Venezuela Civil Registration
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How to Find the Records[edit | edit source]
Online Records[edit | edit source]
- 1873-2003 Venezuela Civil Registration, 1873-2003, index and images for some states.
- More online records are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog. Search by town.
Offices to Contact[edit | edit source]
Civil registration records are kept at the local civil registration office in each municipality. You must determine the town where your ancestor lived before you can find the records. A civil registration district may include several towns or a small section of a large city. In addition to the town, you need to know an approximate year in which the birth, marriage, divorce, or death occurred.Officials might or might not respond.
- For a listing of addresses for towns (municipios), see the FamilySearch Research Wiki page for your province.
- For towns not listed, use this address as a guide, replacing the information in parentheses:
- Oficino del Registro Civil
- (street name, number)
- (city or town), (state)
- (postal code)
- Venezuela
Write your request in Spanish whenever possible. Use the translated questions and phrases in this Spanish Letter-writing Guide to assist you in writing your letter in Spanish. Send the following when requesting information:
- Money for the search fee, usually $10.00
- Full name and the sex of the ancestor sought
- Names of the ancestor’s parents, if known
- Approximate date and place of the event
- Your relationship to the ancestor
- Reason for the request (family history, medical, and so on)
- Request for a photocopy of the complete original record
Historical Background[edit | edit source]
The Venezuela Civil Registration, 1873-2003 collection includes records from 1873 to 2003 of births, marriages, and deaths in separate books at different municipal offices of the civil registry. Some localities may be listed under their old administrative jurisdictions, depending on the time of the creation of the record.
Before 1873, the Catholic Church was the only organization that recorded important events in a person’s life, such as baptism, marriage, and death or burial. However, in the early months of 1826, the government began creating the civil records of the judicial and non-judicial civil acts of their citizens under the National Treasury Department in the mortgage annotations office. The government also wanted a duplicate copy of the Catholic Church registers to use for civil records.
Coverage and Compliance[edit | edit source]
Civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths began in 1865.
Information Recorded in the Records[edit | edit source]
The following information is usually found in these records:
| Birth records | Marriage records | Death records |
| Name of civil authority of local municipality | Date and place of marriage | Date and place of registration |
| Date and place of registration | Name of local civil authority | Name of local civil authority |
| Presenter of child (usually the father) | Name and age of groom | Name of local informant, their occupation and residence |
| Name and gender of child | Groom's legitimacy | Name and age of deceased |
| Date, time and place of birth | Groom's occupation, marital status, and origin | Date, time and place of death |
| Legitimacy of child | Groom's religion | Sometimes, cause of death is given |
| Parents’ names, including maiden name of mother | Names of the groom’s parents | Sometimes, spouse's name if deceased was married |
| Occupation of father | Parents' age, occupation and residence | Sometimes, parents’ names if deceased was a minor |
| Names of witnesses | Name and age of bride | Burial information |
| Bride's occupation, marital status and origin | ||
| Bride's religion | ||
| Names of the bride’s parents | ||
| Parents' age, occupation and residence | ||
| Names of witnesses, their age, occupation and residence |
References[edit | edit source]