Bolivia Quick Start Guide

Bolivia Quick Start Guide

Bolivia: Ancestor's bith, marriage, or death location unknown
FamilySearch Indexed Records: Try searching in the indexed records for the name of the ancestor if they were born before 1900. Limit your results to the country of Bolivia and the name of the department if known. If no results, the patron will have to find mroe information from home sources or by asking family members.

Contact family members: If they do not have even a minimal amount of information AND have no idea of where and when to look, encourage them to contact family members who might have that information. This could be older aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc.

Bolivia: Ancestor's birth, marriage or death location and names of parents, children, or spouse are known
FamilySearch Indexed records: Try searching first in indexed records. Try a variety of searches with ancestor's name, or with parents' names, or just by parents' surnames AND using the option to limit locality by country Bolivia and under event use ANY and the name of the department in Bolivia.

FamilySearch Browse Images:' If no results from previous search for the ancestor or any siblings, you will have to browse images for the locality. Church parish records are your only option for Bolivia. Civil registration in Bolivia did not begin until 1940 and FamilySearch doesn't have any microfilmed civil registration records.

FamilySearch Catalog: Not all records for Bolivia are online, be sure to check the catalog before giving up on finding records.

Research Strategies
If you don't know the names of the parents, but you know the name of the spouse and/or the names of some of his children, begin with a marriage search (if they married in Bolivia and you know the place). Or begin with a search for the birth/baptism record for one of thei children (if you have approximate birth date and place).

Finding a locality
For help locating a place in Bolivia, you may want to try one of the following resources:


 * Google
 * Wikipedia
 * División política y administrativa de la República de Bolivia (La Paz: Editorial Don Bosco, 1973), FHL INTL 984 E3a.
 * David Rumsey Map Collection
 * Try a keyword search in the FamilySearch Catalog for Bolivia Gazetteers