Getting Church Records in Spain

[Sweeney]

I have a genealogy question that I hope more experienced researchers can answer. I know that Spanish Church records are a great source of family history information, but how do I know which church to write to? All I know is my grandparents lived in Salinas, Oviedo, Spain. I am told they were born and lived there, but I was never told which church they attended? Is there a way to identify the Catholic Church that could have the records of my ancestors? Thanks in advance for your help.

[Bob]

The Spanish Catholic church has a website that lists all parroquias (parishes), etc., but the simplest answer to your questions is that if the records you want date from 1957 or so, write to the church in Salinas. As of a year or so ago, the person to write to was XXX (Upon reflection, I have deleted the name and address to prevent him from being swamped/ with mail from casual visitors to the forum. If you are a member and need the information, please email me or send me a private message. Bob). My father, my brother, and I met him in October of 1999, and found him friendly and helpful. We still correspond from time to time.

For records before 1957, the church is most likely that of San Martin de Laspra, which is staffed part time by a priest from out of town. He is XXX (Name deleted for the same reason as above. Bob), who lives in Piedras Blancas. I do not have a mailing address for him, but you can look it up in the Spanish white pages.

It is only polite to write in Spanish (many priests in Spain do not read English, just as many priests in the US do not read Spanish) , to enclose a couple of international reply coupons to defray the return mail costs(they are available from your local post office), and to offer to reimburse the priest for the cost of the search, copying and mailing. Whatever search and copying they may do, they do out of the goodness of their hearts, and the searches are all done manually and are quite time-consuming (lots of old hand-written records in difficult to decipher handwriting). A small offering to the church would not hurt either.

I am not at all a religious person, but I found it deeply gratifying to request that a Mass be said for my grandparents (I sent an offering of $25 or so) near where they were born, grew up, and married. I cannot help think that this would have pleased them a great deal.

Bob Martinez

[Art]

Bob, your genealogy etiquette suggestions touch on issues I'd never thought about! Thanks for the tips.

Would you recommend sending the donation and ask for a mass when you ask about the records or after?

I was told that the church records in Avilés had been lost. (I think I remember someone saying they had been burned during the Civil War.) If that's the case does anyone have any other ideas of where to look, or would there only have been one copy?

[Bob]

I would start with the parish church, once you have identified which parish they are likely to be in. Copies may have been sent to the diocesan office, so that is another place to check. For both religious and civil records (civil records have been in existence only since 1870 or so), I would start with the smallest location and work up from there. It is more likely to be accurate, in my opinion.

Please be aware that the way in which our ancestors described where they are from often corresponds with their own mental map of the world rather than political reality. My grandfather always said that he was from Salinas, and then added Piedras Blancas, Aviles, (sometimes Oviedo) and Asturias. However, Salinas is near Aviles, but it is actually in Castrillon, not Aviles. Piedras Blancas is the seat of government for Castrillon, and is quite close to Salinas. Both locations are part of the diocese of Oviedo. My grandmother was from La Vallina, a neighborhood of San Martin de Laspra, which is part of Piedras Blancas. San Martin was also nicknamed San Martin de los Pimientos because of the peppers that were grown there. It is on top of the cliff at the western end of the beach in Salinas.

In various towns, some records were destroyed during the civil war. Other were destroyed by accidental fires or by people wishing to avoid the draft by removing any documentation of their existence.

While I do not have a great deal of experience in trying to get copies of church records from Spain, my gut feeling is that it would be better to establish a relationship first and then ask for the favor of a search of church records.

By the way, some contemporary Spanish handwriting is difficult for Americans to read, and some of the older handwriting presents even more problems. Be sure to ask for an actual photocopy of the record you want instead of a transcription of it. There are multiple errors and one good sized omission in the transcription of my grandfathers birth certificate as compared to the photocopy I later obtained.

[Cathy Langhoff]

I wrote to the priest of two different churches, a year apart. I wrote in Spanish and sent reply coupons and the second time a donation. I did not receive a reply from anyone, not even a thanks for the donation!

