Bookmark

Paraíba, Brasil



 


Tree: Nederlandse voorouders

Notes:
Paraíba (pronounced paɾaˈiba) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It contains the easternmost land of the Americas. Paraíba has a clear, calm water coast, many natural reefs and natural pools. Perhaps the beaches of João Pessoa, the capital, are the best known. There it is the Praia do Seixas, the extreme point east of South America. João Pessoa has a singular characteristic: it is the Brazilian city where the sun raises first. In the interior of the State, another great city is Campina Grande. It is one of the Brazilian capitals of forró, and during the month of June receives more than one million tourists for the festivities.



History



In the mid-1500s, Portuguese settlers from Pernambuco founded Filipéia de Nossa Senhora das Neves (today João Pessoa) at the mouth of the Paraíba do Norte River.



The area soon proved perfect for sugar production, with the French, the Dutch and the Portuguese all constantly fighting to control the Paraíba region to grow the lucrative sugarcane in. The fortress of Santa Catarina, near João Pessoa, was built to protect the city from the Dutch, who soon became a threat to Portuguese supremacy in Brazil.



In late 1989 a team led by gemstone prospector Heitor Dimas Barbosa uncovered in a small mountain range what some consider to be the finest tourmaline crystals ever found. A trace of copper gives the tourmalines a vivid turquoise color that had never been seen before in the gems, and is sometimes referred to as "neon".



The "neon" paraiba tourmaline, a vivid blue and blue green, has also been found in other deposits close to the Batalha mine of Barbosa, and also in the neighboring state of Rio Grande do Norte. The bright colors of this tourmaline are due to the presence of copper. Around 2000, a similar copper-containing tourmaline was found in Nigeria, although the colors are not as intense. Around 2005, beautiful crystals of copper-containing tourmaline were found in Mozambique.



Initially, the nomenclature for this tourmaline was "Paraíba tourmaline". Note the capitalization and the accent on the "i". In 2006, the LMHC (Laboratory Manual Harmonization Committee) agreed that "paraiba" should refer to a variety of tourmaline, and not indicate a geographic origin. Note "paraiba" is not capitalized, and does not have an accent on the "i". For more information on paraiba tourmaline, see article on tourmaline. The term "paraiba tourmaline" may now refer to gems found in Brazil, Nigeria, and Mozambique that contain copper and have the characteristic blue-green color.

City/Town : Latitude: -7.165406, Longitude: -36.779243


Death

Matches 1 to 1 of 1

   Last Name, Given Name(s)    Death    Person ID   Tree 
1 Engelsman, Berend Hindriks  Wed 03 Dec 1879Paraíba, Brasil I214415 Nederlandse voorouders 

This site powered by The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding v. 14.0.1, written by Darrin Lythgoe © 2001-2024.

Maintained by Hans Weebers. | Data Protection Policy.