Sousa, Paraíba, Brazil Genealogy

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

History
The beginning of the colonization of western Paraíba, in the region on the banks of the Peixe River, by settlers from Bahia, Pernambuco and São Paulo, took place at the end of the 17th century, after winning the friendship of the Icós Indians. The exploration of the hinterlands in the 16th and 17th centuries was gradual, requiring the explorers of the hinterland to undertake a great effort to dominate lesser-known lands further away from the coast. One of them, Sergeant Major Antônio José da Cunha in 1691, discovered a stream called "Peixe" inhabited by the indigenous nation Icó Pequeno. In 1708, José da Cunha pleaded for a sesmaria being granted by the then governor João da Maia da Gama for, later, other sertanistas to settle there with their farms. It was up to the Franciscan Friar João de Matos Serra, back in the year 1700, to settle the surviving Indians, taking the first steps towards the organization of the future Vila.

In 1723, the priests Francisco and Teodósio de Oliveira Ledo arrived, transferred the territory to the Casa da Torre da Bahia, and became lords of the valleys formed by the Peixe and Piranhas rivers. The housing process took place slowly with the residents of the riverbanks and the people from São Paulo who were arriving to locate their farms with herds and agriculture. At that time, the village already had a population of 780 inhabitants.

The fertility attracted residents interested in cultivating the land. Bento Freire de Sousa and José Gomes de Sá also located their farms in this region. Thus, the village developed and, in 1730, had 1,468 inhabitants, according to information from the Cabido de Olinda. This growth caught the attention of Bento Freire who, living on Fazenda Jardim, took the initiative to organize a village. Bento Freire pleaded for a concession, traveling to Bahia in order to obtain from Casa da Torre the donation of the sesmaria whose lands would be patrimony of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios. Once the election was won, it was up to Bento Freire to build the first chapel in honor of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios - currently the Church of Rosário dos Pretos. Bento Freire had become the first administrator of the patrimony of the "Parish of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios do Jardim do Rio do Peixe, elevating it to a village.

The lands of the former Jardim do Peixe belonged to Colonel Francisco Dias D'Ávila and his mother D. Inácia D'Araújo Pereira, a noble family from Casa da Torre da Bahia, who donated them to the patrimony of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios in 1740 at the request of Benedict Freire. However, the process lasted until 1756 with many comings and goings of Bento Freire to Bahia when, finally in 1760, he obtained the sentence that definitively legalized the constitution of the patrimony of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios. Bento Freire managed the Heritage until 1765, successfully crowning an effort of almost half a century of struggle to build what would become the municipality of Sousa. The village of Jardim do Rio do Peixe, first name of the habitat, was elevated to the category of Village by decision of the Kingdom, expressed by force of authority of the Royal Charter of 22 July 1766, village with its original name. In 1784, the Mother Church of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios was separated from Nossa Senhora do Bom Sucesso de Pombal.

Local Offices
Serviço Registral Maria Alice Morais Langbehn Rua Quintino Bocaiuva, s/n Centro Sousa PB 58800-060 Telephone: (83) 3521-2142 E-mail: rcpnsousa@hotmail.com

Online Resources

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

Local Churches
Paróquia Santuário Bom Jesus Eucarístico Aparecido de Sousa (1958) Praça da Matriz, s/n Centro Sousa PB 58800-060 Telephone: (83) 3522-1470