I DID receive a FAST reply from the civil authorities. I got back a marriage and a birth record within three weeks. I addressed my letter to "El Secretario Judicial; Registro Civil; Oviedo, Asturias, Espana." (You'll direct it to the city you are writing to) I used this greeting: "Distinguished Senor" My college Spanish is awful but I used the dictionary and the best grammar I could remember. They were absolutely wonderful. You must not ask for more than two papers and they will send them. [BTW- I'd be happy to send copies of Sabino & Josefa Menendez marriage record to anyone who wants it.]

[Sweeney]

I had the opposite experience as Cathy. I wrote the Civil authorities and I also wrote the Church. A few weeks later I received transcripts of my Grandparents' baptismal records and marriage certificate from the church. I am still waiting for a reply from the Civil records office. I did as Bob suggested. I wrote in Spanish and English. I sent a donation for the parish and I also sent a self-addressed envelope and money to cover postage (I could not find a post office that carried International Reply Coupons).

[anton]

I am an Asturian, I was told two years ago to search for the genealogy of relative that lives in England, and in my opinion is best to try the Catholic Church rather than civil authorities, because, as somebody pointed out, their records are much older.
Notice that Asturies is divided in 78 counties (municipios or conceyos/concejos), and those are divided in parishes, which were the ones responsible of recording births, marriages and deaths for centuries. The confusion some of you suffer is that since the 1830´s until 1981 Asturias was legally known as the Province of Oviedo, due to Spanish centralism. In other cases, what is happening is that you are making reference to what is called Judicial Party, a certain number of counties that depend on the same Court only for legal purposes, that´s the case of Salinas (I grew up there) and Piedras Blancas, they both belong to Piedras Blancas County, being the latter its capital, but they have to attend Avilés Courts when they get in trouble.
You also have to consider that, while the counties date back from early Middle Age, many parishes have been redrawn due to too many people moving to the cities.
I think what would best for you is to contact iglesiadeasturias.org and explain your case in Spanish (English is not understood by the average priest, French would be better), and ask for help on where to look. I believe most of the records have been withdrawn from the churches and are kept there, in Oviedo. That´s what I did succesfully.
Another useful tip is that it´s better to look for the house of origin (if you know it) rather than for an individual person, this way you are more likely to come acroos that person among the list of births (actually baptisms), marriages and deaths listed relating to that house.
You also have to notice that almost all names of places, and even people, have been sistematically "spanishied", adapting the original asturian form to Spanish phonetics and grammar.
In my opinion, donations should be far from compulsory in any case, I think it would be best to appeal to good old-fashioned christian kindness, rejoining the family. Make them feel involved in your problem.
Funny enough, I think there is a group of US mormons that are filming those records in order to find the original parents of the human kind, Adan and Eve. Oh, well...

[MariaIsabelCueto]

Hi Donna...when you find out, let me know! Thanks!!

[Sweeney]

I have a question about Church Records. If you wish to find records on an ancestor, but you have no idea which town they are from in Asturias, can you write the main Diocesan Office in Oviedo and have a search done for the Ancestor using only their name and date of Birth/Marriage/Death?

[JuanLeon]

The Church records go back to the 16th century but are not computerized and
have not always been kept in good order. It is unlikely that it is feasible to do a search on them for the whole diocesis.

Perhaps we should start a foundation to computerize the records.

Someone mentioned rumors that the parochial archives in Avilés had been destroyed during the Civil War. There are several parishes in Avilés (Sabugo, Avilés, Llaranes, Miranda, La Magdalena used to be different towns) and it is true that many churches were burnt, along with their records, during the war. But the records of S. Nicolás de Bari, in Avilés, were hidden in people´s houses and survived. I think I saw the chief priest there point me to the actual records in a room that I think was called "Archivo Parroquial", so I would guess the records for at least that important parish remain in the parish and have not moved to Oviedo, seat of the diocesis.

[Eleonore]

Hi, on my map of Spain I found a town calles CRESPOS near a larger city - Avila, are they in Asturias? Crespo is my husband's surname, and we know from his gr.grandfather's death certificate that the Crespos came from Asturias;thanks, Eleonore

[Art]

Sorry, Ávila is a city and province just north of Madrid. I don't think there are an Ávila in Asturias.

But has been was plenty of migration around Spain, hasn't there?

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Lamentablemente, Ávila es una ciudad y provincia un poco al norte de Madrid. No creo que haya un Ávila en Asturias.

Pero ha sido bastante migración en España, ¿no?