Record Atlas
3 eras · 1563–2026 · 298 places

Portugal

Lisbon, Porto, Braga, Coimbra, the Alentejo, the Algarve. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1563–1832 Kingdom of Portugal Torre do Tombo / Digitarq · FamilySearch

Trent required parish registers from 1563 and Portuguese parishes obeyed early, so the baptism books of the north can reach the sixteenth century. They are held by the DISTRICT archives, one per district, and digitised district by district on DigitArq rather than in one national series.
1832–1911 Kingdom of Portugal — after the civil war Torre do Tombo / Digitarq · FamilySearch

The religious orders were dissolved in 1834 and their archives went to the state, which is where monastic and diocesan material sits today. Parish registers continue as the only record of a birth.
1911–2026 Portuguese Republic Torre do Tombo / Digitarq · FamilySearch

Civil registration begins with the Republic in 1911 and is compulsory from then; before it, there is no state record and the parish book is the record. Registers pass to the district archive after a hundred years, so the open end moves each year.

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, 1563–2026, 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.

298 places on this ground

The 200 carrying the most collections are listed; 98 more stand on this ground. Every place has them all.

86 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.

…and 26 more.

All record regions · The map