AZORES ISLANDS
THE DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
The CCA or Centro de Conhecimento dos Açores http://www.culturacores.azores.gov.pt
is the digital repository for most of the civil and ecclesiastical records from the nine islands that are part of the Azores archipelago.
If you need help translating or transcribing Portuguese records visit my Paleography page where I talk about Portuguese records and how translating and transcribing affects your research.
https://myportuguesegen.blogspot.com/p/books-and-documents-are-important.html
Azores Parish Records (Pesquisa de Registros Paroquiais)
For birth, marriage and death records from the Catholic Church, from 1541 until 1911, click here:
http://www.culturacores.azores.gov.pt/ig/registos/Default.aspx
Indexes for parish records
Indexes for different parishes in Pico, Corvo, Faial, São Jorge, and other regions in Portugal can be found in the link below from Citcem (Centro de Investigação Disciplinar), from Minho University.
http://www.ghp.ics.uminho.pt/genealogias.html
Passports (Pesquisa de Passaportes)
For passports from Terceira, Graciosa and São Jorge (since 1770) click on Angra do Heroismo;
For passports from Corvo, Pico, Faial and Flores (since 1836) click on Horta, and
For passports from São Miguel and Santa Maria click on Ponta Delgada.
http://www.culturacores.azores.gov.pt/ig/passaportes/Default.aspx
Indexes for a few Passport Registers in Azores
To facilitate finding your ancestor in the Passport Register, I have been organizing different Google searchable spreadsheets for each book, and based on the information provided by the two of the three main libraries, the one in Horta and the other in Ponta Delgada. Right now I was able to organize a few books that are listed below. If you do not see the book and the date you are looking for, you can always go to the Archeevo website, which hosts a partial Azores database and check their list. The two links will take you to the Archeevo database.
Ponta Delgada: https://arquivos.azores.gov.pt/details?id=1076970
Horta: https://arquivos.azores.gov.pt/details?id=1220924
Passport indexes:
Horta, Faial: 1839 to 1950:
Passport Register Index - 1839-1850 - Horta
Horta, Faial: 1850 to 1956:
Passaport Register Index - 1950 - 1956 - Horta
Ponta Delgada, São Miguel Island: 10 May 1875 to 16 Nov 1883:
Finding a passport request date is key in your research as it provides a close time frame to the departure of your ancestor from the Azores, and his arrival in the destination country. After August 1927 passports were required by law to contain a photo identification.
If you have ancestors from São Miguel, or Santa Maria islands, it is most certain that your ancestor requested the passport in Ponta Delgada.
THE PHYSICAL COLLECTIONS
“Each Azorean Island is organized into one or more administrative districts, each being divided into parishes, known by their administrative name or by their patron saint….The original documents lie in the Public Libraries and Regional Archives of the Azores, in Ponta Delgada (S. Miguel), Angra do Heroísmo (Terceira) and Horta (Faial).”
Terceira, Graciosa and São Jorge Islands - Angra do Heroísmo administrative region.
Genealogy São Jorge Island
http://www.culturacores.azores.gov.pt/biblioteca_digital/GENEALOGIAS-SAOJORGE-MATEUSAZEVEDO/GENEALOGIAS-SAOJORGE-MATEUSAZEVEDO_item1/P2.html
Biblioteca Pública e Arquivo Regional Luis da Silva Ribeiro
Rua do Morrão, 42 - 9700-054 Angra do Heroísmo
Telefone: (+351) 295 401 000Fax: (+351) 295 401 009
email: bparah.arquivo@azores.gov.pt
https://bparlsr.azores.gov.pt
- Angra Archive
https://bparlsr.azores.gov.pt/arquivo_regional/
- Genealogical resources:
https://bparlsr.azores.gov.pt/categorias_ar/colecoes/fontes-genealogicas/
- Information on how to request copy of records
https://bparlsr.azores.gov.pt/1583-2/
- Angra do Heroismo Digital Library
https://bparlsr.azores.gov.pt/arquivo_regional/
Santa Maria and São Miguel Islands - Ponta Delgada administrative region.
Genealogy São Miguel
http://www.culturacores.azores.gov.pt/biblioteca_digital/GENEALOGIAS-CARLOSMACHADO/GENEALOGIAS-CARLOSMACHADO_item1/P1.html
Biblioteca Pública e Arquivo Regional de Ponta Delgada
São Miguel and Santa Maria Islands
Largo do Colégio s/n - 9500-054 Ponta Delgada
Phone: (+351) 296 305 040 Fax (+351) 296 281 216
email: bpar.pdelgada.info@azores.gov.pt
Information on how to request a copy of records:
https://bparpd.azores.gov.pt/a_biblioteca/pedido-de-certidao/
Faial, Pico, Flores and Corvo Islands - Horta administrative region
Biblioteca Pública Arquivo Regional João José da Graça - Horta
Faial, Pico, Flores and Corvo Islands
Rua Walter Bensaúde, 14 - 9900-142 Horta
Phone: (+351) 292 208190 Fax: (+351) 292 208199
email: bpar.horta.info@azores.gov.pt
website: http://bibliotecajoaojosegraca.pai.pt/
Núcleo Cultural da Horta, Faial
Rua Eduardo Bulcão, s/n, 9900-116 HORTA
http://www.nch.pt/
Other digital resources for researching Azores and Portugal records:
Genealogia FB
This is one of the best resources you will find about Portugal genealogy and history. It is not in English, but offers tons of indexes for both Portugal and Azores. It grows every day and it does not require any registration to access the indexes. All the work is developed by historians and family researchers volunteers, including myself, and is available for FREE.
http://genealogiafb.blogspot.pt/
Family Search
Family Search website with links to Portugal Historic Archives.
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Azores,_Portugal_Genealogy
Repositório Histórico
Portuguese Archives available online
http://www.repositoriohistorico.pt/
Tombo.pt
Portugal and Azores districts and parishes archives in a easy way to access the historical records.
http://e.tombo.pt/
Historical Atlas and Parishes
Website where you can re-create the parishes and historical territorial division in Portugal and Azores. If you want to locate the parish or religious division in Portugal and Azores, give a try on this tool, it is very useful. Maximize parts of the map to have smaller divisions and more detail.
http://atlas.fcsh.unl.pt/cartoweb35/atlas.php?lang=pt
PORTUGAL MAINLAND
Online archives from Torre do Tombo, Lisbon, Portugal
Torre do Tombo is the Portuguese National Archives.
Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo
Alameda da Universidade
1649-010 Lisbon, Portugal
http://digitarq.dgarq.gov.pt/
Projeto GERMIL
Military records
https://ahm-germil.exercito.pt/
Diário do Governo and other newspapers
https://digigov.cepese.pt/en/homepage
Emigration - Portugal to Brazil
http://www.remessas.cepese.pt/remessas/
Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino
http://ahu.dglab.gov.pt/
Archives from the Ministério Ultramar
http://arquivos.ministerioultramar.holos.pt/source/presentation/pag.php?pag=0