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Post by Henry on Nov 15, 2008 10:23:19 GMT -5
Tan Shi Cheng -- SiYi Local Guide
For SiYi Forum members needing some assistance in researching information or in visiting the SiYi region [ Taishan (Toisan), Kaiping (Hoiping), Xinhui (Sunwui), and Enping (Yanping), my nephew, Tan Shi Cheng, is available. He is able to read / write and speak English, SiYi dialect, Cantonese, Mandarin and lives in Taicheng (Taishan City). His services include:
to meet you at the bus station or ferry and serve as your guide and interpreter;
to make your hotel reservations and handle negotiations for any local services and/or with village chiefs in the SiYi region;
to locate / visit your ancestral village prior to and during your visit;
to find and contact your local relatives;
to find / copy / scan your family genealogy book;
to make arrangements for visiting the family cemetery;
to organize luncheons and dinners with your local relatives;
Tan Shi Cheng is honest, trustworthy, reliable, and very capable in handling issues that need to be addressed locally. He has already served several members of the SiYi Forum and they have been quite satisfied with his services.
The daily rate for his services is 618 yuan [ $100 USD ] plus expenses. He can only accept yuan / RMB or this local Chinese currency via Western Union money transfers.
Tan Shi Cheng can be contacted through me at "Tomclan@Gmail.com"
Henry Tom
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Post by fungfamilysearch on Nov 15, 2008 21:57:18 GMT -5
I am very happy to recommend Mr. Tan Shi Cheng as a guide and genealogical researcher. He conducted searches for Zupu within Guangzhou and also made site visits in order to make contact with distant family members. He proved to be very resilient in his pursuit of gathering information and in the face of many natural and bureaucratic obstacles. It was a very positive experience for us to have someone like Mr. Tan working with us because we always knew that he was honest and therefore our money was not flying into the wind. Although we did not get the exact Zupu we were looking for, his diligence resulted in our being able to find family connections lost years ago. It is a lot less expensive to have someoe like Mr. Tan do a lot of footwork for you before making the very expensive and maybe fruitless visit to China. After he confirms what and where you may get good results then it is a good time to plan a visit. Kevin
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Post by benclee on Nov 16, 2008 0:54:17 GMT -5
I just returned from a visit to China including a trip to the Taishan and Kaiping area. My family was on a quest to visit the family villages with my parents (Dad 93 and Mom 89) who had not been back in over 60+ years. Our time allotment was two days to visit four villages, two in Taishan and two in the Kaiping area. I can say without hesitation that it would have been impossible to locate and visit all the villages with out Shi Cheng Tan's assistance. Before we started on this quest, my parents indicated that all we needed to do was to get back to the area and they would be able to find the villages. Little did they realize that the area has changed so much that we would have been completely lost. But since we had Shi Cheng to pre-coordinate activities, pre-visit villages, talk to contacts, discover new contacts/relatives, talk to village chiefs, locate cemeteries and locate available genealogy books/information, we were able to successfully accomplish all that we wanted to do in two days and not get lost one time. Shi Cheng is a hard working, honest and assertive guide. He served to protect and represent our best interest. For example, we were interested in keeping things simple in our visits to the villages. Shi Cheng was able to help us "deal" with a particularly aggressive pushy Village Chief and with Shi Cheng's help we gracefully got our way. Also there was an incident where an ATM machine captured my ATM card. Shi Cheng called a friend who worked at the bank and I was able to get my card back in an hour instead of having to wait a day, which I could not afford in our schedule. Shi Cheng also pre-coordinated getting available genealogy books and information prior to our arrival, so all I had to do was pay for the books and pick them up at the village locations. Obviously your results may vary for your trip and it's still important to give Shi Cheng as much information in advance as you can. This website and in particular Henry Tom were instrumental to pre locating the general area of each of the villages. However, even with this village location information, Shi Cheng discovered that my mother's village was not where we though it was. So first hand visitation is the best way to fully confirm the location of the village. Although Shi Cheng's English is not real strong, it is good enough to get by. A little knowledge of some Chinese is helpful in communicating. All in all, I can highly recommend Shi Cheng's services.
