Uruguay Emigration and Immigration

Uruguay Wiki Topics
Beginning Research
Research Strategies Record Finder Finding Town of Origin Online Learning
Record Types
Church Records Civil Registration Colonial Records Emigration & Immigration Military Records	Notarial Records Online Records Periodicals Religious Records Vital Records
Uruguay Background
Gazetteers History Jurisdictions Languages Maps Naming Customs	Social Life and Customs Spanish Word List
Local Research Resources
Archives & Libraries Societies FamilySearch Centers

Uruguay

Emigration and Immigration

Uruguay Online Sources

• 1509-1599 Catálogo de pasajeros a Indias durante los siglos XVI, XVII y XVIII Lists of passengers from Spain to the New World during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries
• 1509-1701 Pasajeros a Indias : libros de asientos Archivo General de Indias. Commerce Section. Lists of passengers to the New World.
• 1888-1980 Uruguay, Passenger Lists, 1888-1980, index.

Uruguay Offices to Contact

The Dirección Nacional de Migración (National Directorate of Migration) is a department of the Ministry of the Interior and is in charge of controlling the entry and stay of foreigners in Uruguay. It has several immigration records from 1920 onwards. To consult them, it is necessary to request it in writing to the agency.

Dirección Nacional de Migración
Central Office
Misiones 1513
Montevideo, Uruguay
Telephone 2030 1800
Citizen Service Center 2030 1804

Instructions for Requesting Access

---

General de la Nación de Uruguay (General Archive of Uruguay)
Convención 1474.
11100 Montevideo
Uruguay

Tel.: (00 598 2) 900 7232
E-mail: consultas@agn.gub.uy
Website

The records of entry of passengers between 1829 and 1865 can be found among the documentary collection of the Police of Montevideo. In the reading room of the archive, there is a database to search for passengers in this documentary series.

---

Dirección Nacional de Identificación Civil (National Directorate of Civil Identification) Rincón 665 esq. Bartolomé Mitre. Montevideo
Uruguay
Email
Website

This contains the documentation on all those emigrants who obtained an identification document in Uruguay, which began to be issued after 1912.

Finding the Town of Origin in Uruguay

If you are using emigration/immigration records to find the name of your ancestors' town in Uruguay, see Uruguay Finding Town of Origin for additional research strategies.

Uruguay Emigration and Immigration

"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country.
Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.

Emigration from Uruguay

• Emigration from Uruguay began tentatively about a century ago, but experienced a significant increase since the 1960s. Successive economic crises (notably in 1982 and 2002), plus the small size of the country's economy and population, were decisive factors that pushed thousands of Uruguayans out of their country of birth.
• Economic migrants traveled primarily to other Spanish-speaking countries with bigger economies.
• As Uruguay has a relatively well-developed educational system and free access to the University of the Republic, many Uruguayan professional graduates and scholars found their country too small to achieve their own goals, which resulted in a brain drain.
• The 12-year-long military dictatorship that ruled from 1973 to 1985 also forced many Uruguayans to go into exile due to ideological differences and political persecution, in the context of the Cold War.

Uruguay Records Content

For the Uruguay, Passenger Lists, 1888-1980 listed above, the following information may be found:

• First and Last Name of Relative
• Port or Country of Origin
• Gender
• Age
• Occupation
• Marital Status
• Nationality