Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Genealogy

Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state of Brazil. It became part of Brazil as tropeiros moved from other parts of the country to raise and trade cattle. In order to support this expansion southward, Portugal fostered the creation of new settlements by sending people from the Azorean Islands. The location known as São Pedro de Rio Grande, a military fort at the time, was founded in 1737. The traditional breed of gaúchos (the people of the state) consists of descendants of those Azoreans, as well as Spanish, African slaves and Native Americans (guaranis and charruas). After the borders were more clearly defined, the state became home for the immigration of Germans (starting in 1824), Italians (starting in 1875), and Eastern Europeans around the turn of the twentieth century.

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

Brazil, Rio Grande de Sul Civil Registratoin (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul Civil Registration (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Cemeteries
Map of cemeteries in Rio Grande do Sul, from BillionGraves.com. Note: This map is not complete, many cemetery locations have yet to be found and added to this site's database. However, a few have images and data already. If you do not see pins, drag the map slightly for them to show up. If the cemetery you are looking for is known to be on the map but is not showing, zoom in until it's pin shows. Click on a pin to see a view of the cemetery, and any data that may have been transcribed from it, each person in the data will also have an accompanying image of the headstone.

[ http://billiongraves.com/pages/search/cemeterymap.php#lat=-30.215866&lon=-52.925624&zoom=7 BillionGraves map of cemeteries in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil]