Great Great Grandfather Sewjee

 I have tried to get to the bottom of Sewjee's arrival in Hong Kong. To be honest it has been very time consuming and not very successful. 

What I do know is that the accessible records available for India during the nineteenth century are almost  entirely about  the Anglo/European colonial population, with some about the Eurasian offspring of such. As far as the indigenous Indian and non colonial population is concerned most of the available records are what is given up by the newspapers of the day. A lot of them concern passenger lists and cargo manifests for the middle east and Europe. If you were an Indian and travelled frequently then you would obviously be either a business man/merchant or independently financially secure. It would appear that the name Allarakia and versions of it often appeared on these lists. In the case of the passenger lists it was usually for passage between Bombay and London.

Now the spelling of the name Alarakia has thrown me on more than one occasion. In some newspaper articles it has been spelt differently  when used more than once by the same reporter. Another confusing issue is the way the names are set out. 

Whilst I have been searching for Sewjee Alarakia, almost every Indian newspaper article I have found refer to Allarakia Sewjee. The name not always being spelt the same. It has consistently been different whether in the Bombay Gazette, the Indian Statesman or any other publication. When the Alarakia family establishes itself in Hong Kong the spelling becomes more consistent with apart from the odd exception only one 'L'

There is a later mention of an Allarakia Sewjee and an Abdulla Allarakia in a report on the Bombay Plague in 1899. This cannot be our Sewjee however because he died in Hong Kong in June 1890 and his son Abdulla died in May 1898 . The two names have a familiar look to them however and definitely warrant further investigation. 

I should note at this point, there were no Alarakias/Allarakias in Hong Kong prior to 1859. In that year Adam Allarakia and two others Nuthoo and Patell were living and working in Macau.

If I accept that the different spellings and name format refer to our 'Sewjee Alarakia' then it would mean that the search is beginning to bear fruit.

So first of all his name(in any guise) does not seem to appear in the newspapers  prior to 1872 when he would have been twenty nine years of age. The last mention of him is just three years later in 1875. During this time he is mentioned as being a shareholder in a Marine Insurance company and also a textile mill. The Insurance company encountered problems and was wound up. It looks like he might have been through some rough times and decided it was time for him to leave Bombay for Hong Kong Whilst it is likely the mill (The Albert Mills Company Ltd) suffered as a result of the later Bombay Mills strike in 1882 by which time Sewjee had left.

In 1877 Sewjees son Mahomed at the age of eleven attends the Government Central School in Hong Kong. His younger son Abdulla who was five at the time later attended the same school in 1882. I have no idea if these were Sewjees only children or where his wife was at this time, but it is clear both Mahomed and Abdulla were born in India and most likely Bombay.

To be honest this is not definitive but in the absence of any concrete evidence it is the closest I think I will get. If I knew who Sewjees father was and where he was born then I might be able to confirm it or take it further.