Apucarana, Paraná, Brazil Genealogy

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

History
The city is also known as "Cidade Alta" and recognized as the national capital of the cap. "Apucarana" is a name of Tupi-Gurani origin, used by the Guaianas Indians, which means "similar to the forest itself" (apó = base; caarã = similar to the forest; dwarf = immense).

The region where Apucarana is located was colonized by the Companhia Inglesa de Terras Norte do Paraná, like Londrina and Maringá. The colonists would have arrived around 1930.

Due to the economic success of the 1940s and 1970s, thanks to the logging, coffee and commercial cereal activity, the city quickly became a dynamic commercial center, a reference for services and trade in goods throughout the Ivaí Valley (at the time, a thriving agricultural region), and has an extensive banking network. The economic base of the clearing was the logging activity, which represented the cradle of the city's industrial activity and opened space for agriculture. The rapid growth was due to migration, mostly from São Paulo, but with still important contingents of Minas Gerais and Bahians. The immigration of Portuguese, Ukrainians, Poles, Germans and Japanese was also very significant.

At the moment when wood exploitation gradually declined, coffee farming and the rich grain trade were installed, strategically fostered by the city's logistical facilities, a road and rail junction, converging the transport of agricultural production from the entire north of Paraná to export channels in Santos and then in Paranaguá. With the Rodovia do Café that connected Apucarana to the capital of the state of Paraná, Curitiba, inaugurated by the then governor Ney Braga, the city was linked to the central government.

Prosperity was profoundly impacted by the end of the coffee cycle, precipitated by the disastrous frost of July 1975. The collapse of intensive coffee activity made the large rural population associated with it unemployed, and within a few years the urban core (up to then with 60,000 inhabitants) population almost doubled, becoming slums. Small farmers and experienced rural workers emigrated in masse to the Midwest, while farmers and industrialists opened their new ventures on Brazilian agricultural frontiers and, when successful, also migrated.

The economic depression persisted for at least a decade, until the mid-1980s, when abandoned warehouses in the Barra Funda region and high unemployment provided low-cost conditions for the start of the cap industry and some apparel companies. Although belatedly (in relation to neighboring Arapongas, for example), small sectored industrial zones were organized that better served the milling park and encouraged other medium-sized companies to set up shop. The population of Apucarana is composed mostly of Brazilians. It records the presence of two important immigrant colonies: Japanese and Ukrainians. There is also a record of other ethnicities, such as Italians, Portuguese, Spaniards, Poles and Germans.

In 1938, Apucarana was elevated to the category of village. On January 28, 1944, Apucarana was elevated to municipality, and its first mayor was Colonel Luís José dos Santos.

Online Resources

 * Brazil, Paraná, Catholic Church Records, 1731-2013 no Registros Históricos do FamilySearch
 * Obituários MUNICIPIO DE APUCARANA

Local Churches
Diocese de Apucarana Rua Osório Ribas de Paula, 1623 Vila Vitória Apucarana PR 86802-710 Telephone: (43) 3423-1428 Facebook: www.facebook.com/dioceseonline Twitter: twitter.com/dioceseonline WebSite: diocesedeapucarana.com.br Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/D.A On-line

Cemeteries
Cemitério Parque Apucarana Estrada da Colônia Esperança, 1000 Apucarana PR Telephone: (43) 3033-7922 | (43) 9988-8115 WebSite: www.cemiterioportaldoceu.simplesite.com