The story of Tong Yee Aii唐綺, Alai Aii, and Wong Kun Akana黃根
By Louise Skyles Tong Yee Aii唐綺 According to the Tang Zi Ying Jiapu: Tong Fu Jin 唐富錦 (1820-1861), also known as Tong Yee 唐綺 (Tong Yee Aii), married Miss She 佘氏 (1826-1862), and they had a son Yishan益善 (Hawaiian name: Tong Chong) The Chinese family members evidently did not know about Tong Yee's Hawaiian daughters, and the Hawaiian daughters did not know about their half-brother in China. I found two pieces of information in the clan records that connected them together. Tong Yee married Miss She 佘 in China before he went to Hawaii. Since "She" was a rare surname, [...]
Meeting the Goo cousins in Laie, Hawaii
We were privileged to meet several members of our extended Goo family in January 2022. I had been corresponding quite a bit with Gerry Goo Nihipali about her Goo/Gu pedigree and our common ancestors, since Louise Skyles connected the missing pieces and was able to obtain the rare Nazhou Gu jiapu. We arranged to meet Gerry's family at their home in Laie, Oahu during our trip to Hawaii in January 2022. She organized a wonderful potluck feast at her home, attended by most of her siblings and their spouses, and Ailene Hee Sproat and her husband. One sister was unable [...]
Finding the Village of Aaron Hee’s Grandfather
The beautiful thing about having a lot of family records in the familysearch.org tree is that it provides the opportunity for people with similar surnames from similar places to find them and wonder if/how they might be related. That is how Aaron Hee made a crucial connection just as 2021 was drawing to a close, and the cascade of events that happened in a short period of time was truly remarkable. Here's the story. The Long Search Aaron's grandfather, Bung Hoon Hee, was an immigrant from the village of Pan Sha in Guangdong area of China. When Bung Hoon was a [...]
A Little History of the She Clan
The She clan has a long history in Guan Tang village, and intermarried with the Zhuo clan many times throughout the years. Louise has been researching them as part of our project to find the ancestral lines of the women who married into the Zhuo clan. She Neng Shun佘能舜 As with most Chinese histories, these are long chains of family stories that can be connected if you know how to find the start and end points. In the Guan Tang She jiapu, Louise found out that the first ancestor for the Guan Tang She was She Shi Tai [...]
Finding our Miss She in the She Clan Jiapu
She zupu - from Zhuo Bing Quan Chinese jiapus are awesome, but you really need specific details in order to find what you're looking for in them. And if you work with a large and complex family tree like ours long enough, you might need a little miracle or two from time to time, to find the one elusive piece of information that will make all the difference. Looking for Chock Chin's 11th great grandmother In September 2021, as part of the project to find the ancestors of the women of my family tree, Louise began searching for [...]
Gu Chuan Pin Migrates to Hawaii and Changes History
Gu Chuan Pin 古傳品 was one of the early immigrants from the Nazhou Gu clan who settled in Hawaii. His family's experiences in Hawaii and later in Chicago, Illinois are fascinating, because they are tied closely to the political affairs of China. Here's Gu Chuan Pin's record on FamilySearch.org. Changing History His son-in-law, who was actually married to two of his daughters, was to play an important role in supporting Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalist movement from within the Chinese community in Chicago. Along with Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai Shek successfully toppled the last Imperial Dynasty to rule China, and initiated the [...]