Digging Through Parish Records

Not long ago, I decided to build my genealogy tree. I had started it once when I was a teen, but I didn’t put that much effort into it. It probably stopped around my great-grandparents’ generation and that was it. But this time I decided to dig deeper! A Baptism From 1907, Santana da Serra As many of you know, I’m Portuguese and I’ve been living in the Netherlands for over 6 years. And, as far as I know, my family’s history doesn’t cover anything interesting: everyone is Portuguese, comes from Portugal, and that’s about it. Nevertheless, I’ve always wanted to dig further into past generations and see what it looks like. Since 1911, the Portuguese government keeps official records for births, deaths, and other life events. Those can be requested by virtually anyone, as long as you pay for them. The trick here is to ask for the birth certificate, since it includes “amendments” (averbamentos) which include all the necessary information about marriages, deaths, and other life events. It…