Peru, Cusco, Civil Registration - FamilySearch Historical Records

Peru Cusco

What is in the Collection?
This Collection includes records of civil registration records of births, marriages, and deaths from several provinces in the department of Cusco in Perú from 1889 to 1997.

The collection also includes some baptisms housed at the Archivo Regional (Regional Archives) de Cusco.

These records are written in Spanish; see the section For Help Reading these Records for translation helps.

Additional images will be published as they become available.

For a list of localities currently published in this collection, select the Browse link from the collection landing page.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
The information in each record varies by year.

Birth records may include the following information:


 * Date and place of registration
 * Name and gender of child
 * Date, time, and place of birth
 * Legitimacy
 * Religious affiliation
 * Parents’ names, ages, origin, and residence
 * Presenter's name, age, civil status, occupation, origin, and residence
 * Witnesses' name, age, civil status, and residence
 * Sometimes, grandparents’ names

Marriage records may include the following:


 * Date and place of registration
 * Names of the bride and groom
 * Date and place of marriage
 * Groom's age, civil status, nationality, race and occupation
 * Names of groom's parents, origin, and residence
 * Bride's age, civil status, nationality, race, and occupation
 * Names of bride's parents, origin, and residence
 * Bride and groom's religious affiliation
 * Names, residence, and ages of witnesses

Death records may include:


 * Time, date, and place of registration
 * Name, gender, and age of the deceased (keep in mind that death records for women may be under their married name)
 * Cause of death
 * Date, place, and time of death
 * Civil status, and occupation of deceased
 * Nationality, origin, and residence of deceased
 * Parents' names of deceased if a minor
 * Presenter's name, age, and occupation
 * Presenter's origin, nationality, and residence
 * Names of witnesses

How Do I Search the Collection?
Some record sets have indexes; these indexes were created at the end of the year. Copy errors could have been made in the index, so you want to find the actual record to verify the information is correct. Using the index is a helpful way to find the actual record.

For death records, the information in records is usually reliable, but depends upon the knowledge of the informant.

Regarding marriage and death records, name changes, shortened names, or nicknames may have been used by your ancestors, so pay attention to other relationships (parents, spouse, siblings, children, etc.) that can confirm whether you have the right person/record.

When searching: As you are searching, it is helpful to know such information as your ancestor's given name and surname, some identifying information such as residence, age, an estimated event year, and/or family relationships. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.

Search by Name by visiting the by Collection Page Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page To browse the collection, you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒Select the "Browse" link in the initial search page ⇒Select the "Province" category ⇒Select the “District or Municipality” category ⇒Select the "Record Type and Years" category which takes you to the images.

Search the collection by image, comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

For help reading these records:

These records are in Spanish. For help reading the records see the following guides:


 * Spanish Genealogical Word List
 * Reading Spanish handwritten records
 * Script tutorial for Spanish

To learn more about using the information in civil records, view these lessons for free:


 * Encontré este registro ¿y ahora qué? - Spanish
 * Documentos esenciales para buscar a sus antepasados - Spanish
 * Tesoros ocultos en los registros originales - Spanish
 * ¿Y ahora qué? Cómo hacer la investigación genealógica - Spanish

I Found Who I was Looking for, Now What?

 * 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.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, Now What?

 * 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.
 * A boundary change could have occurred and the record of your ancestor is now in a neighboring province. These regions neighbor Cusco:
 * Ayacucho, Junín, and Apurímac on the west,
 * Ucayali in the north,
 * Madre de Dios and Puno in the east, and
 * Arequipa in the south.
 * Church records are also a good substitute when birth, marriage, and death records can’t be found or are unavailable.
 * Peru Baptisms (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Peru Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Peru Deaths (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Peru Marriages (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Peru Church Records
 * Or your ancestor immigrated to another country. Search the records of nearby areas or immigration/emigration records:
 * Peru Emigration and Immigration

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image citation: