José Inácio de Abreu e Lima, military officer, politician and historian, participated under the command of Simon Bolívar of the Venezuelan and Colombian independence wars and actively took part in the political development of Brazil. He was a free thinker, republican and defender of socialist ideas.

Alfredo de Carvalho was born on 27 June 1870 in the city of Recife, Pernambuco, to Thomaz Ferreira de Carvalho and Julieta Cristina de Carvalho.

Bernardo Vieira de Melo was born in the parish of Muribeca (today Jaboatão dos Guararapes) in the State of Pernambuco, in the second half of the 17th Century. Son of Bernardo Vieira de Melo, ordinance captain and noble gentleman of the Royal House, and Maria Carmela de Melo.

The Church of Our Lady of the Conception of the Military is located on the street Rua Nova in the Santo Antônio neighbourhood, right in the heart of Recife.

Coming from a poor family of farmers, Emidio Dantas Barreto was born in 1850 in Bom Conselho, Pernambuco. As a matter of necessity, while still a boy and together with a brother, he sold jewellery for a living in the semi-arid region of Northeast Brazil.