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FAMILYSEARCH: RESTRICTED ACCESS BIRTH AND BAPTISM COLLECTIONS

FamilySearch is a wonderful resource for genealogical records around the world, but a significant number of their free collections for certain countries are not available from home to people who are not members of qualifying institutions. This can be very frustrating and confusing if you find a great collection and proceed to drill down for browsing images, only to end up on a screen that says to "Sign In", and then even if you sign in, the next one says "Image Not Available." Some of these collections are available online for free to anyone who visits a Family History Center, but we are listing here on this page, those collections containing births and baptisms which are not available as computer collections to the general public, even if people go to a Family History Center.

Those collections which have free access restricted to members of the Mormon Church generally have been filmed, and while you may not be able to access them online if you are not a Church member, anyone can still apparently (for a small fee) order in the microfilms to view at Family History Centers. We have provided links below to "Known Issues" pages for some of these databases, which you can read to verify whether the collections are available on microfilm.

If the collections are on LDS microfilm and are images of index pages, and you are not able to go to a Family History Center, there is another option. You should be able to very inexpensively order photocopies of the index pages. Then, if you find an entry or entries of interest on the indexes, and if the original records have also been filmed by the Mormon Church, you may then be able to order copies of the original records, citing whatever reference numbers you find on the index pages that pertain to the specific records of interest to you. See our page about ordering LDS photocopies page for information about how to do this.

For help finding a specific collection on the lists below, use CTRL-F or APPLE-F and enter keywords into your browser's find bar or popup, or see our page explaining how to find a word or phrase on a page, which has more details about how to do this with various kinds of browsers and computers.

This page your are reading does not list Family Search databases which are open to everyone. If you need a more complete list of collections which also includes open access databases, see the pages in the upper left menu of this page, or use the links to the FamilySearch menus which we have provided below.

If you are looking for FamilySearch collections that seem to have disappeared, then you may also want to visit our page listing old and replacement family search database links, which is a finding aid tool for old and replacement links to collections containing births and baptisms, many of which also happen to be general parish or vital record databases.

If you are having trouble getting access to other LDS birth or baptism databases which are not listed below, or find any errors in our listings on this page, then please do either email us, or email support@familysearch.org.

Why does Family Search restrict access to some collections? The contracts that FamilySearch makes with the institutions where the original documents are housed sometimes specify restricted access. They would prefer open access to everyone, but if all they can obtain is permission for limited access, they accept that rather than obtain no copies of the documents for anyone at all to access digitally.

SELECTED RESTRICTED EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS

For a list of unrestricted databases from a variety of sources, in addition to those sponsored by the Church, check out the listings on our free births and baptisms for countries in Europe and our free British Isles births and baptisms pages, to see what other databases we have found, which might be of interest to you. Or visit the current menu for all FamilySearch Collections in Europe:

https://www.familysearch.org/s/collection/list#page=1&region=EUROPE

Portugal, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are currently the only countries in Europe that we are aware of, which have any online Family Search collections containing births or baptisms, which are restricted to members of sponsoring organizations. With some of these collections, they have permission to also allow access to visitors at Family History Centers, but the software allowing such access was not functioning at the point we researched the accessibility of the collections.

PORTUGAL

Besides the collections listed below, there also are other collections for Portugal for which online access is limited to LDS Church Members, but we are only listing below those which we are sure have baptismal records online, since that is our focus. If you see a collection of interest and are not a Church Member, be sure to read the Known Issues pages we provide links to, to learn about ways to access the information offline.

