Censo de la Riqueza (Wealth Census) Puerto Rico

Censo de la Riqueza

The Censo de la Riqueza, essentially a wealth census, meticulously outlines property value, encompassing land, animals, homes, crops, etc. While not consistently including all family members, certain records do. Moreover, some districts provide details on slaves, covering origin, physical description, owner, and value.

Censuses in Puerto Rico¹

The references we have found in the population censuses carried out under the Spanish domination of the Island are all censuses of neighbors and souls(Almas). Starting in 1776, by order of King Carlos III, annual censuses were carried out, including both population and wealth.

18th Century Census

• Lando Census
  • In 1530, the governor’s lieutenant, Francisco Manuel de Lando, carried out this census by royal order. It is a census of owners with their slaves.
• O’Reilly Census
  • Marshal Alejandro O’Reilly, born in Dublin, Ireland, was part of the Spanish army. In 1763, the King of Spain, Carlos III, went to Cuba to organize the militias of that Island. At the end of his term there, he sent to Puerto Rico to submit a report on the militias’ state, the population’s conditions, the economy, and other matters. His report included a census of all the Island’s inhabitants broken down by age, sex, and class. In it, he groups all free people without distinction of color.
• 1775 census
  • Historians noted an anomaly: the census total is less than the sum of individual lines.
• 1776 census
  • Fray Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra included the census summary in his work, “Geographical, Civil, and Natural History of the Island of San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico.” The “Aggregates” line is introduced in the classes. The University of Puerto Rico edition features a facsimile of the census’s statistical summary manuscript. But, similar to the O’Reilly census, the population count doesn’t align.

19th Century Census

• 1846 census
  • The Central Statistics Commission, created in 1845 under the direction of Brigadier Santiago Fortún, carried out this census.
• 1860 census
  • 1858, a royal order was issued to carry out all inhabitants’ general registration. This census was carried out by a commission appointed for that purpose in December 1860.
• 1869 census
  • According to the Moret Law, slaves who did not appear in this census will be declared free. Díaz Soler offers some figures taken from the book by José M. Labra, The Abolition in the Economic Order, but states that they are inaccurate.
• 1897 census
  • The Spanish government carried out the last census in Puerto Rico.

Researching Censo de la Riqueza

Like many genealogy enthusiasts, I’ve dedicated years to researching ancestors, aiming to expand our pedigree tree or gain insights into their lives. Just when we think research is complete, unexpected documents emerge—some overlooked or unknown. Despite exhausting available information, I consistently uncover more details about my family through documents like the “Censo de Riqueza.” Though it may not take me as far as desired, it offers valuable insights into their lives.

Gobernadores Españoles Censo de la Riqueza, Film Number,  008127836, Caja 14

This index of over 3000 images pertains to the Censo de Riqueza (wealth census.) And historical documents from the early 19th century.

These records mainly dealt with property owners, animals, crops, and businesses. Some documents included age, race, nationality, and other relevant information. Observing these documents brought me mixed emotions. Content to find them, especially from the towns I research, and disappointment. Disappointment because of the condition of the documents. Unfortunately, many of the poorly preserved documents are illegible.

Additional Information

You will find a wealth of information in these documents. Besides what I mentioned above, they may include other relevant information, such as age, race, family members, nationality, profession, etc. In addition, there are many documents from the mayors. Although you may not think it is essential. Look at it this way. How many of us have a picture of our ancestors from the early 1800s? None! Photos were invented in 1839. Many of these documents preceded that. So what is the next best thing to have? I’m glad you asked. A signature! I found the signature of my 5th Great Grandfather, Captian de Sargento, Don Cecilio Aponte Ramos Colón. It was not the first time I saw it. But it was still exciting to see it again in this film.

There are also important historical documents that are part of this film. Therefore, I created an index of everything, image by image. I did my best, but if I made an error, please correct me, and I will update accordingly.

Final Thoughts on the Censo de la Riqueza

In conclusion, this repository holds the potential for discovering your ancestors and relatives. Personally, in Vega Alta, I uncovered a record detailing my third great-grandmother, Genara Arroyo, at the age of three, alongside her father’s name, Pablo Arroyo. Interestingly, she was identified as Parda, contrary to my previous belief that she was Blanca based on her documented lineage. This revelation aligns with my understanding of her Parda lineage originating from her maternal line, with Maria Marcial as her mother, classified as a hija natural. Additionally, I’ve included an image of my 5th great-grandfather, Sargento and Alcalde of Barranquitas and Barros (Orocovis), Don Cecilio de Aponte Ramos Colón.

Indexes for the Censo de la Riqueza

Part I.

