Argentina Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Argentina

Record Description
This collection of several parish records (such as baptism, marriage, and burial records) from several ecclesiastical jurisdictions of Argentina may cover the years from 1580 to the present.

The earlier records from this collection are all handwritten in a narrative format. Some later records are handwritten on printed forms, which may vary slightly from one priest to another. Generally, these records were written in chronological order. In smaller parishes, one book was used for all the ordinances (such as baptisms, marriages, and deaths). In larger cities, records of the different types of sacred ordinances were kept in separate books. Confirmations were generally recorded in the baptismal registers. Some of the older records are damaged, but most of the genealogical information can be extracted.

Church records in Argentina were created in the city of Buenos Aires as early as 1580. However, this first book is missing from the Catholic Church’s archives. Other parishes began registering records in the state of Buenos Aires about 1769. Some of the records in several other localities date back to even earlier than the year 1580. The records were microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah.

The Catholic Church is organized in ecclesiastical jurisdictions such as archbishoprics, dioceses, and local parishes. The church registers were and are created by the priest in charge of the parish where the ordinance was performed. The records are kept in a register in the local parish archive and a duplicate copy is sent to the corresponding diocese or archdiocese for archival preservation.

In earlier years, one parish jurisdiction may have included more than one town or villa because priests traveled from one town to another baptizing most of the people. The priests created the registers to record all the sacramental ordinances performed. Later, the local civil authorities also used these records for statistical purposes before the civil registration was implemented in 1930.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:

Baptism
 * Place of baptism
 * Date of baptism
 * Gender of the child
 * Date of birth
 * Name of the child baptized
 * Legitimacy
 * Parents’ names
 * Residence of the parents
 * Paternal grandparents’ names
 * Maternal grandparents’ names
 * Godparents’ names

Marriage
 * Place of marriage
 * Date of marriage
 * Names of the groom and bride
 * Witnesses’ names
 * Groom’s age
 * Bride’s age
 * Marital statuses of the groom and bride
 * Groom’s parents
 * Bride’s parents

Burial
 * Deceased’s place of burial
 * Date of burial
 * Age at time of death
 * Deceased’s name
 * Deceased’s marital status and the spouse’s name, if married
 * Legitimacy
 * Parents’ names
 * Residence of the deceased
 * Place of death
 * Cause of death

How to Use the Records
Catholic Church parish records are an excellent source for genealogical research in Argentina. The records of baptism, marriage, and death may contain important information about other generations of ancestors. These may also be the only records available before the implementation of civil registration in 1930. To find the record of an ancestor, a person needs to know at least the name of the ancestor and a place and approximate year of an event in the ancestor’s life.

Begin your search by finding your ancestors in the index. Name indexes to baptisms, marriages, and death or burials make it possible to access a specific record quickly. Remember that these indexes may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

When searching the index it is helpful to know the following: Use the locator information found in the index (such as page, entry, or certificate number) to locate your ancestors in the records. Compare the information in the record to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination.
 * The place where the event occurred
 * The name and surname of the person
 * The approximate date of the event
 * The name of the parents or spouse

When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family. For example: Keep in mind:
 * Use the marriage date and place as the basis for compiling a new family group or for verifying existing information.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth of each partner to find a couple's birth records and parents' names.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth to find the family in census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * Occupations listed can lead you to other types of records such as employment or military records.
 * Use the parents’ birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * The name of the officiator is a clue to their religion or area of residence in the county. However, ministers may have reported marriages performed in other counties.
 * Compile the marriage entries for every person who has the same surname as the bride or groom; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.
 * Continue to search the marriage records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives of the bride and groom who may have married in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify.
 * Use the marriage number to identify previous marriages.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.
 * The information in church records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from one record to another.

If you are unable to find the ancestors you are looking for, try the following:
 * Check for variant spellings of the surnames.
 * Check for a different index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.

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