1. © 2013 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
Finding Relatives in
Spanish Church Records
Southern California Genealogy Jamboree
Ben Baker
bakerb@familysearch.org

2. Background
• Over 11 years as a Software Engineer at FamilySearch
• While some content is FamilySearch specific, the same principles apply
when working with Spanish church records anywhere
• Currently on the Automated Content Extraction team
• Spent last year plus working to publish millions of Spanish church records
• Continue to personally view records daily – have seen thousands
• Focus has started with christenings, moving on to other types
• Have literally viewed thousands of records and continue to do so daily
• Have given several other family history related presentations over
the years, See https://www.slideshare.net/bakers84
• Email me (bakerb@familysearch.org) with questions or to get a
copy of the presentation

3. FamilySearch
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides FamilySearch
services free of charge to everyone
• Why we believe genealogy is important
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/topic/genealogy
• Some statistics (2020)
• 1.3 billion people in the world’s largest collaborative family tree which is
backed by 1.7 billion genealogical sources
• 4.3 billion published historical images with 8.3 billion searchable names
• Over 5200 family history centers worldwide
• Why Spanish?
• Is 2nd most spoken language by church members, soon to become top one
• Plus, numerous people with Spanish speaking ancestry
• Don’t have nearly as many indexed records in Spanish as English yet

4. High Level Process
• Find Records Of Interest
• Determine Record Structure/Boundaries
• Read the Record
• Identify key words indicating people, events, dates,
places, relationships, etc.
• Understand what is written and what it means
• Assemble information using additional knowledge and
context data

5. Find Records of Interest
• Available in many countries
• Most people in these countries were Catholic
• Searching indexed records
• Computer-Assisted Indexing
• Explore Historical Images
• Browse All Published Collections
• Catalog

6. Kinds of Church Records
• Christening
• Marriage
• Death
• Burial
• Confirmation
• More

7. Searching Indexed Records
• Search/Records menu from home page
• Intro video outlining a few different ways to search
https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/rtc2021/session/searching-
records-on-familysearch-org

8. Refining Search Results
• Learn to add terms to narrow down results
• Can also narrow down to certain collections, dates
and/or places
• TIP: Don’t put in too much info because it will search
for records with all the characteristics

9. Computer-Assisted Indexing
• Uses advanced Machine Learning/AI technologies
• Process is very similar to a genealogist
• Must meet quality thresholds to publish
• Using for other record types too (obituaries, etc.)
• Already replacing dozens of years of indexing effort
• Can extract more information than traditional
indexing (Ex. godparents)
• Seeking to allow homelands to be more involved in
building local content
• Can correct errors

10. Computer-Assisted Indexed Records

11. Correcting Errors

12. Correcting Larger Errors

13. Explore Historical Images
• Narrow down to time and place where you are interested
• Like looking through microfilm in the old days
• Look for indexes to help find what you want more quickly

14. Explore Historical Images - Results

15. Explore Historical Images - Images

16. Browse All Published Collections

17. Catalog

18. Determine Record Structure/Boundaries
• Understand what
constitutes a record
• Catholic Church
often gave
instructions for how
to produce, so
often formulaic
• Realize that
computer-assisted
indexing may mess
this up sometimes

19. What You’ll Find in Record Types
Type
Christening Indicates infant’s name and christening date/place
Most indicate birth date – sometimes relative to birth
Most indicate parents and legitimacy of child
Most indicate godparents
Some indicate grandparents
Usually indicates one or more priests
Confirmation Sometimes kept separately, sometimes with christenings
Most indicate godparents
Some indicate parents
Marriage Indicates date/place of marriage
Many indicate ages, occupations and residence of bride and groom
Marital status if previously widowed
Most indicate witnesses
Death/Burial Indicates name, date and place of death and/or burial
Most indicate age, place of residence
May indicate parents
May indicate spouse and/or marriage status (single, widowed, etc.)