Municipality & District	Year	Description	Image	Index
Utuado	1833	Padrón Nominal de Propietarios	4
Juana Díaz	1836	Relación General de los vecinos	20
Juncos	1836	Relación Nominal	37
Lares	1836	Lista Nominal (Vecinos)	48
Pepino	1836	Lista Nominal (Vecinos)	71
Piedras	1836	Lista de Vecinos	80
Ponce	1856	Relación General	94
Quebradillas	1836	Relación General	131
Rincón	1836	Relación General	146
Río Piedras	1836	Relación General	166
Sabana del Palmar (Comerio)	1836	Relación General	178
San Germán	1836	Relación General	186
Trujillo Alto	1838	Documento; Extranjeros	187
San Miguel de Trujillo Alta	1836	Censo de Vecinos	191
Yauco	1836	Extranjeros	214
Yauco	1836	Lista Nominal	218
Hatillo	1837	Estadistica de Hatillo	245
Añasco	1838	Documento	251
Añasco	1838	Marticula a registro Habitantes	256
Cidra	1838	Habitantes de este pueblo	268
Coamo	1838	Martricular General y Classificacion	376	459
Villalba de Juana Díaz	1838	Padron	521
Peñuelas	1838	Relacion de las Extranjeros	608
San Miguel de Trujillo	1838	Extranjeros que existen	612
Peñuelas	1838	Registro Particular de Extranjeros	613

Part II. Censo de la Riqueza

Municipality & District	Year	Description	Image	Index
Pepino	1838	Extranjeros	617/620
Piedras	1838	Censo General Habitantes (no fue filmado)	621
Ponce	1838	Padron de Extranjeros	626	632
Quebradilla	1838	Extranjeros	636
Rincón	1838	Extranjeros	643
Rincón	1838	Padron de Pardos Libres	647
Río Piedras	1838	Vecinos Extranjeros	656
Caguas	1838	Vecinos Extranjeros	657
San Juan-San Francisco	1838	Censo	658
San Juan-Santa Barbara	1838	Censo	776
San Germán	1838	Matricular de Extranjeros	844
Toa Alta	1838	Extranjeros	854
San Miguel de Trujillo	1838	Extranjeros	861
Pepino	1836	Vecinos de mas de 25 años	863
Vega Alta	1838	Lista de Habitantes (Amos y los esclavos)	868
Vega Alta	1839	Matricula de Esclavos	870
Vega Baja	1838	Extranjeros	886
Vega Alta	1839	Martrícula añual	889
San Juan-Capital		Incluye varios pueblos	901
		Lista de eligibles	918
Rollo 2
		Estadísticas-Varios Pueblos	924-931
Barranquitas	1820	Relacion de Casas	937
Añasco	1841	Registro de Población	940
Utuado	1840	Habitantes	975

Part III. Censo de la Riqueza

• Aibonito: The census for Aibonito was not filmed. The document provides information on children born that year, marriages, and those who moved to Aybonito. I found the information I was not aware of before. Therefore, you may have the same luck if your family is from Aibonito in that period.
• There are some images where I did not provide all the images as they pertained to just statistics. I focused on documents that provide genealogical information, which I believe is more relevant.

Municipality & District	Year	Description	Image
Rollo 2
Adjuntas	1841	Habitantes General	982
Aibonito	1841	Habitantes de Pueblo	988
Arecibo	1841	Noticia de las Variaciones (Contains information on births, deaths and slave registration of births.	1007
Manaty	1841	Estadísticas	1029
Moca	1841	Padrones de Habitantes	1032
Morovis	1840	Censo de nacidos y fallecidos y Habitantes	1043
Lares	1841	Habitantes	1055
San Germán	1842	Estadísticas	1072
Manaty	1841	Extranjeros	1076
Ysabela	1840	Variaciones Ocurrídas	1077
de Madrid	1840	Carta a los Españoles	1080
Humacao	1840	Movimiento Añual	1085
Adjuntas	1842	Estadísticas	1093
Aguas Buenas	1842	Estadísticas: Classificación del censos de almas	1094
Documento: Estadísticas Riqueza de todas la products:*
Aybonito	1840	*	1099
Barranquitas	1842	*	1104
Barros	1842	*	1108
Cayey	1842	*	1114
Guaynabo	1842	*	1118
Hato Grande	1842	*	1123
Humacao	1842	*	1128
Juana Díaz	1842	*	1132
Lares	1842	*	1135
Las Piedras	1842	*	1140

Part IV.

Municipality & District	Year	Description	Image
Documento: Estadísticas Riqueza de todas la productos*
Luquillo	1842	*	1142
Manuabo	1842	*	1146
Manuabo	1842	Habitantes	1153
Peñuelas	1842	*	1158
Rincón	1842	*	1162
Salinas	1842	*	1168
San Germán	1842	*	1173
Toa Alta	1842	Estadísticas	1176
Trujillo Alto-Censo de 1860	1842	*Census	1180
Yauco	1842	*	1184
Moca	1842	*	1193
Moca	1849	Cuaderno Altas y Bajas	1195
Aibonito	1841	Habitantes (no fue filmado)	1222
Ysabela	1841	*	1226
Liquidación del Expresado Pueblo (LEDEP)*	1841	Various Pueblos	1231 hasta 1336
Ciales	1847	Matrícula de Habitantes (no fue filmado)	1341
Liquidación del Expresado Pueblo (LDEP)*
Coamo	1847	LDEP*	1344
Piedras	1847	Relación Nominal Padron	1353
Ponce	1847	LDEP*	1384
Moca	1847	Nombres de los dueños de los Haciendas	1393
Aguadilla	1849	Relacion de los Extranjeros	1410
Bayamón	1842	no fue filmado	1413
Guaynabo	1850	Carta de presentación	1416
Guaynabo	1849	Lista de Habitantes	1424

Parte V.

