Brazil Church Records

For information about records for non-Christian religions in Brazil, go to the Religious Records page.

Catholic Church Records
The arrival of six Jesuits in 1549 marked the beginning of organized religious activity in the colony of Brazil. The vast majority of Brazilians were Catholic and were registered in the records of the local parish (registros paroquiais). These records include entries for baptisms, marriages, deaths, and burials. Often two and sometimes three generations are indicated in the registers, with personal information on the family. In addition, church records may include church censuses, account books, confirmations, and other church-related records.

Civil authorities did not begin registering vital statistics until after 1850. After this date one should search in both church and civil records, since there may be information in one that does not appear in the other. For instance, the church records may only list the godparents, while the civil records may list the grandparents.

For civil vital records of births, marriages, and deaths, see Brazil Civil Registration.

Some church records have been lost or have deteriorated because of natural effects like humidity and insects and more dramatic events like fires, floods, and earthquakes. Civil and political strife have also caused the destruction of parish books. Some records were destroyed or damaged because of poor storage. However, many records have simply been misplaced or misidentified.

=Information Recorded in the Records= Different denominations, different time periods, and practices of different record keepers will effect how much information can be found in the records. This outline will show the types of details which might be found (best case scenario);

Baptisms
In Catholic and Anglican records, children were usually baptized a few days after birth, and therefore, the baptism record proves date of birth. Other religions, such as Baptists, baptized at other points in the member's life. Baptism registers might give:

Marriages
Marriage registers can give:

Burials
Burial registers may give:

Extract Forms
The following extract forms were created by Dr. George Ryskamp, JD, AG®. These forms can be used for research in Brazil and Portugal. Click on the type of record form you would like to use and print it for your own files.

[[Media:Birth Record Extraction Form.pdf|Birth/Baptism Extract Form]] [[Media:Marriage Record Extraction Form.pdf|Marriage Extract Form]] [[Media:Death Record Extraction Form.pdf|Death Extract Form]]

These forms are designed to help you quickly analyze and organize your documents. They can become a personal index for your family records.

Locating Parish Records
Most church records used in genealogy were created at the parish (paróquia) level. By 1900, there were several thousand parishes or vicarages in Brazil, divided between 15 diocese (diocese), within two archdioceses (arquidiocese).

You must determine the parish your ancestor belonged to in order to begin research. If your ancestor came from a large city that has several parishes, you will need to know what section of the town he or she lived in to determine the parish. However, in a large city such as Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo you may find that even if you know the home parish, there were times when the ancestor’s family would go to the cathedral for the baptism of a child or to the parish of a relative in the same city. If you do not find the complete family in the home parish, search the surrounding parishes of the city. If your family lived in a very small village or ranch that did not have an established parish, check a map to determine which nearby town had a parish.

Parish boundary maps, if they exist, can be extremely helpful when determining which parishes had jurisdictions over the place where your ancestor lived. They can also help you identify neighboring parishes if you need to search through the various parishes in a given region.

As the parish books were filled, many times they were sent to the diocese or archdiocese that had jurisdiction over the parish. Therefore, if records are no longer available at the local parish you may find the records in the diocesan or archdiocesan archives.

For addresses to the archdiocese archives and descriptions of their collections, see Brazil Archives and Libraries.

Online Church Records
The following three indexes include various Portuguese localities. The years are an overall range, some localities may be from earlier or later years. The following databases are only partially indexed, but have browsable images. They are a collection of baptism, marriage, and death records created by various Catholic parishes and diocese, compiled by state. Additional images and indexed records will be published as they become available.
 * at FamilySearch — index
 * at FamilySearch — index
 * at FamilySearch — index
 * at FamilySearch — images
 * at FamilySearch — images
 * at FamilySearch — images
 * at FamilySearch — index and images
 * at FamilySearch — images
 * at FamilySearch — images
 * at FamilySearch — images
 * at FamilySearch — images
 * at FamilySearch — images
 * at FamilySearch — images
 * at FamilySearch — images
 * at FamilySearch — index and images
 * at FamilySearch — images
 * at FamilySearch — images

Church Records at the Family History Library
The Family History Library has many Brazilian church records on microfilm.

Some of the records are listed in the catalog under a centralized parish rather than each individual parish. For example, the central church of Curuçá in Pará includes church records from several other parishes and chapels.

The specific holdings are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog. You can determine whether the library has records for the locality your ancestor came from by searching the "Subjects" section of the catalog for the town where the parish was located, not necessarily the town where your ancestor lived as follows:

BRAZIL, [STATE], [TOWN] - CHURCH RECORDS

Church records are cataloged first by the name of the denomination (usually Igreja Católica, Catholic Church), followed by the saint name of the parish (for example, Nossa Senhora da Ajuda, Our Lady of Help), and then by the town and state where it is located (for example, Ilha do Governador, Rio de Janeiro). If the city has more than one parish it will list all parishes by name.

If the Family History Library does not have a copy of the records you seek, you will have to write to the parish for information.

Request Records from the Parish or Dioceses
Baptism, marriage, and death records may be searched by contacting or visiting local parish or diocese archives in Brazil. Brazil has no single repository of church records. Write your request in Portuguese whenever possible.

Information about how to write for genealogical information to local parishes in Brazil is given in the Portuguese Letter-writing Guide.

When requesting information, send the following:


 * Money for the search fee, usually $10.00
 * Full name and the sex of the ancestor sought
 * Names of the ancestor’s parents, if known
 * Approximate date and place of the event
 * Your relationship to the ancestor
 * Reason for the request (family history, medical, and so on)
 * Request for a photocopy of the complete original record

If your request is unsuccessful, search for duplicate records that may have been filed in other archives or civil registration offices.

Search Strategies
Effective use of church records includes the following strategies, used in this order:
 * Search only for the ancestor you select. When you find his or her baptismal record, search for the baptisms of his or her brothers and sisters.
 * Search for the marriage of the person’s parents prior to the birth of their first legitimate child. The marriage record will often lead to the parents’ baptismal records.
 * You can estimate the parents’ ages or try to find their ages from a death record and then search for their baptismal records.
 * Repeat the process for both the father and the mother.
 * If earlier generations (parents, grandparents, etc.) do not appear in the records, search neighboring parishes.
 * Search the death registers for all known family members.