|
|
Post by leechun on Feb 27, 2010 14:28:00 GMT -5
My husband's grandmother came to Hawaii on false papers. For her entire life we knew her by this false name. We have her NARA file that details her false family. We recently learned her real name and her father's real name through an old interview she did with her daughter. We have no documentation of this name (other than the interview).
In our genealogy software program should we adopt the new "real" name or continue to use the false name? How do we reconcile these two identities and not confuse the rest of the family?
|
|
|
|
Post by helen on Feb 27, 2010 14:44:39 GMT -5
Paper Sons
The History of the Chinese in California
Thomas Chin, editor
1969
In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed local public records. Dating from the fire, many Chinese claimed that they were born in San Francisco. With this citizenship the father then claimed citizenship for his offspring born in China. In subsequent trips to the Orient, the father would report the birth of an offspring or two upon his return, usually a son.
Sometimes, the father would report the birth of a son when in reality there was no such event. This was what was termed a “slot” and would then be available for sale to boys who had no family relationships in the United States in order to enable them to enter this country. Merchant brokers often acted as middlemen to handle the sale of slots. Sons who entered the country in this fashion were known as “paper sons.”
The fact that such deception was practiced was entirely due to the exclusion law. All the “paper sons” wanted was to emigrate to America in search of a better life.
|
|
|
|
Post by helen on Feb 27, 2010 14:46:57 GMT -5
It seems odd that a female would come under false papers. But if she did, was it as an adult - maybe as a second wife? It may also be hard to track the female side of the family. I know ir doesn't answer your question - maybe someone else with experience can
|
|
|
|
Post by harc3 on Feb 27, 2010 14:51:17 GMT -5
My grandfather's birth name was not what I knew him as. I discovered he had 2 different names here in Canada which were not his birth name. What I did on mine was...I left his name as what I knew him as and continued his name with the Chinese characters for his birth name...
Chin Lee Chong 沈宜昌
and then when someone clicks on his profile I have added his other AKA (also known as) name Chong Kee
So in short I used two names in his display,
what I knew him as and his Chinese name
Chin Lee Chong 沈宜昌 so it just seemed like he had a long name to the software, and then included his AKA name in his profile as short explanations as to how he got all the names
view>encoding>unicode UTF8 to see Chinese characters
|
|
|
|
Post by Ah Gin on Feb 27, 2010 18:42:41 GMT -5
I agree with har3's approach in handing many aka, however the person acquired the aka. We are but the recorder of an historical fact, and for the sake of the following generations and future researches, we need to preserve whatever we discovered, without judgement.
On the Australian Goldfield (mid 1800s to Federation), it was not unusual for the Chinese pioneers to have a number of names for a variety of reasons. In our recording we also take har3's approach.
On the question of Paper Sons and daughters: For a long time, most Chinese pioneers (I class any migrants in the 1800s onwards to early 1950s as pioneers; but of course late arrivals are no less "pioneers), we seldom talk about "real names", as "Walls have ears". And if others know of our real name (and therefore discovered that our family came under a paper name), we might get the family in trouble (by the authorities). It was only in later years that families talked about their real Surname or names.
The Great Earthquake of San Francisco did a lot of help to many families, in a perverse way!
Regards, Ah Gin
|
|
|
|
Post by twoupman on Feb 27, 2010 20:28:09 GMT -5
leechun, Perhaps the best approach is to first identify the name used in Hawaii by your husband’s grandmother and in parenthesis say “Birth name: ….” as shown thus: Name in Hawaii (Birthname: …..) This way there is no ambiguity as to what her real name was at birth. harc3, To clarify your approach further, I suggest you show the real Chinese name in parenthesis and add these two characters 原名 (original name) or 生名 (birthname) in front to ensure there is no misinterpretation of the English Romanized “paper name” as shown thus: Paper Name (原名沈宜昌 or 生名沈宜昌) houseofchinn.com |
|
|
|
Post by harc3 on Feb 27, 2010 21:55:12 GMT -5
Great suggestion Twoupman...thank you...will change it
|
|
|
|
Post by Doug 周 on Feb 27, 2010 22:36:55 GMT -5
Leechun and Harc3,
Please remind me which genealogy software you use?
Doug
|
|
|
|
Post by harc3 on Feb 28, 2010 0:44:48 GMT -5
I use Geni and ancestry.com
|
|
|
|
Post by leechun on Mar 2, 2010 13:10:31 GMT -5
Thank you for the responses and suggestions. I am aware of the Chinese Exclusion Act and its ramifications as well as the 1906 earthquake and its usefulness to Chinese wishing to immigrate.
In Hawaii there are numerous examples of men who came to the islands, and sent for wives, before the Exclusion Act was enforced once Hawaii became a Territory. Children of these couples were born in Hawaii. Sometimes the family would return to China and then sell the papers for the children they didn't believe would ever return to Hawaii.
I will ponder the suggestions for using names. I agree that we must simply record and not judge and that our role is to record in such a way that future generations will be able to duplicate our research.
I use Legacy software for my genealogy. I do not speak or write Chinese so have never experimented with using Chinese characters. For now, I think using the AKA function and plenty of explanation in the Notes section will have to suffice.
Thanks again.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ah Gin on Mar 2, 2010 17:49:05 GMT -5
leechun,
Good luck with your ongoing research. Folks in this Forum will be very pleased to help, as you have observed.
Regarding the question of reading Chinese, not all of us are fully educated in this matter either -- wish I listened to my parents more when I was young, oh so long ago. That said, our resident guru such as Henry is a good example and we can learn a great deal from him. An ABC, grew up in the NY jungle (I think) and his command of Chinese shames me and makes me proud at the same time (for having the time, energy, access to resources, discovering possibilities etc, devoted to this work).
Aloha. Regards, Ah Gin from the southern island continent
|
|
|
|
Post by Doug 周 on Mar 4, 2010 18:28:10 GMT -5
leechun, Expanding on ahgin's comment about the Chinese language, I too can neither read nor speak Chinese. However, I cannot emphasize the importance of including the Chinese surname characters in your records. Refer to this interesting Canadian article: www.vpl.ca/ccg/Names_Introduction.htmlBeing illiterate in Chinese, I will select, copy and paste the characters. I frequently use this web site: freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~chinesesurname/You might need to prepare your computer to read Unicode (Chinese characters). Look at these posts: siyigenealogy.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=software&action=display&thread=851Finally, I am not sure Legacy v.7 can read Unicode. If not, then take an image of the character and incorporate the image into the photo album of the individual person. The Chinese surname is one 'point' to localizing your ancestor. The second 'point', much like a GPS coordinate, is the ancestral village. There is a whole sub-forum on location, moderated by Henry. Doug |
|
|
|
Post by kerry on Mar 5, 2010 6:16:17 GMT -5
I'll be a wet blanket and say Legacy does not support Unicode. I did ask the developers about that but the technical problems seem large.
The GEDCOM standard that describes the data that most genie programs use does allow for an individual to have multiple names. It's really up to the software as to whether it is sophisticated enough to render this. There are a few folks with multiple names on my site. This represents legal documents that have different spellings, "paper names", and even convicts with aliases.
|
|
