Ecuador, Catholic Church Records, 1565-2023

What is in This Collection?

This collection contains Catholic Church parish records from parishes in dioceses and archdioceses in Ecuador. It includes the years 1565 to 2011. All the records of sacramental ordinances were created, registered, and kept by the priest in authority of his parish jurisdiction. The parish jurisdiction may have included sub-parishes in nearby localities. One register was generally kept at the parish archive and another copy sent to the diocesan archive for preservation.

Catholic Church parish registers are the primary source for finding genealogical information of birth, death, and marriage in Ecuador prior to 1900 when the civil registration was implemented. For the most part, the records are handwritten in narrative form. Only in later years are the records handwritten in formatted registers. Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

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 Ecuador, Catholic Church Records, 1565-2011.

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

Baptism Date and place of the baptism Name of child Date of birth Gender of child Parents’ names Names of godparents

Confirmation Date and place of confirmation Name Parents’ names Godparents

Marriage Date and place of marriage Names and ages of bride and groom Groom’s age Bride’s age Marital status of the groom and bride Groom’s parents’ names Bride’s parents’ names Witnesses' names

Death Date and place of death Name of deceased Age and residence of deceased Cause of death Parents’ names of deceased

Collection Content

Sample Images

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  1917 Baptism Record

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  1929 Baptism Record

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  Confirmation Record

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  1992 Marriage Record

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  1945 Death Record

Coverage Table

As of 24 January 2018 this collection included records from the following provinces:

For a complete list of all the parishes contained in this collection, see the Parishes of Ecuador coverage table.