I would like to find records of my great great grandfather in Spain... which Bur

Question:

I would like to find records of my great great grandfather in Spain... which Bureau/ Dept. should I contact?

I'm doing Genealogy Research on my great great grandfather Mariano PARDO y Gimenez who was born in Spain in the 1800's. I'm trying to locate his other family members since he moved to the Philippines during the Spanish American War.

Thank you.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: You'll have great difficulty getting civil records. Unlike Britain, Canada, the US and Australia, the Spaniards, French and Mexicans refuse to put many of their records in the public domain. Your best bets are to contact their local archives for military records if you think he was a soldier. But if you know the name of his hometown, contact the Catholic parishes in the area to try to find his sacramental records on him and his parents.

Spain didn't keep any civil records until 1870...and even then, the compliance wasn't high for the first 30 years. Before 1870 it was the duty of the parish priest to register all births, marriages and deaths. VERY few of the Spanish records have been microfilmed, whether civil or religious. Unless you're lucky enough to find your ancestor in one of the very few areas that has been filmed, your only access to records will be to hire someone to physically visit the local archives to pull records for you.

Next, Spain is much like Belgium in the limits they put on they way we can search. They don't archive records on a regional or provincial scale. You MUST know the name of the town to find records on your ancestors. Most records aren't indexed and they won't be easy to find until you do get the hometown name.

Making more difficult is that lots of the records were destroyed during their civil war in the 1930s. If the townhall was destroyed, so were the civil registers.

Now for the really depressing part. Be skeptical about the idea that your gggrandfather moved to the Philippines during the Spanish American war and actually stayed. Spain lost the war and the Spaniards were expelled when the Americans took control of the government. Not a good time to be a recent immigrant. If he was living in the Philippines, I'd venture to bet he was there (and married) long before the war. If that's the case, then check the Catholic parishes in and near the town where he lived to see which records THEY have on him. If he was married in the Philippines, for example, then the parish there might very well mention the name of the parish in Spain where he was baptized as an infant.

Hope it helps. Wish I had better news for you.