Reconstituting families and determining differences: the potentialities of this methodology for the study of ethnic groups

Abstract

This article re-examines texts about a group of immigrants of Germanic origin and their descendants in the city of Curitiba, State of Paraná, Brazil, and indicates potentialities of the family reconstitution methodology. In such methodology, the development of this type of research is placed under critical scrutiny, especially as regards to its limitations and the “parochial” sources themselves. The first results were focused on the fecundity studies of three marriage cohorts (1866-1939). Later, efforts were made to explore the database whose objectives had surpassed strictly historical demography. The theoretical framework of the research is based on a history of the construction of ethnic frontiers of European immigration to Brazil, urbanization, politico-ideological questions and the history of a religious institution.