Raízes de Portugal — genealogical research in Portuguese archives

What you receive

A documented tree

As a GEDCOM file that opens in any genealogy software. It is yours, permanently, with no subscription.

The original documents

The scanned image of every record, page by page, exactly as it sits in the archive.

The handwriting, transcribed

Seventeenth to nineteenth century Portuguese script transcribed and translated, so you can actually read it.

A private site for the family

The tree, the documents and the stories at one address you can share with whoever you choose. In the Archive package.

An honest report

What was found and where, and what was not. Knowing where a line stops has value too.

My own family

See the work before you commission it

Walk through my ancestors, open the records, read the transcriptions. Nine documented generations, from 1666 to today, all in the Alentejo. This is precisely the model of the site you can receive for your own family, in the Archive package: the family changes, the standard does not.

Open the archive

Opens in a new window, in English.

Why this work is different

Most genealogical research hands you a list of names and dates. Not one of them can be checked.

	Ordinary research	Here
Proof of each name	A written reference, when there is one	The image of the record itself, one click away
The old handwriting	Left unread	Transcribed and translated, line by line
First results	Weeks or months	Usually about a week
What was not found	Not mentioned	Reported, with the reason and where it stopped
Format	A PDF	GEDCOM, images and a site for the family
After delivery	You stay locked to the platform	The files are yours, with no subscription

What it costs

Fixed prices, written here. Half at the start, half before delivery.

Discovery

One line, three generations

190 €

One family line starting from a person you already know
10 records located and photographed in the archive
Each one transcribed and translated
GEDCOM file and a written report
Closes at 10 records or 3 weeks, whichever comes first

Choose this

Family

All four grandparents

490 €

All four grandparent lines, up to 40 records
Up to 40 records located and photographed in the archive
Each one transcribed and translated
GEDCOM file and a written report
Closes at 40 records or 8 weeks, whichever comes first

Choose this

Already holding a record? First step, 85 €

If you already have a certificate or a record and want to know who came before, I start from it and follow one line two generations back: up to 4 records located, photographed, transcribed and translated, with a written report. Closes at 4 records or 2 weeks, whichever comes first.

One line to the end

If what you want is a single line followed as far as the books allow, without stopping at three generations, I settle the price after seeing what survives of the parish. From 490 €.

Already built your tree?

If the research is done and the website is what you want, I build it from your GEDCOM file and your images, for 590 €.

If what you are after fits none of these three, say so and the price is settled before there is any commitment. I never start work before you know what it costs. When the work closes, it closes: if you want to carry on, a new price is settled before I start again.

How it works

You tell me what you know
A name, a village, a date on a certificate. That is usually enough to start.
I locate the family in the registers
Civil registration from 1911, and before that the parish books of the freguesia.
I read the documents
Every name is confirmed on the document itself before it enters the tree.
You receive everything
The tree, the images, the transcriptions and the report of what remains unfound.

Where I search

I work for the whole country. The archives are organised by district and I reach all of them: what matters is where your family lived, not where you are. Every municipality has its own books, every parish its own hand, its gaps and its spellings, and none of it is indexed by name. That is the work, and it is why a search on the big international genealogy sites usually stops at the border.

Civil registration: Births, marriages and deaths from 1911, concelho by concelho.
Parish registers: Baptisms, marriages and burials. In some parishes they run back to the sixteenth century.
Habilitações de genere: Files that prove three generations at once. The best source there is for jumping backwards.
Inventories and wills: They name the widow and every child, with ages. A whole family reconstructed on one page.
Passports and emigration: For the families that left for France, Brazil or the United States.
Military records: Conscription lists giving age, height, trade and parentage.

What I promise, and what I do not

I do not invent links

Two people with the same name in the same village are not the same person until a document says so. I have paid to learn that.

Some lines stop

Books burned, priests skipped years, a foundling has no parents on the page. When a line stops I tell you exactly where and why. If it stops before the number of records included in the package, you receive the report of what was searched and where it stopped. That is a result, not an unfinished job. The price is the same: what you pay for is the search carried to the package’s limit, with the hours that takes, not the number of names the books let me find. There is no refund when a line stops.

Nothing enters without proof

With no document it stays a hypothesis, marked as one. Never a fact. A long wrong tree is worth nothing.

What counts as one record

A record is one act located, photographed and transcribed. A page carrying several acts counts the acts used, not the page.

I follow the direct line

Your direct ancestors. Siblings, uncles and cousins enter when a document names them, not as research in their own right. Following a collateral line properly is a separate job.

Common questions

How long does genealogical research in Portugal take?

Usually the first documents reach you within a week: the birth, marriage or death record that anchors the family, and the generation immediately above it. That is the normal case rather than a guarantee, since it depends on the current queue and on the state of the parish books, and I give you the real timeframe when I take the work on. A full line back into the eighteenth century takes longer, and that timeframe is settled after those first days, once I know what I am dealing with.

How far back do Portuguese records go?

Compulsory civil registration begins in 1911. Before that the source is the parish register: baptisms, marriages and burials kept by the parish. In many parishes these run back to the seventeenth century and in some to the sixteenth. In practice a Portuguese family can often be documented to around 1650.

Do I need to know the parish my family came from?

It helps a great deal but it is not required. A full name and a concelho are enough to start. With an approximate birth date and the parents’ names, the parish can almost always be found.

Is this useful for a Portuguese citizenship application?

I deliver the exact archival reference for every record, which is what you need to request the legally valid certidão from the registry office. I do not handle the citizenship application itself and do not represent you: I am an archival researcher, not a lawyer.

Do you work across the whole country?

Yes, anywhere in Portugal. The archives are organised by district and all of them are within reach, so the only thing that matters is where your family actually lived. Tell me that and I will tell you what survives for it.

What if you find nothing?

I tell you where the line stopped and why, with a list of what was searched. Scope and price are agreed before anything starts, so you are never paying for an open-ended search.

Start at the beginning

Write to me with what you know, even if it is very little. A name and a village are enough. I will reply telling you whether it is possible and what it takes.

or, if you prefer

Write an email

Reply within 48 hours, in Portuguese, French or English.