Finding Your Basque Ancestors

If you have Basque ancestors you should consider yourself very lucky. The people from the Basque regions of Spain and France have a great culture and they have great records. This page is created to help you get started in searching for your Basque ancestors. You will find links, How-to Guides, steps, and tricks that can help you in searching for your ancestors.

Euskal Herria

The Basques are from the Euskal Herria or Basque Country. This covers 4 provinces in Spain and 1 department of France (before 1790 they were 3 separate provinces). Below is a map showing the Basque region with the names of the provinces.

The part in blue is known today as País Vasco (or Basque Country). Both the blue and purple segments are found in Spain.

The part in orange became part of the department Basses-Pyrénées in 1790. In 1969 it became known as Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

Most Commonly Used Record Types

There are four main record types that you will use when researching your Basque ancestors.

Civil Registration

These government records are extremely valuable resource. These are you birth, marriage, and death records. There are a couple of important start dates to realize when starting to research in this record type.

The orange portion from the map above will have the earliest civil registration records available. These records normally start in 1792 and are organized at the comune. You will find that these records prove to be very valuable and an excellent resource when searching for your French Basque ancestors. The other benefit is that these records have been digitized and are available online from the Department Archive website. Here is the link to accessing the records from this area of the Basque Country:

http://earchives.le64.fr/etat-civil-search-form.html

The blue and purple portions from the map above have two different time periods for civil registration records. For some of the towns and cities you will find that the civil registration records begin between 1837 and 1840. These records can many times be found at the municipal archives. In 1871, the national civil registration records started and they are also going to be found at the municipality. Unfortunately, these records are not available online but you may be able to order a copy of these records by writing to the civil registration office of the city your ancestors were from.

Parish Records

You will spend most of your time in these records. Found at the parish level you may find that most of the towns you research in will only have one parish. These records can start as early as the 1550s and they will either be found written in Spanish or French, depending on which side of the border the town is located.

The French side of the Basque Country (or the orange portion of the map above) have digitized and are available online through the following website:

http://earchives.le64.fr/etat-civil-search-form.html

The records from Navarra (or the purple portion on the map above) have not been completely digitized or indexed. You will find that the few records that are available online will be found at FamilySearch.org. We recommend that you use a combination of the FamilySearch Catalog and FamilySearch Record Search to find your records.

To access available information, first log into FamilySearch.