Establishing one's roots

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

When it comes to genealogy, it is often difficult for Goans to trace their roots back more than four or five generations, due to the paucity of available or obtainable official documentation pertaining to the pre-Portuguese era with respect to Goan family tress and Goan genealogy. Sometimes however, unofficial documents can serve as a useful substitute to establish genealogy and family trees, even if inflexible historians might question their accuracy for establishing an authentic Goan family tree.

The Ribeiro family of Grande Morodd was thus able to trace its roots and draw a family tree, through an unofficial document in their possession, dated February 1920 and written in Portuguese. The forefather of the Ribeiro family was Mangapa Sinai, who hailed from a Hindu Aryan family (Saraswat) of a high social class and a much-learned man, who came from the north of India to Goa in the sixteenth century, along with his brother Panduranga Sinai and his paternal uncle Balcrisna Sinai alias Bahu Sinai.

All the three resided in Cortalim de Salcete around 1550. There is no documentary proof or genealogy records to affirm if all three were married or not, or if they arrived accompanied by their wives and children. However it is known that Mangapa was the mahajan of the temple of God Shri Manguesha from Cortalim. From this we can establish the genealogy and the family tree.

Mangapa was later appointed narcornim (clerk) of the municipality (Camara Geral) of the Province of Bardez and, around 1554, changed his residence from Cortalim to Pilerne de Bardez along with his uncle and brother.

Besides being narconim of the Camara Geral de Bardez, Mangapa was also the scribe of the comunidades in Saligao, Parra, Marna, Guirim, Pilerne and Marra.

Meanwhile, in the year 1555, the Franciscan missionaries commenced their missionary work in the Province of Bardez in Goa. They founded a Royal College at Reis Magos from where they set out to preach the Catholic faith in the Goan villages of Bardez. During their apostolic and evangelical mission, Mangapa learned catechism from the missionaries and embraced Christianity. In fact he was the first Hindu of Bardez in Goa to convert himself to Christianity and thus became the first Christian of Bardez (vide Book of Pilerne of 1588).

Giving attention to the petition made by the Franciscans and taking into consideration the circumstances of Mangapa being the first Goan Christian of Bardez, the then Governor General of the State of India, Francisco Barreto, sanctioned a perpetual donation to Mangapa (who in baptism took the name of Pero Ribeiro) and his descendants — the coconut grove called Patanbata with its annexes, situated in Pilerne. On this land there existed a horse-stable that belonged to Adil Shah. Pero Ribeiro demolished it, and, with its material, built a residential house.

Later, Balcrisna Sinai (Mangapa’s uncle) also converted to Catholicism, taking the surname da Cunha, from whom the Cunhas of Arpora de Bardez descend. Mangapa’s brother Panduranga Sinai remained a Hindu.

The successors of Pero Ribeiro lived in Pilerne around 1644 and one of his great grandsons, Diogo Antonio Ribeiro, who occupied the post of a clerk in Pilerne and Saligao de Bardez, established himself with his family in Nagoa de Bardez where he constructed a residential house, which at present belongs to the Silveira family.

In 1784 there was a division of movable and immovable goods of the Ribeiro family of Nagoa. It was between Antonio Nicolau Ribeiro and Filipe Caetano Ribeiro, sons of Sebastiao Ribeiro and Luis (Loio) Ribeiro respectively and grandsons of Joao Ribeiro and Monica Anes.

A coconut grove known as Tintagali, situated in Araisvaddo de Nagoa de Bardez was divided into two parts — that part of the property which was around the residential house went to Filipe Caetano, and that part which was to the east of the house went to Antonio Nicolau. With mutual accord the right of the house was reserved for Antonio Nicolau Riberio and his children.

In 1787, Antonio Nicolau Ribeiro constructed a residential house in ward Grande Morodo de Saligao and moved into it in 1789.

All this information on the Goan family genealogy was provided to the author by Tom Ribeiro, in the form of a document written in Portuguese by his grandfather Tomas Antonio Ribeiro and dated February 1920. A free translation of this  document into English was done by the author, to depict the genealogy and Goan family tree.

Thus, those interested in genealogy in Goa and tracing the Goan family tree may need to take recourse to unofficial documents that they may manage to find, in order to ascertain their roots.

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