Municipality & District	Year	Description	Image
Naguabo	1849	Carta de presentación/Censo	1438/1442
Peñuelas	1849	Lista de Habitantes	1470
Guayama	1849	Padron de Habitantes	1505
Gurabo	1849	Carta de presentación Altas y Bajas Ocurridas en todo el año	1535
Manaty	1850	Carta de presentación/Censo	1558/1562
Moca	1850	Carta de presentación/ Cuaderno de Altas y Bajas	1587/3246
Morovis	1849	Alta y Baja del Pueblo	1592
Mayagüez	1859	Padron de Esclavos	1620
Aibonito	1859	Estadísticas de Censo	1634
Barranquitas	1859	Estadísticas de Censo	1635
Barros	1859	Estadísticas de Censo	1636
Utuado	1858	Carta de presentación	1637
Luquillo	1858	Carta de presentación	1639
Salinas	1859	Carta de presentación	1643
Adjuntas	1859	Estadísticas de Censo	1645
Aguada	1859	Estadísticas de Censo	1649
Aguada	1859	Estadísticas de Censo	1651
Aguadilla	1858	Carta de presentación Altas y Bajas Ocurridas en todo el año	1657
Aguadilla	1859	Extranjeros	1698
Añasco	1858	Carta de presentación/Censo Incluye matrimonios y fallecidos	1703/1709
Arecivo	1859	Estadísticas de Censo	1753
Arroyo	1859	Padron de Vecinos	1754
Cabo Rojo	1859	Estadísticas de Censo	1901
Cayey	1858	Carta de presentación Altas y Bajas Ocurridas en todo el año	1905
Cayey		Propetarios	1930
Capital	1858	Estado de Altas y Bajas-Censo	1934
Cidra	1859	Estadísticas de Censo	1971
Corozal	1859	Estadísticas de Censo	1977

Part VI.

Municipality & District	Year	Description	Image
Fajardo	1858	Estado de Alta y Baja-Censo	1978
Guayanilla	1859	Estado de Alta y Baja-Censo	1994
Gurabo	1858	Estado de Alta y Baja-Censo	2019
Luquillo	1859	Estado de Alta y Baja-Censo	2048
Patillas	1858	Estado de Alta y Baja-Censo	2127
Ponce	1859	Estado de Alta y Baja-Censo	2180
Río Grande	1858	Censo	2292
Sabana Grande	1858	Estadísticas	2320
Salinas	1859	Estado de Alta y Baja-Censo	2327
Estadístcias de various Pueblos*:
Santa Isabel	1859	*	2345
Toa Baja	1859	*	2348
Trujillo Alto	1859	*	2354
Utuado	1858	Cuaderno de Alta y Baja-Censo	2362
Vieques	1859	Censo	2418
Yabucoa	1859	Estado de Alta y Baja-Censo	2427
Varios Pueblos	Sin Fecha	Estadísticas	2470-2531

Foreign Domiciliation (Domiciliancion Estranjeros)

• Naturalization papers appear in this film. They seem to be foreigners who start with the letter A. These are duplicates of documents that appear in another film (Images from 2585 through 3047.) If you want to see the original images, click here
• There is also a PDF of that list compiled by Ivonne Santana Ríos. Please see below.

Compendio-Residentes-extranjeros-1815-1845

Images from 3094 to 6204

• The images from 3094 to 6204 are all duplicates. I did not include those for the sake of time.

Extra (Updated August 10, 2022)

I have included a few PDFs that I found on the Pares Website:

1. Villalba: On the foundation of a village in the neighborhood of Villalba. The document contains the names and signatures of Property owners and their professions.
2. A map of Puerto Rico from 1839. I wanted to locate a map of Puerto Rico that may have matched how many of these censuses were taken in 1838. You can double-click on the image to get the maximum zoom.
3. I found a document for Lares for the year 1848. The film did not include it, so I am including it here.

PARES-_-Spanish-Archives Padron-de-tierras-de-este-pueblo-1848-Lares

Sources

1. History of the Census Records of Puerto Rico by Sylvia Zavala Trías
2. FamilySearch, Film #, Gobernadores Españoles Censo Y Riqueza, Caja 14, Rollo 1-6
3. Wikipedia
4. Pares

Don’t forget to subscribe so you can get a notice of my future articles. Thank you for your support.

Puerto Rico Church Records and Indexes