Early life The second son of João Evangelista de Ávila e Sousa and Mariana de Jesus Batista, Irineu Evangelista de Sousa was born on 28 December 1813 on his father's ranch in the then village of Nossa Senhora da Conceição do Arroio Grande, currently the municipality of
Arroio Grande, near Brazil's southernmost border with the Spanish dominions in South America, which at the time was part of
Jaguarão in the captaincy of São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul. Sousa had ancestry from the
Azores. Records show his paternal grandfather, Manuel Jerônimo de Sousa, was the owner of the Arroio Grande
sesmaria, that is, a large plot of land given by the Portuguese crown, in 1798. In 1818, when Sousa was five years old, his father was murdered while camping at night when travelling with a herd of cattle, this deeply affected the family's income. His mother then married again in 1821, but the new husband did not want her children from the previous marriage; Mariana then offered Irineu's sister, Guilhermina, who was only 12 years old, in marriage to a man named José Machado de Lima. Irineu, who was 9 at the time, was taken to Rio de Janeiro by his uncle at the request of his mother. His uncle, José Batista de Carvalho, was the captain and owner of a sailing ship and regularly travelled to India, Portugal and the Brazilian coast, stopping at several of its ports. Writer
Anyda Marchant remarks Irineu might have had two years of schooling in
São Paulo, from 1821 to 1823, pointing out, however, that this is unlikely. Another one of Irineu's biographers, Cláudio Ganns, dismisses this entirely, arguing that there is not any plausible indication to it. Irineu had been taught how to read and count from a young age by his mother. Once in Rio de Janeiro, the young boy was left alone, as his uncle once again sailed to India; Irineu was employed in a warehouse, where he worked as a clerk. ==Legacy and honors==