Kekre Family Tree

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Welcome to Kenkre Connections!

Back in 1930s my grandfather Ganpatrao Kekre decided to trace his roots. He created family tree of Kekres from Harda (in Madhya Pradesh, India). He made the tree on a big canvas with sons in the family represented as flowers and daughters represented as leaves. Most of us never had a glimpse of it, but we just know - it exists!

Then in late 90s, my uncle Madhusudan Kekre embarked on an enhanced genealogy project to create family tree for all Kekre families that exist under the sun. All the data he collected and analyzed is published in a book "Akhil Bharatiya Sampoorna Kekre Vanshavali", made available in print in 1997 (courtesy Shri N. V. Gunjikar). During the days without internet and mobiles, he travelled to places in Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, interviewed scores of Kekre/Kenkre family members to gather the data. In the process he learnt there are families with other surnames as well who originally were Kekre/Kenkre. And the tree grew bigger!

Shri Gunjikar, in his preface to the book of Kekre Vanshavali, recollects the experiments conducted by Kekre brothers - Dinanath and Pandurang. The brothers individually used to pull automobile car with rope; one end of the rope tied to car and the other end held by their teeth. Shri Gunjikar then goes ahead and compares the efforts put in by Shri Madhusudan Kekre to the Dinanath’s experiments. Truly an Herculean Task.

For the tree, two things still need to happen:

Deepening the roots by getting the missing information of some ancestors
Spreading the branches by adding or modifying new family members; and this is a continuous process

Leveraging technology to achieve these goals - we converted print data in electronic form. Now, we can all contribute to keep this data up to date.

We can use this technology platform to do some more things:

It lets us search data with ease. This means you can search members in your tree, you can search for members who live near you, you can search for members who share similar interests as you (provided they have shared their interests). You can also search for female members wedded in to certain surnames or from certain surnames.
Two, it lets us connect with other members. So, search and connect. Of course, we are not advanced as social networks yet, but this should be a modest beginning. For now we can access email ids of members and connect with them.

We hope this platform helps us bring together, at least some if not all. We encourage ideas from all members which help us get closer to our goal - bringing families together! Please write to us at kenkreconnections@gmail.com.

--
Vishal Kekre
Shri Madhusudan Kekre adds

What can you do here?

KNOW YOUR ANCESTORS   Find your place in the family tree, know your ancestors and your cousins

CONNECT WITH YOUR EXTENDED FAMILY   Meet and connect with other Kekres/Kenkres who live near you or share similar interests as yours or work in same industry as yours

KEEP YOUR FAMILY DATA UP TO DATE   Record births, deaths, marriges in your family

Interesting Reads

Family Introduction

Kenkre families use 14 different surnames. Families with roots in Goa use Kenkre while those migrated out of Goa centuries back to places in Karnataka (primarily Belgaum) and Madhya Pradesh (primarily Harda) use Kekre.

Tree Introduction

An introduction to the 23 trees of Kenkre / Kekre Family

Source of the Surname

I was always curious to know the meaning and source of the surname Kenkre prevalent among Saraswat Brahmins. I could not get reference to this in any book pertaining to Saraswat Community. I came across a word "Kenkarya" in one of the commentaries by Srimat Chandrashekharendra Saraswati (now Brahmibhut). I could not clearly get the reference to this word. But in my opinion Brahmins proficient in Kenkarya may have been identified as "Ken Kaarye" or Kenkre.

History of Mangeshi Temple

Shri Parashurama brought Vatsa and Kaundinya gotriya Saraswat Brahmins to Gomantaka (Goa) for performing yagnya. He donated the Kushashthali area (current Kutthali or Cortalim) to these Brahmins. Hence an ancient Mangesh temple existed at Kushashthali.

GSB History

During the Vedic period, the Indian subcontinent was divided (not politically) in to two regions for easy reference of places. The division north of Vindhya mountain range was referred to as Gaud (or Gaur) (later known as Uttarapanth) while that to the south was referred to as Dravid (Dakshinapanth). The two divisions were further divided in five each.

Historically Eminent Kenkres/Kekres

Purushottam Kenkre

There was a rich family in Kumbharjuve. The family was involved in tobacco business. Purushottam Baban Kenkre was born in this family in the year 1812. He made monumental contributions to the community in Goa and otherwise.