Brazil Genealogical Records

Brazil Birth & Baptism Records

Brazil Baptism Index (1688-1935)

An index to over 3 million Catholic church records, listing parents' names.

Miscellaneous Births & Baptisms Index (1534-1983)

A small index to several-hundred-thousand records from select countries.

Brazil Marriage & Divorce Records

Brazil Marriage Index (1730-1955)

An index to over 470,000 Catholic marriage records, including date and place of marriage and the names of the bride and groom.

Miscellaneous Marriage Index (1662-1945)

An index to more than 30,000 marriage records, including personal details, names of relations and particulars of marriage.

Brazil Death & Burial Records

Jewish Online Worldwide Burial Registry (1550-Present)

A searchable database of over 1 million Jewish burials with photographs of the matzevot.

Brazil Catholic Death Index (1750-1890)

An index to around 50,000 death records. The index may contain name, age, gender, parents' names, place of burial and date of burial.

Newspapers Covering Brazil

Name Card Index to AP Stories (1905-1990)

An index to over 2.1 million people mentioned in Associated Press stories, including name, subject, location, date and a reference to the article.

Subject Card Index to AP Stories (1937-1985)

An index to around 500,000 Associated Press articles.

AP Stories & Newsfeatures (1937-1985)

An index to and digital images of hundreds-of-thousands of world newspaper articles.

Brazil Immigration & Travel Records

Irish Famine Immigrants (1846-1851)

A record of over 600,000 immigrants arriving in the United States; being predominantly those escaping the Irish famine. Records may contain numerous useful details, such as age or year of birth, native county and intended destination.

São Paulo, Brazil Immigration Cards (1902-1980)

An index to and images of millions of documents detailing foreigners with granted permanent residency in São Paulo.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Immigration Cards (1900-1965)

Indexes and images of millions of immigration cards issued by Brazilian consulates around the world and presented at the port of entry by foreigners visiting or immigrating to Brazil.

Swedish Emigration Records (1783-1951)

Abstracts of details found in passenger lists, passport records, correspondence and seaman records, which may list name, age, gender, birthplace, occupation, residence, destination, emigration date and more. Most passengers were traveling to North America.

Brazil Directories & Gazetteers

CIA World Factbook (1994)

A statistic and descriptive gazetteer of nations.

World Foreign Gazetteer (1998)

Useful for locating places, this searchable gazetteer gives brief details, latitude and longitude for more than 1.5 million features, places and regions throughout the world.

Brazil Cemeteries

Billion Graves (1200-Present)

Photographs and transcriptions of millions of gravestones from cemeteries around the world.

Brazil Histories & Books

Ancestry Member Photos & Documents (6000 BC-Present)

Over 60 million historic photographs and documents submitted to Ancestry. This rich collection contains many rare sources of interest to local historians and will be relevant to most genealogical research.

Ancestry Member Stories (6000 BC-Present)

Over 7 million remembrances and historic details submitted by Ancestry members. Useful for local historians.

Brazil Occupation & Business Records

Slave Voyages Database (1514-1866)

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database has information on more than 35,000 slave voyages that forcibly embarked over 12 million Africans for transport to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Cricket Archive (1844-Present)

A database of cricket scores and players.

Pedigrees & Family Trees Covering Brazil

FamilySearch Community Trees (6000 BC-Present)

A searchable database of linked genealogies compiled from thousands of reputable and not-so-reputable sources. Contains many details on European gentry & nobility, but covers many countries outside Europe and people from all walks of life.

Ancestry Member Family Trees (6000 BC-Present)

A compilation of lineage-linked family trees submitted by Ancestry users. The database contains over 2 billion individuals and is searchable by numerous metrics.

Genealogics (1400 BC-Present)

A searchable database of linked families. It largely covers royalty and nobility, but also contains actors, footballers and American presidents.

Ancestry World Tree (6000 BC-1997)

A collection of legacy trees submitted by Ancestry users containing nearly 400 million individuals.

Brazil Royalty, Nobility & Heraldry Records

FamilySearch Community Trees (6000 BC-Present)

A searchable database of linked genealogies compiled from thousands of reputable and not-so-reputable sources. Contains many details on European gentry & nobility, but covers many countries outside Europe and people from all walks of life.

Genealogics (1400 BC-Present)

A searchable database of linked families. It largely covers royalty and nobility, but also contains actors, footballers and American presidents.

Brazil Maps

Old Maps Online (1497-2010)

An interactive index to thousands of maps covering the world, continents, countries and regions. The majority of maps cover Britain and Ireland.

Historical Description

Brasile hath on the North, Guiana; on the South, Rio de la plate, and Chile; on the East, the Virginian Ocean; and on the West, the Mountains of Peru, called the Anadees. These Hills are high, craggy, and very barren; full of ravenous Beasts, and poysonous Serpents. Here also live a Mountain-People, being hairy all over, going altogether naked, and live without Houses, or Bedding.

The Air here is of a healthfull temper; the Earth fat, and alwayes flourishing; great store of Sugars, and wonderfull rich Mines, are the sinews of this Region. Hence cometh our red Wood, which we use in dyeing of Cloathes, called Brasile; the Trees of which are of that bigness, that whole Families live in the Arms of one; every Tree being as populous as many of our Villages: for which purpose the Cities here are neither many, fair, nor populous, The chief are S. Anna, Equitum Ascensio, Pernambucco, from whence comes that Brasile-Wood, which with us is call'd Fernanbuck-Wood, which they use in dyeing of red Cloathes. The People of this Countrey have two ill qualities, as being mindfull of injuries, and forgetfull of benefits; the Men cruel without measure, and the Women infinite laseivious.

A Geographical Description of the World (1671) by George Meriton

With the enormous area of 3,208,870 square miles, Brazil is the most extensive of South American countries, having an immense territory, 2,600 miles from north to south, and 2,500 from east to west, and including in all 20 States. The population is over 26,000,000. Emigrants, principally from Portugal, Spain and Italy, number about 200,000 annually in normal times. Imports are largely made up of textile goods, machinery and consumables, whilst the leading exports are coffee, india rubber, cotton, cocoa, hides, tobacco, sugar, manganese and gold. The export of frozen moat has greatly increase 1 in the last year. Agriculture is being fostered by the Ministry of Agriculture, and Brazil is now exporting large quantities of wheat. The mineral wealth of the country is remarkable, but has been developed to a very small extent. The trade with England is considerable; the Imports from the United Kingdom in 1920 were £21,893,997, and the Exports to us £12,025,378. Rio de Janeiro, the capital, has over 1,250,000 inhabitants; Sao Paulo, the second largest city, over 510,000.

The Newspaper Press Directory and Advertisers' Guide (1922)

Most Common Surnames in Brazil

RankSurnameIncidenceFrequency
1da Silva12,585,8681:17
2dos Santos7,427,7531:29
3Pereira5,594,0581:38
4Alves4,872,9871:44
5Ferreira4,848,9311:44
6Rodrigues4,197,2291:51
7Silva4,080,0291:52
8de Oliveira3,972,8071:54
9de Souza3,598,8451:59
10Gomes2,911,5361:74
11Santos2,902,7501:74
12Oliveira2,302,0861:93
13Ribeiro2,108,1311:102
14de Jesus1,963,7411:109
15Soares1,786,0651:120
16Martins1,739,1431:123
17Barbosa1,711,2351:125
18Vieira1,566,8191:137
19Souza1,548,4751:138
20Lopes1,536,7401:139
21Lima1,511,7141:142
22Batista1,457,0781:147
23Fernandes1,431,5831:150
24Costa1,395,8681:153
25de Sousa1,303,8351:164
26Dias1,281,7191:167
27da Conceiçao1,228,3581:174
28de Lima1,208,3901:177
29do Nascimento1,102,2561:194
30Moreira1,086,5131:197
31Nunes1,061,8651:202
32da Costa1,031,0671:208
33Araujo975,4531:219
34Marques926,6461:231
35Cardoso921,3431:232
36de Almeida901,6941:237
37Mendes885,9971:242
38Nascimento852,3671:251
39Teixeira831,7311:257
40Ramos827,9321:259
41Carvalho799,0601:268
42Rosa781,2231:274
43Almeida760,8251:281
44Sousa739,7131:289
45Machado737,4781:290
46Rocha722,1211:296
47Santana698,0621:307
48de Araujo685,6541:312
49Borges629,4761:340
50Bezerra610,7351:351
51Henrique608,3501:352
52Pinheiro549,2571:390
53de Carvalho543,5441:394
54Monteiro541,9571:395
55Correa513,9961:416
56Aparecido507,9781:421
57Andrade503,8301:425
58Pinto497,9561:430
59da Cruz464,6871:461
60de Paula456,4401:469
61de Freitas451,0621:475
62Nogueira428,7811:499
63Leite423,8331:505
64Tavares423,3261:506
65Miranda415,4151:515
66Pires403,9791:530
67Garcia402,1901:532
68dos Reis400,9391:534
69Xavier398,5651:537
70do Carmo397,3591:539
71Duarte393,7461:544
72de Andrade392,3621:546
73Freitas388,6051:551
74Correia387,9841:552
75de Fatima379,3321:564
76Barros376,2071:569
77Coelho373,2591:574
78Gonçalves365,1751:586
79de Melo364,2801:588
80Reis363,0321:590
81Viana359,1461:596
82Campos353,2851:606
83Moraes341,4251:627
84Felix335,4601:638
85Brito330,1881:648
86Cordeiro323,6831:661
87Neves317,3561:675
88Moura315,6931:678
89Guimaraes312,9411:684
90Farias309,8491:691
91da Rocha307,9221:695
92de Castro302,2721:708
93Carneiro282,1631:759
94Silveira281,7231:760
95Candido280,7721:762
96Melo280,0171:765
97Medeiros275,6321:777
98de Assis275,2551:778
99Bispo273,2601:783
100de Lourdes263,6951:812
101Cruz257,2521:832
102Dantas255,0671:839
103Maciel254,6851:841
104Morais250,5471:854
105Braga249,7341:857
106Cavalcante249,5301:858
107Antunes246,3061:869
108Siqueira246,2561:869
109de Moura240,6571:890
110Domingos233,2361:918
111Macedo231,3521:925
112de Santana231,1831:926
113Fonseca230,4401:929
114Caetano223,1411:959
115Castro222,3261:963
116Menezes217,3251:985
117da Cunha214,7411:997
118de Moraes214,1701:1,000
119dos Anjos213,7011:1,002
120Inacio213,5771:1,002
121Matos211,5191:1,012
122Sales210,9911:1,015
123Cunha206,3861:1,037
124Chaves201,8831:1,060
125de Brito200,8091:1,066
126Barreto196,4081:1,090
127Queiroz196,3821:1,090
128Magalhaes196,3301:1,090
129Azevedo195,2431:1,096
130Mota194,7241:1,099
131Evangelista193,3681:1,107
132Bento192,2021:1,114
133Maia189,6551:1,129
134Amorim189,6261:1,129
135Cabral188,9221:1,133
136Bueno188,7681:1,134
137Mariano187,4651:1,142
138Torres185,3121:1,155
139Franca184,2811:1,162
140Marinho184,0201:1,163
141Amaral183,3731:1,167
142Guedes181,5331:1,179
143Freire178,6781:1,198
144Leal178,4691:1,200
145da Rosa176,0581:1,216
146Matias173,9011:1,231
147Paulino173,0601:1,237
148Sampaio170,5971:1,255
149Das Gracas164,7231:1,300
150Mendonca164,2471:1,303
151Camargo163,9431:1,306
152Franco161,0501:1,329
153Pacheco160,3411:1,335
154Sántos159,6131:1,341
155Aguiar156,9231:1,364
156de Barros156,6231:1,367
157de Morais156,5151:1,368
158Diniz155,9601:1,373
159Santiago154,6281:1,384
160Figueiredo152,8471:1,401
161Lemos151,1851:1,416
162Muniz150,0301:1,427
163Dutra148,3561:1,443
164Bastos147,7381:1,449
165da Silveira147,0011:1,456
166Vasconcelos143,3451:1,493
167de Azevedo140,9581:1,519
168da Luz139,6081:1,533
169Faria139,1241:1,539
170Trindade138,1381:1,550
171Gonzaga137,0181:1,562
172Domingues135,9671:1,574
173Paiva133,4681:1,604
174Feitosa131,9411:1,623
175de Abreu131,7811:1,624
176Teles128,5881:1,665
177de Matos126,1281:1,697
178Braz125,7931:1,702
179Coutinho124,6281:1,718
180Nonato124,3141:1,722
181Messias123,5561:1,733
182Chagas123,3861:1,735
183Simoes121,9171:1,756
184Fagundes121,4601:1,763
185Brandao121,1781:1,767
186Das Dores120,1541:1,782
187Teodoro119,8261:1,787
188Firmino119,6441:1,789
189Vaz118,6171:1,805
190de Campos117,7111:1,819
191Barboza116,8101:1,833
192Das Chagas116,6771:1,835
193Galdino116,1571:1,843
194Custodio112,8651:1,897
195Abreu112,3801:1,905
196Das Neves111,7681:1,915
197Peixoto110,3521:1,940
198Ferraz109,4121:1,957
199Rezende106,5211:2,010
200Furtado106,2391:2,015