Tom/Tan/Hum/Hom from Lung Kong Heung ?

[jouwah]

I'm a "jook sen", first generation born in a small town in Canada with no Chinese School so whatever Chinese writing my Mom tried to teach me half a century ago is mostly long forgotten.

My father's clan is "Hum" (in Hoi-peng dialect) from Oong Moin Lay ("East Door Village"), Lung Kong Heung district, in what is now Kaiping.

My Mom's clan is "Fong" from Hing Yan Lay, Chek Kwan Heung (?).

I just found a site a couple of days ago that provides a listing of districts, villages and GPS co-ordinates when a clan name is entered.

For my family :

chinese.rootswiki.legacy1.net/doku.php?id=references:villages:village_database:hom

The problem is, I can't find my Father's village listed. There is one that comes very close (it's written as "Tong (East) On (Peaceful) Lay") and it appears to be a duplicate of a similar-sounding village name listed immediately above it but with different Chinese characters making me suspect that the person contributing to the Wiki may have made a mistake in translation.

I'm wondering if there might be someone here who is familiar with the area and may know my village and whether it is one of the two listed at the aforementioned site ?

[lachinatown]

Yes, there is a Lung Kong Heung (龍崗鄉), but no "Oong Moin".

Looking at the map, there is a 東门 dong men (Google map call it East Gate), at 22.552811,112.477126 coordinates.

[jouwah]

Thanks LACT. I just had a look at the location that Google Maps provides for the co-ordinates that you provided.

I don't think that it's my Father's village simply because it's way up north, what looks to be roughly 30 kms from my Mom's village , which back in 1929 when they were married, would have been a long, long ways away ... too far I think to be plausible.

I do know that my Paternal Grandfather's "Gem Chen" ("Golden Urn") was moved to a hill near a place called "Flying Goose" which is supposedly about 4 li from Oong Moin Lay.

I'm wondering if, with all the drastic change that has taken place in that area, the old village may have been bulldozed to make way for some new development ?

My Paternal Grandfather was a civil official who had come to North America sometime in the late 19th Century in some sort of official capacity for the Chinese govt of the day and toured the US & Canada. Unfortunately that's about all I know for sure, told to me by my Mom when I was a child.

I have since learned that there was a Chinese delegation to the US in 1896, and that sounds to be about the time my Grandfather would have come here.

In any case, I suppose we'll see what, if anything, surfaces in time through this forum.

Thanks again for your input.

[Doug]

jouwah,

To improve the precision of locating your village, do you have any Chinese characters to attach as an image?

Look at the back of pictures, return address on correspondence, grave stone inscriptions, wedding announcements.

Follow the TIPS on POSTING section on the Home Page for attachment instructions if you have difficulty.

[lachinatown]

In that case jouwah, with high degrees of accuracy, your father's village is located near 22.375039, 112.618575 coordinates. About 3.5 gongli 公里 east from your mom's village.
There is a flying goose mountain north-east of this location (3.9 gongli 公里).
There is also a flying goose mountain (1 gongli 公里) west of your mom's village.
A flying goose (飞鹅) village south of your mother's village.
Hope this help.