Puerto Rican Church records
I’ve decided to place this information here for easy access to myself and others. I’m no expert in each of these towns and I have only researched through a handful of them so forgive any naïvety on availability of records from their churches! I’m hoping this can be helpful to others in their quest to research their ancestors before 1885 (before the Civil Registry was created).
As you can see above, each of the towns in Puerto Rico are divided across the island into different Dioceses who pretty much possess(ed) power over the records of the towns. My goal will be below to link each of the towns into their respective records on FamilySearch and from there give you a chance to jump directly to the pages/records. I’ve broken down the chart into the respective dioceses with their towns and once you click on the link it will take you to one of my posts with the town’s records and hyperlinks to get you there.
| Diócesis de San Juan | Diócesis de Fajardo | Diócesis de Caguas | Diócesis de Mayagüez* | Diócesis de Arecibo* | Diócesis de Ponce |
| Bayamón | Canóvanas | Aguas Buenas | Aguada | Arecibo | Adjuntas |
| Carolina | Ceiba | Aibonito | Aguadilla | Barceloneta | Arroyo |
| Cataño | Culebra | Barranquitas | Añasco | Camuy | Coamo |
| Dorado | Fajardo | Caguas | Cabo Rojo | Ciales | Guánica |
| Gurabo | Humacao | Cayey | Hormigueros | Corozal | Guayama |
| San Juan | Loíza | Cidra | Lajas | Florida | Guayanilla |
| Toa Alta | Luquillo | Comerío | Las Marías | Hatillo | Jayuya |
| Toa Baja | Naguabo | Gurabo | Maricao | Isabela | Juana Díaz |
| Trujillo Alto | Río Grande | Juncos | Mayagüez | Manatí | Lares* |
| TOTAL: 9 | Vieques | Las Piedras | Moca | Morovis | Patillas |
| TOTAL: 10 | Maunabo | Rincón | Orocovis | Peñuelas | |
| Naranjito | Sabana Grande | Quebradillas | Ponce | ||
| San Lorenzo | San Germán | Utuado | Salinas | ||
| Yabucoa | San Sebastián | Vega Alta | Santa Isabel | ||
| TOTAL: 14 | TOTAL: 14 | Vega Baja | Yauco | ||
| TOTAL: 15 | Villalba | ||||
| TOTAL: 16 | |||||
| TOTAL MUNICIPALITES OF PUERTO RICO: 78 | |||||
*The Dioceses of Mayagüez and Arecibo did not allow their church records to be photographed by the Mormons of FamilySearch. The SPG (Sociedad Puertorriqueña de Genealogía) has helped digitalize Arecibo’s records but there is currently no accessibility to these records online and are only available via the Facultad Interamericana where the SPG has its home base. Fingers crossed that this information might one day will be available online!*