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Post by pbhmiau on Nov 13, 2010 8:08:10 GMT -5
I will be travelling to taisan in search of our family's ancestral villages.I hope that through this forum my trip be very a fruitful one as I had this curiosity of how my ancestrals' villages look like.My grandfather left Hoi Yin,Toisan (pronoun in sinning dialect) during late 1930s.Our family surname is Ho ('Her' in Mandarin).Another village which Im trying to locating is Chong Lau (Pronouce in Sinning) surname is Liang. Lastly is Chai Fook and the surname is NG.Im from Malaysia.
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Post by Henry on Nov 13, 2010 10:58:33 GMT -5
Hi pbhmiau, Welcome to the Forum. Unfortunately, the Roots DB of Chinese village is currently experiencing technical difficulties - so it will not be easy to locate the ancestral villages you noted. I suggest getting the Chinese characters for the names of these villages and if possible, the Chinese characters for the nearest market towns to these villages. There are multiples villages with the same village name - the majority of villages have just a single clan, hence, surname is one way to differentiate and proximity to a market town is another way - especially when a village has more than one surname associated with it. If you are interested in acquiring the Chinese genealogy books that document your family lineages - this is not usually possible during a short visit because these genealogy books are not so readily available, however, the research can be performed and possible acquisition of genealogy books can be done prior to your arrival. My Taishan nephew can do this for a fee. My nephew speaks Taishanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, and functional English. He can also serve as your guide and translator in Taishan. He has performed all these services for various members of this Forum. If you are interested - you can contact me on: "Tomclan@Gmail.com" The following link provides the Chinese characters and various romanizations for common Chinese names: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surnamesHenry
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Post by chansomvia on Nov 14, 2010 4:48:17 GMT -5
I agree with Henry's suggestion to use his nephew to do the initial groundwork to find the village in Hoi Yin, he went with me to Hai Yen and because he spoke the local dialect was able to direct the taxi to our village. Saves hours if not days of trying to find the village. Also saves bundles of money and angst as he will ensure you are not ripped off by the taxi driver. My two cents worth, also because of some previous unhappy dealings with overseas visitors using Henry's nephew services it is best a firm financial arrangement be made before commissioning Shi Cheng's invaluable time.
Joe
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Post by twoupman on Nov 19, 2010 16:46:08 GMT -5
pbmiau,
Here are two answers to your 3 questions.
Your Hoi Yin is 海宴 (Hanyu Pinyin is Haiyan) and you can find it by using Google Maps and do a search with “Guangdong, Jiangmen, Taishan, Haiyanzhen”. You will find it is located in the SW corner of the county just inland from the South China Sea.
Likewise, your Chong Lau is 冲缕 (Chonglou). Do another search using Google Maps with “Guangdong, Jiangmen, Taishan, Chonglouzhen” and you will find it is located about 15km south of Taishan City (台山市).
Your Chai Fook is harder to figure out unless you can provide a meaning for the name.
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Post by Henry on Nov 24, 2010 13:06:19 GMT -5
Dear Colleagues,
FYI: the Village DB is now operational - it was experiencing some technical difficulties last week - which now appear to have been resolved.
Henry
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