Portugal Church Directories
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In other languages: Português (Portugal)Online Resources
- Províncias Eclesiásticas e Dioceses at Conferência Episcopal Portuguesa
- Catholic Church in Portuguese Republic at GCatholic.org
- Inventário Colectivo dos Registos Paroquiais(*) at FamilySearch Catalog — images
- Anuário católico de Portugal: 1988-1990. By Portugal Secretariado de Informação Religiosa. Lisboa, Portugal: Secretariado Geral do Epsicopado, 1989. FS Catalog book 946.9 K24a; At various libraries (WorldCat)
Portugal Church Directories
The Catholic church kept all records of birth, marriage, and death in Portugal until 1878, and continued to record these events for members of their church until 1911.
All parish records were moved to District and National archives in 1911. Although the majority of these records have been digitized, few have been indexed. Thus, researchers need to know the name of the parish their ancestors attended in order to locate baptism, marriage, and burial records. This can be done through a church directory.
Church directories list all of the parishes in a given area. Once the name of the parish nearest an ancestor's town of origin has been located, the records for that church can be searched at the corresponding district archive.
A church directory lists dioceses, parishes, and possibly ministers. They can provide information such as
- Parish address.
- Addresses for church officials.
- Lists of church jurisdictions and headquarters.
- Chronological lists of principal church officials.
- Addresses of church schools or other institutions.
Once the parish has been located, refer to Portugal Church Records for information on accessing and reading the parish records.