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!
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: