Wang Mu Wei
Jun 28, 2010 23:32:38 GMT -5
Post by kanpai on Jun 28, 2010 23:32:38 GMT -5
I am just beginning my search for information on our Chinese side of the family and found this forum. I have some specific and some general questions, so I appreciate any thoughts or advice (answers are great too!).
Background: The subject line is the name of my grandmother, born c. 1919 in Baoding. She attended the Bridgeman missionary school in Beijing as a young girl and was educated in English. We know that her father was a businessman/industrialist, and that he had some friends in rather high places. Grandma Anna (her adopted English name) went to work for the US Army Services of Supply (SOS) in the early 1940s, and she probably worked in Kunming, Chongqing, Beijing and Nanjing, up until 1948. She married my grandfather, a US Army Captain assigned to General Marshall's staff in 1946, and then assigned to Nanjing HQ until 1948. My grandparents married in 1947 and evacuated China when the Nationalist government fell (they came to the US on the USS President Wilson, on it's maiden voyage) and settled in Columbus, GA.
We know that she had at least one sister, a nephew or niece, and a brother in law. We do not know who remained in the mainland, who was executed (Grandma claimed that quite a few were, although we never knew if this came during the Sino-Japanese War or the Chinese Civil War), and who may have emigrated to Taiwan or the US, but we've always assumed that the family was essentially obliterated.
We have reasons now to believe that there are some survivors...my mother recalled attempts in the past from other family members to make contact, but she wouldn't answer the letters.
At any rate, I have a ton of photographs of her from the 1940s, but in terms of paper records, nothing other than military. A couple of the pictures show her in a sable coat and leather boots, which suggests some significant wealth.
I appreciate any advice...as I said, I'm just starting out. I speak little Chinese and read even less, so it is a challenge.
Thanks!
Background: The subject line is the name of my grandmother, born c. 1919 in Baoding. She attended the Bridgeman missionary school in Beijing as a young girl and was educated in English. We know that her father was a businessman/industrialist, and that he had some friends in rather high places. Grandma Anna (her adopted English name) went to work for the US Army Services of Supply (SOS) in the early 1940s, and she probably worked in Kunming, Chongqing, Beijing and Nanjing, up until 1948. She married my grandfather, a US Army Captain assigned to General Marshall's staff in 1946, and then assigned to Nanjing HQ until 1948. My grandparents married in 1947 and evacuated China when the Nationalist government fell (they came to the US on the USS President Wilson, on it's maiden voyage) and settled in Columbus, GA.
We know that she had at least one sister, a nephew or niece, and a brother in law. We do not know who remained in the mainland, who was executed (Grandma claimed that quite a few were, although we never knew if this came during the Sino-Japanese War or the Chinese Civil War), and who may have emigrated to Taiwan or the US, but we've always assumed that the family was essentially obliterated.
We have reasons now to believe that there are some survivors...my mother recalled attempts in the past from other family members to make contact, but she wouldn't answer the letters.
At any rate, I have a ton of photographs of her from the 1940s, but in terms of paper records, nothing other than military. A couple of the pictures show her in a sable coat and leather boots, which suggests some significant wealth.
I appreciate any advice...as I said, I'm just starting out. I speak little Chinese and read even less, so it is a challenge.
Thanks!
