Portugal Civil Registration

Civil Registers (Registros Civis)
Research use: Uniquely identifies individuals and links generations.

Record type: Civil records of birth, marriage, and death.

General: Priests functioned as civil registrars until 1911. Civil registration was instituted after the creation of the republic.

Time period: 1832-present. Registration of non-Catholics began in 1832. Civil registration was mandated in 1878 but only became obligatory in 1911.

Contents: Birth, marriage, and death records have the exact date of the event, including time of day for birth; name of principal and parents; occupation and religious preference of parents; name of informant for birth and names of witnesses for marriage; place of residence for parents of new born, of the groom and bride for marriages, and of the deceased for death; age at death, cause of death, and place of burial in death records.

Location: Local registry archive (Conservatória do Registro Civil). They are to be transferred to district archives after a hundred years. Population coverage: 95% coverage of the population.

Reliability: Excellent.

Civil Registration Offices in Portugal
List of the district offices of civil registration

Birth records
will provide:


 * given name of the child
 * gender
 * legitimacy or otherwise
 * date of birth
 * date of christening
 * if this is the first child in that family to be given that name
 * names of the father and mother
 * birthplace of each parent
 * names and birthplaces of the paternal and maternal grandparents
 * names of godparents
 * names of witnesses
 * name of the priest that performed the christening

Marriage records
will provide:


 * names of the bride and groom
 * marital status of the bride and groom
 * if previously married the name or names of the previous spouses
 * birthplaces of the bride and groom
 * ages of the bride and groom
 * names of the parents of the bride and groom
 * birthplace of each parent
 * names of the witnesses
 * name of the priest performing the wedding ceremony

Portugal

Wiki articles describing online collections are found at:


 * Portugal Deaths (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Portugal Marriages (FamilySearch Historical Records)