Spain, Catastro de Ensenada - FamilySearch Historical Records

Spain

What is in This Collection?
These are census records of the Spanish regions of Andalucía, Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, and Murcia. The cadastre registers have been well-preserved. They generally includes information about the land, the income, the ownership, the assets, the head of household, and the heirs.

This cadastre was created when the country was preparing for a profound fiscal reform. The reform was aimed at improving the state of the Castilian treasury, simplifying the system of contributions, and making the system fairer. The idea was to replace income from the provinces by a single tax, which was intended to be universal and proportional to the wealth of the taxpayers. It was thus necessary to investigate the wealth of the subjects. The cadastre became the official register of the quantity, value, and ownership of real estate used in apportioning taxes.

The cadastre was divided into sections called: Memoriales (Memorials), Respuestas Generales (General Answers), Respuestas Particulares (Personal Answers),Libro de lo Real (Book of Real Estate), Libro de lo Personal o de Cabezas de Casa (Book of Personal Information or Heads of Household), Estados o Resúmenes (Quantitative Summaries). This cadastre is in the form of a register and includes the quantity, value, and ownership of real estate used in apportioning taxes. The Cadastre of the Marquis of Ensenada includes a description of the properties and the population—both the secular and ecclesiastical—throughout the 22 provinces of the Old Crown of Castile, which occupied 70% of the territory of modern-day Spain.

This cadastre is known in Spanish as the “Catastro del Marqués de la Ensenada” and was conducted between 1750 and 1754 by Zenón de Somodevilla y Bengoechea, I Marquis of Esenada. He had been called by King Philip V of Spain as the Secretary of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer (or Minister of Finance) of the Crown of Castile.

Because the cadastre was made for tax purposes, you can learn interesting facts about the towns such as its principal industry, quantity and types of buildings, and how much land was under cultivation by examining the Respuestas generales. The Cadastre of the Marquis of Ensenada was taken by assigned persons; it is a reliable source for research in Spain.

Reading These Records
These records are written in Spanish. For help reading them see: FamilySearch Learning Center videos: If you speak Spanish, the following free online lesson may be helpful to learn how to use the information in these records:
 * Spanish Genealogical Word List
 * BYU Spanish Script Tutorial
 * Reading Spanish Handwritten Records, Lesson 1
 * Reading Spanish Handwritten Records, Lesson 2
 * Registros Civiles y Parroquiales – Spanish

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The books of Real Estate and Personal or Heads of Household
 * Names of property owners
 * Places where properties are located and in some cases the names of neighbors
 * A notation on the title page if there is an index of the people included in the cadastre
 * Sons and daughters that worked on the property
 * Type, measurement, value, and quality of the properties
 * Number of workers
 * Number of heirs

Memoriales de legos o seglares and Personal de legos o seglares
 * Names of the head of household as well as the
 * Name of spouse
 * Name(s) of child/children
 * Other people living in the home (could be relatives and servants)

How Do I Search The Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * Identifying information such as residence
 * Name of the person
 * Approximate date of the event

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, What Now?

 * 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
 * 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 parents' birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family
 * Use the marital status (whether a divorce or death dissolved a marriage) to identify previous marriages

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

 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church records Spain Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * Continue to search the records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have lived in the same area or a nearby area
 * 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 Click here for a list of Spanish name abbreviations
 * 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 research your family in Spain.
 * Spain Record Finder
 * Spain 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.

Catastro de Ensenada Espanha, Cadastro do Marquês de Ensenada (Registros Históricos do FamilySearch)