------------------------------------------------------------------------ **** http://www.GOANET.org **** ------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Cuisine Conference on Traditional Asian Diet Panaji, Goa, September 2-5, 2007 - http://www.indologygoa.in Online Media Partner: http://www.goanet.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hi Martin Van Camp-Duarte, Nice to have you back! I guess Duarte is a Portuguese name, and its adopters in Goa would be locals -- of whatever origin (like the rest of us, converts from various strands). My argument has long been that Goa is a melting pot, and the various caste groups that merge into making it only go into underlining this point further. Unlike some modern European nations, we tend to be very multi-cultural in these parts of the globe, a reality yet to be adequately recognised. Just another wild guess: if they came from rural Bardez, it's likely that they were local (South Asian in origin), as maybe settlers from Portugal might have opted for a life in the urban areas, less "rooted to the soil" as it were. I'm pretty certain most Goans can't say for certain what their origins are. We'll have to await DNA testing to become more accessible to be more sure. I guess our ancestors were largely Hindu (but even this is a term which people here didn't use to describe themselves, at one stage, till the Persians described everyone beyond the Sindhu river as 'Hindus'). Yet, I wouldn't be surprised if we had some degree of inter-mingling of blood from different cultures, religous and ethnic groups. So much for all this debate about "non-Goans". Of course, I don't subscribe to the view that man originated in Goa :-) FN On 21/06/07, els verwimp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have read many articles about the so called Karachi Goans. I can trace my > Duarte family back (only the names and some places) to my greatgrandfather's > grandfather and grandmother. They are from Nagoa, Mapuça and Guirim and > names besides Duarte are of course De Sousa, de Souza, De Mello and Dias. > I would like to find out who were these Duarte's? Portuguese, Indian, > Hindus, merchants, businessmen, .... In Karachi you still have the Duarte -- FN: Frederick Noronha Phone 0091-832-2409490 http://wikiwikiweb.de/MyContacts