Brazil Cultural Groups

Many ethnic or religious minorities such as Jews, Germans, Italians, Spanish, Poles, and Japanese have settled in Brazil. It is important to learn the history of the ethnic, racial, and religious groups your ancestors belonged to. For example, you might study a history of the Americans in Brazil, Germans in Brazil, or Japanese in São Paulo. This historical background can help you identify where your ancestors lived, when they lived there, where they migrated to, the types of records they might be listed in, and other information to help you understand your family’s history.

There are some unique records and resources for most minorities in Brazil. These include histories, gazetteers, biographical sources, settlement patterns, church records, and handbooks.

Minority Records at the FamilySearch Library
The FamilySearch Library collects some published histories. These can be found by doing a Subjects search in the FamilySearch Catalog for "Brazil - Minorities" or "Brazil - Jewish Histories", "Brazil - German Histories", "Brazil - Italian Histories", or other such minorities.

Examples of some of these books and records include:


 * Azevedo, Thales de. Italianos e gaúchos: os anos primeiros da colonização italiana no Rio Grande do Sul (Italians and Gauchos: the first years of the Italian colonization of Rio Grande do Sul). Porto Alegre: A Nação/Instituto Estadual do Livro, 1975.
 * Cenni, Franco. Italianos no Brasil: Andiamo in America (Italians in Brazil: Let’s Walk in America). São Paulo: Martins, Ed. da Universidade de São Paulo, 1975.
 * Auswandererkartei de Rußlanddeutschen na Brasilien: 1870–1940 (Emigration Card Index of Russian Germans to Brazil: 1870–1940). Stuttgart: Deutsches Ausland- Institut, N.p., (1988). item 1
 * Famílias brasileiras de origem germânica (Brazilian Families of German Origin). 5 vols. São Paulo: Instituto Genealógico Brasileiro e Instituto Hans Staden, 1962–1967. ; films and  items 1–2

The FamilySearch Library also has books on North Americans in Brazil. For some references, see Brazil Emigration and Immigration.

In the United States and other countries that Brazilians emigrated to, various local and national societies may have been organized to gather, preserve, and share the cultural contributions and histories of Brazilian minority groups. See Brazil Societies for more information.

Online Minority Records

 * German Genealogy in Brazil, also on GenWiki
 * Southern Confederates Migration to Brazil
 * Revista do Arquivo Municipal, 1950, no 132 - Magazine article containing names of German settlers in Santo Amaro, Sao Paulo Brazil (in Portuguese) by Edmundo Zenha, pages 47-142. Contains lists of families and when they arrived.

Brasil Minorias