São Paulo – To assist in the search of information on immigrants in Brazil, the Immigration Museum (MI), in São Paulo, launched this Thursday (29) the free e-book “Digital Archive of the Immigration Museum”. The e-book guides the users in their search of the museum’s specialized archive, with nearly 10,000 publications, 550 interviews, 12,000 items, 62 linear meters of institutional archives and an online database with over 250,000 digitized images.
The initiative aims to simplify the access, so the families can find information on their ancestors more easily through the digitized material available at the website of the museum, which is managed by the Secretariat of Culture of the State of São Paulo. The e-book was developed by the Preservation, Research and Reference Center (CPPR, in the Portuguese acronym) of the Immigration Museum, which was founded in April 2016.
Arab countries in the archive
Among the nationalities of Arab origin with data in the archives are Syria, Palestine and Lebanon. A simple search for the word “Arab” results in over 100 archives that mention the language, between letters sent to the immigrants and newspapers.
The contents of the Digital Archive are intertwined with the history of the building that hosts today the Immigration Museum of the State of São Paulo. The place hosted, for over 90 years, the Hospedaria de Imigrantes do Brás (Brás Immigrant Inn) and, according to the Museum, lodged over 2.5 million people, among immigrants and national migrants. The foreigners came from over 70 countries.
The e-book, available for download in the website, has a tutorial on how to find the data and an explanation of each and every item of the registration form. In 2018, the CPPR staff received over nine thousand information requests, in person or via email. Most of the people making the requests are looking for their genealogy or information to use in citizenship requests.
The users that prefer an in-person service, which is provided by researchers, the Preservation Center now have longer opening hours. It takes place from Tuesdays to Saturdays, from 10 am to 4 pm. “Many people arrive here with very few information in search of documents for citizenship requests or interested in their family tree, and leave with precious data and a submitted search,” explains the center’s researcher Henrique Trindade, in a statement. The Center states that questions about searches in the digital archive can be sent to pesquisa@museudaimigracao.org.br.
Quick info
Preservation, Research and Reference Center
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday, from 10 am to 4 pm (except holidays)
Entrance: Free
Where: Immigration Museum – Rua Visconde de Parnaíba, 1.316, Mooca, São Paulo
Further information: www.museudaimigracao.org.br
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
