Ottawa Pioneer Residents

                DESCENDANTS OF SRI LANKAN AND                      PORTUGUESE ANCESTORS   (Mr Clement Gomez)                                       (Mrs Angela Gomez)                                           By Subry Govender   One of the families in Ottawa who became famous for making and selling pickles in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s is the Gomez family. Mr Clement Gomez Govender, his wife, Angela, and their nine children lived in a house on the Old Main Road in the uplands area of the village. Their house number was 71 Main Road. Mr Gomez and his family settled in Ottawa in 1964 after moving down from Johannesburg. In Johannesburg, Mr Gomez ran his own photographic studio at 41 Fox Street in central Johannesburg. In Ottawa, Mr Gomez became good friends of Mr S S Maharaj, owner of Flash Clothing, and Mr Dicky Maharaj, who was one of the supervisors at the factory. This friendship led to Mr Gomez and his wife selling their pickles to workers at the factory and also to the

                "SERVICE TO HUMANITY                     IS SERVICE TO GOD"                                          (Mr Sivasanker Badlu) By Subry Govender   One of the community leaders of yet another pioneering family of Ottawa who lived by the philosophy of “service to humanity is service to God” was Mr Sivasanker Badlu – a builder by profession. Mr Badlu, who stayed with his large family of  wife, Bhagirathi, three sons and five daughters in Kissoon Road, was one of the chief architects who contributed to the construction of the new Jhugroo Primary School in the Tin Town area and who was also involved in other building projects in the Ottawa village, Verulam, and in Durban. Mr Badlu, born on 31 December 1917, was the fifth son of indentured labourer, Badlu Debi, who arrived in 1896 on the ship Pongella XX11 from Basantpur village in Barabanki District near Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. His father served his first five-year term of indenture at the Ottawa Sugar Estate.

  THE RAMNANAN FAMILY OF OTTAWA WHO MAINTAIN CLOSE CONTACT WITH THEIR ANCESTORAL VILLAGE OF NAWAPURA IN THE DISTRICT OF AGIMGURTH/CHIRACTOE IN THE STATE OF BIHAR IN NORTH INDIA (The well-known Ramnanan brothers - Mr Madho Ramnanan, (seated right), and Manilall Ramnanan, (seated left), seen here with their mother - Mrs Ramnanan Jaichoo - and five of their other brothers.) By Subry Govender One of the business families that made a huge contribution to the social, cultural, economic, community and educational development and upliftment of the Ottawa village since the 1940s was the Ramnanan clan. The Ramnanan family lived on a property at the corner of the Old Main Road and Kissoon Road in the area known as Uplands. They ran a trading store from the property and also a T-room and butchery on a property across the road. The head of the family business in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and right up to 2011 was Mr Madho Ramnanan, who also participated fully in community and cultural proje