The Family that Almost Never Was

I never met my paternal grandfather. He died twenty years before I was born. His name was Paul Marius Carrier. He was born to a Frenchman (Louis Bernard Carrier) and Valentine Leandro, a lady of Portuguese Eurasian and Thai ancestry. The Portuguese Eurasians were the descendants of the Portuguese (who took control of Malacca, Malaya in 1511) and the local Chinese, Malay, Indian and Arab settlers and traders. Grandpa Paul was known to be a pious boy. When he was a young man, he left Malaya for France to study for the priesthood. However, he was prone to sickness and had to leave his studies and return to Malaya. A few years after he returned, he met Ethel Lowe and they fell in love. My grandma Ethelrida Mary Lowe was a Eurasian of English, Dutch, Thai and Indonesian ancestry. Her parents were Charles Lowe and Cecilia Ruetens. Paul and Ethel married on January 11, 1905. A clipping from the Straits Times of January 20, 1905 reads as follows: <a href="https://medium.com/illumination/the-family-that-almost-never-was-e3ec261a6034">Read More</a>