Document: ESP-PO-01001

Civil Status Register Act, Article 8: The facts and circumstances prescribed by the Regulation shall be certified for all purposes, free of charge, in the Family Book, as soon as they have been registered.

Civil Status Register Regulation, Article 36. The Family Book shall be opened with the certification of a public marriage and shall contain subsequent pages for certification of civil status information on the matrimonial property regime, the births of children of both spouses and of children adopted jointly by both contracting parties, the deaths of the spouses and the annulment of the marriage or the divorce or separation of the spouses. The Family Book shall also be issued to the parent or parents of a child born out of wedlock and to a person or persons who adopt a minor. A subsequent marriage between the holders of that Book shall be recorded. Any fact that affects parental responsibility, and the death of a child, if it occurs before legal majority, shall be recorded in the Book, with certifying effect. The certifying records shall be extracts without transcription of notes and the birth records shall not specify the category of filiation.They may be corrected pursuant to a subsequent certifying record.

Article 37: The Family Book shall be issued to its holders, or to persons authorised by the holders, immediately after the marriage is recorded in the ordinary register or, if they do not already possess it, when a birth out of wedlock or an adoption is registered. When the issuing of the Book takes place pursuant to the registration of an adoption, the record of birth in the previous Family Book issued, if it was, to the natural parent or parents, shall be deleted. If in the previous Book that record of birth is the sole entry, that Book shall be cancelled.

Article 38: The issuing of the Book, whenever it takes place, shall in all cases be recorded in the margin of the corresponding marriage registration or, in its absence, at each birth registration. The spouses or the holder or holders of parental authority shall in all cases have the corresponding Book. In the event of loss or damage, they shall obtain from the Registry a duplicate in which the relevant certifications shall be entered. It shall be stated in the duplicate that it replaces the original and its issuing shall be noted in the corresponding records in the Register.

Article 39: the holder of the Book shall require that all pertinent certifications be entered in it immediately following registration. The Registrar shall take particular care to comply with this requirement (particularly as regards the marriages of the children and deaths). Article 40: the Registrar shall provide the holders of the Book, free of charge, with additional sheets of the forms required, of the same size and made of ordinary paper. The additional sheets shall be signed by the Registrar and stamped with the seal of the Office, and their number shall be indicated at the end of the last page. Article 46: (In magistrates' courts) certifications shall always be jointly issued and signed by the magistrate and the clerk.

Circular of 2 June 1981 of the Directorate General for registers and notaries - basic guidelines: (a) The Book shall be issued to a parent or to parents who acknowledge a child born out of wedlock or who adopt a child, and to persons contracting marriage, unless of course they already have a Family Book for the first reason; (b) The Book shall contain records only for children of both parents, or children who have only one legally recognised parent. Children of different origins shall therefore be recorded in different Books.

(c) The page relating to marriage shall record a marriage contracted between the holders of the Book at any time; (d) In the pages concerning the births of children, be they children of both spouses or adopted by both spouses or by one person only or born out of wedlock but acknowledged by one or both parents, the status of those children shall not be directly specified; (e) Where applicable, the separation or divorce of the spouses or the annulment of a marriage previously contracted shall also be recorded, on the blank pages, when the relevant judicial decisions are entered in the appropriate Register.

Issuing of document and holder(s) thereof

Document holder(s)

Certification of marriage

Children of holder(s) of the document

Death of holder(s) of document

Loss of parental responsibility by holder(s) of document

Vocabulary in the co-official languages of Spain