{{Short description|Portuguese historian (1881–1951)}} {{Multiple issues| {{more citations needed|date=August 2018}} {{COI|date=January 2025}} {{One source|date=January 2025}} }} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Use Indian English|date=August 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = Braz Anthony Fernandes | birth_name = Braz Anthony Fernandes | image = Braz Anthony Fernandes.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|1881|8|1|df=y}} | birth_place = Goa, Portuguese India | death_date = {{death date and age|1951|6|9|1881|2|12|df=yes}} | known_for = Annual Bibliography of Indian History and Indology <br/> Bandra Its Religious and Secular History | awards = Gold Medal - Bombay Historical Society | resting_place = St. Andrew's Church, Mumbai | occupation = Historian | spouse = {{marriage|Eugénie Esther Cordeiro|1911}} | children = 5 | relatives = {{ubl| * Braz Fernandes (grandfather) * JB Simmons<br/>(son-in-law)}} }}
'''Braz Anthony Fernandes''' (1 August 1881 – 9 June 1951) was a Portuguese historian and the founder of the Bombay Historical Society.
==Personal life== Braz Anthony Fernandes was born in Goa on 1 August 1881 and came to Bombay at the age of eight. He married Eugénie Esther Cordeiro in 1911 and had five children: Albert Anthony Gabriel, Barbara Angela, Charlotte Mary Sophie, Domnic Claudius, and Ernest Braz. His grandfather was Braz Fernandes from Chorão Island, and his granddaughter (from Charlotte) is Bernadette Simmons, who married Ivan Trayling.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}
Albert had two children: Vijay and Leela. Barbara had no children but was an excellent aunt. Charlotte had one daughter: Bernadette. Domnic Claudius Fernandes married Olga Cecilia Pereira and had three children: John Claud Fernandes, Jeanne Claudette Fernandes, and Indira Maria Fernandes. Ernest had one daughter: Eugénie.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}
==Career== Fernandes, though a mechanical engineer by training, had various interests and studied botany, zoology, ornithology and knew painting and music. His main pursuit though was history, particularly the local history of Bombay. He spent many years delving into the records of Bombay from 17th to 19th centuries by collecting valuable data from church archives and graveyards, and obtaining Portuguese records of Bombay.
''The Times of India'' stated, "what he did not know about Bombay was not worth knowing."<ref name=":0">''Noted Historian Dead'', Obituary, Times of India, 9 June 1951</ref>
He co-founded the Bombay Historical Society in 1925 along with Henry Heras, which grew from strength-to-strength. The society started publishing its own journal in 1928 and in 1931 organised the first Bombay Historical Congress, which brought scholars from all over India and paved the way for the Indian History Congress.
One of his major contributions was the Annual Bibliography of Indian History and Indology, which he started in 1938 and contained five volumes. This monumental work was appreciated by scholars both in India and abroad.<ref name=":0" /> As a result, he was awarded the Bombay Historical Society's gold medal by the President of the Indian History Congress in 1947.
He was also the author of Bandra Its Religious and Secular History, the most authoritative book on the area even today. It gives the history of Bandra, its topography and a description of its antiquities dating from the days of the Portuguese.
He was a Fellow of the Geographical Society of Lisbon and a Member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
== Death == Fernandes died in June 1951, whereupon a condolence meeting of the Bombay Historical Society was held at the Prince of Wales Museum in the Library Room. His Excellency Mangal Das Pakvasa, Governor of Madhya Pradesh and President of the Bombay Historical Society, sent a condolence message on the occasion. G. Samuelson attended the condolence meeting on behalf of the United States Information Service.
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandes, Braz Anthony}} Category:People from Chorão (island) Category:1881 births Category:1951 deaths Category:Scientists from Goa Category:Scientists from Mumbai Category:Historians from British India