Puerto Rico’s 19th-Century Records; Registration of Census, Laborers, & Enslaved

Resources Available For Your Research

Puerto Rico’s 19th-century historical records are challenging to locate. Many were lost, difficult to come by, or unavailable online. Although many of these films are available, you must visit the FamilySearch Center or the Archives in Puerto Rico. Fortunately, they were finally made available to us to review in the comfort of our homes. Therefore, I decided to study these records and provide a breakdown. This is just a drop in the bucket, as this will be an ongoing project for me. Some of these records could help research ancestors and possibly break down brick walls or answer pending questions.

This film includes Census records and a Register of Laborers that identifies the person by name, physical description, and parents. Most of these registration records are for Fajardo and labeled by book number.

In addition, there are census records for residents of Sabana del Palmar (Comerio), San Juan, and other information that may help with your research on church records before 1885. Finally, there are records of the registration of formerly enslaved people and their owners and value.

Finally, as I mentioned in a previous post, look for other sources when church records are lacking. Well, this is an example of one of these sources.

Summary of Films

Although this film has over 40,000 images, many are duplicates. I am painstakingly going through the films and breaking them down for you. This part covers sections 1 through 5. I will create another page with other items, as many remain: Items one through 10, and then there is one film that covers 17, 18, and 19.

Although records for Manati start in 1807, most cover the 1860s through the 1890s. See below for what is available in this film. I kept the description in Spanish. I labeled the headers by municipality, year, when available, and film description, and I provided the image number: Happy Hunting and Good Luck.

Film Number 1511845; Item 1

• Registro de Esclavos;
  • Click here Slavery in Puerto Rico

Municipality	Year	Image
Dorado	1872	4
Dorado	1868	347
Capital	1871	856
Bayamon(Includes: Guaynabo, Rio Piedras, Toa Alta, Rio Grande, Loisa, Corozal, Toa Baja, Corozal, Loisa, Capital)		1361
Arecibo		1365
Aguadilla		1368
Mayaguez	1872	1370
Ponce-Libertos	1876	1373
Guayama: Includes names of owners and those freed for towns: Arroyo, Agua Buenas, Caguas, Cayey, Cidra, Guayama, Juncos, Sabana del Palmar, Humacao.	1876	1378
Cayey	1876	1383
Humacao; Registro de Esclavos		1384
Arecibo	1868	1426
Arecibo	1871	1935
Capital	1871	2440

Film Number 1511845; Item 2

Most of these records are duplicates found in Film Items 3 & 4.

Municipality COMERIO	Year	Description	Image Number
Comerio	1896	Estadísticos del censo	114

Film Number 1511845; Items 3 & 4 (Includes Census Records)

This film covers the following municipalities.

• Comerio
• Fajardo
• Manati
• Rio Piedras
• San Juan

Municipality COMERIO	Year	Description	Image Number
Comerio	1860	Estado de población cedulas de vecindad	5
Sabana del Palmar (Comerio)	Dec 31, 1870	Censo de Almas	102

Municipality FAJARDO	Year	Description	Image Number
Fajardo	1865	Registro de Jornaleros-Libro 544	2121
Fajardo	1865	Registro de Jornaleros-Libro 743	2285
Fajardo	1866	Registro de Jornaleros-Libro 750	2488
Fajardo	1864-1867	Registro de Jornaleros-Libro 742	2635
Fajardo	1867	Registro de Jornaleros-Libro 745	2775
Fajardo	1869	Registro de Jornaleros-Libro 527	2908

Municipality MANATI	Year	Description	Image Number
Manati	1879-1880	Estadísticos del Censo	3263
Manati	1879-1880	Estadísticos del Censo; Bajura, Barrio Palmas Alta	3867
Manati	1851-1852	Altas y Bajas (Movimiento de la Población) Censo pagína 3971	3965
Manati	1847	Relación nominal de los individuos y Censo General de Alma	3994
Manati	1893-1894	Padron de los individuos…	4055
Manati	1807	Doc. Sin identificar (Presapuestario hoja de trabajo) Seguro, etc.	4075

Municipality RIO PIEDRAS	Year	Description	Image Number
Rio Piedras	1860	Pasaportes Salidos y Para	392
Río Piedras	1899	Registro de “Pupila” (Convinence Store)	916

Municipality SAN JUAN	Year	Description	Image Number
San Juan	1899	Requisitoria; Criminales con delitos sentenciados a prisión.	167
San Juan	1887	Relación de los cabezas de familia	1055

Film Number 1511699; Items 5 (Padrón de Santa Barbara Caja A 1840) Includes Census Records

• Note: Film number 11511845 and Item 5 are all duplicate books, so I included another film that was also labeled Item 5.

This film covers the following municipalities.

• Manati
• San Juan

Municipality Manati	Year	Description	Image Number
Manati	1877	Estadísticos del Censo (12 hojas)	1598
Manati	1888-1896	Estadísticos diaria del Registro Civil	1611
Manat Abajo, Garrochales	1874	Datos Estadísticos para el censo de Almas…	1839
Bo. Manati Abajo	1874	Padron General	1874
Bo. Bajura, Palmas Altas	1872	Datos Estadísticos para el censo de Almas…	1903
	1872	Estadísticos; para cumplir con Real Orden	1967
Alta y Baja	1852	Poblacion	2006
	1879-1882	Indice de documents del Archivo de Manati	2104
	1889	Cuaderno Estadísticos Registro Civil	3660
Garrochales, Tierras Nuevas, Arriba Poniente y Saliente	1872-1873?	Padron General	3686
	1873	Datos Estadísticos para el censo de Almas…	3803

Municipality SAN JUAN	Year	Description	Image Number
Barrio 2		Relación de los Cabezas de familia	3194
Barrio 3		Relación de los Cabezas de familia	3213/3217
Barrio 5; Marina	26 de Nov 1887	Relacion de las Cabezas de Familia	3153/3203
Barrio 6	31 de Dec., corriente año	Relación de los Cabezas de familia	3171

Puerto Rican Genealogy Church Records and Indexes