Chinese Records

Margie Sere

Based on oral story, my great grandfather migrated to Philippines from China. His estimated birth was on 1878 in Kolangsu, Fukien, China although one of the uncles said he was from Amoy, China. I was able to find his chinese character name, none of us can read nor right chinese characters. What we know he became known as Deogracias H. Ty Chiulim, or D. H. Ty Chiulim locally based on signatures I had found from research. Is there a way we could probably trace out his roots based on his chinese character name. I am attaching his signature. The other signature there was from his son born here in the Philippines named Alfonso Villegas Ty.

Please connect me with people who can help.

Ty Chiulim Signature.png

Uploaded Aug 16, 2021242.78 KB

Edited: I have found another group, Chinese Genealogy Research, and joined. I will also try to post this question there. I originally thought the discussions there is always in Chinese characters but found out English discussions is available as well. Thank you.

ifyerhappyanduknowit

@Margie Sere

Thank you for posting here, and for joining the Chinese Genealogy research group as well. If you receive an answer in that group, please post that here, so others can learn from what they tell you.

The form you included is wonderful.

As far as Google translate shows, this is the translation of what the form says:

I, Deogracias H. Ty Chiulim, a senior, natural from China, merchant, neighbor and resident of the Municipality of Aleala, Province of Cagayan, IF, after having legally provided, hereby, CERTIFY, that the invoices Pre-inserts are literal translations and approximate, in Spanish, the Originals in Chinese letters, to the best of my knowledge.

I cannot read the characters either, but you can sign up for a 20-minute free consultation through FamilySearch and they have people there who could help with that.

You can sign up here:

Virtual Genealogy Consultations

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Virtual_Genealogy_Consultations

Free virtual genealogy consultations are designed to provide you with research guidance, methodology, and next steps. Our research specialists offer helpful suggestions and assistance with your research goals, to empower you as you discover and connect with your family. Virtual genealogy consultations are made possible through a partnership between FamilySearch and its Affiliate Libraries. You may be assigned to meet with a research specialist from the Family History Library, Midwest Genealogical Center staff, or a volunteer research specialist from one of our worldwide Family History Centers.

Also, an announcement was just posted that has a list of online classes, some of which discuss reading the names and using them for research. Please take a look at the list to see if anything there might help you.

@Lina Lee @吴志宏 Lena Stout @Chai do you have any other suggestions on how Margie can get the Characters read and how she can use them to trace this ancestor?

Margie Sere

Hello Sister Hornbeck,

Thank you so much Sister Hornbeck for your responses. I joined the Chinese Genealogy Research Group and Sister Lena Stout had guided me to schedule a free online consultation which I did. She also told me that "it is hard to trace Chinese roots by just a couple of Chinese names." She also gave me the equivalent Chinese character name of my great grandfather and his son.

The consultation with Sister Lina Wakefield, based in Utah, confirmed what Sister Stout said that it's hard to trace using names only. The way to trace it is that you need to know the exact place your ancestor came from in particular the village. In China, the family clan leader in that village usually have a compilation of their own genealogy. The government, being a communist country, does not keep those records. So, unless that particular family clan in the village donated a record copy to a library or research group, you could not find it in any database. What to do then is to go directly to that village and request from the family clan a copy if they are willing. Another issue is that it's hard to read the names and details even if you find a donated genealogy in our database unless you could read Chinese characters. More so there's no translation yet on that, it would require another invention to be able to translate those Chinese characters.

Sister Wakefield also showed me on screen how to search from the available records and was able to view some images which I couldn't read of course. At least I had an overview of what I'm trying to look into.

This is so far the help that I received. I thanked all who have given time to answer my queries. Thank you for this community and for online consultation.

Regards,

Margie

ifyerhappyanduknowit

@Margie Sere

Those women are wonderful! I'm so glad they gave you the information they did. So, based on what they said, you need to hopefully find family records in either Kolangsu, Fukien, China or Amoy, China?

I am learning along with you. I am grateful you gave the information you received so others can learn as well.

Researching our families can be very hard. I am glad you got some direction of where you need to search.

Margie Sere

Hello Sister Hornbeck,

I need to find my family in Kolangsu, Fukien, China.

It is interesting to note from my research in google, I found out that Kolangsu is now called Gulangyu, it is an island in Xiamen, Fujian, China which is called Amoy, Fukien, China before. So that means I need to do research on the much narrower Gulangyu, Xiamen, Fujian, China.

I also found this article that might help people starting to search their Chinese ancestors.

How to Find My Chinese Ancestors • FamilySearch

https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/chinese-family-tree-jiapu/

A jiapu is a Chinese family tree that may date to the 1600s or earlier. Learn about the history of your Chinese clans in Jiapu for free on FamilySearch.org.

This blog about a person's journey in finding his roots in China will give an insight of what one may go through during his research.

Law On Village by Tony Kin

http://gophergenealogy.blogspot.com/p/finding-law-on-village-ancestral.html

FINDING THE LAW ON VILLAGE, THE ANCESTRAL VILLAGE OF SAM JOWER KING (Note:   For the most part, the Romanization and pronuncia...

Regards,

Margie

Margie Sere

If one is interested how to read or understand a Chinese genealogy book then this material is helpful, but It's a bit of a challenge, Actually this is what I am also looking for as a guide in understanding how they organize writing names for genealogy. I need to study this material first, then seek help from experts as needed.

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/img_auth.php/4/47/Chinese_Language_Helps_for_Jiapu-2.pdf