Identify freguesia and concelho in the record. A modern municipality may differ from the historical parish.
Prepare your research
Freguesia, concelho, district and period. Record repository, series and volume reference in Digitarq; do not assume parish and current municipality coincide.
The method, step by step
- Use Torre do Tombo tools and district archives to locate relevant series. Search collection, place and dates when no person index exists.
- Browse volumes and available tables. Record reference and image; a description may cover a whole register rather than individual entries.
- Compare available religious and civil records with destination documents for emigrant families. A surname alone does not establish kinship.
Choose the right repository
Identify freguesia, concelho and district archive. Digitarq may describe a whole volume without indexing its people.
Choose a route from the record you have
- Note locality, parish if known, type and year. In Digitarq read collection hierarchy: sparse descriptions may belong to the correct records.
- Check images, volume dates and original custody. If dates are missing, consult linked inventories rather than declaring a record nonexistent.
Find archives
Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo →
The service explains research tools including Digitarq for Portuguese collections. Search for a collection or parish before expecting a name result. Read the series description, then locate volumes and images where available.
District archives also hold useful records. A description implies neither a name index nor a digitised image.
Sources & references
- Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo ↗ (Resource review date : )