Uiraúna, Paraíba, Brazil Genealogy

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

History
The history of Uiraúna is related to the development of sugarcane cultivation on the coast of Paraíba, due to competition with the Antilles, which made extensive livestock the economic base of the hinterland, this fact favored its occupation with the creation of routes and fairs of cattle.

Uiraúna, being located on the border between Paraíba-Rio Grande do Norte-Ceará, was a strategic point of occupation. Another important factor for its colonization was the expansionist spirit of the D'Ávila family who annexed the lands bathed by the Rio do Peixe to their domains (Sousa, São João do Rio do Peixe, Uiraúna...), they came from Casa da Torre in Bahia and explored a large part of the Brazilian Northeast with the aim of accumulating capital through livestock. In view of the large territory conquered by Casa da Torre, the D'ávilla, in order to ensure order and impose the sovereignty of Portugal, began to grant titles of captain-major, sergeant-major and among others, in order to establish the domain on their land, they also appointed attorneys who paid them the forum and served them in exchange for support and strength with the colonial government.

There are reports that show that in 1601, the captain-major Antônio José da Cunha, coming from Pernambuco, settled in the region, where the municipality is located today, organizing cattle ranches and achieving the friendship of the small Icós Indians who inhabited the region. from the Rio do Peixe and were a tribe of the Tapuias-Cariris. At this juncture, by the 18th century, the territory was donated in the form of a sesmaria to ensign Alexandre Moreira Pinto and João Nunes Leitão.

It is worth noting the importance of the Rio do Peixe, which, although intermittent, proved to be an important means of survival for both the Indians and the cattle ranchers and their respective slaves. In the second half of the 19th century, João Claudino de Galicia, Henrique Caetano de Galiza, Claudino Coutinho de Galiza and Joaquim Duarte Coutinho settled in the region and named it Belém do Arrojado, in 1872. A modest chapel was founded by Father José Joaquim de França Coutinho (son of Joaquim Duarte Coutinho and França Caetano Coutinho) who had been ordained in the Seminary of Olinda and returned with the aim of building the chapel. In the same place where the chapel was built, there is currently the Igreja Matriz Jesus, Maria e José, the patron saint of the municipality has been the same since the 19th century. Due to his work and love for his homeland, Father França is considered the founder of the municipality, and in 1940 a statue was erected in his honor in the square and street that bear his name.

In parallel with the arrival of cattle ranchers to the sertão, a new class of workers was born in Brazil, especially in the Northeastern and Southern states, the tropeiros, who played an extremely important role in the villages and cities of the interior, because in the absence of trucks (which had been invented in 1896, but due to its high cost would only arrive in Brazil decades later) they used to drive mule troops to look for products that the countryside needed in other cities. The tropeiros from Uiraun were known as “Tropeiros do Sertão” and usually went to Cariri Ceará and Mossoró in search of rapadura, cotton and flour.

During the Old Republic, the city was the scene of two major rebellions famous until today, they are Coluna Prestes and Lampião. The Coluna Miguel Costa-Prestes, better known as Coluna Prestes, was a political-military movement that preached dissatisfaction with the Old Republic, the demand for a secret vote and the defense of public education, led by Luís Carlos Prestes the rebellion passed through the land of Father França, first through the community of Aparecida, soon after arriving at Luís Gomes and then returning to Uiraunense lands, he goes to Olho d'Água Seco, then to Santa Umbelina and also to Quixaba, when he leaves for the municipality of Vieirópolis.

Lampião was the most famous bandit in the history of Brazil, in Uiraúna his visits (1927) were considerably quick and both in the first and in the second he made the same route. A curious fact to mention is that it was from Lampião's retreat in the region that he began to lose in his battles until eleven years later he was killed.

In this period, there was also a fact that influenced the cultural formation of the municipality, it was the Revolta do Juazeiro, which consisted of an armed confrontation between the Ceará oligarchies and the federal government provoked by the interference of the central power in state politics, that is, in 1911 the mayor from Juazeiro do Norte, Father Cícero decided not to accept some orders from the federal government, in response the government sent troops establishing a real conflict in the entire interior of Ceará, so several people afraid of what could happen took refuge in other cities, so four musicians from the The city of Missão Velha came to Uiraúna and in search of work they looked for Father Costa who together had the idea of ​​teaching music to the Uiraunenses, thus the Banda Costa Correia was born in 1914, which today is called Banda de Música Jesus, Maria e José and gives the municipality the title to the musicians' land.

In 1937, the district of Belém appears in the municipality of Antenor Navarro. On November 15, 1938, the district of Belém changed its name to Canaã. On December 31, 1943, the district of Canaã was renamed Uiraúna. Elevated to the category of municipality with the name of Uiraúna, on December 2, 1953, separated Antenor Navarro.

Local Offices
Serviço Registral de Pessoas Naturais Rua Francisco Leão Veloso, 228 Centro Uiraúna Paraíba 58915-000 Telephone: (83) 3534-2214

Online Resources

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

Local Churches
Paróquia Sagrada Família Rua José Vieira Bujary, 22 Centro Uiraúna Paraíba 58915-000 Telephone: (83) 3534-2206

Localities
Districts: Aparecida, Areias, Poço Dantas, Quixaba, Santarém, Vazante