Nicaragua, Civil Registration, 1809-2014

What is in This Collection?

The civil registration in Nicaragua was created to record the events of birth, marriage, death, and other civil events. These records would determine and prove the civil status, existence, and condition of the population. Civil registration is mandatory in Nicaragua; therefore most of the population has been registered. Before the government instituted civil registration in Nicaragua, the Catholic Church was the only institution tracking the births, marriages, and death events of the population. The first civil registration law was created on January 30, 1879.

In 1899, this law was changed to include other civil registration events such as: the recognition of illegitimate children, emancipation and age majority declarations, divorces, annulments, absentee declarations, and others. The registers of the Catholic Church created before this law were transferred to the municipality for control.

These civil records have been preserved relatively well. Some of the older registers may have some physical damage; however, in general they are still in good condition to extract genealogical information.

As of 3 March 2018, this collection included records from the following departments of Nicaragua:

Department
Boaco
Carazo
Chinandega
Chontales
León
Managua
Masaya
Región Autónoma del Atlántico Norte
Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur
Rivas

Reading These Records

These records are written in Spanish. For help reading them see:

• Spanish Genealogical Word List
• BYU Spanish Script Tutorial

FamilySearch Learning Center videos:

• Reading Spanish Handwriting

If you speak Spanish, the following free online lesson may be helpful to learn how to use the information in these records:

• Registros Civiles y Parroquiales – Spanish

To Browse This Collection

You can browse through images in this collection using the waypoints on the Collection Browse Page for Nicaragua, Civil Registration, 1809-2013.

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

Computer Aided Indexing (CAI)

Some or all of the indexed records for this collection were created using Computer Aided Indexing (CAI) from records digitized by FamilySearch or its partners. For more information on CAI see FamilySearch Computer Aided Indexing.

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information is usually found in these records:

Birth records	Marriage records	Death records
Date and place of birth	Date and place of marriage	Name of deceased
Child’s name and gender	Groom’s name, age and origin	Date, place and time of death
Legitimacy	Groom’s occupation and residence	Cause of death
Parents’ names	Bride’s name, age and origin	Legitimacy of deceased
Parents’ age, race, status and residence	Bride’s occupation and residence	Civil status and occupation of deceased
Occupation of father and mother	Names of witnesses	Name of spouse, if married
Names of witnesses		Parents’ names
		Parents’ civil status and residence
		Names of witnesses
		Sometimes, burial information

Collection Content

Sample Images

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  1879 Birth Record

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  1992 Delayed Birth Record

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  1891 Marriage Record

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  1910 Death Record