Alhandra, Paraíba, Brazil Genealogy

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

History
In 1574, by a Royal Decree, Paraíba was separated from Itamaracá, creating the Royal Captaincy of Paraíba, whose limits ranged from the Abiaí River to Baia da Traição (SILVEIRA, 1999). The conquest of Paraíba was only consolidated in 1585, with the foundation of the city of Nossa Senhora das Neves (currently João Pessoa), after eleven years of expeditions and countless bloody battles between settlers and local natives. The Potiguaras allied with the French did not facilitate the action of the Portuguese colonists in these lands. The act considered the founding of Paraíba was an alliance celebrated between the Portuguese and the Tabajaras Indians, whose well-known characters of this fact are João Tavares and Piragibe. As happened throughout Brazil, after the definitive conquest of the lands of Paraíba by the Portuguese, missionary villages were created, such as Jacoca (current city of Conde) and Arataguis (current city of Alhandra). In the missions, the Indians were under the care of religious, who dressed according to Christian ideals led the Indians to practice “good customs”, teaching moral and religious education. The Indian was seen as the one to be saved, as they considered them as the “poor little ones” who did not know the truth, it was the duty of the priests to show them the way to heaven. The European and Christian mentality of the time did not understand or accept the different. In this sense, indigenous culture was seen as something that needed to be overcome by Catholic ideas, with the Jesuits being the first missionary priests to be in Paraíba. According to Wilson Seixas (1979), the Jesuit priests Simão Travassos, Jerônimo Machado and Baltazar Lopes founded residence in the region, beginning the practices that were occupied in the catechesis of the Indians located in the villages both on the coast and in the sertão. With the arrival of the Franciscans, who also began to occupy themselves with the services of catechization in the villages, conflicts arose. The Jesuits were eventually expelled from the Captaincy, in 1593, by the then governor of Paraíba, Feliciano Coelho de Carvalho, leaving the Franciscans to carry out all the missionary work in the region. ...after the expulsion of the Jesuits, the devotion and the number of Christians grew a lot in the captaincy, driven by the great trust they had in the Franciscan priests on whom the weight of many services in the villages fell, so much so that they came to be considered as the best auxiliaries in the moral and religious conversion among the Indians and residents. (SEIXAS, 1979. p. 47) For Seixas (1979) the Franciscans were better at indigenous catechization than the Jesuits, and they even held the affection of the natives of the region. In this naive speech, it seems that there were no conflicts or resistance on the part of the Indians, since behind this conflict between Jesuits and Franciscans there was a greater interest, that of the colonists for indigenous labor, which ended up triggering enslavement. The Franciscans built churches and convents in the villages, with the intention of exerting a greater presence and, therefore, control over the Indians. This is how the church of Alhandra was founded with the invocation of Nossa Senhora da Assunção, one of the first to be built in 1740. Under a rural baroque style, the church of Nossa Senhora de Assunção has already undergone many alterations, but still retains much of its original architecture. Associated with this, there was the construction of the church and the convent by the Indians themselves, which corroborated the displacement of their culture and religion, through the vision and institution of the Christian god. From this perspective we have that “In Paraíba, the tabas were being emptied, turning into missionary villages, manipulated by few religious people... The colonialist policy was to mix the Indians of different tribes and nations...” (MELO, 1999, p. 201). The author reinforces the concept already discussed that the villages, in Paraíba, became the responsibility of the religious, where the colonialist policy mixed different villages and indigenous nations, demonstrating that whenever a new village was conquered by the whites, it was taken to another place. , this already space of tamed Indians. The missionary village of Alhandra, it seems, always received new Indians, brought from other parts of Paraíba, mainly from the interior (sertão). This fact can be seen when we come across the data: in 1804, Alhandra had about 766 Indians, the following year it already had 1,372 (MEDEIROS, 1999). According to Maria do Céu Medeiros, this facet of the colonizers allowed the concentration of indigenous labor, which was necessary in the production of the sugarcane coast (the sertão of Paraíba was a territory relegated by the interest of the colonizers), in the construction of public works, in crops and mills, emphasizing the Indian as a “product” coveted by nations. Alhandra was, then, a suitable space for Indians to work, often coming from the hinterland, predisposed to the commands and excesses of the colonial authorities. Hence, the missionary village was extremely important to European settlers, as they took the Indians out of their territory and took them to a strategic place, provided by the missions. These actions of isolation and control of the Indians were successful, serving in the pacification of the Indians. The importance of the indigenous mission of Alhandra was emphatic, because once the chapel was built, the city was soon elevated to the Parish of Nossa Senhora da Assunção (1749), being the second parish to be created in Paraíba. The parish of Alhandra was linked to the diocese of Olinda. After the creation of the parish, in 1758, the indigenous stronghold was turned into a village: “...By virtue of the Royal Charter of 14 September and the Charter of this date, the village of Arataguy, with the name of Alhandra, is elevated to the category of villa. .” (PINTO. 1977, p. 158). In 1758 it becomes the first village in Paraíba, being only installed in 1765. After Alhandra, four villages followed, that of Pilar (1758), São Miguel da Baía da Traição (1762), Monte-Mor da Preguiça ( 1762) and that of Jacoca, (current Count in 1768). All of them founded from indigenous villages. It can be seen that all were created in a short time, and all of them were not only indigenous villages, but also located along the coast. Which demonstrates greater indigenous control. As Alhandra ceases to be a simple missionary village and becomes a village, it ceases to have only religious authorities, and starts to have control of civil authorities. In this sense, the Indian stops obeying the priest and starts to obey the captain-major and the captain of the Indians and the other local civil authorities. Alhandra was not, therefore, a place of great expression, it was a small village. It is said that around 1774, it had about 620 buildings and 1089 inhabitants, this is more than the population of Jacoca which, in the same year, had 445 buildings and 744 inhabitants. But compared to Pombal, which was later elevated to village, in the same year of 1774 it already had 2451 buildings and 5422 inhabitants (SILVEIRA, 1999. p. 33). However, the biggest reason why Alhandra was the first village was certainly the Indians. Alhandra does not appear as a village like that, due to its grandeur, development or for being a village of relevant expression. But to meet a colonialist policy strategy, it is not surprising that Alhandra will remain for more than two hundred years in the category of village. - In 1959, a group of residents of Vila de Alhandra, tired of the Vila living administratively dependent on the Capital João Pessoa, began to think that Alhandra should become a city. Then begins the struggle of the children of Alhandra for the political emancipation of the village. In 1911, the district of Alhandra appears in the municipality of Paraíba. Elevated to the category of municipality with the name of Alhandra, on April 24, 1959, separated from João Pessoa.

Local Offices
Cartório Viana Teixeira Rua João Pessoa, 83 Centro Alhandra Paraíba 58320-000 Telephone: (83) 3256-1178

Cartório de Registro Civil de Pessoas Naturais Rua Francisco José da Costa, s/n Mata Redonda Alhandra Paraíba 58320-000 Telephone: (83) 3257-1212 E-mail: cartório_mataredonda@hotmail.com

Church Records
Paróquia NOSSA SENHORA DA ASSUNÇÃO (1758) Rua da Assunção, s/n Centro Alhandra Paraíba 58320-000 Telephone: (83) 3256-2058 E-mail: paroquiadealhandra@hotmail.com

Online Resources

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