Coimbra to Rio Grande do Sul: analysis of passports, 1881-1889

Abstract

The present study intends to present the analysis of records of passports of the District of Coimbra whose holders intended to travel/emigrate to the Brazilian province of Rio Grande do Sul between 1881 and 1889. Despite the vast bibliography about Portuguese emigration to Brazil in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there are still few studies focusing on Rio Grande do Sul, where the study of German and Italian immigration predominates. It was analyzed 396 passports of the Civil Government of Coimbra, available in the Archives of the University of Coimbra and in the FamilySearch website. The main conclusions are: an absolute majority of male; the proximity between the number of married and single; the high index of instruction for the Portuguese parameters of the second half of the nineteenth century; a majority of rural workers and evidence of a violent reality.