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Church Directories

Church directories are invaluable resources in Spanish family history. Most parish records in Spain older than 100 years old have been centralized into diocesan archives throughout the country. Each dioceses has different hours and rules for their archive, and are published in church directories and guides. Catholic Church directories usually contain the following information:

• Mailing address and telephone number for each diocesan archive (sometimes email addresses and websites)
• Brief inventory of the records their archives contain. These inventories usually describe the archives' collection in broad sections.
• Listing of each parish, and an inventory of what records they have for each parish, and when each record type (baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and burials/deaths) began for each parish.

Where to find Catholic Church directories for Spain

There are several websites (all in Spanish) that have different forms of guides or inventories of Spanish diocesan archives:

• Guía de los Archivos de la Iglesia en España This guide to the Catholic Church archives in Spain, produced by the Archivo Diocesano de Barcelona under the direction of José Mª Martí Bonet, contains the addresses for each diocesan and archdiocesan archive in Spain where many parish records are stored. It also contains a list of parishes and the dates of the earliest available records for the parish. It is mostly complete but is known to contain some errors. In order to determine if parish records for the parish and time period of your ancestors, you will want to contact the diocesan archive or the local parish priest.
• Spanish Dioceses with addresses
• Censo-Guía de Archivos de España e Iberoamérica

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

Spain Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

For more information on locating the records of your ancestor in Spain, please see Finding Records.