Puerto Rican Church Research

I've decided to place this information here for easy access to myself and others. I'm no expert in each of these towns and I have only researched through a handful of them so forgive any naïvety on availability of records from their churches! I'm hoping this can be helpful to others in their quest to research their ancestors before 1885 (before the Civil Registry was created).

Towns divided into Diócesis [CEP]

As you can see above, each of the towns in Puerto Rico are divided across the island into different Dioceses who pretty much possess(ed) power over the records of the towns. My goal will be below to link each of the towns into their respective records on FamilySearch and from there give you a chance to jump directly to the pages/records. I've broken down the chart into the respective dioceses with their towns and once you click on the link it will take you to one of my posts with the town's records and hyperlinks to get you there.


Diócesis de San Juan
Diócesis de Fajardo
Diócesis de Caguas
Diócesis de Mayagüez*
Diócesis de Arecibo*
Diócesis de Ponce
Bayamón
Canóvanas
Aguas Buenas
Aguada
Arecibo
Carolina
Ceiba
Aibonito
Aguadilla
Barceloneta
Cataño
Culebra
Barranquitas
Añasco
Camuy
Dorado
Fajardo
Caguas  
Cabo Rojo
Ciales
Gurabo
Humacao
Cayey
Hormigueros
Corozal
Guayama
San Juan
Loíza
Cidra
Lajas
Florida
Toa Alta
Luquillo
Comerío
Las Marías
Hatillo
Toa Baja
Naguabo
Gurabo
Maricao
Isabela
Trujillo Alto
Río Grande
Juncos
Mayagüez
Manatí
Lares*
TOTAL: 9
Vieques
Las Piedras
Moca
Morovis
Patillas

TOTAL: 10
Maunabo
Rincón
Orocovis
Peñuelas


Naranjito
Sabana Grande
Quebradillas
Ponce


San Lorenzo
San Germán
Utuado
Salinas


Yabucoa
San Sebastián
Vega Alta
Santa Isabel


TOTAL: 14
TOTAL: 14
Vega Baja
Yauco




TOTAL: 15
Villalba





TOTAL: 16






TOTAL MUNICIPALITES OF PUERTO RICO: 78

*The Dioceses of Mayagüez and Arecibo did not allow their church records to be photographed by the Mormons of FamilySearch. There is rumor that the SPG (Sociedad Puertorriqueña de Genealogía) has started to help digitalize their records. Fingers crossed that this is true and their information will be available soon!* 

7 comments:

  1. Buena Vibra, Para Que EsTe Proyecto Sea un Rotundo Exito!

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  2. Gracias for your hard work and for making this available!

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  3. Thank you for this list of parishes by diocese. Your footnote explains why record images for Ponce parishes are wonderfully available on FamilySearch, but not the parishes of Mayaguez.

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  4. Arecibo records are there on FS however some are under lock and key by FS for what ever their reason. Extractos de registros parroquiales, siglos XVIII-XIX, Locked have to request film and view at a Center if you are lucky to have one. Registros civiles, 1885-1994 records are accesible. Mayaguez, Civil Records 1885-1894 accesible, I love this site. Thanks for all your work.

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  5. Since your posting this, has anything substantiated the rumor that SPG will be digitizing the records?

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    1. It has been confirmed! The SPG has already digitalized much of the books for the diócesis of Arecibo. Currently they are finishing up the edits, revisions and from my understanding the books once ready for the time being will be available at the Interamericana SPG headquarters. They don't have permission to distribute it online from what I've heard.

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  6. Thank you for your hard work. I've been working on my family tree and it is a lot of work! And I'm stuck on some names, but it is so interesting and exciting!

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