Are there more records for Colombia to be published in the Family Search website as of 7/27/2021?

FC84

Colombia: Does the Church have more records that have not been published on the website, just yet? Or is everything that was recorded/collected is already available to the public?

I have not been able to track any information about my grandparents who lived in Buenaventura, a sea port on the Pacific coast in Colombia.

Dellory Matthews

You can subscribe to receive monthly updates on published record collections at familysearch.org

https://www.familysearch.org/info/blog-subscription

Paul W

@FC84

Unlike one website I use, FamilySearch does not have any information about what is "Coming soon!" or "A little further down the line". Publication dates can be delayed by different factors and I think FamilySearch prefers to only notify us once records are actually available, in case its users become disappointed by unavoidable delays. Use Dellory's link (above) for newly published material.

Elsewhere, you can check the Indexing section to see if there are any Colombia indexing projects currently in progress. I imagine you have checked the Catalog to see if there is anything already available online, although it might be a good idea to check for records relating to the wider, administrative area - in case records haven't been indexed specifically under "Buenaventura".

FC84

Paul W,

Thank you very much for your feedback.

I have exhausted all the possible search combinations for all the collections currently available for Colombia, with no luck. I will look more in the Catalog section, as you suggest.

I understand that FamilySearch is the only entity/website that has baptism records from the Catholic churches in Colombia (or other countries in Latin America). Am I right? 

Thanks, again.

A van Helsdingen

The FamilySearch Wiki may have more information about online records for the places you are interested in: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Colombia_Genealogy You'll see there's a map with links to pages for different regions of Colombia. Those pages may have specific information about what's available in each region.

FC84

Hello,

I spent time looking into the Images available for Colombia and I did find some records for other relatives associated with different municipalities and cities in Valle del Cauca. Unfortunately I have not been able to find any associated with Buenaventura (also in Valle del Cauca, in Colombia)

I suspect the records for Buenaventura have been somehow associated with different Departamento (and not with Valle del Cauca). Is this possible?

Thanks for all the support.

A van Helsdingen

I searched the FamilySearch Catalog for "Buenaventura" and found no place with that name in Colombia: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog

This means that FamilySearch does not have any records from Buenaventura. But it is possible that there was no Catholic Church or civil registration office there. Have you tried neighboring towns?

FC84

Thanks for checking.

Buenaventura has been the main seaport on the Pacific coast in Colombia.

Defenitely there has been Catholic Church presence there since very early in the Colony period.

I did find church records for much smaller municipalities and towns located in the general area, within the Valled del Cauca. Some of these even in much more remote locations.

I did find some Nobility-related documents for Buenaventura, but no church records.

For some reason I believe I saw somewhere in FamilySearch or in a Wiki page a note or comment related to the mapping or cataloging of the records from Buenaventura to Valle del Cauca....but I didn't pay too much attention. Now, I cannot find again... :)

Thanks, again.

FC84

Hello,

I wonder if the reason why there's no records or images from Buenaventura, VAlle del Cauca, in Colombia is because the microfilm may be scheduled for future scanning. Or the microfilm may have been scanned, but have a contractual, data privacy, or other restriction preventing access.

Does anybody know if there's a way to confirm this with FamilySearch?

Thanks again for all the support.

A van Helsdingen

FamilySearch does not discuss these issues with users. These issues are confidential and commercially sensitive. However if you contact the record owner (e.g. a church or government archive), they might be able to tell you what certain records are not available online.

FC84

I understand. Makes sense.

I am just trying to find out if the digital records even exist.

Unfortunately I am not in Colombia and my efforts to try to find information remotely from the church there have been unsuccessful.

Thanks for the feedback.

FC84

In Answer 6 in this Wiki article linked below, it mentions Buenaventura, among other cities and muncipalities:

Question 6: What are the correct Cities and Towns for the browse path Valle del Cauca?

Answer 6: Although there may not be records available, the following Cities and Towns have been omitted from the browse path Valle del Cauca:

• Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca, Colombia

Unfortunately it is not clear to me if by omitted it means there's no records/images.

