Genealogy

hugh said:

Where's the best place to start when one is conducting his/her genealogy?

Specific towns?

What documentation (i.e. birth certificate, ID, etc) is needed?

Are there any genealogical societies?


Any thoughts and suggestions are WELCOME!

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Genealogy is not an easy issue here, and depending on city/area you can not get very far back in time.
Simply because there were not regulations of register births, marriages and deaths like in many other countries.

There is a genealogy society in Santo Domingo, but they are not like what you would be used to from US or Europe. There mission is more to "protect" what is kept in writing, rather than make it available to the public.

Cemeteries is also tough, there are no listings or maps, and the people working at cemeteries have no idea who is burried where.
There is also not certain all family is burried in a family grave or nearby each other, they can be spread all over a cemetery.

In the work of completing a some family facts for a book in coperation with the Amber Museum here in Puerto Plata, I visited the city cemetery on several occations to try to find missing persons in my puzzle of dates and so on... It?s a long walk among those graves, I tell you!

In Puerto Plata I have also interviewed 2 old men that had memories from the time that was actual for me.

There are some census published for Puerto Plata 1871-1875-1789 and also notes from the Notarius Publico. Also some info from tombs in Santo Domingo.
You will find those on this page: http://genealogiadominicana.com/

If the ancestors you are looking for were travelling you might want to try
Ellis Island Archive at www.ellisisland.org

Don?t expect it to be easy! And you don?t get far back in time.
1850 is about it. :tired:

One good place to look-in some cases-

are the church baptismal records.

I do believe that there is a central archive in Santo Domingo and most parishes have one.

HB

The mormons have what is available on microfilm.
The mainoffice is in Utah, US, but looking at their website there is a few branches here in POP though as well.

By visiting www.familysearch.org you can search and see what is available on microfilm.
What is available, is usually the actual archives that is possible to find.

There are a few family history centers run by the LDS church (Mormons) in the DR. I know for sure there is at least one in Santo Domingo and I'm pretty sure there's one in San Pedro de Macoris. They have the records from the early 1500's to the present. If you want more info, contact the church or ask one of the missionaries you see down there.

Jared

But that is what I wrote in the posting before..
There are no records for DR from 1500 though..

carina said:

But that is what I wrote in the posting before..
There are no records for DR from 1500 though..

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Sorry for posting similar information. The difference, though, is that I mentioned the actual centers, located in various Dominican cities. The records from the 1500's were recently acquired, about a year and a half ago I think.

Jared

Hi!
The mormons have very little available on film for Dominican Republic ( and not all parts ), most are studies, books and some public records that goes back to the period of 1733-1755. These are nobility, and also some passenger records of people emigrating here from Teneriffe.
Also for various cities there are church records, a few consulate registers
and also some other civil registers from different cities, some from 1820 and most from 1860 and forth.

Do you know what records that have been found from 1500? And from what area? It is very interesting if found. I called the family center here in POP but the people there had never heard of it. Not many cities were founded here then, less churches, so it would be extremely interesting for me and anyone else interested in history.