Portugal, Bragança, Catholic Church Records, 1541-1985. Limited access collection. Members of supporting organizations only (e.g., LDS Church members) may browse church records including baptisms, from the Bragança District Archive in Portugal.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1976616 (requires Javascript)

Portugal, Diocese of Lamego, Catholic Church Records, 1532-1911. Limited access collection. Members only of supporting organizations (e.g., LDS Church members) may browse church records including baptisms, from the District Archive for Lamego, Portugal. You may want to read the known issues page for other ways to access the data.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1928591 (requires Javascript)

Portugal, Faro, Catholic Church Records, 1587-1880. Limited access collection. Members of supporting organizations (e.g., LDS Church members) may browse church records including baptisms, from the District Archive for Faro, Portugal. You may want to read the known issues page for other ways to access the data.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1511408 (requires Javascript)

Guarda, Portugal: Catholic Church Records, 1459-1911. Browse images including baptismal records. Originals from the National Archives at Torre del Tombo and the University of Coimba. Years of coverage for baptisms varies by locale. However, this is a limited access collection, see it's known issues page.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1928588 (requires Javascript)

Portugal, Leiria, Catholic Church Records, 1534-1911. Limited access collection. Members of supporting organizations only (e.g., LDS Church members) may browse church records including baptisms, from the District Archive of Leiria, Portugal. You may want to read the known issues page for other ways to access the data.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1976101 (requires Javascript)

Portugal, Porto, Catholic Church Records, 1535-1949. Limited access collection. Members of supporting organizations only (e.g., LDS Church members) may browse church records including baptisms, from the District Archive of Porto, Portugal. You may want to read the known issues page for other ways to access the data.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1913408 (requires Javascript)

Portugal, Setúbal, Catholic Church Records, 1555-1911. Limited access collection. Members of supporting organizations only (e.g., LDS Church members) may browse church records including baptisms, from the District Archive in Setúbal, Portugal. You may want to read the known issues page for other ways to access the data.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1935451 (requires Javascript)

Portugal, Viana do Castelo, Catholic Church Records, 1537-1909. Limited access collection. Members of supporting organizations only (e.g., LDS Church members) may browse church records including baptisms, from the Viana do Castelo District Archive and the Braga District Archives at the Universityof Minho, in Portugal. You may want to read the known issues page for other ways to access the data.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1976095 (requires Javascript)

Portugal, Vila Real, Catholic Church Records, 1533-1941. Limited access collection. Members of supporting organizations only (e.g., LDS Church members) may browse church records including baptisms, from the Arquivo Distrital da Vila Real, Portugal. You may want to read the known issues page for other ways to access the data.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1976140 (requires Javascript)

SWITZERLAND

Switzerland, Church Records, 1277-1992. Family Search has browsable images of church books, from Basel City and Bern, for about 1277-1992. Not indexed for searching by name; database includes images of baptism records (taufen) and of baptism indexes (taufenregister). Precise years of coverage vary by parish. But this is a limited access collection. The images will eventually be available to Family History Center Patrons, but according to the Known Issues Page, they are currently only available to members of sponsoring organizations (e.g., the Mormon Church).

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://hr-search-api:8080/searchapi/search/collection/1640373 (requires Javascript)

UNITED KINGDOM

England, Northumberland, Miscellaneous Records, 1705-1950. Includes browsable images of Church Parish Registers, but is a limited access collection which currently can only be viewed online by LDS Church members. Once software issues are resolved, this collection will also be available online to the public at Family History Centers.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://hr-search-api:8080/searchapi/search/collection/1918635

RESTRICTED ACCESS COLLECTIONS FOR RUSSIA

For a list of additional databases from a variety of sources for Russia, in addition to those sponsored by the Church, check out the listings on our free births and baptisms home page which has annotated links to more databases for Russia, to see what other birth and baptism databases we have found, which might be of interest to you. Or see the Family Search Menu for Asia and the Middle East:

https://www.familysearch.org/s/collection/list#page=1&region=ASIA_MIDDLE_EAST

Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates, 1833-1885. Browsable images of Lutheran Church Book Duplicates from the St. Petersburg Lutheran Consistory in Russia. These include births and baptisms between 1833-1885 in Lutheran parishes in the northern, western, and southern areas of the Russian Empire. This is a limited access collection, see it's Known Issues Page. It is only available online to members of the LDS Church.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://hr-search-api:8080/searchapi/search/collection/1469151 (requires Javascript)

Revised March 21, 2012

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