Re: Ferreira as a Goan last name

****************************************
For more information/links, see http://goanet.netfirms.com
****************************************



     "He who knows does not speak and he who knows shoots rubbish".

      If anyone has been to Goa and to Panjim (Panaji) one must have seen the 
church with zig-zagging steps painted white. At the entrance to the Church 
facing it on the right side are cabs and three wheelers. There is a house 
beside behind the taxis and this is the house of a Goan doctor whose surname 
is Ferreira. Rui the son lives in the house and I have known him for 
sometime. 

      Ferreira is a Portuguese surname and it could be found in any place 
where the Portuguese have been including Mumbai. A world class snooker or 
Billiard champion from Mumbai is a Michael Fereira and a Jesuit Priest (also 
from Mumbai) who was a very good athlete in his heyday was a Fr. Ferreira. I 
have met Africans with Portuguese surnames in Togo in West Africa and I once 
read  of a De Souza who came from Brazil to collect slaves and left 45 
children - all De Souza. Hamku with who I worked in Togo considered himself 
Togolese. Do not be surprised if you met a Chinese with the name Fernandes as 
he could probably hail from Malaysia or Macau. A Fernandes who hails from Goa 
lives in London like many others.

     In writing this I am indulging in banality.

   Edgar Martins