Family Reproduction in Nineteenth-Century Seridó (Rio Grande do Norte): A Genealogical Survey of “Velho Dedé”

Abstract

This article presents a case study of the family ties of José Alves da Fonseca, known as “Dedé” (c.1827-after 1908), as a key figure for assessing the transgenerational name-power relations that permeated political fluctuations and narrative disputes within the sphere of coronelism. Amid the turbulence of the second half of the nineteenth century, an important factor was the local rootedness of individuals within the social fabric, particularly regarding the preservation of authority and the monopolization of functional spaces in their daily lives. This study highlights the genealogical foundations underlying this set of practices, through an effort to identify the parentage and ancestry of the individual in question, here proposed as connected to a lineage group with a longstanding presence in the Seridó since the second half of the eighteenth century.