The Alarakia Family of HongKong

  Whist trawling through the Bombay Gazette of  4 May 1866 I notice an article documenting a soldiers diary from his travels in the Persian Gulf. In it he mentions a place called Bushire which I had come across when looking at the hand written Family Tree of the Goolam Hoosein Arab descendants. For those of you who looked at the 'Tree' post yesterday you will notice that I had Mahomed Arab as an Indian National. I am afraid to say I am wrong. In the early part of my research I took the Carl Smith Records version of his M Arab's birth place Abushar (Also spelt the same in his Last Will and Testament) as Ambarsar the colloquial name for Amritsar. It is obvious to me now that the spoken Bushire was misspelt as Abushar. It is easy to see how a translated document does not always reflect the original. So I have emended the original and also yesterdays 'Tree' post to reflect this. Whats more, while he was living in India it is highly possible/probable that he was referred...

 Here are the Family Trees as I see them at the moment. Don't be surprised if they change in the future. Hopefully only additions to them will make them change and I do not find myself deleting anyone. If any one is wondering, I have included Usuf as the eldest son of Mahomed and Bibi. I have now seen publications that confirm the previously aforementioned U.Alarakia to be Usuf. It is likely that his life unravelled somewhat after working in China and became the 'lunatic' mentioned in the 1938 Indian Government report.  I have not included the girl Zahara as I still have not established who her parents were.                                                                                                           ...

 Here are a few newspaper articles you might find interesting. 1. The Bombay Gazette 23 Feb 1852 Page 2 (184) This refers to a Export Manifest for a ship load of  Textiles including a shipment of cotton belonging to Alarakia and Joonus Noor Mahomed. This is Adam Allarakia who is named in the blog 'Hong Kong's First Opium Hall of Fame. I will endeavour to find out more about this chap and where he fits in the story. He could be of the same generation as Sewjee Alarakia(if so then possibly an older sibling because Sewjee would have only been nine years of age at the time of this article.It is also very possible that he is Sewjee's own father. Strangely enough Adam Alarakia is named as a Parsi on the Opium Hall of Fame which would bring us back to the Persian origins idea again. Watch this space. 2. Times of India 22 Dec 1881 Page 3 A Defamation case aginst Alarakia Ebramani referred to in the article as Alarakia. Could this chap be one of ours. What was his beef with this see...

  This is Grandfather Ebrahim  Mahomed Alarakia  and with his 2nd wife Mariam and his little troop c1936-37 These next photos are Hanifa (auntie Hani) Abbas and Rubia(my mother Ruby) who are the three eldest children on the family photo. I think the uniform Hanifa is wearing is that of the 'French Convent'  seen below where she and Rubia (Ruby) were educated. Finally this last one is of Hennessey Road where the Alarakia family lived at no 359 a large tenement building. This image is Hennessey Road in 1933

I have amended the main post with the following. I trust you can keep up because  I am not always sure I can. *** He lived with three women in the colony. His principal wife Phoorja an Arab Muslim woman from Bagdad who was most likely the mother to Bibi Arab. His secondary wives were a Malay and a Chinese called Ahoy-Che Oi thought to be a Tanka Boat woman and to whom he had a son ‘Hajee Mahomed’. Another publication states that the land and property Mahomed aquired in the 1840’s was still in his family over 100 years later. His family were joined by marraige to Shaikh Moosdeens family when his Daughter Jara married Abdul Rahim Moosdeen and his grandaughter Zaiton (Cherry) Alarakia married Shaikh Moosdeens grandson Abu Baker Moosdeen.   His extended family consisted of :   Bibi as shown above and the following from his First Wife Phoorja M Arab b? d16.10.1887   Seleria M Arab a daughter b1840 d25.12.1920 Jara a daughter b 1861 d 6.5.1907. She was married t...

Whilst looking through old Hong Kong newspapers I found a lot of articles covering academic achievement  and sport participation. The thing that struck me was in almost every instance the girls were mentioned by their full names whist the boys were for the most part only mentioned by their first initials. This led me to check each person mentioned off against my list of Mahomed Sewjee's children. Now bearing in mind I had stated earlier that Mahomed Sewjee and Bibi had at least fifteen children some of which died as infants I looked  at Auntie Hani's notes and she said that they had sixteen children. The oldest boy being the one missing from my list. According to Auntie Hani he took off for America, but she did not name him. Well I have now got a list of eighteen children including Alfred and Salomon who belonged to Abdulla Sewjee. Of the remaining sixteen, two are unaccounted for. First there is Zahara who appears to be one of the older ones, but whose child was she? Is there...

