Oddness in the tree

1. As I have noted earlier, much of my knowledge about my father is from information gathered through my reading and research that I have done (and still doing) in libraries as well as archives. The following family tree is a starting point from which to make a more detail one.

A starting point

2. It was created based on information gathered from books that I have studied particularly The Chulia in Penang by Khoo Salma Nasution and Biographical Dictionary of Mercantile Personalities of Penang edited by Loh Wei Leng … [et al.].

3. I have not included the spouses of any of the individuals cited for one reason or another. Anyway, apart from being my starting point, this tree is useful to explain the “oddness” that occurred in the family’s genealogy.

4. My great-grandfather, Noordin, had six sons and five daughters. The first two sons died at a very early age. So, after Noordin passed away it was the other four sons, Vapoo, Nina, Habib and Mashoruddin, who carried on the family business legacy or became merchants in their own right.

5. Vapoo had two sons, Hussain and Ismail (my father). I have not included the children of Nina and Habib in the tree pending verification. For now, I have included only one of Mashoruddin’s children, Aladin, in the tree.

6. Aladin had other children aside from Isdin, but for the present I have included the latter in the tree. Ismail had three children, Sharif (myself), Hussin and Aminah. According to the chart, Hussain and Ismail were cousins of Aladin. Hence Hussin, Aminah and I are second cousins of Isdin.   

7. Note that, Isdin died in 2000 at the age of 81. I was 53 then. This broad age gap between cousins was due to my father’s later marriage to my mother sometime in the mid-1940s. He was about 64 years old when they got married. My mother was in her late teens then.

8. The late Wan Nasseruddin, one of Isdin’s sons, was only about seven years younger than my sister, Aminah. The genealogy chart shows that he belonged with our children. All of our first-borns were born in the early 1980s.

Note:

Noordin = Mohamed Merican Noordin (1778 – 1870)

Vapoo = Vapoo (Vappoo or Bapoo) Merican Noordin (b.unknown – 1884)

Nina = Mohamed Lebby Nina Merican Noordin (b.unknown – 1860)

Habib = Habib Mohamed Merican Noordin or H.M. Noordin (1847 - 1909)

Mashoruddin = Mashoruddin Merican Noordin (or M. M. Noordin) (1848 – 1924)

Hussain = Mohamed Hussain Merican Noordin (M.H.M. Noordin) (b.unknown, d.unknown)

Ismail = Mohamed Ismail Merican Noordin (M.I.M. Noordin) (1882 – 1956)

Aladin = Aladin Merican Noordin (1898 – 1944)

Isdin = Wan Noordin @ Isdin Merican Noordin (1919 – 2000)

Sharif = Mohd Sharif Marikan (1947 - )

Hussin = Mohd Hussin Marikan (1948 – 2016)

Aminah = Aminah binti Mohd Ismail Merican (1950 - )

Wan Mohd Nasserudin Wan Noordin (b.unknown – 2014)

A loan of 500 rial

Downloaded from http://www.motorstown.com/11535-chrysler-six.html

1. I still have a very vague memory of occasional car ride with my father on his way to work and then his driver would drive me to the market place to buy some pancakes. I remember that it was a black car but I could never tell what make of car it was until recently.

2. It was a Chrysler 6. Its number plate was K 285. Its engine number was 19922. These details were obtained from a document that I had retrieved from the Archives.

3. According to a letter dated 28 Muharram 1356 (9 April, 1937) addressed to the Under Secretary of Kedah State Government, my father bought the car while he was holding the post of Acting Superintendant of Education and paid for it out of his own savings.

4. He wrote in the letter that he had an outstanding amount of 500 rial(= ringgit) to pay for the car insurance. So he asked a loan of that amount from the Government and the payback would be monthly deductions of 100 rial(= ringgit) from his salary until the loan were settled.

5. There was a remark I’d read in an article that my father was ‘a scion of a well-to-do family’ but I believe my father was a self-made man. In her book The Chulia in Penang (2014), Khoo Salma Nasution wrote:

“Vapoo’s eldest Mahomed Hussain Merican Noordin (M. H. M. Noordin) became a municipal commissioner, while his second son Mahomed Ismail Merican Noordin (M. I. M. Noordin) made his own career instead of relying on the family estate.”

6. If he had not detached himself from the family estate, his financial position would have been better off. His father had passed away when he was two years old and he was taken care of by his uncle. Whether he had received an inheritance or not you never can tell ...