Dedications Acknowledgements About the Authors Disclaimer Our Roots |
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One history, one people, one lifetime ....This is what our familia shares with the many familias macaenses - the unique history of a great nation of people united by blood and bond spanning over 200 years of a Portuguese settlement on the southernmost tip of China which has vanished forever, only to remain as a memory in our hearts.This is the story of one family - the Ribeiro family, with our roots embedded in that history, and of the personalities in our family, and of our ancestors. We are connected in the bonds of our heritage, in the never-ending cycle of life. This is the story of a people of great courage and determination, with the ability in adversity to pick up the pieces and start all over again, to lift anchor and set sail to foreign lands, to make a new home for their families, to leave behind cherished memories and adopt a new way of living, from a war-torn nightmare, and found new dreams in the countries we adopt as our new homes. My father used to tell me that our home was like a boat. We were there only for a short time and that we must make the most of our lives there, and of the education we received, and prepare for a time when we no longer have a mooring for our boat, and our ship sets sail to another destination. And so our family has spread all over the world. Our family tree branches out, sheltering its fruit and spreading its seeds with the wind to the far-reaching corners of the earth. And yet we do not forget where we came from. We are a family separated by distance but always connected by the bond of love, honour and respect we have for one another. This is the story that we wish to share with the many families whose lives are intertwined with ours, either by blood or by marriage, and so we pass on to our children the story of their ancestors and the pride of belonging to one special family. I am the eldest daughter of Francis Ribeiro and the eldest grandchild of Daniel Ribeiro, whose memories I cherish in my heart. My grandpapa passed away on 13th March 1995 at the age of 91, two weeks after he telephoned me from San Francisco and sang happy birthday to me. My father passed away on 21st April 1998 here in New Zealand and it is in the last part of his life that I was able to truly witness the deep and abiding love that exists between him and his family with the many long journeys that his sisters made from America to New Zealand to spend precious time with him until the end. It was my father’s last wish that I write this book in his memory. When he died I was given a shoebox of his treasures – a handfull of photos rescued from the family home during the War. My father used to tell me stories about the people in those photos when I was a little girl, but that was a long time ago. And so, together with my cousin Eric Ribeiro Junior, the son of my father’s brother Eric; with the help of my three aunts Dorothy, Mildred and Yvonne in California, the co-operation of the many members of our extensive family, through the medium of the internet, I have been able to identify those photos, gather information and complete our family tree which our aunt Mildred started, and combined them in this record of our family history so that future generations may know of their heritage. Also included in this book are addresses for those who wish to reach out and make contact with members of our great family that may previously be unknown to them. Deep and heartfelt thanks to all the other families who have assisted us in this treasured work; in particular Lorna Forster (nee Fernandes), Perth, Australia and Tony Fernandes, USA (Fernandes family), Marcus Rodrigues Jr, Sydney, Australia (Rodrigues family), Henry and Gerald Castro, Australia (Castro family); Patty Runyan and Diana Crestejo, Los Angeles (Nogueira-Mendes family), and Ken Harper (Soares-Ribeiro family) USA, just to name a few. Acknowledgements also go to Mr Jorge Forjaz, esteemed author of Familias Macaenses, who laboured over many years to produce a genealogy of all our Macanese people, and whose work has assisted us greatly in our research into our family history; and also to the many contributors from the Macanese community.  Oil painting by Ann J Ribeiro (Wellington, New Zealand) |
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