The quest

1. Time, in essence, dominates our quest for a better awareness of a man long obscured in time. What memories I have of him have gone hazy with the passing of time.

2. During my childhood he was in his late 60s. I was nine when he passed away in 1956. I dimly remember being among the crowd attending his funeral at the cemetery.

3. I was in my mid-60s, about 57 years after his passing, when his grandchildren i.e. the children of my siblings and my own children – began to show a keen interest in their grandfather. This marked the beginning of a quest that would become a family pastime.

4. Prior to the quest I knew so little about my father: M. I. Merican. However, even during my younger days I seemed to realize that he used to be an important person in the State of Kedah. A few village elders I had been acquainted with at the time regarded him with much respect. Very much later I learned that he used to be Headmaster, Superintendent of Education and Legal Adviser.

5. It goes without saying that I knew almost nothing of his roots except that family members on his side were said to be rich Tanjong people. This I learned from my mother’s infrequent story about my father.

6. There would be no better places like archives and libraries to start our quest. They provide storage for records, documents and all sorts of printed matter which would otherwise have perished with the passing of time.

7. Occasionally we would spend long hours at those wonderful places particularly the National Archives of Malaysia (Archives) and the Penang Public Library, Seberang Jaya (Library) to look for relevant materials. Librarians, archivists and clerks of those institutions were most supportive in our search for information pertaining to our subject.

8. Thus far our combined effort has considerably borne fruit. I took pleasure in writing accounts of our discoveries and publishing them in my blog “Occasional Jottings by M S Marikan.”

9. Our perusal of numerous accounts led us to trace our lineage to a famous 19th century Penang merchant, Mohamad Merican Noordin, immortalized in one of Georgetown’s street namely Lebuh Noordin (Noordin Street), named after him. His eldest son whose name was written as Vappoo Marikan Nordin in my birth certificate – was also a well-known merchant in his own right.

10. As regards names, it was confusion. In books and old newspapers the name ‘Vapoo’ was written with either a single or a double ‘p.’ ‘Bapu’ was also commonly used.

11. Going through official documents in the Archives my father had at least eight variations by which his name was written or typewritten. He wrote his name ‘Md. Ismail Merican.’ However, it was printed ‘Che Mohamad Ismail Merican’ in his death certificate.

12. In any case, the surname ‘Merican’ was consistently used in names that we found in books, documents and newspapers. However, mine and my late brother’s was spelt in Malay – ‘Marikan.’

13. Thus it seems complicated and futile for the children of my late brother, for my sister and for me to claim our lineage to the “Noordin clan.” Thus, we stay estranged from our lineage for want of concrete proof of identity.   

14. One thing leads to another. My children and their cousins would not accept that the spelling of my surname in Malay was “accidental.” They seemed to believe that it was a consequence of an “intrigue.”

15. The conspiracy theory imagined by their curious minds would be regarded as unfounded, but how do you explain the “mess” in my sister’s identity record about two years back. It was purely by chance that she had found out her binti* was recorded ‘Ismail Khan’ instead of ‘Ismail Merican’ as in her birth certificate. As regards our quest, where does this leave us?

*binti = daughter of (binti precedes the father’s name, e.g. Fatimah binti Ahmad)