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Post by helen on Sept 6, 2010 4:19:12 GMT -5
small world isn't it? I hope we can pull all the threads together for this couple. And then we'll get to see the photos of the visit back home. Well done everyone.
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Post by pdelsart407 on Sept 6, 2010 6:23:44 GMT -5
Dear douglaslam, If the parents of your daughter's boyfriend have any information, we will be very happy if they can help us. They may know what is the ancestral village of my wife's grand-father...maybe!!
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Post by douglaslam on Sept 7, 2010 7:02:48 GMT -5
Hi pdelsart407,
I am sorry if I had misled you. My daughter's boyfriend says he is certain his parents knew your wife's grandfather. The young fellow tells me his family was also from Mui Yuen, of Hakka background. Both his parents were born in Mauritius, I have yet to meet them.
When I see the young man next time, I'll ask him to to see if his parents could help at all. I hope your search is going to yield results
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Post by pdelsart407 on Sept 11, 2010 16:34:33 GMT -5
Hi everyone, My father in law send us the photo of the gravestone of my wife's grandfather. I attach the file to this reply but it seems there is no chinese symbols. I think the only clues we have are the two last photos I posted. So the ancestral village might be Muy Yuen or Shunde. My wife says her grandfather didn't speak a lot about his childhood, so I have no more information. Attachments:
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Post by ziqing on Sept 25, 2010 1:06:01 GMT -5
From what I can see on the first document your wife`s grand-father it says he was born 1912 in Mui Yuen 梅县 (of Mei Zhou City 梅州市, GuangDong province 广东省). The Chinese name provided on this document is 陳兆余 Chan, Shiu Yu (sounds Cantonese to me).
On the second document the Chinese characters of his name wrote 陳绍瑜, phonetically identical to the 1957 document (with simplified strokes) but the English transliteration seems off. I am not an expert with the old Chinese writing style but I think the Native Province reads 粤顺。。。(= Canton Shun ... ).
Mei Yuen and Shunde isn‘t a name of any villages, both are regions or districts commonly referred during registration. Ancestral village then is equivalent to street or lane today.
I don`t see any Chinese characters on the gravestone.
Good luck!
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Post by pdelsart407 on Sept 25, 2010 1:58:55 GMT -5
Dear ziqing, Thank you for your help. I think we could start our research with Mei Zhou City. But we don't read and speak chinese and we don't have any idea how make our research.
Concerning the gravestone, I know my wife's grandfather didn't speak a lot about his past. This can be explain by the fact there is no chinese character on the stone. However, my wife asked her father if he has some letter in chinese. We are waiting....
Thank you again and if someone has an idea to help us, we will be very grateful
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Post by ziqing on Sept 25, 2010 10:52:12 GMT -5
Hi pdelsart,
Does your wife have any elder relatives that can consult for her family's background? Usually this will be a good start. I remember I had to probe quite a bit to get anything out of my mother who survived my father. Many older generations who immigrated overseas are generally reluctant to talk about the past because of the conditions or circumstances they were in. They must have gone through some dark period as I would put it.
I suggest also to start with customs, habits or family traditional practices to get ideas. For instance, take a mental note when the areas such as town markets, cities, even bridges get mentioned. They may play significant role in the past. If your wife's grandfather refused to bring up his past, it might be that he had a dual identity, which was quite common in the early times.
Use tactics such as comparing today's events or architecture or anything that differs from the older days. In other words, subtly draw on their memories. Beware though, the older they get, the less truthful `those facts`may become.
Once you have established the location, I can help translate the documents written in Chinese if you will email me with the information. After that you or your wife can write a letter to GuangZhou Overseas Affair office for further assistance such as looking up any remaining relatives in her ancestral village.
Ziqing
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Post by Doug 周 on Sept 25, 2010 22:04:56 GMT -5
Ziqing,
(sorry to hijack this thread)
I like your ideas on oral history methods of teasing information from relatives.
¿Do you have any other favorite techniques and tactics you might want to share?
Doug
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Post by ziqing on Sept 26, 2010 21:47:35 GMT -5
It's all about psychology even when doing family history interview with our elders.
I remember the first few times I tried to interview my mother they never went well. Reasons: she was shy about being audio and video taped; she was not comfortable talking about her past; she started blurring in her ancestral dialect - Toishan ...
However I realized she would indulge in reminiscence with my older siblings who can still speak the dialect (thank goodness). They could bring the past out of her because they were already appeared in her life since her mid twenties. I began bringing my camera that comes with recordings to events such as birthday parties, family gathering, functions ... Not only it serves to chronicle the time, place, and people that I can use later to draw upon my mother's memory, it has also lowered my mother`s guard after a few times doing that. Now, I am the family photojournalist and archivist.
I have to admit, I purposely confused her from time to time by mixing in some of the older photos. It's a method I learned from some psychology research studies. You can never pry open a determined person but you can gain their confidence by being patience and showing interest when the time is appropriated.
And of course, it'll help tremendously if you can speak the same language/dialect. At least you can listen in and jot down some of the keywords or information. Just remember to do it discreetly if your subject is sensitive about certain topics.
Ziqing
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Post by daking168 on Nov 3, 2010 12:15:06 GMT -5
Hi, all, I am new to here. Both Chinese name is different in each pictures.
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Post by fchiu on Dec 27, 2010 14:48:19 GMT -5
Hi everybody, I'm looking information about my grandfather. He came to mexico in 1910 and he had 31 years old. He was born in Xinhui, guangdong, China. His name is Jian Zhao. It is all the information that we have. We want to know if there are family in China. Where can we find it?
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Post by helen on Dec 27, 2010 15:22:09 GMT -5
He came to mexico in 1910 and he had 31 years old. He was born in Xinhui, guangdong, China. His name is Jian Zhao. Do you have any papers with his name and village in chinese character - or maybe a headstone? What dialect did he speak? Do you know any of his old friends or any society he belonged to?
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Post by fchiu on Jan 1, 2011 23:55:40 GMT -5
Hi Helen,
Yes, I have a copy of one document, but I tried to attached it here, but I can't. I have it in jpg and bmp files........ How can I show it you up???
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Post by Henry on Jan 2, 2011 0:09:31 GMT -5
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Post by fchiu on Jan 2, 2011 1:36:13 GMT -5
Ok, this is the only document that I have. Thank you for help!!! Attachments:
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