Recently, I embarked on this journey to find my ancestors origin. I heard a lot from my late father, late grandmother and aunties as they told me stories of where my ancestors came from and of course no evidence to support the claim made by all of them. Nothing written at least or probably, I haven’t found one.
First, my father told me that we were Arab descendants from Yemen. We were related to the Al-Habib descendants and I read somewhere, the Al-Habib family is the Yemen equivalent to the Syed in other part of the world wherein we are the descendant of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). It is good to know but a lot of work need to be done to ensure that we are carrying on with the torch left by the Holy Prophet himself. But that is aside, it is quite interesting to know the fact but again, I have nothing to support the claim. But, I was told that the Yemeni Arab also have offspring in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia currently residing in the city of Jeddah. May be that’ll be a good start for my Yemeni Arab lineage.
Apart from that, my father also claim that we are one part Bugis. I am not too sure which part but the origin came when the Yemeni Arab came to the Peninsular Malaysia and marry the local people who are from the Bugis descendants. Interestingly, my father in-law, who is a Professor in History is completing his research on the migration of the Bugis people from Sulawesi. He was telling me that the Bugis community have a complete “diary” to record their “history”. The records can be found on the “lontarak” leaves and the writing on the “lontarak” leaves includes all things done by the Bugis people in Sulawesi. I was further told that the records are quite comprehensive to the extent that the daily transaction was also recorded on the “lontarak” leaves what more events like migration, death etc. Now that I know there is somewhere to dig, I just need the point of contact to start the search of my Bugis family lineage. Probably my relatives in Muar, Johor would be able to shed some light on the Bugis connection.
Then, it does not stop there. My grandmother and of course my aunties, told me that we are also descendants of the “noble” people in Setul (now known as Satun, Thailand) as my ancestors fled Setul during the war against the Siamese Government to Phuket and subsequently to the island of Langkawi and to mainland Kedah. This half of my lineage is known as the “Wan” family who came from Siam or Thailand. My grandmother claim that our ancestors were the people who dug the seven wells although the local myth and folklore cherished by the people and sold to the tourist that the seven wells were dug by a prince and princesses from the heaven descent from above to bathe there.
Sounds more interesting with the princesses stories but in reality, according to my grandmother, our ancestors were the people who dug the seven wells when they were hiding from the Siamese soldiers who were sent to search and annihilate them. She even told us the name of her great granduncle who were among the people who dug the seven wells. At that tender age, that kind of stories were not interesting enough for me but now I think it is interesting to know and actually go and find out who are me descendants and how they came about. In my quest to find this Siamese connection of mine, my father in-law suggested that I read several books on the relationship between the state of Kedah and the Siamese Government.
The part of history which was well published was Setul was part of Kedah until the Anglo-Siamese Treaty in 1909. According to the terms of the treaty, Kedah which was previously known as Syburi and Perlis which was known as Palit were surrendered to the British while Setul (Satun), Songkhla remain under the control of the Siamese Government. As the territories were separated then, upon independence in 1957, Satun and Songkhla remain under Thailand together with Narathiwat, Yala and Patani. But I am still searching for the trace of history which actually narrates the history of my ancestors to Malaysia.
As I said earlier, nothing to support all the claims made by my father, grandmother and aunties, I feel that it will be interesting for me to find out more and of course more importantly find out more on the origin of my family. Noting that my blood is “quite colourful” in one way or another, I call upon those who stumbled upon my note herein to shed me some light if you think you are related to this lineage.
I am the grandson of Yahya Bin Hashim Bin Yaacob Bin Abdul Aziz and Radziyah Bt Ismail and I call upon my relatives and/or long lost relatives who knows the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to join hand with me as we embark upon the journey to find our long lost lineage story.
