Record of arrivals at Santiago

I asked in the Pilgrim Office once, and they do not publish or open the records.

Yes, sorry the Pilgrim Office will not provide or publish information on individuals arriving at the office. Some more general information is collated and published for statistical purposes.

flyswatty said:

Hey there: I recently finished my walk which was terrific. I met so many people along the way and had hoped to run into them in Santiago. Unfortunately, I did not. I am wondering if there is a published record of those who arrived if I wished to track someone down. Many thanks, sonya

Click to expand...

Hola

This question comes up remarkably frequently as pilgrims try to find others they met on the way. As well as issues of privacy/data protection the fact is that the Pilgrims Office does not maintain a searchable electronic database of the names and details of those who arrive. Certain details are recorded on a database - gender, age, nationality, profession, starting point, route taken etc and these are compiled as the monthly and annual statistics which are published. Pilgrims' names which they write on the form are not entered onto the database.

Any search to find if a particular pilgrim has arrived in Santiago has to be done manually by going through every line on every form - trying to decipher everyone's handwriting! As you can imagine this is a major exercise and is only ever undertaken when people are reported missing - which is a rare event thankfully.

John

On one of our pilgrimages some years ago we were able to post a note to the Pilgrim Office with a message for friends who were due to arrive there. It was put up on a board and they were able to read it. This message board, if it still exists, would help pilgrims reunite in Santiago.
Laurie

Alas there is currently no such facility - we are looking at how best to replace the message board to which you refer