The man who is growing his family tree

Photo Credits: PG3. LEAD

His is a story of tedious, mathematical calculations in the form or names, numbers, people and places in history. Making a beginning in 1990 to trace the lost links to his family tree, he is confident of bonding the past to the present for future generation of Nazareths. A Uganda-born man of Goan origin, John Nazareth, who hails from the beautiful Moira, is all set to compile a family tree of Nazareths of Moira.

“Life’s little surprises amaze me all the time,” he quips quoting some coincidences in his life. “Though ours was an arranged marriage and we married at Mapusa, it was strange that none of us knew that actually our ancestors were neighbours and our houses stood next to each other on the borders of our villages Nachinola and Moira. My wife Cynthia Fernandes happened to be originally from Nachinola and her ancestral house there was just next to my ancestral house in Moira –wall to wall. We lived on the borders of our villages in Goa. Imagine both of us didn’t know this for years while we lived in Canada. It was only after I began my search for my family tree, that the fact was revealed to us. Is this irony of life or destiny?” he asks.

John’s own father, who hailed from Moira, was already living in Uganda for 14 years before his marriage. He came down to Goa to get married. It was an arranged marriage at the Basilica of Bom Jesus, Old Goa. Born at Kuala Lumpur, John’s mother Anna was the daughter of musician Johnny Gomes who had an illustrious orchestra in Malaysia and who taught music to former leaders and even the prime minister of Singapore. Though a Goan from Malar-Divar, he had settled in Malaysia. “My mother recalls witnessing Pandit Ravi Shankar jamming with her first cousin in Mumbai in the 1950s,” says John.

The interest to search their genealogy and family tree was triggered in 1990 when he was 43. “As one gets older, one begins valuing those little things – family photographs, old letters, artefacts etc. I too began collecting them and putting on the internet. Slowly it became my passion. My quest began. At first my tree was small – less than 50 people. Over the years it’s grown to around 5000 people. My earliest record goes back to 1740. I am mapping Nazareths from Moira belonging to clan 1 which is my clan. There are five clans according to archives records which say we are ‘de Nazareth’. Some have added ‘th’ in the end while some have kept ‘e’, but the records in 1804 spell Nazarath. I have traced the Baptism records of my great great great grandfather, who is estimated to be born in 1750. I looked at the immediate branch too. Out of the five clans (Vangod) Nazareths are from clan 1 and clan 2. The church archives say that I am from clan 1,” says John who is thankful to Leroy Veloso from Moira, who has helped him match the records. Leroy has done extensive research and already traced surnames of the five clans in Moira.

Websites like geni.com have Goans ancestry. At the Archbishop’s office John found records from 1915 onwards till 1980 – all digitised and photographed. But sadly there is no digitisation done after 1980. Aided by likeminded friends Cledwin D’Silva and Caren Pereira (both from Canada), John has undertaken the colossal task of collecting the data of missing links.

Born to parents – Sebastian Nazareth and Anna Gomes, both of Goan origin, are siblings Peter, Ruth, John and David. John recalls the country where he was born, “Uganda is beautiful. It’s a very fertile land. You just pick up a handful of seeds and throw them anywhere they will soon grow into lush green tress.” Deep down within does he miss something he thought was once his very own once, be it Goa or Africa? Probably he does. Set out to find out his roots, John is currently in Goa – climbing the steps of churches, libraries, offices – searching for the records in the archives. He say, “When I see old records, sometimes tears roll down my cheeks. I feel I am doing justice to these forgotten names that lay unattended on dusty shelves for centuries. Giving them an identity while searching for my own, adding a face to a name – it’s like bringing them back to life.”

John is here to understand more about identity. One doesn’t have to choose his or her own identity, he feels. South Asians were forced to leave and take refuge elsewhere after Uganda tore apart politically. It was a momentous and tragic shift in political destiny. John wonders, “By birth I am an African, physically I am an Indian but my papers stamp me as a Canadian. So who am I? Where do I belong? The search is on…” John is in search of his family tree, its shoots and roots. He doesn’t know where this search would lead him to, but he’s quite sure of one thing – that it will enrich his life by adding more dimensions to it. His children, son Paul and daughter Rachel wonder what their father is up to.

John’s elder brother, Peter Nazareth, a writer, professor of English and advisor to the international writing program at the University of Iowa in America, has written about African, Caribbean, African-American, Goan and other literature, mythologies of migration and vocabularies of indenture. Peter inspired a generation of students to look beyond their own backyard and explore their multicultural world in ways they would never think, were possible. “I have a part of all – Uganda Africa, Canada and India, in me – though physically I consider myself an Indian, a Goan, to be more specific. Goans have 1000 years of multicultural identity. We are able to mix and assimilate wherever we go. I believe that Goans are cultural brokers – we negotiate easily between different cultures,” he states.

But why is he taking the trouble to draw his family tree? A person dies when the last person who knows him is dead. “If we keep the memories of our ancestors alive in the form of documents, artefacts and photographs, they will live forever.” he says.

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John Nazareth in a nutshell

• Born October 21, 1947 in Uganda, to parents Sebastian Nazareth and Anna Gomes

• BSc, Mathematics major, Physics minor, 1967-70 (Makerere University, Uganda)

• Associate’s Degree, Postgraduate Diploma in Statistics, 1973-74 (The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), England

• Head of External Trade Section in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Uganda 1970-73

• MSc, Mathematical Statistics, 1974-75 (University of Toronto)

• Master of Business Administration (MBA) Business Administration and Management, General 1977-82 (York University), Canada

• Settled at Mississauga (Canada) working in the aerospace industry from 1978-2015

• Retired on September 30, 2015 as aerospace reliability specialist from Bombardier