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| Because divorce was not common until the 1980s, Brazil has very few divorce records. People would get a desquite, which is a legal separation, but the Catholic Church forbade divorce. | | Because divorce was not common until the 1980s, Brazil has very few divorce records. People would get a desquite, which is a legal separation, but the Catholic Church forbade divorce. |
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| == Locating Civil Registration Records ==
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| Civil registration records are kept by all the states on a municipal level. There are over 3,700 municipalities (municípios) in Brazil, with offices of civil registration. The populace register in their local civil registration offices. The records are then sent to the municipal office, district office, or delegation office.
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| Several small villages will sometimes report births, marriages, and deaths in one central municipality office. Sometimes municipalities existed for a few years and were then dissolved. In villages where this has occurred, births, marriages, and deaths are reported in a neighboring municipality.
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| Duplicate copies of all civil records are made in separate books. Copies of surviving records and duplicates from the municipality archive are sent to the Arquivo Geral dos Tribunais in the federal district and to the judicial or state archives in the various states.
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| === Civil Registration Records at the FamilySearch Library === | | === Civil Registration Records at the FamilySearch Library === |
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| === Requesting Civil Records from Brazil === | | === Requesting Civil Records from Brazil === |
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| Birth, marriage, and death records may be found by contacting or visiting local civil registration offices or district and state civil archives in Brazil. The present location of records depends on whether the local office has sent its records to the higher jurisdiction. Most recent records will be found in the local civil registry offices. Older records may be found in the municipality, district archive, or state archive.
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| Civil registration records in Brazil can be obtained by writing to the local civil registry in the municipality. Civil officials will generally answer correspondence in Portuguese. Your request may be forwarded if the records have been sent to state archives.
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| After deciding who has jurisdiction over the records for the time period you need, write a brief request to the proper office. Write a brief request in Portuguese to the proper office using this address as guide replacing the information in parentheses:<br>
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| :'''Cartório de Registro Civil'''
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| :'''([http://postalcode.globefeed.com/Brazil_Postal_Code.asp postal code]), (city), (state)'''
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| :'''BRASIL'''<br><br>
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| *[http://postalcode.globefeed.com/Brazil_Postal_Code.asp '''Find the Brazilian postal code here.''']
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| Send the following: | | Send the following: |