Colombia, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records/Known Issues • FamilySearch

A van Helsdingen

It's unclear what the article is saying in my opinion. I don't know whether there are no records available for Buenaventura, whether the records exist but FS wasn't able to scan them, or whether FS chose to prioritize other records and didn't attempt to scan the records.

For each region there is supposed to Moderator for the FS Wiki. This person is an employee of FS and often knows a lot about FS's records for that area. Unfortunately there is no moderator for Colombia: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/FamilySearch_Wiki:Moderator You could try contacting the moderator for Panama or Brazil and asking if they know someone who could answer your question.

Something that hasn't been mentioned in this thread is that the Roman Catholic Church has a policy that it's records should not be scanned by FamilySearch or made available to Latter Day Saints. This policy is only occasionally enforced. The Catholic Priest or Bishop in Buenaventura may have enforced this policy, and refused to let FS scan the records.

By coincidence I've just finished reading a book on the international drug trade, and it mentioned a lot about the terrible violence in Colombia over the last few decades. Perhaps it wasn't possible for FS to get safe access to Buenaventura. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is sometimes the target of anti-American sentiment.

MaureenE123

Looking at the Wiki page mentioned above by FC84, clicking on "View History" indicates that most of the content of the page was added by SvareJM who has a Wiki page User:SvareJM https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/User:SvareJM which indicates "Currently he is the Historical Records Content Manager for the FamilySearch Research Wiki". Perhaps the moderator will know how you could contact him for clarification, or perhaps you could use the form "report a Wiki problem"

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhFHS21uSFf6MjdS17ApKW03CQtFcXgmeNdRRwBYNMy9YSPA/viewform?c=0&w=1

FC84

A van Helsdingen,

Thanks for the update.

I find interesting to see thousands of records from churches from other cities and municipalities not only in the vicinity of Buenaventura, but from all over the country. So obviously the policy no to allow FS to scan the records was not consistently enforced.

Buenaventura became the main seaport in the 1500s or 1600s and lots of merchandise was routed to the mainland from there.

MaureenE123

I will explore the options you suggest.

Thank you, both.

FC84

Feedback.

I came across a batch of 1.9k images that are mis-catalogued.

Place: Colombia>Valle del Cauca>Ginebra

The list of images is listed under Arriba, within Ginebra but the content (multiple rolls of microfilm) actually correspond to different important municipalities and parishes in Antioquia (not Valle del Cauca)..for example, Santa Fe de Antioquia.

I hope somebody can make the necessary corrections so that people can find these valuable images/records.

I am still looking for images from Buenaventura, in Colombia.

FC84

I have found another error regarding Images in Colombia....

A significant number of birth-related images are catalgued under Cauca>Bolivar, where Cauca is a "departamento" (state) and Bolivar is a municipality, but in reality the images correspond to the municipality of Mompos, in Bolivar, a completely different "departamento" located in the north of the country - btw, the capital of Bolivar is Cartagena....a beautiful city. There are thousands of images in this situation.

Please let me know if there's a different mechanisms to report this type of data integrity issues.

FC84

One more issue I found when searching for Images:

When I search in the Catalog for the Place = Buenaventura, nothing comes under Colombia - btw, somebody had given me this input.

But when I go into Colombia>Valle del Cauca, under Places Within, there's Buenaventura listed, with 71 sets of images. Unfortunately, there are all for Nobility Records, not what I am looking for.

It seems that the search function for the Catalog is not detecting these records.

This makes me wonder if the birth/baptism images I am looking for Buenaventura are hidden somewhere else.... :)

FC84

One more finding regarding mis-catalogued images.

For Live Event = Birth, under place: Santana, Boyaca, Colombia, you find Brazilian birth certificates.

Not good... :)

FC84

Similar issue...

For life event + Birth, under Place: Capellanias, Bolivar, Cauca, Colombia, you find records that seem to be for the city of Morelia, in the State of Michoacan, in Mexico.....