Dominican Republic, Catholic Church Records, 1590-2022
Catholic Church records created by parishes and dioceses in the Dominican Republic. These records include: baptisms, confirmations, marriages, pre-marriage investigations, marriage dispensations, deaths, and indexes. These records were obtained from public access sources in the Dominican Republic and may be used for informational and research purposes only. Please direct inquiries, requests, or concerns to the e-mail listed at the bottom of the FamilySearch Privacy Policy (https://familysearch.org/privacy/).
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Dominican Republic, Catholic Church Records
What is in This Collection?
This collection includes Catholic church baptism, marriage, and burial records from 1590 to 1955 for parishes throughout the Dominican Republic. For a list of the parishes in the Dominican Republic, see Parishes of the Dominican Republic.
The records in this collection were created in different Catholic Church jurisdictions throughout the Dominican Republic. Authorized priests received an order from the Queen of Spain to record the events of baptism, marriage, and burial of his parish jurisdiction. The records were to be recorded in registers that were kept at the parish level archive, and a copy was sent to the diocesan archive for preservation. Earlier records were handwritten in narrative style, and later records were handwritten in formatted registers. Depending on the priest, some records have more information than others.
The Catholic Church records of the Dominican Republic are the best reliable source for genealogical research. For research after the civil registration implementation in 1944, it is suggested to research both civil and church records and to compare the information.
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.
Reading These Records
These records are written in Spanish. For help reading them see:- Spanish Genealogical Word List
- Brigham Young University: Spanish Script Tutorial
- Reading Spanish Handwriting
- Paleogra-what?! Deciphering Spanish Handwriting - Introduction
- Registros Civiles y Parroquiales (In Spanish)
To Browse This Collection
| You can browse through images in this collection using the waypoints on the Collection Browse Page for Dominican Republic, Catholic Church Records, 1590-1955. |
What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:
Baptism
- Person's name
- Date and place of baptism
- Birth date
- Parents’ names
- Grandparents’ names
- Godparents’ names
Marriage
- Date and place of marriage
- Names of bride and groom
- Groom's age, origin, civil status and occupation
- Groom's parents' names
- Bride's age, origin, civil status and residence
- Bride's parents' names
- Witnesses' names
Burial
- Name of deceased
- Date of death
- Place of death
- Age, civil status, and origin of deceased
- Cause of death
- Parents' names
- Burial place
Collection Content
Sample Images
1895 Baptism Record
1920 Marriage Record
1938 Death Record
Inventory
For a list of all the parishes included in this Historical Records publication see Dominican Republic, Catholic Church Records - Inventory.
Collection Details
Language
Spanish
Location of Original Records
Multiple Catholic Church parishes
"República Dominicana, registros parroquiales y diocesanos, 1590-2022." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 27 January 2026. Parroquias Católicas, República Dominicana (Catholic Church parishes, Domincan Republic).
