Caminha, Viana do Castelo, Portugal Genealogy

This is a historical and genealogical guide to the municipality of Caminha.

History

 * Caminha is a municipality in the north-west of Portugal in the Viana do Castelo District.
 * Caminha is divided into 14 civil parishes.
 * The town or Vila of Caminha is the seat of the Municipality.
 * Caminha was called Camenae or Camina during the 5th century and was the site of a small Roman Military settlement.
 * Due to Arab and Norman raids, the area was depopulated and reoccupied after the 10th century.
 * Around 1060, the regin of Ferdinand I of León, Caminha was briefly a county and it had a castle in the area.
 * King Afonso III decided to build a modern castle and a fortified village in the 13th century changing it from just a fishing village.
 * In 1284 Caminha recieved its first letter of feudal rights (Foral).
 * In 1371 Caminha belonged to the crown until King Ferdinand I established it as a County.
 * In the 15th and 16th centuries, it became one of the main ports in Northern Portugal, trading extensively with Northern Europe and India.
 * The population of Caminha is roughly 16,700 people.

Online Records
After 100 years, all civil registration records are sent to the municipality's district office.

To view online civil registration records, visit Viana do Castelo Civil Registration.

Contact a Civil Registration Office
The following is a list of civil registration offices within the municipality.

Conservatória do Registo Civil de Caminha address phone number [mailto:email email address]

Conservatória do Registo Civil de Caminha address phone number [mailto:email email address]

Communicate your request in Portuguese whenever possible. For writing a letter or email in Portuguese, use the translated questions and phrases in this Portuguese Letter-writing Guide.

Online Records
In 1910, the Portuguese government transferred all birth, marriage, and death records from all the country's parishes to the district offices. These records are now in either District or National archives. Many of these records have been digitized and can be viewed at the District Archive's website or on FamilySearch.

To view online records, visit Viana do Castelo Church Records.

Contact a Parish
If you are seeking church records created more recently than 1910, it is possible to obtain them by writing to the parish where the record was created. Writing to a parish is not always a reliable way to obtain information, because officials may or may not respond.

Conferência Episcopal Portuguesa lists websites for the 20 Dioceses of Portugal. Once on the Diocesan website, use the listing of parishes (paróquias) to locate contact information for the parish in question.

Communicate your request in Portuguese whenever possible. For writing a letter or email in Portuguese, use the translated questions and phrases in this Portuguese Letter-writing Guide.

Cemeteries
Cemeteries did not become popular in Portugal until the late nineteenth century. Prior to this, individuals were buried their parish church, and their bones were later removed to an unmarked burial place. The following list may be helpful in twentieth-century research.

Name of Cemetery Website Address Phone number [mailto:email email address]

Name of Cemetery Website Address Phone number [mailto:email email address]

Family History Centers
Name of nearest center Website/page on FS wiki Address Phone number [mailto:email email address]