Costa Rica, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Foreign Language Title
Costa Rica, Registros de la Iglesia Católica

Collection Time Period
Parish records cover about 95 to 100% of a city’s population. This collection only includes the parish records that were centralized at the archdiocesan archive at the time of microfilming.

Why was this collection created?
Catholic Church parish registers were created to record the church sacraments of baptisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths, burials, and other ordinances.

Collection History
Parish priests performed the baptisms, marriages, deaths, burials, and other holy sacraments in their assigned parish or parishes. All the original parish records were kept in the parish archive; however, the older records were centralized in the archdiocesan archive, as it is done currently.

How to Use the Collection
The Catholic Church parish records are an excellent source for genealogical research in Costa Rica. These may also be the only records available before the implementation of the civil registration in 1887.

Collection Content
Important genealogical information found in Catholic Church baptismal records include: • Date and place of the event • Name of principal (person baptized) • When and where principal was born or age at time of baptism • If principal was legitimate or illegitimate • Parents names, their residence and/or place of birth • Names of maternal and paternal grandparents • Names of godparents

Important genealogical information found in Catholic Church marriage records include: • Date and place of the event • Complete maiden name of the bride and groom • Civil status (widowed, single, divorce) at the time of the event • Place and date of birth of the groom and bride • Occupation of groom and bride • Couple’s parents’ names, their residence and/or place of birth • Sometimes, the parent’s civil status • Name of witnesses

Important genealogical information found in Catholic Church death records include: • Date and place of death • Name of the deceased, age or date and place of birth • Place and date of birth and/or age at time of baptism • Cause of death • Residence of the deceased • It may mention if the person left children and/or a testament

Collection Description
The parish records of the Archdiocese of San José de Costa Rica have been preserved relatively well. Some of the older registers may appear to have some physical damage; therefore some data may have been lost or may be very difficult to read, however, in general they are in good condition to extract genealogical information.

Population Coverage
Parish records cover 95 to 100% of a city’s population. This collection only includes the parish records that were centralized at the archdiocesan archive at the time of filming.

Collection Reliability
Catholic Church parish records are a reliable source for doing genealogical research in Costa Rica.