Portugal, Évora, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection contains Catholic Church records of baptism, marriage, and death or burial records from the Evora area in Portugal. The records range from 1533 to 1912. Copies of baptism, marriage, and burial records created by the Catholic Church and housed at the Évora District Archive in Portugal.

Reading These Records
These records are in Portuguese. For help reading them see:
 * Portuguese Genealogical Word List
 * Portuguese Letter-writing Guide

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

Baptism
 * Date and place of baptism
 * Child's name and gender
 * Child's date and place of birth
 * Siblings of child being baptized
 * Parents' names
 * Paternal and maternal grandparents and their origin
 * Name of godparents, including occupation and origin

Marriage
 * Date and place of marriage
 * Groom's name and age
 * Groom's civil status and origin
 * Names of groom's parents, their civil status and origin
 * Bride's name and age
 * Bride's civil status and origin
 * Names of bride's parents, their civil status and origin
 * Names of the witnesses, their residence and origin

Death
 * Date and place of death
 * Name, age and gender of deceased
 * Marital status and origin of deceased
 * Sometimes, name of spouse, if married
 * Sometimes, names of parents if deceased is a minor
 * Burial information

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * Name of the person
 * Approximate date of the event

View the Images
View images in this collection by visiting the :
 * 1) Select District
 * 2) Select Municipality
 * 3) Select Civil Parish
 * 4) Select Parish
 * 5) Select Record Type and Years to view the images.

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?

 * Carefully evaluate each piece of information about other people listed in the record
 * Use the baptism date and place to find the family in census records
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate civil and land records
 * The father’s occupation can lead you to other types of records such as employment records or military records
 * The parents' places of origin can tell you former residences and can help to establish a migration pattern for the family
 * Marriage date and place may help you find their children
 * Burial place may also help to show their migration pattern. It is often helpful to extract the information on all children with the same parents

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

 * Check for variant spellings of the names
 * Look for an index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume. In addition local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records
 * Search the records of nearby localities (or military unties, counties, parishes, etc.)
 * If the surname is unusual, you may want to compile baptism entries for every person of the same surname and sort them into families based on the names of the parents. Continue to search the baptism records to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who were born, married, and died in the same place or nearby
 * 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 1800s
 * There is also some variation in the information given from record to record

Research Helps
The following articles will help you in your research for your family in Portugal.
 * Record Finder
 * 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.

Portugal, Évora, Registros da Igreja Católica (Registros Históricos do FamilySearch)