Resources for Research

Websites

Here are some useful websites that can help you gain more historical, cultural, and genealogical information pertaining to Chock Chin and his family.

  • Guangdong Chinese genealogy (FamilySearch wiki)
    • Guide to Province of Guangdong 广东 family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.
    • https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Guangdong,_Chinese_Genealogy
  • Chinese Family History Group of Southern California
    • The Chinese Family History Group of Southern California’s mission is to inspire and empower Chinese Americans by connecting them to their immigrant family history through research and education.
  • SiYi Chinese Genealogy message board
    • General Chinese Genealogy
      • https://siyigenealogy.proboards.com/board/13/chinese-genealogy
    • Zhuo/Cheuk Family from Zhongshan (SiYi thread pertaining to Chock Chin and our records
      • https://siyigenealogy.proboards.com/thread/3197/zhuo-cheuk-family-zhongshan
  • Tsung Tsin Association, Honolulu, Hawaii 
    • The Tsung Tsin Association of Honolulu, Hawaii is a non profit organization with the mission to promote the exchange of knowledge among the Hakka peoples, develop a spirit of cooperation among the Hakka in Hawaii and throughout the world, and promote education, charity and benevolence.
    •  tsungtsinhawaii@gmail.com

Reference Books

  • The Chinese of Hawaii (Who’s Who)
    • The Chinese of Hawaii 檀山華僑 (Who’s Who) was published by Honolulu: United Chinese Penman Club in three separate editions. Volume 1, 1929; Volume 2, 1936; and Volume 3, 1957. The publisher was Chock Lun of Guan Tang.   The books feature prominent Chinese residents of Hawaii who are notable for their contributions to Hawaii’s business, community, medical, and educational success. Since the majority of Chinese immigrants to Hawaii during the 19th and early 20th century came from the Guangdong/Canton region, a great number of the people featured in these books have their roots in Guangdong.  Several of Chock Chin’s clan appear in these books.
  • Chinese Families of Kauai
    • Chinese Historic Sites and Pioneer Families of Kauai-Part1
    • Chinese Historic Sites and Pioneer Families of Kauai-Part2
    • This is the 1980 revision of this book published by the Hawaii Chinese History Center.  It is a local history project containing summaries from interviews with Chinese people living on the island of Kauai, along with research, family stories, photos, and historical information.  Chock Chin’s daughters Dorothy and Nee Chang wrote most of the family’s extensive contribution to this book.  This is my primary source of information about my father’s family and his early years. It is a great treasure to us in our family, and I am deeply grateful that my aunties were such careful historians and excellent writers.
    • Chock Chin’s family is documented beginning on page 172 (found in Part 2).
  • Chinese Families of the Island of Hawaii
  • Chinese Families of Oahu
    • Chinese Historic Sites and Pioneer Families of Rural Oahu
    • This book was published in 1988 by the Hawaii Chinese History Center.  It is a local history project containing summaries from interviews with Chinese people living on the island of Hawaii, along with research, family stories, photos, and historical information.
  • Chinese-Hawaiian name glossaries
    • Compiled from the Glossaries in the backs of the Chinese Historic Sites books listed above, this provides a convenient way to look up the Chinese characters for the Hawaiianized versions of Chinese names.  This is a huge key to being able to search for your Chinese migrant ancestors using their actual Chinese name (in characters) in the clan genealogies.

 

Family Histories

  • Thank You Father, by Aunt Margaret
    • Margaret Kam Ngo Goo, the ninth child and fifth daughter of Gu Chuan Pin, a migrant to Hawaii from the Nazhou Gu clan, wrote this delightful 158-page family history detailing the unique world of a Chinese family living in Hawaii at the turn of the century. This family’s story becomes an important lens through which you can see how it was to live through the tumultuous years when China was overturning Imperialism, Hawaii was changing from a monarchy to a United States Territory, the Spanish Flu pandemic raged across the world, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and America was forced to come to grips with its deep-rooted racial bias and systematic oppression of the Chinese.