Bolivia, Catholic Church Records, 1566-2020

What is in This Collection?

This collection includes baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and burial/deaths from Catholic Church parishes in the country of Bolivia. The text is handwritten in Spanish, mostly in narrative form. In later years the records are handwritten in formatted registers. Generally, these records were written in chronological order. In smaller parishes, one book was used for all the ordinances, such as baptism, marriage, and death. In larger cities, separate books were kept for each of the ordinances. Confirmations were generally written in the baptismal registers.

A list of the cities and parishes included in this collection is found in the Parishes of Bolivia coverage table.

Catholic Church parish registers are the primary source for finding genealogical information of birth, death, and marriage prior to 1943 when the civil registration law was enacted in Bolivia. Copies of originals are also housed in various diocesan archives throughout Bolivia.

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

FamilySearch Learning Center:

• 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 Bolivia Catholic Church Records, 1566-1996.

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

Baptism Baptism date and place Name of the person baptized When and where the person was born Age at time of baptism Legitimacy Parents’ names, residence, and/or place of birth Names of maternal and paternal grandparents Names of godparents

Confirmation Name Parents’ names Godparents Parish of origin Parish of baptism

Marriage Date and place of the marriage Name of groom Groom’s age, civil status, and occupation Groom’s birthplace and current residence Groom’s parents’ names Name of bride Bride’s age, civil status, and occupation Bride’s birthplace and current residence Names of Godparents'

Death Date and place of death Name and age of deceased Name of spouse if married Residence of deceased Name of cemetery

Collection Content

Sample Images

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  1922 Baptism Record

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  1832 Confirmation Record

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  1922 Marriage Record

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  1891 Death Record