Tavares, Paraíba, Brazil Genealogy

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

History
The history of the municipality dates back to the last century when Fr. Francisco Tavares, arrived in the region, then inhabited by a few families. When examining the fertility of the land and its climatic conditions of a promising sertão, he decided to make his whereabouts in this place and fight for the ideal of populating a village.

Around 1870, he clashed with Major Florentino, from the Mixila region (Sítio), who had also had the intention of forming a village in the region of origin, against the blessings and ideas of the priest, even founding an open market there in that place, thus hastening the creative action of the priest who, under a Juazeiro, right in the center of Campina (where the main street is today) celebrated the first mass and built an improvised altar of sticks, at the same time elevating the image of the archangel São Miguel, which he later received from the local owner, Mr. Manoel Antônio do Nascimento, who also donated four hectares of land as the first patrimony of the parish of São Miguel. This fact would have occurred on February 4, 1874, when the settlement of the Campina site had only two residences:

To celebrate his settlement, Father Francisco Arcoverde Tavares built a chapel with the image of São Miguel, in the condition of patron, who was honored for nine consecutive nights, in the second half of September.

The choice of São Miguel Arcanjo as patron of the city would have its reason in a posthumous tribute, paid to the son of the donor of the image and patrimony of the parish, who was called Miguel and who would have been devoured by a jaguar in the vicinity of the Paulinos lagoon. As for the name Tavares, it would be a tribute to the priest Francisco Tavares, for his important achievements. With the arrival of the priest, a chapel was built in honor of the archangel São Miguel, current patron saint. On November 15, 1938, the municipality of Princesa was renamed Princess Isabel. Elevated to the category of municipality with the name Tavares, on September 10, 1959, separated from Princess Isabel.

Local Offices
Tavares Cartorio Único de Notas e Registro Civil Rua Manoel Lima, 152 Centro Tavares Paraíba 58753-000 Telephone: (83) 3450-1004 E-mail: saulopereiralima@gmail.com

Online Resources

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

Local Churches
PARÓQUIA DE SÃO MIGUEL ARCANJO (1968)

Localities
District: Juru Villages: Mocambo, Arara, Inácio Alves, Curisco, Pau d’Arco, Boa Vista, Lagoa, Riacho do Meio, Minadouro, Domingos Ferreira, Queimadas, Bonito, Cacimbinha, Cumbre, Castanheira, Olho d’Água Seco, Pitomba, Lajedo Bonito, Manoel do Mato, Macambira e os distritos de Jurema, Belém e Silvestre.