Brazil Emigration and Immigration

Online Records

 * 1855-1964 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1882-1925 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images only; Also at Ancestry.com; images only ($)
 * 1890-1960 Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960 at FindMyPast; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Brazil
 * 1900-1965 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images; Also at MyHeritage; index & images ($),  Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1902-1980 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1904-1914 Germany, Bremen Passenger Departure Lists, 1904-1914 at MyHeritage; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Brazil
 * 1920-1939 Germany, Bremen Emigration Lists, 1920-1939 at MyHeritge; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Brazil
 * 1921-1939 Reseñas de pasaportes de varios consulados, 1921-1939 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only - includes those in Brazil
 * 1960-1982 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images only
 * Brazil Immigrants Project (Projeto Imigrantes, ($) index
 * Brazil, São Paulo Immigration Memorial (Arquivo Público Do Estado De São Paulo), index
 * Entrada de Estrangeiros no Brasil (Foreigners entering Brazil) This site requires registration for a free account. Click on "Consulta" in the left sidebar to access the search engine of indexed records. Records include:
 * Land and colonization records.
 * Register books of permanent immigrants in the immigrant hostels of Ilha das Flores and Pinheiros
 * 1875-1900 Passenger and disembarkation lists – steamships. 1875-1900


 * Browse digital images through the Sistema de Informações do Arquivo Nacional This site requires registration for a free account. Click on the tab Favoritos to get to the images for the following.
 * Hospedaria de imigrantes for immigrant hostel records.
 * Relações Vapores Entrada Porto Rio de Janeiro to browse images of ship arrivals at the port of Rio de Janeiro.
 * Relações Vapores Entrada Porto Santos to browse images of ship arrivals at the port of Santos.

Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo

Repositório Digital


 * Acervo Textual
 * Documentos Pessoais. Use the drop-down menu for a list of names of people whose records are available.
 * Listas de Bordo. Passenger lists. Use drop down menus to see which ships Vapor and years Ano are included.
 * Fotos e Filmes
 * Mapas
 * Bibliográficos

Memoria do Imigrante


 * Hospedaria. Immigrant hostel records 1882-1958
 * Desembarque. Passengers disembarking in the port of Santos. 1888-1978.
 * Delegacia. Police registration forms for foreigners in the capital. 1939-1984.
 * Use the certificate certidão links to search for and request copies of records. When you find a record and click on Ver Dados para Emitir Certidao or Solicitar Certidao, click on that to see who is listed in the record with or near them.

Acervo digital do Museu da Imigração do Estado de São Paulo


 * Iconografias. Photos, post cards, and portraits of immigrants
 * Requerimentos SACOP. Documents seeking restitution for transporting immigrants to Brazil.
 * Registros de matricula. Immigrant hostel registers 1882-1958
 * Cartografias. Maps showing immigrant colonies and floor plans for the immigrant hostel and the museum of immigration
 * Jornais. Newspapers from immigrant colonies in Brazil 1886-1987
 * Cartas de chamada. Letters offering help to those who wish to settle with their family in Brazil.
 * Listas de bordo. Passenger lists for the Port of Santos 1888-1978.

Arquivo Público do Paraná, Registro de Imigrantes


 * Searchable database
 * Approximately 100,000 records
 * Time-period included is 1876-1879 and 1885-1896
 * Some books can be accessed from the FamilySearch Catalog under Brazil, Paraná, Paranaguá – Emigration and Immigration. If the book is not listed there, contact the archive for more information.

Imigrantes Espirito Santo

Immigration records from the public state archive of Espirito Santo, providing name of passenger, age, date of arrival and often name of birth place.


 * 1) Begin your search by entering the first letter of the last name in the space Iniciais.
 * 2) Next click on Filtrar
 * 3) A drop-down list of surnames will appear in the Familia space. Choose the surname you are looking for.
 * 4) Click on Pesquisar to see all results with the surname you have chosen.
 * 5) When your results appear, click on Pesquisar next to the name of interest. A new section will open up.
 * 6) In section 3, click on Pesquisar next to the name of interest. You will then see information about the person you have chose.

Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia

This site has images of passenger lists of arrivals to the Port of Salvador. Choose the images you with to view from the list found on the left side of the page. The information about the images can be found directly below the image viewer.

