Araucária, Paraná, Brazil Genealogy

Guide to Municipality of Araucária ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, church records, parish registers, and civil registration.

History
Araucária is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Paraná, of which it is the twelfth most populous, with 133,428 inhabitants, as estimated by the IBGE, in August 2015. time of the town's population. This forest, made up of specimens of the Araucaria angustifolia species, or Paraná pine, is common in colder areas.

Integrated into the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba, on the first plateau of Paraná, it occupies an area of ​​460.85 km², located at 857 m above sea level. Located on the banks of the Iguaçu River, it is crossed by the BR-476, the Rodovia do Xisto, an interconnection road in the Southwest Region of the country. It is 27 km from the center of Curitiba.

The first movements of the white man in the current municipality of Araucária, date back to the year 1668, period in which Domingos Rodrigues da Cunha received a sesmaria, donated by Captain Povoador, Gabriel de Lara, the strong man of Paraná of ​​that period.

Other sesmarias were donated to his sons Luíz and Garcia Rodrigues Velho, and were located on the Passagem de Apiaúna, bordering the Iguaçu River, which at that time was called Rio Grande de Curitiba.

These families started clearings, sowed the first seeds and the place became a point of reference. A few years later, a town was developed which received the name of Tindiquera. The occupation was relatively quick and the surgeon Paschoal Fernandes Leite, Captain Manoel Picam de Carvalho and many others settled there.

The historical origin of Tindiquera, where the municipality of Araucária comes from, deserves a separate chapter in the historiography of Paraná, due to its richness. It is said that the numerous Maia family lived in the small village of Nossa Senhora da Luz dos Pinhais, later Curitiba, of brave and impetuous men who had troubled relations with the authorities and other inhabitants of the place. The incidents that followed gave them the status of personas non gratas  in the incipient Curitiba, reaching the point of being forced to leave the village and take refuge in a distant place, in order to avoid the action of justice, which was persecuting them, as well as the revenge of the people. The place chosen by the numerous Maia family was exactly the village of Tindiquera, located on the banks of the Iguaçu and right on top of an old indigenous village.

In 1876, the region received a strong immigration flow from Russians, Poles and Germans, who in a joint action made progress to the place through the Thomaz Coelho Colony.

The advent of the Republic encouraged the community to prepare a petition, which was duly forwarded to the state government, through deputy Victor Ferreira do Amaral.

The commercial exploitation of wood began in the Parish of Iguassú, from the 19th century to the 1930s, when it went into crisis due to the devastation of the reserves. The residents of Araucaria still dedicated themselves to the exploitation of yerba mate until the 1940s, when there was a decline in exports to Argentina, which became self-sufficient.

The current population is made up of descendants of the first inhabitants of the region (Portuguese-Brazilians, Indians and blacks), and of Polish, Italian, Ukrainian, Syrian, Lebanese, German, Japanese immigrants, as well as migrants from other regions of Paraná and Brazil,  attracted by industrialization, from the 1970s.

On February 11, 1890, by State Decree n.º 40, sanctioned by the governor José Marques Guimarães, the municipality was created, with territory separated from the municipalities of Curitiba and São José dos Pinhais, and with its name changed to Araucária. The official installation took place on March 1, 1890. The first elected mayor of the municipality was Manuel Gonçalves Ferreira.

By Law No. 1,055, of April 5, 1911, the Araucária Judicial Term was created, which was installed on June 4, 1911. On April 19, 1919, through Law No. 1,908, it was elevated to District category, and the installation was made by Estanislau Cardoso, on May 14 of the same year. September 14, 1948, it returned to the category of Judiciary Term, and on January 25, 1949, it was elevated again to the category of District, this time having been installed by Luiz de Albuquerque Maranhão Junior.

Former Names:
 * Tindiquera

Online Resources

 * Brazil, Paraná, Catholic Church Records, 1731-2013 no Registros Históricos do FamilySearch

Localities

 * Colônia Thomaz Coelho
 * Passagem de Apiaúna
 * Rio Grande de Curitiba
 * Vila de Nossa Senhora da Luz dos Pinhais

Other Institutions
Museu Tingüi-Cuera

A regionalist museum, located in Parque Cachoeira, the Museum is named in honor of the Tingüis Indians who inhabited the Araucaria region, already known as Tindiquêra at the time of the discovery of Brazil. It was opened on February 11, 1980 in the building of the extinct Companhia São Patrício, where it operated until 1982, when it was transferred to the building that housed the former Torres Tomato Pasta Factory, from 1943 to 1965, owned by Archelau de Almeida Torres. The Museum has a collection of approximately 600 pieces dating from the 19th century, which tell the story of the daily life and work of the population. Monitored visits can be arranged through the education department.

Parque Cachoeira

It houses the Tingüi-Cuera Museum. The Aldeia da Solidariedade is also open to visitors, where there are houses made of knurled logs, made of pine trunks, built by the first Polish immigrants, reminiscent of the architecture of their homeland.


 * Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics
 * Prefeitura Municipal de Araucária