I tell this story not out of some exaggerated sense of the family's importance.In several ways this tale would also resonate with the many thousands of Indians whose indentured ancestors chose to settle in Guyana.I tell it simply because it is the story of our particular family.

Haji then had a humble beginning.With the help of his children, his small family businesses did well. Through the rice farm, the grocery store, and a tailoring service the two eldest brothers, Caramat and Sultan, were eventually able to save enough to buy land closer to the capital Georgetown.In 1921 they moved their families further down the East Bank of the Demerara river and settled an area that was to become known as McDoom Village.[1]Much of the family's early history took place there.The brothers divided the land comprising McDoom Village into lots on which houses for the expanding family were built.[2]Being staunch Muslims they also built a mosque at the same time that they broke ground.McDoom Mosque stands today.[3]Through these efforts to build a single community, aunts, uncles, and cousins lived and grew up alongside each other.Many were also buried alongside each other in the McDoom cemetery.[4]Those alive who remember this time share a special bond. 

Haji's entrepreneurial spirit passed on to his children and the McDoom family prospered.As the eldest son by ten years, Caramat assumed primary responsibility for the family businesses.He purchased several important estates on behalf of the family:Mahaicony Ranch in 1931, Hampton Court in 1940, and finally Blankenburg in 1950, the year in which he passed away.[5]On all three estates they grew rice and cattle, whilst


1] The land was originally part of the Houston Sugar Plantation.

[2] The houses were built from a hardwood known as 'greenheart', native to the Guianas and renowned for its durability.Caramat's house was the first to be built and still stands today, though it is half of its original size.Caramat's eldest son, Mohamed Ali McDoom, demolished part of it to build a petrol station for his eldest son, Faizudin McDoom.The station was eventually sold to the Esso Petroleum Company and today, due to its strategic location near the entry to the capital Georgetown, is one of the highest-selling petrol stations in the country.It is also the bane of the current occupants of CA McDoom's house.Sultan's house, affectionately called Kashmir House, was the second to be built, opposite Caramat's.It was destroyed in a fire in October 1944.Conflicting stories exist as to the cause of the fire.Sources:Shaukat McDoom and Khalilul McDoom.

[3] It was the first stone mosque to be built in the country and served the Muslim community within the area.Until it was completed the community prayed inside Caramat's house.The mosque underwent a major renovation in 1951 when it was also handed over to a Board of Trustees. Source:A hand-written history of the mosque written on July 29th 1951 upon completion of the renovation.Copy on file with the author.

[4] The McDoom graveyard is listed as a cemetery in the Guyana Land Registry and is located towards the Demerara-river side of the village.Some of the names and dates of birth and death in this book were taken from headstones in the cemetery.

[5] The Mahaicony ranch was originally owned by the British Crown and comprised somewhere between 2000-3000 acres when Caramat was first granted a long-term lease on the land.However, the British government expropriated the land in World War II following the capture of Burma by the Japanese, leaving the family with 300 hundred acres.The British needed the land to make up for the resulting shortfall in rice production.The Mahaicony-Abary Rice Scheme thus became colloquially known as Burma.Hampton Court, purchased from a British plantation owner, comprised rice and coconut estates.Tenant farmers grew rice that the McDoom family then milled.Blankenburg was a purchase of 1200 acres of rice and coconut land in 1950 that caused some controversy within the family as Caramat's mental faculties and financial judgement were at that time in question.When Caramat died in that same year, his eldest son, Mohamed Ali McDoom, and his brother, Sultan, continued to run the family businesses but divisions within the family led to a final sale of all the lands and a financial settlement made among the family in the late 1950s.The saw-mill was sold to the Fredericks family, the Mahaicony ranch to Edgitan Udit (spelling unconfirmed), Hampton Court to Kayman Sankar, and Blankenburg to KS Jagan. Source:Shaukat McDoom.