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Post by philiptancl on Nov 16, 2008 3:42:14 GMT -5
Though my ancestral village is not from the area mentioned by Henry, I had used the service of Shi Cheng recently. I am very satisfied with the service he had provided for me. Currently he is helping someone from Kuala Lumpur who had recently asked me for help in locating his relatives. If only Shi Cheng is from Yongchun, I have a number other things to do that I would require his services.
I would highly recommend him to anyone in this SiYi Forum who may need his services.
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Post by philiptancl on Dec 15, 2008 22:44:01 GMT -5
Followers of this SiYi Forum may recall that Henry Tom visited Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in August 2008 and the articles on genealogy that appeared in the leading English newspaper on September 14, 2008 arising from his visit. See below: www.market-eagles.com/MarketEagles/STAR/genealogy.htmFollowing the articles, I received the following email that read: " Hi,
My family name is Qi (Æî)
My dad came alone to Malaya from Kwantung (Guangchou) China before the WWII. He passed away 22 yrs ago. I have an old diary from him in which he wrote down his mom's address (in hardly legible Chinese characters). Where can I find a map or some help to locate my dad's village.
I would appreciate any help I can get ." I passed that above information to Henry. I do not know exactly the details of how Henry did it. What I do know was that the service of Tan Shi Cheng was employed in locating the village and the Mr. Qi's relatives there. Last night I received this email from Mr Qi that read as follow: " Someone called from Dongguan a few minutes ago. He is the son of my dad's youngest brother.
He could tell me the names of my mum, my name and my brothers name and my birthday too.
I now know that my dad is the eldest of six siblings. Some of his siblings are still living. One of them in HK,
I am most grateful and wish to thank everyone, especially Mr Cheng (Tan Shi Cheng) for all the help."
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June
Member
Posts: 70
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Post by June on Jan 28, 2009 7:09:16 GMT -5
Can I forward information to him by email and ask him to find out what he can about the family I am interested in? If so what is the most basic information that he would need.
Thank you
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Post by Henry on Jan 28, 2009 12:23:14 GMT -5
Hi Alex,
You first have to tell him what information you are looking for.
In most cases, they are the Chinese name of the ancestor and the Chinese name and location of the ancestral village where this ancestor was born. Also, people are interested in obtaining a copy of the family/clan genealogy book which shows the lineage of the family and to find out if there are any relatives that still live in the ancestral village. Then people need a guide to help them how to get to the ancestral village andto translate if necessary and to make hotel arrangements and visits to the cemetery to pay respects and any luncheons and dinners that people might want to have with their relatives.
The basic information of the Chinese names of the ancestor and the ancestral village can probably be determined by speaking to family members and relatives, looking at letters and envelopes with return addresses, official documents, and the last resort may be a digital photo of the gravestone of the ancestor. Most overseas Chinese ancestors have their Chinese name and the name of their ancestral village inscribed on their headstone.
Henry
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June
Member
Posts: 70
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Post by June on Feb 4, 2009 6:51:58 GMT -5
If I forwarded what information I had would he be able to send me a quote for doing some work. For the benefit of my children and grandchildren I could think of nothing more marvelous than having their lineage.
I do have some names written in Chinese characters. Maybe he could look at what I have and decide whether it is worth while trying to find the information
Thank you
June
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Post by Henry on Feb 4, 2009 7:47:25 GMT -5
June,
Please contact me directly [ Tomclan@Gmail.com ] and I can advise you of my nephew's fee, depending upon what your requirements are.
By the way, as your husband is a Chen/Chan clan member. I believe you would want to have a copy of your husband's family clan genealogy book from his ancestral village - which is an item that my nephew can acquire for you. This will provide you with the 30 or so generations of lineage from your husband's ancestors to the Chen/Chan progenitor for Guangdong province. As you have already noticed, my friend and colleague Philip - has graciously posted some of the Chen /Chan lineage from Huang Di ( Yellow Emperor, circa 2697 BC - 2597 BC ). If your husband's village genealogy book only traces back 30 generations - Philip and I have the other 100 plus Chen/Chan generations that you would need to trace back to Huang Di.
Henry
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June
Member
Posts: 70
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Post by June on Feb 4, 2009 15:27:35 GMT -5
Thank you
I have seen that lineage and it looks impressive and I would love to think that we connect somewhere but I do not fully understand it. I understand the idea of lineage but how do I find out if we fit into that impressive data?
I will email what information I have directly to you so that you can see if you can help.
Thank you
June
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Post by Henry on Feb 4, 2009 16:48:15 GMT -5
June, Researching Chinese genealogy is based upon finding the name of an ancestor in a family/clan genealogy book. The Chinese names of ancestors in these books are usually based upon their "hao", an adult name that is comprised of the surname, Chinese character from the surname clan generational poem that distinguishes their specific generation, and a given name - usually given when a man weds. For more details see: mysite.verizon.net/vzepzaui/genealogy.htmlThe family/clan genealogy book will trace back a series of generations. Generally, for surnames in the Si Yi region, these family/clan trace back about 30 generations to the first person (progenitor) from that particular clan that settled in Guangdong province - a generation being roughly 30 years. The Chen/Chan progenitor for Guangdong province is well known person that most Chen/Clan family/clan genealogy books include as the initial generation. Philip has already determined the lineage from the Huang Di down to the Chen / Chan progenitor for Guangdong province - so in essence, with the Chen/Chan lineage from Philip or me and when you are able to acquire your husband's family/clan genealogy book - you will probably have the lineage of 150 plus generations that start from Huang Di and cascade all the way down to your husband's father or grandfather and just add in your children and grandchildren - then you have it ! Circa 2697 BC to the present, over 4,700 years. Henry
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Post by philiptancl on Feb 4, 2009 23:17:37 GMT -5
Hi June,
If indeed your husband’s surname is Chan/Chen (the same as mine) you should able to trace his lineage all the way back to Huang Di quite easily if you can get hold of a copy of Chan/Chen zupu from his ancestral village and after you can locate one of his ancestor (grandfather, great grand father, grand uncle etc) in the zupu. If you already got hold of the copy of said zupu and it only goes up to about 30 generations, let me know and I hope I would be able to connect you up all the way. If he is from SiYi region, our common ancestor would be about 52 generations above me.
I just purchase a copy of Huang zupu through Tan Shi Cheng and the set is on the post to me. My mother’s surname is Huang.
If you have read my son's email to Henry that I posted elsewhere in response to one of your comment , it should give you the added stimulus in your pursuit of your husband lineage.
Philip
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Post by helen on Feb 5, 2009 0:47:51 GMT -5
Hi Philip Re the Huang zupu through Tan Shi Cheng - how is the Huang character written - is it the "big belly" Wong? I would also be interested in this, but our Wongs come from Zengcheng
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Post by philiptancl on Feb 6, 2009 2:27:27 GMT -5
Hi Helen,
Yes the Huang/Wong/Ng zupu I purchased through Tan Shi Cheng is the "big belly" Wong. I do not know yet if it is from Zengcheng. Let me find out first after I receive the copy. Beside this, I have another set of Huang/Wong/Ng zupu in digital form which I have yet to look at.
My mother is a Huang/Wong/Ng from the same county of Fujian where my ancestors come from. I have yet to get a Huang/Wong/Ng zupu from there.
Even if you do buy the set, you may not want it send to you by airmail. I had mind sent by airmail and it cost me 405 yuan for the postage and packing. This excludes the costs of the set of books (200 yuan) and the traditional ‘red packets’ to the village head and for Tan Shi Cheng.
Philip
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June
Member
Posts: 70
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Post by June on Feb 24, 2009 2:55:47 GMT -5
Hello Philip
Henry's nephew is trying to find our clan zupu and I am hoping that he is successful in this. If he is I will be in contact with you and see where our ancestors connect.
I am very excited at the thought that I might be able to pass on information to my children showing exactly where they fit in China's past.
Regards
June
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