Macanese Ancestry

[fernan]

Hi,

Does anybody here who have macanese ancestry? Or any history of the Macanese people? I just want to know if there are Lee Clans settled in Macau. My father, Lee Poy was born in Taishan 1913. But as far as I can remember when I was a kid, our neighbors often called him "Macao" or a macanese person. He died long time ago and I don't have a chance to ask about his ancestry. I just want to know if the Lee Clan or some Lee Family once settled in Macau and then transferred to Taishan? I'm confuse with my chinese heritage should I trace it in Taishan or in Macau.

Thanks,

Andy Lee

[laohuaqiao]

Macau is city. I'm sure there were many Lees, Wongs, Chans, etc. living there. Some even from Taishan. There is district in Macau called Taishan district, preseumably many Taishanese used to live there.

It's very unlikely for someone to move from Macau to the rural villages in Taishan. It's more likely for your father Lee Poy to move to Macau from Taishan and live there for some time before moving on to elsewhere

[fernan]

Thanks Laohuaqiao,

I tried to google Taishan District in Macau but I couldn't find it. My father's cousin is Wong and people said they are Macanese person. Before, I thought Macanese is different from Chinese thats why when people ask if we're Chinese, I said no, we are macanese.

Anyway, do you know some links for the Lee family in Macau? or Is there a library in Macau or a civil registry in which I could try to ask? We plan to visit Macau by next year and I wanna try if I can locate my father's place or meet some relatives if they are still there.

-Andy

[laohuaqiao]

Unlike the rural areas in China, where families live in the same house for many, many generations, Macau is is a city where people move constantly, old houses are torn down and new buildings take their places.

Macau government may have some records of people who used to live there. Taishan District is in name only, I have seen it written on a local map. I've been there and asked residents living there, no one knew of the district. I think only historians are aware of it and interested in it.

[baksha]

Hi Fernan,

Wikipedia has an article on Macanese ancestry and chinese adopting Portuguese surnames ... at : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macanese_people
You may also want to google search : Macanese archives, Mecanese census records, or Macau census and see what resources are available on the internet.
baksha

[fernan]

Hi Baksha,

Thanks for the info.

I appreciate for sharing some infos. My Father leave CHina in 1941 and never came back. That's very long time ago and its hard to trace it. But still I'll try when I visit Macau early next year.

[fernan]

By the way, laohuaqiao, can you still remember how to get to Taishan District in Macau? Let say from the airport, which way to go and if there are buses or taxi going that way. Its my first time visiting Macau and I dont really familiar with the place.

[laohuaqiao]

Macau is not very big. One landmark in Macau is the border gate with Zhuhai, China. Taishan District is just south and west of the border gate. It's coordinates are (22.213, 113.545) in google maps.

The streets in Chinese say Taishan - New City 1st St, 3rd St. There is also a street in Portuguese, Rua Central de T'oi San. Many signs in Macau are tri-lingual, Chinese, English and Portuguese. That's the uniqueness about Macau.

[baksha]

Hi fernan,
My father left China in 1931 for the US and I was able to request his immigration and naturalization records from the US Citizenship and Immigration Service in 1993 with a Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Form G639. So, you may be in luck for Macau.

[劉/Leo/Liu/Lew/Lau/Suening]

Hi, I'm glad to know there's people with Macanese ancestry here. I'm also in pursuit of finding information of my late Chinese grandfather and hoping to visit & re-connect with our relatives in China.

He left Macau when was only 10 years (around 1915-1920) to the Philippines to look for work.

Early Chinese immigrants to the Philippines are known to inter-marry with locals and change their names (some adopt the Spanish names). In our case we are uncertain how we end up with the surname "Suening". Many experts suggested that it's possible the conjunction of "Suen" (Sun) + "Ing" (Ng) since he's from Cantonese speaking region.

In my dad's baptismal certificate, grandfather carry the name "Leo Suening", I believed Leo was his given name but still uncertain.