Brazil, Bahia, Passenger Lists - FamilySearch Historical Records

Brazil Bahia

What is in the Collection?
This collection of passenger arrival lists into the port of São Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, includes the years 1855-1964.

The records are in Portuguese; see the section "For Help Reading these Records" for access to translation helps.

Sample Images
Passenger lists may include the following information:


 * Name of passenger
 * Age
 * Marital status
 * Nationality
 * Occupation
 * Date of arrival to Brazil
 * Port of arrival
 * Port of departure
 * Sometimes place of origin or birth place

How Do I Search the Collection?
These records may be used to document your immigrant ancestor's trip to Brazil, but do not overlook the possibility of finding ancestors that were merely vacationing, visiting relatives, or traveling on business.

See the sections below for tips and uses for searching and finding the record of your ancestor in this collection and using the information in the record.

If you are unable to find a record for your ancestor in this collection, see the corresponding section below.

Search the Collection
View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page:

To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒Select the "Browse" link in the initial search page ⇒Select the "Número de volume e anos" (Volume Number and Years) category which takes you to the images.

Search the collection by image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

For Help Reading these Records
These records are in Portuguese. For help reading the records see the following guides:


 * Portuguese Genealogical Word List
 * Brazil Language and Languages

What Do I Do Next?
You can use passenger lists to learn an immigrant’s place of origin, confirm their date of arrival, learn foreign names and their Portuguese translations, and find records in his or her country of origin such as emigrations, port records, or ship’s manifests.

If just the country is given, use the last name to search for your ancestor and his/her family in his/her home country; this is called a surname search and helps to pinpoint what cities/provinces/states were the hometowns of families.

Also, use the last name to search for any possible relatives that may have traveled after or before your ancestor.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?
The information was supplied by the immigrant and his identification documents. Incorrect information was occasionally given, or mistakes may have been made when the immigration officer guessed at the spelling of foreign names.

These type-written records may have been transcribed from hand-written lists. So errors may be found in the spellings of names.

When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

Remember that your ancestor's name may be spelled according to the new country's native language or the language of your ancestor's home country.

Clerks may have written/spelled the name of your ancestor as they heard it, not as it is spelled in your ancestor's native language. Learn about pronunciation of your ancestor's native language.

The port your ancestor departed from may not be his/her hometown.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?
If you think your ancestor may have immigrated to Brazil and you cannot find him/her in this collection, then check the records of other ports in Brazil. Information on these other ports can be found here, Brazil Emigration and Immigration.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
The passenger arrival list was used by legal inspectors to cross-examine each immigrant during a legal inspection prior to the person being allowed to live in Brazil. As immigrants arrived to the port of Salvador, they were registered by the Agência Central de Imigração (Central Agency for Immigration).

Passenger lists were issued at time of embarkation to account and document all passengers traveling on board a ship. On arrival at the destination, these passenger lists were used to register each passenger as they disembarked.

Citing this Collection
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information; that is, cite your sources. This will help people find the record again and evaluate the reliability of the source. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records. Citations are available for the collection as a whole and each record or image individually.

Collection Citation:

Image Citation: