Granada Diocese Tree Building Project
The goal of the Granada Diocese Project is to use the Catastro de Ensenada records and the pre-marriage investigation files to reconstruct families that were living within the Granada Diocese in southern Spain that had their parish registers lost due to the Spanish Civil War.
Background on the Project[edit | edit source]
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), approximately half of all the Catholic Church parish registers for the diocese of Granada were destroyed. In the 1980’s, FamilySearch worked with the diocese to capture all parish records that survived, and all the pre-marriage investigation files. The files have been indexed (part of the agreement when they were filmed in the 1980’s), however, only the bride and groom were indexed.
Between 1752-1754, a census was taken for several parts of Spain, including Granada. The census, known as the Catastro de Ensenada, was taken for tax purposes. In Granada, the bienes seculares section of the census lists all individuals living in a household, providing a snapshot of the population.
The Granada Diocese Project will couple the Catastro de Ensenada with the Catholic pre-marriage investigations. All names from the census, and all individuals found in the pre-marriage investigations will be indexed and added to the FamilySearch Family Tree in family units.
Project Findings[edit | edit source]
To date, 62 towns from the Granada Diocese have had their Catastro de Ensenada records completely indexed. In addition to extracting the information, the residents from the towns were then added to the FamilySearch Family Tree in their respective family units. Those towns and their residents were then added to the FamilySearch Cemeteries, Monuments, and Memorials Sites page as historic sites. The table below shows the towns that have been uploaded to that site.
Towns in Cemeteries, Monuments, and Memorials Site[edit | edit source]
- Acequias
- Agron
- Albunuelas
- Alcazar
- Ambroz
- Bayacas
- Bubion
- Busquitar
- Cacin
- Calicasas
- Chite y Talara
- Cijuela
- Conchar
- Cozvijar
- Guajar Alto
- Guajar Faraguit
- Guajar Fondon
- Itrabo
- Jete
- Lanjaron
- Melegis
- Murchas
- Niguelas
- Otivar
- Pinos del Valle
- Restabal
- Saleres
- Tablate
- Velez de Banuadalla
Of the 29 towns that have been added to the Cemeteries, Monuments, and Memorial Sites page, nine towns have had the couples searched for in the Spain, Province of Granada, Catholic Pre-Marriage Investigation Files, 1556-1899 collection. All available pre-marriage investigation files, or expedientes matrimoniales were located, the genealogical content was extracted, and that information was added to each individual in the FamilySearch Family Tree. By investigating further into these nine towns, over 250 pre-marriage investigation files were located and each file added roughly four new individuals to the FamilySearch Family Tree.
Additional Resources[edit | edit source]
- Spain, Province of Granada, Catholic Pre-Marriage Investigation Files, 1556-1899
- The collection of indexed pre-marriage investigation files for Granada within FamilySearch.
- Spain Pre-Marriage Investigation Files
- FamilySearch Research Wiki article about the pre-marriage investigation files and how to find your ancestors in these records
- PARES Catastro de Ensenada
- This page through the Ministry of Culture of Spain and the Portal de Archivos Españoles provides more information about the Catastro records in Spain. Here you can find information about the other sections (outside of the bienes seculares section), how the Catastro was taken in each town, an interactive map to help you find the records, and more.