Record Atlas
8 eras · 1232–2026 · 17 places

The Kingdom of Granada — Granada, Málaga, Almería

Granada, Málaga, Almería, San Pedro Alcántara. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Where researchers lose records here

1568–1833 — THE TRAP for the Alpujarras. The Morisco revolt ran from 24 December 1568 to March 1571; about 80,000 Moriscos (roughly half) were expelled from the kingdom, those from the Almería region by galley to Seville, and from 1571 settlers from western Andalusia, Galicia, Castile, Valencia, Murcia and the northern mountains were brought in to repopulate. A family in these villages after the 1570s may therefore come from outside Granada, and the surviving Moriscos were later expelled from Spain in 1609–1614. The end date 1833 is the year of the national provincial division (Javier de Burgos); that it ended the Kingdom of Granada as such is not established here. After 1834 the Audiencia Territorial de Granada covered Granada, Almería, Jaén and Málaga.

1936–1939 — THE FRONT RAN THROUGH THE REGION. Granada's garrison rose on 20 July 1936 and the rebels held the whole city by nightfall on 23 July; the Málaga province stayed under government control and Almería remained faithful to the Republic; Ronda fell on 16 September 1936; Nationalist troops entered Málaga on 8 February 1937 after the battle of 3–8 February; Almería was taken on 31 March 1939. Civil War losses of records are recorded for Spain; how far they reach this area is not established here.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1232–1492 Nasrid Emirate (Kingdom) of Granada no registers survive

Before Castilian rule and before the parish registers of Trent. Ibn al-Ahmar was declared emir on 16 July 1232 and made Granada his capital after 17 April 1238; the emirate roughly matched the modern provinces of Granada, Almería and Málaga and was often tributary to Castile. Málaga fell after a siege of May to August 1487 (its inhabitants were killed or enslaved), Almería and Guadix surrendered after Baeza fell in November 1489, and Granada was surrendered on 2 January 1492 (treaty of 25 November 1491).
1492–1568 Crown of Castile — Kingdom of Granada PARES · FamilySearch

Muslims of the emirate were given the choice of expulsion or conversion after the uprising of 1499–1501; those who converted are the Moriscos. The Real Chancillería, the high court for the territory south of the Tagus, moved from Ciudad Real to Granada in 1505, and its documentary holdings are kept in the Archivo de la Real Chancillería de Granada. Parish registers: Trent requires them from 1545/1563.
1568–1833 Crown of Castile — Kingdom of Granada, repopulated after the Alpujarras revolt PARES · FamilySearch

THE TRAP for the Alpujarras. The Morisco revolt ran from 24 December 1568 to March 1571; about 80,000 Moriscos (roughly half) were expelled from the kingdom, those from the Almería region by galley to Seville, and from 1571 settlers from western Andalusia, Galicia, Castile, Valencia, Murcia and the northern mountains were brought in to repopulate. A family in these villages after the 1570s may therefore come from outside Granada, and the surviving Moriscos were later expelled from Spain in 1609–1614. The end date 1833 is the year of the national provincial division (Javier de Burgos); that it ended the Kingdom of Granada as such is not established here. After 1834 the Audiencia Territorial de Granada covered Granada, Almería, Jaén and Málaga.
1833–1871 Spain — provinces of Granada, Málaga and Almería PARES · FamilySearch

Parish registers stay the main record until civil registration; the old ones are in the diocesan archive.
1871–1936 Spain — civil registration PARES · FamilySearch

Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths begins on 1 January 1871 (law of 17 June 1870; one source gives 1869). The records stay in each municipality, and some municipios hold civil records from as early as 1837.
1936–1939 Spain divided — Granada Nationalist, Málaga and Almería Republican PARES · FamilySearch

THE FRONT RAN THROUGH THE REGION. Granada's garrison rose on 20 July 1936 and the rebels held the whole city by nightfall on 23 July; the Málaga province stayed under government control and Almería remained faithful to the Republic; Ronda fell on 16 September 1936; Nationalist troops entered Málaga on 8 February 1937 after the battle of 3–8 February; Almería was taken on 31 March 1939. Civil War losses of records are recorded for Spain; how far they reach this area is not established here.
1939–1975 Spain — Franco's dictatorship PARES · FamilySearch

Under Franco's State.
1975–2026 Kingdom of Spain — Constitution of 1978 PARES · FamilySearch

Under the Constitution of 1978.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1232–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

17 places on this ground

47 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

All record regions · The map