 * León Civil Registration - Vital Records
 * Spain, León Province Municipal Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * León
 * Spain

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records.

A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the wiki article Help:How to Cite FamilySearch Collections.

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the data and images published on FamilySearch.org. It may include the author, custodian, publisher and archive for the original records.