I have never really spend real time going through the book on our Family Tree Keluarga Wan before.But the interest to do so came about after having met another Wan from my workplace. We stumbled upon this topic after I went to see her to get her signature. So after a few rounds of Q & A , I was quite at lost for words on how to go about explaining our roots. Until she mentioned one name from Sri Gombak i.e Wan Zaidah whom our dearest late father use to be close to. I understand then she is family. And Wan Zaidah is my colleague's aunt. Anyway , I told my colleague that that was a good starting point.
I was determined to come home and dig out the book to understand more.
So page one, explained the present Wan Kedah were traced to three pahlawans who served the Sultan of Kedah in 1797 , Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin Halim Shah II , ie. Doto' Seri Paduka Laksamana ( Wan Sosai) dan Dato' Bendahara Seri Paduka Maharaja Sura ( Wan Mohd Sidek Wan Johan ) and Dato' Maharaja Temenggung Desa Wan Sulaiman .
The Dato Laksamana and Dato Bendahara are brothers and cousins to Dato Temenggung .Dato laksamana Wan Sosai and Dato' Bendahara Wan Mohd Sidek were both killed at Kuala Bahang ( now Kuala kedah) when the Siamese attacked Kedah. Their graves were never found.
On further reading, I discovered the post of Temenggong, Bendahara and Laksamana ( 3 of the 4 main ministers in the Sultanage of Kedah) were posts held by the Wan family, being passed down from one Wan to another until 1858.
An important information that I found was that the title Wan adalah keturunan( family name ) and not gelaran ( not a title bestowed by the Sultan).There were lots of theories on the origins of the family Wan. Some traced to the Funan Kingdom. To name a few Funan Kings - Fan Shin Man was Wan Sulaiman, Fan Chan ( Wan Hassan?).
Now I know where i got my chinese look from.
Wan Mohd Saman , the man who build the Wan Mohd Saman canal ( in the history book) was the last Prime Minister of Kedah.
A 100 years later the posts of Temenggung, Laksamana and Bendahara was revived but the titles were confined to the immediate members of the Royal family and non functional in nature.
The present Sultan of Kedah 's great grandmother is Wan Hajar ( Mak Wan Besar) who married Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin (1854 - 1877).She is great great grandmother?
So the next step, of the three warriors, my late father's descendant was traced to Dato' Bendahara Wan Mohd Sidek. Now I understand why father used to mention that we are from the Bendahara line .
But the complications when I wanted to trace my line of generation starting from Wan Mohd Sidek. According to my calculation, I am the 5 th or 6th generation.But having said that, when one look again at the family tree, the Wans all practiced intermarriage amongst themselves. And the names were all from the same pool of names. So much so , it became complicated. Wan Saad bin wan Musa. Then another Wan Musa bin Wan Ismail.especially the menfolks, their names can be confined to about maybe 15 .
My mother's line of descendant also originated from the Bendahara line.Mother and father are cousins, of course.
So i gave up trying to understand more. So what I am going to do now is to bring this family tree book and show it to my colleague and let her untangle the web herself.
Also made another discover. Tun Mahathir's mother Wan Tempawan was placed under the line of the Dato' Temenggung, also another Wan. So, if she had married another Wan, then it would have been another story altogether.
One fine day, when this headache has cleared, i will make another attempt to read and unravel the family tree. Until then, that's it.
No comments:
Post a Comment