Venezuela Biography

Biography
A biography is a history of a person's life. In a biography you may find information about a person's birth, marriage, and death, as well as the names of parents, children, or other family members. Biographies often include photographs, family traditions and stories, and clues about an ancestor's place of origin, residences, military service, and community activities. The information must be used carefully, however, because there may be inaccuracies.

Family Information An individual's family can be an important source of biographical information. Contact family members for unpublished life histories they may know of. Write down genealogical information, life stories, and memories collected from those family members.

Compiled Biographies
Hundreds of brief biographical sketches have been collected and published in compiled biographies, sometimes called biographical dictionaries. These collections most often include biographies of early settlers and well-known citizens of a particular country, state, or community. Others feature biographies of ecclesiastical leaders, military men, politicians, writers, or other prominent individuals. An example of a compiled biography for Venezuela is:

Sáenz de la Calzada, Carlos and Cárdenas Ramírez, Julio. Diccionario biográfico de Venezuela. Madrid, España: Blass, S. A. Tipográfica, 1953. (FHL INTL Book 987 D3d).

Examples of compiled biographies for all of Latin America are:

Azpurúa, Ramón. Biografías de hombres notables de Hispanoamérica. Caracas, Venezuela: Ediciones Mario González, 1986. (FHL INTL Book 980 D3a.)

This is a facsimile edition of a work originally published in 1877.

Herrero Mediavilla, Victor. Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal e Iberoamérica = Arquivo biográfico de Espanha, Portugal e Ibero-América. New York: K.G. Saur, c1990. (FHL INTL fiche 6002170.)

This collection of biographies is compiled from 306 biographical works, including 700 volumes published between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. The collection includes 1,144 microfiche.

Indexes
An index to the Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal e Iberoamérica = Arquivo biográfico de Espanha, Portugal e Ibero-América is found in: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal e Iberoamérica = Arquivo biográfico de Espanha, Portugal e Ibero-América. (Biographical Index of Spain, Portugal, and Latin America). New York: K.G. Saur, c1990. (FHL INTL book 920 In2.)

Another index to published biographies of Latin Americans is: Lo, Sara de Mundo. Index to Spanish American Collective Biography. Boston: G.K. Hall, c1981. (FHL book 980 D33L.)

National and Local Sources
Most Latin American public libraries have collections of biographies. They also have national and regional compilations of biographical material, such as ¿Quién es quién? (Who's Who?). Collections of biographies about residents of a town or municipality are especially helpful for family history research. Most local histories also include separate sections containing biographical sketches of local residents.

Records at the Family History Library Compiled biographies at the Family History Library are listed in the Locality section of the catalog under:

[COUNTRY] - BIOGRAPHY[COUNTRY], [STATE] - BIOGRAPHY[COUNTRY], [STATE], [COMMUNITY] - BIOGRAPHYLATIN AMERICA - BIOGRAPHY

Links
Venezuelan Biographies available through FamilySearch

Biographies of Illustrious Venezuelans
Throughout history there are many Venezuelans who have distinguished themselves in the scientific world as well as in other fields. To read some biographies of some of the illustrious Venezuelans, visit this site. (Note: The site is in Spanish. If you do not read Spanish you might want to try using Google Translate to translate the page into English.)

(Note: The following sites are in Spanish. If you do not read Spanish you might want to try using Google Translate to translate the page into English.)

Venezuela tuya.com

Venezuelan History: Biographies - Infoplease (online encyclopedia)

Biografías de Venezuela