Immigration Trends

 * 1530-1755 The Portuguese sent prisoners, degredados (exiles) or indesejáveis (undesirables) to Brazil.
 * 1530-1808 The Portuguese limited immigration to Brazil to Portuguese nationals.
 * 1808 Brazil opened immigration to individuals from any country.
 * 1890 In response to the freeing of the slave population, plantation owners (fazendeiros) created the Sociedade Promotora de Imigração (Society for the Promotion of Emigration) to promote immigration, leading to an increased European immigration to Brazil.
 * 1808-1940 Immigrants came from over 50 nations, mainly Portugal, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Russia, France, Spain, Turkey, the British Isles, and other South American countries. Many settled in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Rio de Janeiro.
 * 1865-1870s Thousands of Southerners from the United States emigrated to Brazil. Most settled in Amazonas, Espírito Santo, and São Paulo, establishing rural colonies. Most of these colonies failed and the settlers returned to the United States.

Passenger Lists
When migrants arrived or departed from Brazilian ports, they usually used one of the three following ports:


 * Rio de Janeiro had its own port. There, migrants were registered through the Agência Central de Imigração (Central Agency for Immigration). Newly arrived immigrants were then taken to the Ilha das Flores (Isle of Flores) and processed at the Casa dos Imigrantes (House of Emigrants).
 * Santos was the main port for the city of São Paulo. The port authorities who registered and handled migrants in Brazil were known as the Hospedaria de Imigrantes (Hostelry of Immigrants).
 * Salvador was the main port for the state of Bahia.

Many of the Brazilian immigrants from Europe and other western hemisphere countries left from the ports of Bremen, Hamburg, La Havre, Bordeaux, Marseille, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Lisbon, Funchal, Cádiz, New Orleans, Naples, Tokyo, and New York. While Hamburg Passenger Lists are available on microfilm at the Family History Library, departure lists from La Havre, New Orleans, and New York were not preserved.

The information in passenger lists varies over time but usually includes the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, and destinations. In addition, relationships and last residences or birthplaces may be given.

Immigration Cards
Brazilian consulates around the world issued immigration cards, which were presented at the Brazilian port of entry by foreigners visiting or immigrating to Brazil.

Information on immigration cards may contain the immigrant's name, date of immigration, date and place of birth, nationality, marital status, parents' names, profession/occupation, place of residence in country of origin, names, ages, and genders of children under the age of 18 traveling with the individual, passport number, whether the stay was permanent or temporary.

Passports
People desiring to leave Brazil were required to obtain passports from the Federal Police (Polícia Federal) in each state capital.

The applicant had to provide an original copy of her or his birth certificate, two recent pictures, a voter’s registration, an identification card, CIC (income tax information), and a military release (required for males over 18 and under 45 years). After completing the necessary forms the police performed a background check. You can research these records if you can show your relationship to the person and a need to see the records. Useful records are:

The addresses for the Federal Police are:

Policia Federal (Escritório Central) Avenida Prestes Maia, 700 Centro 05512-000 São Paulo, SP BRASIL

Policia Marítima Avenida Venezuela 2 - Saúde 20081-310 Rio de Janeiro, RJ BRASIL

Directoria de Portos e Costas (CIPANAVE) Rua Teófilo Otoni 4-Centro Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil CEP: 20090-070 Phone: +55 21 2104 5195 Fax: + 55 21 2104 5196 E-mail: [mailto:secom@dpc.mar.mil.br secom@dpc.mar.mil.br]

Departamento de Policia Federal Rua da Assembléia 70 - Centro 20011-000 Rio de Janeiro, RJ BRASIL http://www.dpf.gov.br/

Other Sources of Immigration Information
You may be able to learn the town your ancestor came from by talking to older family members. Members of your family may have documents that name the city or town, such as:

Additional Resources
The following websites give further information on Brazilian emigration and immigration


 * History of immigration from Brazil
 * Immigrant Project (in Portuguese) Record searches available for a fee.
 * Emigrants from Bukovina to Paraná (in Portuguese)
 * Italian Immigrants (in Portuguese)
 * Japanese Immigration to Brazil (in Portuguese)
 * Italian Surnames (in Spanish)
 * Confederates in Brazil

The Family History Library has additional information on Brazilian emigration and immigration. These sources include:


 * Ferenczi, Imre. International Migrations, volume I: Statistics. Series: The American immigration collection. Series 2, vol. 1. New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1970.
 * Oliveira, Betty Antunes de. Movimento de passageiros norte-americanos no porto do Rio de Janeiro, 1865–1890 (Movement of North American Passengers in the Port of Rio de Janeiro, 1865–1890). Rio de Janeiro: B. A. de Oliveira, 1982. ;

Brasil Emigração e Imigração Emigración e inmigración de Brasil