Travellers

 Its been quite a while since my last post. I seem to have come to a halt with my search for information regarding my ancestors. Other Alarakias though have made the news in various ways. 

There is the aforementioned Ebraim Alarakia who travelled frequently back and forth from Galle to Sidney. He seems to have been born in Kutch(Cutch) in 1847 making him four years younger than 2nd Great Grandfather Sewjee. I still wonder but do not yet know if he was a sibling.  According to the Indian Statesman newspaper Ebraim appeared in Insolvency Court in may 1872. By 1881 he was a Lascar(Sailor) travelling the Galle to Sidney route. Then in 1887 he purchased a horse from the British Army Stables in the Bombay region after which his trail goes cold.

Jonas Alarakia was listed as an Indian merchant in 1858 Mauritius. It is not stated what he traded in but a report in the West Somerset Free Press dated 30 Oct 1869 and also the Englishmans Overland Mail of West Bengal dated 28 Sept 1869 stated that a ship carrying a consignment of rice from Calcutta to Mauritius was lost at sea in some time between the 10th and 19th of April that year. The rice consignment belong to Jonas Alarakia.

Other Alarakias listed as Indian merchants include one Abdalla Alarakia in Kenya 1923 and then in Burundi in a1930 and also mentioned in a  German Colonial publication 1899 and again in 1910.

A 'potter' named Barda Alarakia was listed as residing and working in Madascar in 1909.

Various Indian newspapers of the nineteenth century report Alarakias with varied spellings travelling back and forth between Bombay and England /Europe and Calcutta and the same. Some of these were business men whilst at least one appeared to be preaching Islam and appeared in  a Liverpool Mosque or meeting place in the late 1800s. One Oosman Allarakia apparently travelled with his 'servant' from Bombay to Brindisi in June 1872.

There are so many instances of people with various name spellings travelling around the globe trading or preaching or both. The problem I seem to have is linking them to either my Alarakia family or in fact to each other. The one thing they all seem to have in common is wealth and education and the ability to travel. Wouldn't it be good if a descendant of any of these Alarakias read this blog and maybe contributed more history. Looking at the 'stats' for this blog it has been viewed not only in Hong Kong, Canada, UK and USA but also in Senegal, South Africa, India, Nigeria, Australia, Thailand, even the Netherlands, Germany and Poland. I know from the information available on the net that Alarakias live in France and also with a double 'l' here in the UK. My wish is that some or All of you make contact and help to contribute to not just my history but to your own.

I will continue to hunt out information and post anything I think will be of interest.



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