How to find ancestors in villages from Guandong?
My name is Grace Wong. I live in the United States and don't really speak any Chinese. I'm trying to trace my ancestry back before my family immigrated to America in the 1960's. Any tips of how to start? My family is from 2 villages in Guangdong Province, surname Wong from 斗山 and surname Ma from 白沙.
Answers
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Grace, welcome to Chinese Genealogy Research Group :-) You are doing a really good job that find out the surname and the province. It's helpful but you may still need to find out their Chinese full name because even you find the jiapu you are still can't find which family line are they belong to. At Frist, you need to fingering out who is the first generation immigrate to United Sates. And try to gartering all of the information of that ancestry as possible as you can. There have serval way to search that personal information, one of the most fast and convenient way is using "Ancestry.com" to search your immigrant Ancestry, you may find cruise ship record, census, social security number, immigrated ID. From the census, you may find his the other part families, and the address during that time. Also, if you find out his/her social security number, you may go to the social security to declare that you are his/her family members and pay some money, and they give more information about that person. Grace, welcome to Chinese Genealogy Research Group :-) You are doing a really good job that find out the surname and the province. It's helpful but you may still need to find out their Chinese full name because even you find the jiapu you are still can't find which family line are they belong to. At Frist, you need to finger out who is the first generation immigrate to United Sates. And try to collect all the information of that ancestry as possible as you can. There have some way to search that personal information, one of the most fast and convenient way is using "Ancestry.com" to search your immigrant Ancestry, you may find cruise ship record, census, social security number, immigrated ID. From the census, you may find his the other part families, and the address during that time. Also, if you find out his/her social security number, you may go to the social security to declare that you are his/her family members and they will give more information about that person :-)
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Hey, Grace before you are doing research, do you know which character is your surname: 王, 黃, 汪, 翁??
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Hi Grace! So just to clarify what I am understanding: you already have the information for those ancestors who came to America? And you're trying to find beyond them, right?
First thing first, you need the Chinese names in Chinese Characters of those you already know. Almost every record in China is written in Chinese characters. Then you can contact the local clan houses in those villages in China. Some clan houses keep records of their clan, or village. Or try to locate any living relatives who might have the genealogy book (jiapu).
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My surname is 黃.
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Yep, that sounds right! I have the names in character, and I don't think that we have the jiapu.
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Hi Grace,
Judging from the fact that your ancestors came to the US in the 1960s and from the two locality names you provided from Guangdong Province, it is a reasonable guess that your families came from Taishan County (Toisan in Cantonese). The majority of Chinese who came to the US up through the 1960s came from Taishan and the three surrounding counties. Most all of my ancestors came to the US from Taishan in the late 1800s through the early 1900s.
The basic process to researching your family in China, prior to those who immigrated, is to find the specific ancestral village and to retrieve the village jiapu. Unfortunately, the names you have mentioned are not names of villages but of townships within Taishan County. Doushan (斗山) and Baisha (白沙) are two of some sixteen townships that make up Taishan County. If you look at the online village database for that area (villagedb.friendsofroots.org), there are almost 700 villages attached to the Wong (黄) surname. I can't tell how many are with the Doushan Township, however, for the Ma (馬) surname, there are about 130 Ma villages within the Baisha Township. To narrow your search, you need the names of the specific villages your ancestors came from. The other information you will need is what the others have mentioned, the names of your ancestors in Chinese characters. For the Ma surname, I assume this is your mother's surname. You will need associated male names, your mother's father, grandfather, brothers, uncles, etc. The names of daughters were for the most part not included in jiapus until recent years. You will need these names to confirm you have the right village and to find your ancestors within the village jiapu, assuming the village has retained it.
When you ask where to start, the place to start is with information that may be in the possession of your own family. (It is good to focus on the family members who were the ones who immigrated, not only to find information you need for research in China, but in its own right, to preserve the memories of their lives.) One of your family members (close or extended) might have the village names. They may also have the name or names (Chinese often had multiple names) of your ancestors. The backs of old photos, or old letters (especially if written in Chinese) may have valuable information. Some family member may already have a copy of the family jiapu. The gravestones of your ancestors, especially if they inscriptions are in Chinese, often have the name of the village listed. As someone mentioned, searching using ancestry.com or familysearch.org can help you to find vital documents. Some ship manifests listed the names of villages. The National Archives hold immigration files on many Chinese immigrants, although given that your ancestors came in the 1960's, you may have to query with the US Citizen and Immigration Service (uscis.gov) to see if they have files on your family members.
I hope this helps you to get started. Happy hunting!
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That was helpful! I’ll talk to my relatives and see if I can get a village. Thanks!
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If you can post images of the gravestones of your parents, they may have the Chinese characters for the the names of your ancestral villages. These villages may have the genealogy books that contain the lineages of your ancestors.
Depending on the coronavirus, I am planning a Chinese American genealogy workshop in Las Vegas, january 2021 and a China Workshop & tours in China, April 2021.
If interested - my email is: Henry.Tom@Cox.net
Henry
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