My family has always been somewhat of a mystery. Both my grandfathers died relatively young. My maternal grandpa passed way before I was born. My paternal grandfather, when I was in Primary Two.
Both were educated. Both married women who were not. Both did not have many siblings. And my parents, uncles and aunts don’t have a clear recollection who’s who in the family. It didn’t help that their elders scolded them when they asked about relations.
Thanks to en-bloc, I’ve reclaimed a bit of my father’s family history. My mum and aunts have been helping my dad’s mum to move to a new flat. In doing so, they chanced upon some documents. Here’s what I’ve gathered:
My grandfather’s name is Cyril Pinto (as stated in his baptism certificate). He had an alias, Alexander Pinto (according to birth cert), which he officially merged through a statutory declaration in 1955.
His father, my great-grandfather, is John Albert Pinto. His mother – Nelly (alternately spelt Nellie in her death certificate) Mary Pinto.
Cyril Alexander Pinto was born on 2 August 1919 in Singapore. His parents lived on Bencoolen Street at the time. On the birth certificate, an ‘informant’ is listed: Alfonso Pinto (possibly his uncle).
My grandfather was baptised at St. Joseph’s Church, Victoria Street (where I was baptised too) on 17 August 1919. His godparents were Paulino (or Paulina – can’t make it out) de (looks like ‘do’) Rozario and Mary Ess.
That’s about all the information that I could extract about my family tree. Unfortunately, the clerk who filled in my grandfather’s birth certificate did not list my great-grandparents’ country of birth. Under ‘Nationality’, the clerk wrongly listed ‘Eurasian’.
All this is much more than I knew before this evening. I’m a third generation Singaporean. I wonder where my great-grandparents were born.
UPDATE | 2nd August. I’ve just scanned a few of my grandfather’s documents. It would have been his 88th birthday today.
Technorati Tags: family, eurasian, generations, family tree, geneology, heritage
peter
/ Wednesday, 1 August 2007I have interest to know more of the Portugese community in Singapore, by way of their opinions on inter-racial marriages and inter-religious marriages. Since you introduced yourself as a Eurasian or what I believe to be more a Portugese, can you shed some light for my interest.
I will brief you more when we go talk.
cheers
acroamatic
/ Wednesday, 1 August 2007Hi Peter! Think this is your first comment on my blog. Your email was a bit more specific than your comment, so I’ll reply to you in private.
Yup, I’m Portuguese Eurasian. I understand a smattering of Kristang and eat my mum’s Devil Curry. Unlike my namesake (Kenneth D’Rozario, or something like that) in a Catherine Lim short story, I haven’t flunked out of school, don’t wear a leather jacket nor ride a motorbike and I haven’t gotten anyone pregnant.
(Why do I have a feeling Victor is going to weigh in on this?)
Stereotypes. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
steelwool
/ Thursday, 2 August 2007heheh! ooh, what’s that short story titled?
acroamatic
/ Thursday, 2 August 2007It’s called Kenneth Jerome Rozario from Or Else, the Lightning God and other Stories.
I googled and found a description of the short story and the controversy surrounding it in:
Wicks, Peter (1996). From Kulim to Singapore: Catherine Lim’s literary life. Asian Culture Quarterly, 24 (4, Winter), 25-36.
My google search seems to indicate that there really is someone named Kenneth Jerome Rozario!
priscilla
/ Thursday, 2 August 2007i dunno why but i was also scolded whenever i asked my parents about our ancestry too. *shrugs*
my best pal is going out with a portuguese eurasian (monterio) and omg his mum’s devil curry is so so good… and as usual i couldn’t tahan the spice and felt like i was combusting inside heh heh
Sonic
/ Friday, 3 August 2007Ello,
It’s interesting to read about ‘De Rozario’ connection in your blog. My dad’s sis-in-law, my cousin Julie’s mom is a De Rozario and I know they lived in Bencoolen Street for a while. Wow!
acroamatic
/ Friday, 3 August 2007Hey Sonic! Yah, my mum mentioned that there were quite a number of Eurasians living around there in the old days. The D’Rozario name I mentioned is a fictional character (which I remembered wrongly – it’s Rozario).
Ivan Chew
/ Saturday, 12 January 2008Hey, now that I’m also starting some genealogical search of sorts, I’m reading this post with a different light :)
acroamatic
/ Saturday, 12 January 2008All the best with your (re)search, Ivan!
Royston de Rozario
/ Wednesday, 16 January 2008Hi All you de/D’ and simply, Rozarios,
We’re big into the family history, too. From a de Rozario point, we can only trace ourselves as far back to our great grandfather, Marcus. Don’t know anything about him except he married a Pereira.
Does this ring any bells in your family tree?
Visit http://www.derozario.com.au and perhaps we can shed some light on your family or you on ours.
Good luck.
Roy
acroamatic
/ Thursday, 17 January 2008Roy, thanks for dropping by! I’ve checked out your site. The Pintos and my mum’s maiden name doesn’t bring up any familiar names.
My family is like a branch that fell of a tree and got washed far away on the sands of time.
Hmmm… my grandmother’s maiden name is Pereira though. Think I have to visit your site again…
UPDATE Unfortunately, no link there either.
Royston de Rozario
/ Saturday, 2 February 2008Hi acroamatic
Thanks for visiting our site.
I’m sure someone will relocate your fallen branch sooner or later.
Good luck
Hannah
/ Saturday, 9 February 2008[quote comment="17250"]Hi All you de/D’ and simply, Rozarios,
We’re big into the family history, too. From a de Rozario point, we can only trace ourselves as far back to our great grandfather, Marcus. Don’t know anything about him except he married a Pereira.
Does this ring any bells in your family tree?
Visit http://www.derozario.com.au and perhaps we can shed some light on your family or you on ours.
Good luck.
Roy[/quote]
Hi,
I have been searching on and off for weeks (using google) for some friends I knew over 15 years ago – I came across your web site and was so excited as I recognized their names and their pictures. Glen and Kim De Rozario. The last contact I have had with them was over 7 years ago and their email and physical address has since changed. Do you have any idea how I can get in touch with them? I no longer live in Australia, but they were my second family when I was there – I would really love to contact them again.
Would love it, if you could help me.
Thank you
Hannah
PS: Great web site, by the way.
christina de rozario
/ Tuesday, 1 April 2008i like to know much about de rozario family today and before.coz i didn’t know bout my background very well.
acroamatic
/ Wednesday, 2 April 2008Hi Hannah and Christina, you might want to contact Royston: roy [at] derozario [d0t] com [d0t] au. Hope that helps!
Lester Ian Pinto
/ Friday, 28 November 2008Hey guys, im a Pinto. Would love to learn more about our community. Im portugese eurasian as well. contact me at nikedunktionary@hotmail.com
Proud to be a eurasian. You guys should be too!
Cheers dude