Puerto Rican Civil Court Documents Collection
Scope and Content
The collection consists of court documents in manuscript hand. The materials span the dates 1844-1900, with the bulk of the collection dated between 1870-1890.
Dates
- 1844-1900
Language(s) of Materials
The collection consists mainly of 19th century style Spanish language materials.
Access
The collection is open and available for research.
Restrictions on Use
Permission to publish from these Papers must be obtained in writing from both the University of Connecticut Libraries and the owner(s) of the copyright.
History
Puerto Rico was a colony of Spain for the period covered by most of the documents included in this collection (until the Spanish- American War of 1898). Under Spanish rule the civil courts of Puerto Rico fell under territorial jurisdiction. The island was divided into judicial districts corresponding to the major municipal areas (e.g., Aguadilla, Arecibo, Mayagüez.)
Extent
5.2 Linear Feet
Abstract
Included are approx. 5000 documents dated between 1840s to the 1890s, many of which are from the Arecibo civil (corte de primera instancia) court districts, covering the full range of cases that might have been brought to civil courts in those times mainly disputes over economic holdings such as land disputes, sale of slaves, and similar materials. The collection includes court cases from the towns of Arecibo, Barceloneta, Camuy, Ciales, Hatillo, Manati, Morovis, Quebradillas, and Utuado.
Arrangement
The records are arranged chronologically in one series.
Acquisition Information
The collection was purchased in 2000.
Location of Copies or Alternate Formats
The Puerto Rican Civil Court Documents Collection was digitized thanks to a grant by the Center of Research Libraries' LAMP initiative, http://www.crl.edu/area-studies/lamp. The digital reproduction of this collection is available electronically at the Internet Archives at http://tinyurl.com/77uetxn.
Location of Copies or Alternate Formats
Digital reproductions of materials in this collection may also be found in the Archives & Special Collections digital repository.
- Courts Subject Source: Fast
- History Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Legal documents Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Puerto Rico (dependent state) Subject Source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
- Title
- Puerto Rican Civil Court Documents Collection
- Status
- Published
- Author
- Archives & Special Collections staff
- Date
- 2004 August
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Archives and Special Collections, University of Connecticut Library Repository
University of Connecticut Library
405 Babbidge Road Unit 1205
Storrs Connecticut 06269-1205 USA US
860-486-2524
archives@uconn.edu
