Genesis

Do you know your origins? Your roots? Just as the root of a tree, our forefathers somehow became the foundation of our life and generations to come.

This is the branch (or root) of my family that I am not familiar with, from my maternal grandfather's side. My maternal grandfather, Anis@ Go Kong An (something like that. Not really sure of the spelling much less the Chinese character for his name), died before I was born. (My mum actually have a Chinese name but it was not used in any legal documents)

His father (my great grandpa) was Chinese while his mother (my great grandmother) was Melanau Rajang from Kampung Nangka. The girl standing next to my great grandmother was my grandfather's sister.

Why am I not familiar with this side of my family?
First of all, I didn't even know that I was of mixed 'grand'parentage until I was almost 12 years old.
Reasons:

1. It was never mentioned.
2. We never speak in any other languages at home other than Iban (Used to know a bit of Kayan and Kejaman though since our neighbour was Kejaman).
3. My grandfather embraced the Iban way of life wholeheartedly, settled down in the longhouse and never converse in Melanau to his children.
   
4. We never met any of my Melanau relatives , or if we did, they never mentioned it. (Chinese ones? I guess they were still somewhere in China, perhaps)
5. My grandfather died before I was born.
   

Hope to meet more and learn more about this 'root' of my family tree before it is lost. One of my Melanau relatives that I know was my late uncle Juin Ibis. My grandfather's relatives mostly resides around Kampung Nangka and Kampung Banyuk area in Sibu. My grandfather was closely related with Ali Putih (Don't ask me who he was, I have zero idea). So, if you somehow know people who are related to me (or at least with Juin Ibis) give me a buzz. I want to know more about this 'root'.

Blood, they say, is always thicker than water.

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Food for thought:
Sometimes people will say that children or people with mixed parentage are a clever lot.
True?
Hmmm... I don't really think so.
My Mum's sister (already of mixed parentage) married a Chinese. So how did the son turn out to be?
An idiot and a jerk.
Another of my Mum's sister, married a Peranakan Chinese. How did the kids fare?
Not so much different than non-mixed parentage kids.

So, there might not be any concrete evidence to show that the saying is true. The environment is a greater influence on a person's intelligence (be it cognitive, social or emotional) rather that the genes.

It's a game of 'Nature vs Nurture'.