 The following is a result of Davids (eurasian_david) hard work and dogged determination to assist me with this journey. Annie Hazel Asger  (1877-4th March 1959) was half  Persian  and half  Chinese . Her father was  Mahomed Ebrahim Asger  (aka ' Haji Ali Asge r') (18??-1st Feb 1900). Her mother was  Hung Kung Siu  (or  Chiu ). Her other siblings included  Asadulla Ebrahim Asger  (10th Aug 1878-26th Jan 1967), the well known dental surgeon trained in Illinois, USA,  Mehdy Edward Asger   (1880-26th Dec 1948), sisters  Ada Asger  (5th Dec 1885-19??) and  Bharnoo Asgar ('Ella')  (188?-19??). Ada Asger interestingly was later baptised in adulthood in  St Peter's Church  27th December 1906.  Mahomed Ebrahim Asger  was a cousin to  Hajee Mahomed Sadeck Hajee Esmail  (1843-21st Feb 1905), the latter from Yazd, Persia who settled in HK in the 1860s when he was in his 20s. The...

  This lady is Annie Hazel Asger who was I believe married to Abdulla Sewjee Alarakia and was the mother of his two sons Salomon and Alfred. Annie referred to herself as 'Persian' but it seems she was also part Chinese and  it seems disowned by her own family for marrying a man outside of Islam. The Hong Kong Telegraph has the following:—Engagements have been announced, and marriages will shortly take place, between Dr. Gregory Paul Jordan, nephew of Sir C. Paul Chater, Kt., C.M.G., and Mrs. Marion Josephine Daly (nee Ormsby) ; between Mr. Lennox Godfrey Bird, architect, of Messrs. Palmer and Turner's office, Hong Kong, and Miss Margaret Stuart Cockburn, now en route from borne in the s.s. Eitel Friedrich; between Mr. Henry Bone, of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service, and Miss Annie Alarakia, of Hong Kong, and between Mr. John Johnson, sergeant of the Naval Dockyard Police Force, and Miss Eliza Lyons, of Hong Kong.  I will endeavour to elaborate as I unearth more. The...

The day this blog really started was when this happened.  Married in 1949 Page 2  before travelling back to the UK on the Empire Fowey troopship in July1950 This photo was probably taken in the harbour in Hongkong though it is possible its at the rear/stern of the Empire Fowey. This is the passenger list for the Empire Fowey's return to UK. Many thanks to my partner in crime eurasian_david for the newspaper clip.  

 I have been increasingly frustrated that I cannot find any reference to Mahomeds wife Bibi. I reached out to Eurasian_David on Gwulo looking for clues. He and another user Salmandaw informed me that 'Bibi' is an affectionate name for married women amongst the muslim community. So much so that if they become known by that name(like a nickname) throughout their lives it might be just as likely that burial records and headstones will bear that name also. So assuming the obvious and our Bibi falls into that catagory then I am left wondering what exactly was her name. I have found references to various other daughters of Mahomed Arab and they all have names.The hunt goes on. I have since gone back and reviewed the Carl Smith Records and I found this: Now I don't know why I never noticed this before but the 4th line clearly shows Mrs S Alarakia. If this has been transcribed correctly or if it was a typed card originally then I should be looking for a girl initialled 'S'....

 The following has been forwarded to me by eurasian_david on the Gwulo forum.  Thanks again David, you are a great help. Mahomed Sewjee Alarakia (1866-1920) Your greatgrandfather's wedding Hong Kong evening 23rd May 1884 :   “YESTERDAY evening, a novelty in the way of processions delighted and amused a portion of the native population and foreigners resident in the Colony. About nine o’clock, a bridal party of Mohomedans formed up at the bridegroom’s house in Gage Street, and proceeded slowly along the Central streets to the residence of the bride’s parents. To Europeans, the procession presented a very strange appearance from the fact that in it were mixed up, in the strangest manner possible, oriental customs and western ideas. The relatives and friends of the bridegroom, - some in ordinary European carriages, others on foot and others again on horseback – occupied the interior of the procession, the outside of which was formed by a cordon of youthful Celestials, bearin...