Saturday, January 12, 2013

My family trail is complete..

In Dec 2012, I went to trace my aunt (late father's younger sister) in Bintan Island, Indonesia.
Me & wife took a boat from Stulang, Johor to Tanjung Pinang, Indonesia. The boat ride was 2.5 hours. It went thro Singapore & Batam Island, before reaching Tanjung Pinang, which is in South West Bintan Island. Then I took a hired car to a town called Kijang, 45 minutes from Tanjung Pinang. Kijang is a small town in South East of Bintan Island.

They greeted me with joy & tears. Her name is Kamariah, one of my late father's younger sister (same father) but with different mother. I stayed there for 1 night and visited my cousins & close relatives.

It seems that the Baweanese, they travel from Bawean to Belitong Island then Bintan Island, then Singapore & eventually to Peninsular Malaysia. In Bintan Island, they found job in an aluminum mine in Kijang and settled down there.

So, that completes my "family trail". My late father has 12 siblings in all (from the same father). I traced them from KL, Singapore, JB, Bawean Island (Indon) & Bintan Island (Indon). He (father) also have 6 siblings from the same mother (all in Peninsular Malaysia). Out of the 12, 4 have passed away, when I got discovered them (2006). 2 of the 6 (from same mother) has passed away since 2006. So in total, I traced 12 of them, spanning 6 years.

In summary, my father passed away in 2006.
2007 - tracing 4 of his siblings (same mother) aroung KL & JB
2008 - tracing 1 of his sister in Singapore
2009 - take a break
2010 - tracing 4 of his siblings in JB
2011-  trace 2 of his siblings in Bawean island
2012 - trace 1 of his sister in Bintan island

When I first met them, what I needed from them is to forgive my father. I explained to them the story about my father. He may have a reason for not wanting to contact them.. (I will tell in my future blog posting..). But for now, let us all forgive him & let us connect back the relationship for the sake of ALLAH.

What a finding.... What a discovery.... 

1 comment:

Zaidah M said...

You should write a memoir or a travelog trailing Abah's ancestry :) But we need pictures too.

Hati tenang when we accept that all that Abah did during his living years (including not disclosing his family), he did with only the best intentions in his heart for us (his children). I miss him, so much.