FamilySearch's September 2026 update, published on September 9, reports 70,119,074 newly added indexed records connected to Brazil. The rounded “70 million” figure is spread across 12 Brazilian entries: three collections marked as new and nine expanded collections. Almost all of the volume is concentrated in three lines of the report: São Paulo civil registration, Minas Gerais Catholic Church records, and Pernambuco Catholic Church records.
This does not mean that 70 million images were released on the same day, or that every year shown in each collection title received new material. FamilySearch says its update reports are compiled later and that a collection's publication date may not match the report date. The announcement also counts indexed records, not simply new images. The primary source is the September 2026 new records report.
Which Brazilian collections grew in September 2026
The three largest additions total 70,115,296 records—more than 99.99% of the Brazilian total listed. São Paulo alone accounts for 54,958,771 newly added indexed records in its civil registration collection. Minas Gerais has 7,779,551 records in a new Catholic collection, and Pernambuco has 7,376,974 in another new Catholic collection.
Pay attention to the date range: the “Collection period” column reproduces the range stated in the official collection title. It does not identify which exact years were added in this batch. To learn whether your municipality, parish, or decade is covered, open the collection and inspect its searchable records or image groups.
How to choose the right collection without getting lost
Start with two questions: which state did the event occur in? and what kind of record are you looking for? Births, marriages, and deaths often point to civil registration, while baptisms and other religious events may point to Catholic Church collections. If you know the state, use a state-specific collection before launching a broad national search.
- Choose the state and record type. For a civil marriage in São Paulo, start with the São Paulo civil registration collection. For an older baptism in Minas Gerais, try the Minas Gerais Catholic collection first.
- Open the specific collection. FamilySearch recommends using Historical Records and the collection field to search within one defined record set, so results come only from that collection. See the official guide to finding and searching a specific collection.
- Run a first search with only a few fields. Given name, surname, approximate place, and a date range are usually a good starting point. If there is no result, try spelling variations, nearby dates, and relatives rather than adding more exact filters.
- Open the original image when a camera or image link is available. The index can omit details found in the document, such as occupation, address, witnesses, fuller parentage, or marginal notes.
When to use the index, images, or full-text search
1. Index: the best first attempt when the collection is searchable
If a collection offers indexed-record search, start there. It is the fastest way to locate names and dates, but it is not a substitute for the original image. In partially indexed collections, no search result may simply mean the section you need has not been indexed yet.
2. Images: essential when the index is incomplete or unavailable
In Explore Historical Images, FamilySearch lists image collections and, when available, displays the percentage indexed. You can filter by keyword, life event, place, and dates, open image groups, and browse them. See the official Explore Historical Images instructions.
If you know the registry office, parish, municipality, and approximate period, browsing images may be more efficient than repeating dozens of name searches. Many image sets follow geographic, institutional, or chronological groupings. When you open a set, look for internal indexes, index books, or date sequences before moving page by page.
3. Full Text: use it only when the target collection is available there
FamilySearch also provides full-text search for selected image collections. It can find names, places, years, and words inside documents that do not behave like a traditional genealogical index. Coverage is not universal, so confirm that your target collection appears in Full Text before relying on it. The specific-collection guide explains this search path and its filters.
A practical route for São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Pernambuco
São Paulo: start with civil registration
If your research involves a civil birth, marriage, or death in the state, “Brazil, São Paulo, Civil Registration, 1925–2023” is the priority in this update because it received 54,958,771 indexed records. Search within the collection and narrow by name, place, and period. If you find a match, inspect the original image when available; if not, move to images and spelling variants.
Minas Gerais: a new Catholic collection
“Brazil, Minas Gerais, Catholic Church Records, 1706–2018” is marked as new and received 7,779,551 indexed records. It is especially relevant when the clue is a baptism, church marriage, burial, or another ecclesiastical event. Because the title covers a very broad period, locality and parish are important for narrowing the search.
Pernambuco: separate church and civil records
Pernambuco has two distinct entries. The new Catholic collection received 7,376,974 records, while the civil registration collection was expanded by 253. Do not treat them as one source: first decide whether the event was more likely recorded by a parish or by civil registration, then choose the matching collection.
How to check whether a collection was updated recently
In the Historical Records collection list, FamilySearch lets you sort by “Last Updated.” Its official guidance says to open the full list and click that heading twice to bring the newest additions to the top. You can also view recently added image sets in Historical Images. See the official guide to finding the newest historical records.
What to do when a search returns nothing
- remove overly exact filters and widen the year range;
- try surname variants, abbreviations, and likely transcription errors;
- search for spouses, parents, children, or witnesses when the main name fails;
- verify the municipality, district, registry office, or parish because historical jurisdictions can differ from today's boundaries;
- browse images even when a complete index is unavailable;
- record the image group, page, book, date, and locality so you do not repeat the same path later.
FamilySearch also recommends viewing the original record image whenever possible because it may contain information omitted from the index. For more detail on filters, images, and unindexed records, see the official Historical Records search instructions and FamilySearch search tips.
Bottom line: where to start
To use the September update efficiently, do not treat the “70 million” as one database. Use the number only as a signal that a major batch arrived. Then narrow your work by state + record type + time period, open the specific collection, and switch between index and images according to indexing coverage. In São Paulo, the main gain is civil registration; in Minas Gerais and Pernambuco, the largest additions are new Catholic collections. This approach is faster, repeatable, and prevents you from mistaking a missing indexed result for a missing document.