20. Reading the Record
• Basic key words
• Spanish spelling
• Common abbreviation patterns

21. Basic Key Words – Events
Birth nació, nacida(o)
Christening bauticé, bautismo, bautizado
Confirmation confirmación
chrisma
óleo
Marriage casé / casado / casar / casó /
casamiento
matrimonio
Death defunción
fallecimiento / fallecido(a)
muerto(a)
difunto(a)
Burial sepultura / sepultado(a)
entierro / entierrado(a)

22. Event Key Words

23. Basic Key Words – Relationships/People
Child hijo legítimo / hija legítima
niño(a)
párvulo(a)
Godparents padrinos / madrina / padrino
Grandparents abuelos / abuela / abuelo
(often with maternos / paternos
designation)
Spouse esposo(a)
marido(a)
viudo(a) – widowed
Witnesses testigos
Neighbors vecinos
Indicators of priest
(often abbreviated)
Presbitero / Fray / Bachiller / Señor

24. Relationship/People Key Words

25. Basic Key Words –
Numbers/Dates/Places
Numbers uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete,
ocho, nueve, diez, once, doce, trece,
catorce, quince, dieciseis, …, veinte,
treinta, cuarenta, cincenta, sesenta,
setenta, ochenta, noventa
Months enero, febrero, marzo, abril, mayo,
junio, julio, agosto, septiembre,
octubre, noviembre, diciembre
Years mil novecientos/ ochocientos /
setecientos / seiscientos - 1900 / 1800
/ 1700 / 1600
Places parroquia / parroquial / parroquiales-
parish
iglesia - church
Get familiar with place names in area
you’re in

26. Numbers/Dates/Places Key Words

27. Spanish Spelling
• Rules regulating spelling have not always existed
and the spoken and written language is not the
same everywhere in the Spanish-speaking world.
There is also often Latin and Catalan influence and
usage.
b-v-u abuelos = avuelos
ciudad = civdad = çibdad
j-g-x Jimenez = Gimenez = Ximenez
mujer = mugger = muxer
c-z-s-ss-ç bauticé = bautisé = bautizé
iglesia = iglessia = iglecia
casé = casse
licencia = liçencia = lizencia = licenzia =
lisensia = licensia = lisencia = lissensia
i-y iglesia = yglesia
maio = mayo

28. Common Abbreviation Patterns
Contraction (sometimes with overlining) fha = fecha
𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑟𝑜̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ = entierro
nrl = natural
Superposition Ma = Mariá
Manl = Manuel
Rodrigz = Rodríguez
vno = vecino
Suspension leg. = legítimo
Ab. Pat. = Abuelo(s) paterno(s)
Initialisms h.l./h.n. = hijo legítimo/hijo natural
N.S. = Nuestro Señor
Conventionalisms X or Xpto = Christo = Cristo
7bre, 8bre, 9bre, Xbre =
septiembre, octubre, noviembre,
diciembre

29. Abbreviation Patterns Example

30. Abbreviation Patterns Transcriptions
En cuatro de Septiembre del año de mil ochocientos,
once: Yo el infrascrito cura de esta Parroquial
del Santo Sacramento Augustín de Guacara bauticé Solemlemente
puse S. ⌨o C. y di bendiciones según el Ritual Romano a José Gil-
dela concepción. hijo natural de María Luísa Blanco.
Parda: fue su madrina Francisca Marco, adverti
el parentesco y sus obligación. de que certifico
Pedro de Osio
En quatro de Sepre del año de mil ochoctos,
once: Yo el infrascripto cura de esta Parroql.
del S. S. Agustn de Guacara bautisé Solemtmte
puse S. ⌨o C. y di vends segn el R. R. á José Gil-
dela concepcion. H. N. de María Luisa Blanco.
Parda: fue su mada Franca Marco, adverti
el parentco y sus obligacion. de qe certifico
Pedro de Osio

31. Additional Resources
Spanish Script Tutorial
https://script.byu.edu/Pages/the-spanish-documents-pages/the-spanish-documents(english)
Spanish FamilySearch wiki – Spanish Genealogical Word List
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Spanish_Genealogical_Word_List
FamilySearch Research Wiki – search for country/topics of interest
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Main_Page
Free Online Classes – (Search for several about Spanish handwriting)
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Classes_in_the_Learning_Center
Spanish Paleography Digital Learning and Teaching Tool
http://spanishpaleographytool.org/?fbclid=IwAR1Eo7HJprlhQfTBxu6kmeisIv__3_9xQu3ksdlt_92-
AkwWPBPzo4mRvSM
Dictionary of Spanish Abbreviations (in Spanish)
https://www.iifilologicas.unam.mx/dicabenovo/index.php?page=muestra-lista2a

32. ¡Gracias!
¡Buena suerte! (Good luck!)
¡Tú puedes! (You can do it!)
bakerb@familysearch.org