Puerto Rico Genealogy

Guide to Puerto Rico ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Country Information
Puerto Rico is a United States Territory in the Caribbean whose nearest neighbors are the Dominican Republic, British Virgin Islands, and Anguilla. It was formerly a colony of Spain. The official languages are Spanish and English.

Finding Your Ancestors' Town in Puerto Rico

 * Genealogical records are organized by geographical locality. Civil registration (government birth, marriage, and death records) and church records (christenings/baptisms, marriages, and burials) were kept at the local level. To search these records, you must know the town where your ancestors lived.
 * If you do not know your ancestors' town, follow the advice in the Wiki article, Puerto Rico Finding Town of Origin, to search a variety of records that might provide that information.

Municipalities
Sovereignty. Spain 1493, United States 1898.

Subdivisions. Puerto Rico is a territory of the US with commonwealth status. There are 78 municipalities (municipios).

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Historical Records
 * Family History Center locator map

Civil Registration
Births, marriages, deaths, indexes and other records created by civil registration offices in Puerto Rico. Some records may date prior to 1885 as a few municipalities began civil registration before that date. Some of these records have been indexed and are searchable as part of this collection. Additional indexed records will be published as they become available. More recent records are protected by privacy laws. However, close relatives can request them for genealogy purposes. Use this link to learn more about ordering copies of birth, death and marriage certificates. Puerto Rico Birth, Death, Marriage Certificates
 * 1805-2001 - at- FamilySearch - Puerto Rico Civil Registration Records - FamilySearch Historical Records; index and images; Also at Ancestry($)

Church Records
Baptisms or christenings, marriages, and burials created by Catholic churches.
 * 1645-1969 - at- FamilySearch - Puerto Rico Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records; index and images

Other Resources

 * Online Court Records for 5,000 documents
 * Puerto Rico Genealogical Resources
 * Puerto Rican Hispanic Genealogical Society
 * Puerto Rican Genealogy Society

Research Tutorials

 * Introduction to Hispanic Research
 * U.S. Hispanic Immigrants: Finding their Place of Origin
 * Improve your Search Results in FamilySearch Hispanic Records
 * Relatives Masked in the Indexes of Ancestry


 * Reading Spanish Handwriting
 * Spanish Genealogical Word List
 * Spanish Records Extraction Manual. Practice reading documents
 * BYU Spanish Documents Script Tutorial
 * Spanish Letter Writing Guide