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Where to start for Catalan records

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wisechild

wisechild Report 25 Feb 2012 07:27

Eringobragh.
Here in Menorca & I understand in most of Catalonia, all official documents are in Catalan.In fact everything, including shop names, road signs, hotel & restaurant menus etc are required to be in Catalan.
It has caused a lot of problems for Castillian speakers as you are now required to be Catalan speaking in order to get a job.

Marion

BeverleyW

BeverleyW Report 24 Feb 2012 18:40

Joan is Catalan for Juan (John).
Puig - father's first surname
Gich - mother's first surname.

Difficult to give more advice with no dates or places :(

Researching:
Weedon - Australia, Hertfordshire; Paterson - Scotland; Elmer - Huntingdon; Ball, Lloyd, Warren - Birmingham; Branson - Bucks;

Eringobragh1916

Eringobragh1916 Report 24 Feb 2012 18:23

Official records are still in Castellano....(The official language of Spain)....
Andorra is the only Country where it is the official Language.


Using the Catalan language (1939-75) became a matter of persecution, forbidden in public use, and it wasn't until the return of democracy, with the fall of the Franco dictatorship that the language per se began a revival...
"Catalan" Christian names could not be Registered......therefore you will need to be looking at the Castellano equivelant.

You will find earlier records with Catalan Christian names entered....
You need a time frame and possible area.....

I assume Joan Puig Gich is male...?

BeverleyW

BeverleyW Report 24 Feb 2012 17:37

Puig is a very common Catalan surname.
As wisechild says, unless you have a specific location, you won't get very far.
Each city, town or village has a Registry in the Town Hall where records of births, marriages and deaths are kept.
I have read that they are going to change to a central digitalised system but I don't know when this will be implemented.

Researching:
Weedon - Australia, Hertfordshire; Paterson - Scotland; Elmer - Huntingdon; Ball, Lloyd, Warren - Birmingham; Branson - Bucks;

Joy

Joy Report 24 Feb 2012 15:45

As stated, very unlikely for any to be online.

http://www.cyndislist.com/spain/

wisechild

wisechild Report 24 Feb 2012 14:04

Very unlikely you will find much online for either Spanish or Catalan records as Spanish records are not centralised. They are held by the Town Hall of the town where the event took place.
You can contact them by e mail but your query would need to be in Catalan as few officials speak English & the Catalans are not keen to speak Castilian (Spanish).
I have done some research in Menorca for English speakers & generally find that the Town Hall staff are very helpful, but limited in what they can do.
Good luck.
Marion

Rambling

Rambling Report 24 Feb 2012 13:16

Might be worth looking at FamilySearch.org the name Gich is there in various locations in Spain, though I am not too well up on the geography of Catalonia. :-D

Researching:

WDYTYALive

WDYTYALive Advisor Report 24 Feb 2012 12:30

We are trying to find where to start searching online for any records from Catalan?

Posted on behalf of Joan Puig (Gich - mothers name) by Phil Moir (GR) at WDYTYA