In the XIX century Lisbon was the capital of a country where problems of economic, social and political order were increasing. In this context the nineteenth century city was developing in an unequal way and it is important to understand some tendencies. This was the method of enquiry we opted for in the study of nuptials in two Lisbon parish councils – Conceição-a- Nova and Santos-o-Velho – during the period from 1864 to 1890. In this analysis, it was possible to distinguish two different forms of systems of access to marriage: one directed to men and the other directed to women. These differences were also related to the specific structures by sex and age structure of the population.

keywords: historical demography, nuptials, immigration, nineteenth century Lisbon, parochial records.