Dominican ancestry

You don't say where you live Sofia. If you're in DR you can go to the archives in Santo Domingo where all the records are. If you're elsewhere, find out where the closest Mormon Family History Center is, they're literally all over the world. They have sent teams of photographers to SD to put all their records on microfilm. When you go to the FHC [Family History Center] you can rent any of the Dominican microfilms for about $5-6 - the FHC has microfilm readers so you can view them right there. Many of them have printers too, so you can make copies of records you want to keep. They will not let you take the films out of the FHC.

To find your closest FHC, go to FamilySearch.org - Family History and Genealogy Records and click on Libraries, then on Family History Centers. They also have SOME [not a lot] of records online. They're working on digitizing all their films, which will take decades to do. On that website you can also find a listing of every film available for the Dominican Republic.

All of the above is true no matter what your ancestry is. I've tracked my Italian ancestors back into the early-mid 1700s using those microfilms. Just starting my husband's Dominican family tree, will probably spend some time at the SD archives in January.

AE

Familias Dominicanas

I forgot to mention that there is a very hard to find set of books, 12 volumes I think, called Familias Dominicanas, which detail at length Dominican families back into the 1500s. Very interesting. Each volume covers a couple of letters of the alphabet - for example, Volume 1= Surnames starting with letter "A". I have only one volume, that for O & P surnames. [3 of my husband's surnames are Pena, Olivo and Piantini]

There is a group on Rootsweb who are doing Dominican genealogy research - some very serious people there, and many of them have different volumes of Familias Dominicanas and some will do lookups for you.

AE

Chip said:

Can you give the name of the organization and where it is located in SD and a phone number if possible?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Hi Chip, I believe this is it:

Archivo General de la Naci?n de la Rep?blica Dominicana
Calle Modesto D?az No. 2, Zona Universitaria
Santo Domingo
Phone # - 809-362-1111

AE

More about Familias Dominicanas

I just checked my files and found this e-mail which might interest some of you:

"I saw your request about trying to locate Carlos Larrazabal Blanco's "Familias Dominicanas" genealogy books, which is a 9 volume series. I have six volumes, if you need a lookup. All of these were purchased at Libreria La Trinitaria, Arzobispo Nouel, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and cost around US$10 per volume. However, volume I (on surnames beginning with A & B) is out of print -- I don't have it myself -- I wish I did.
If you are located in the United States, have you tried the research branch of your local public library? The New York Public Library (The New York Public Library) at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street has the complete set; however, it is not in the lending library system -- you must read it there, or use their photocopy facilities. I would also bet that the Library of Congress in Washington has the full set.
Good luck with your research!"