How to identify a cemetery from a photo?
I have a photo of relatives around a tombstone of my Great grandfather. I believe that the photo was taken somewhere near San Francisco, CA in 1967. The photo is too blurry to read the inscription on the tombstone. What are the best next steps from here to uncover more information about my great grandfather?
Answers
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See if you can get that photo enlarged or there are some tech out there that can make the writting on the tombstone visible. It is important to know the names in Chinese characters and the village they came from.
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We tried enlarging the photo but the original is too blurry and it cannot be made clearer. There is some writing on the back of the photo which I included with the original post. Only thing that can be made out in the photo is Poy Lee. Is there any way to identify the cemetery? Then perhaps I can go there and take another picture of the tombstone that is more clear
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the writing on the back of the photo says this picture was taken in San francisco Overseas Chinese Cemetery. Maybe you can google to see where this cemetery is.
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Hi Jonathan,
Although blurry - it looks like your great grandfather was a Taishan Lee.
I suggest checking " Lee Poy " in these cemeteries:
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery-browse/USA/California/San-Mateo-County/Daly-City?id=city_16861
If you cannot find his grave , email me at "Henry.Tom@Cox.net", I am a Lee on my maternal side and I do know the President, Lee Association in San Francisco and he knows all the groups that manage the Chinese cemeteries in the Bay Area.
By the way, this past year, the Taishan Lee/Li Clan Association published a massive 7 volume, 7,318 page Lee genealogy bookset for the 493 Lee villages in Taishan. Your family lineage is probably in this bookset that traces the Lee lineage back to HuangDi, the Yellow Emperor (2697 BC - 2597 BC ) across a span of 4,700 years and almost 150 generations.
Henry
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My guess is that is that it could be the Hoy Sun Ning Yung Cemetery. The trees in the back of this picture seem like they could match the trees in the background of your picture?
Check out this photo on Yelp
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Thanks Jeremy for your observations, that was very clever of you to notice the trees in the picture. You are in fact correct that it was that cemetery. After my posting, I was contacted by a few people who did help in identifying that cemetery and we just located my great grandfather's gravestone there.
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Ahh. Excellent! Do you know what village your Lee family is from in Toisan? My maternal grandfather and paternal great-grandmother are Lees!
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