Henry Morse Siu

[franciscocn]

I am new to Chinese genealogy research. I have just started my mother-n-laws family tree and I am having trouble with her grandfather. Henry Morse Siu.

This is the information that I have so far collected(ancestry.com).

HENRY MORSE SIU

Born: abt 1905 Shekki,Chungshan, Kwangtung, China (via daughters US consular report of birth)

1927 Graduated from Oakland Technical High School, Oakland, CA  was a transfer student from Armijo Union High, Fairfield, CA (classmates.com yearbook for Oakland Tech).

1931-1932  Attended and graduated from University of Berkeley California.   Awarded a Bachelor of Science degree, with a major in Mechanical Engineering.

                    University of Berkeley mailed a later stating a listed guardian as Soy Siu(not sure of relation nor can information on this individual), and living in Oakland, CA.

1933 Married Elizabeth Sylvia Lee Preston September 2.  San Francisco, CA (via daughters US consular report of birth)

1934 July 13 date listed as last day living in the United States by Elizabeth (via daughters US consular report of birth)

1937  Jan 1 birth of daughter Lazora Katherine Siu, Methodist Mission Hospital, Shiuchow, Kwangtung, China

1938 Elizabeth and Lazora return to the United States without Henry. (immigration records, ancestry.com)

        

January 1938 residence listed as 415 Portland St., 1st floor, Samsuipo, Hong Kong (under Elizabeth's name)

           Henry's residence was listed as c/o aircraft factory, Shiuchow, China

        

No contact was made since Elizabeth and Lazora left for the US. 

I have no information as to when Henry first came to the United States an with whom (Lazora believes he was an exchange student).  

I would love to find out where Henry went, information about his family, and if he remarried and had more children (Lazora is an only child, and only had her mother as family).

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[laohuaqiao]

I just want to put some of the dates into perspective.

Japanese troops attacked Guangzhou and the Pearl River delta region in Oct. 1938.

Japanese didn't attack Hong Kong, a British territory, until days after Pearl Harbor in Dec. 1941.

My first thought would be sensing imminent danger Elizabeth and Lazora were sent back to US some time in 1938. Henry stayed behind in China, working in the aircraft factory, and (1) communication would have been difficult during the war and (2) aircraft factory definitely would have been a target of the Japanese military.

[laohuaqiao]

According to search result, in the early 1930s, China had 6 aircraft factories, 2 of them in Guangdong (Kwangtung) province: Shaoguan and Guangzhou. Shaoguan's former name was Shaozhou, which would be Shiuchow in Cantonese. Shaoguan factory was staffed by overseas Chinese from the present Jiangmen area, from the director down to technicians. Henry was from Zhongshan which is adjacent to Jiangmen, this information is also consistent.

Japanese began attacking Shaoguan aircraft factory on August 31, 1937. At first the director moved production equipment to the suburbs of Shaoguan. Then in the spring of 1938, Shaoguan factory and the Guangzhou factory merged and moved to Xizong Village 西宗村 in Kunming in Yunan province, forming the first aircraft production factory of the Chinese air force. Main production equipment and technical personnel all arrived safely at the new location. My conclusion would be Henry was part of the technical staff at Kunming in 1938.

Henry's surname Siu is 萧。 Forum members here from Zhongshan can confirm if Siu is in fact a surname clan in Shekki, Zhongshan.

[douglaslam]

Siu 萧 is the dominant family name of my immediate neighbouring village of Nam Mun 南文. Shekki is our county town.

[Doug 周]

Great story. I wonder if laohuaqiao got the aircraft factory information from an English or a Chinese language source. Such an advantage to know Chinese. But again, that is why we have this world wide Forum.

Remember that in 1949, the KMT (Kuomintang) lost control of mainland China to the CCP (Communist Chinese Party, current leaders of China) and there was a lot of acrimony and purges. Such a tumultuous period, especially if one survived WW2 and the atrocities of the Japanese. Only now is there enough thawing in China that the contribution of the KMT in WW2 is being recognized.

Maybe records of Henry could have been transferred to Taiwan. You will need to find out the Chinese characters of the name Henry used in China.

As douglaslam confirmed and based on the copy of the Village Database by woodson, here are some possible phonetic names of Henry’s possible ancestral village:Rootswiki Ancestral Villages for Siu Surname ^click . Hopefully this will help you as you review Henry’s paperwork, etc.

As to Henry’s early whereabouts in the USA, this will start with which of Henry’s phonetic spelling he used on arrival. My father’s name is Henry, and he chose that American name because he used Hung Li as a given name early in the USA. What phonetic name my father used on the boat from China is still unknown. Hence I cannot locate his NARA records.

It seems like you have done thorough research using the name Henry Morse Siu. Now you only need his phonetic name(s) on arrival to the USA, his Chinese name before arrival to the USA, and his Chinese name as an adult during WW2. For his genealogy, you will need the characters of his ancestors given names and his ancestral village.

[Doug 周]

franciscocn,

Also, if your mother-in-law is elderly, have her give a saliva DNA sample with www.23andme.com to get as close as possible to Henry Morse Siu's genome. The sample will not help you in your current research because of the lack of available databases yet in China. This will be for use by future family historians.

As you remember in your high school genetics, consider asking for a DNA sample of HM Siu's male offspring and female descendants of his female siblings. They, not your mother-in-law, can provide HM Siu's Y and mtDNA. Fortunately these particular DNA samples do not mix and there is no urgency if these DNA donors are not elderly.

[laohuaqiao]

The Flying Tigers was a Chinese American "volunteer" corps assisting the Chinese in the air war during WWII. They were based in Kunming. It could be that Henry Morse Siu was in the same social circle in Kunming as the Flying Tigers. There are still some surviving members of the Flying Tigers. It's worthwhile trying to contact some of them.

[Henry]

Hi Franciscocn,

Welcome to our Forum.

I suggest checking [ casefiles.berkeley.edu/ ] to locate the case file for Henry Siu, however, his name on the passenger list may be a romanized version of his Chinese name. This website is a database of people coming through San Francisco & Honolulu. If Henry Siu is buried in the Bay Area and his gravestone has Chinese characters on it - I suggest taking a digital photo and posting it here and there would be some very pertinent information.

National Archives and Record Administration
Early Arrivals Record Search (E.A.R.S.)

What is this Site?

Hundreds of thousands of people passed through the immigration stations in San Francisco and Honolulu between 1882 and 1955. Nearly 250,000 of them are the subject of federal reports and records , including immigration investigation case files of people who tried to immigrate--some successfully, some not--during the period of the Chinese Exclusion Acts, 1882-1943.

The case file may provide you with a fair amount of information.

If you live in the Bay Area, you can visit the San Bruno Office, NARA and view the records or they can make a copy for you.

If you want, I can also put you in contact with the remaining people of the Flying Tigers AVG - just send me a person message to: [ [e-mail] ]


Henry

[franciscocn]

Thank you for the information and reflection on the history. Lazora who is Henry's daughter would be my grandmother-n-law, she is still living and pretty healthy for being in her 70s. She only had two daughters, so DNA wise I would probably have to test my husband.
Elizabeth after coming back to the US dropped her Siu name and went to her biological parents names of Preston. She passed away in March 1970.
Lazora, Henry and Elizabeth's daughter, was pretty much raised at Ming Quing, a Chinese orphanage for girls in San Francisco due to her mother working and no other relations. There is a book written about this orphanage, Bamboo Women:Stories from Ming Quong, a Chinese Orphanage in California.

I do remember Lazora mentioning that due to the fears of war, her mother decided to return to the US with her.

I do not know Henry's Chinese given name, and Lazora doesn't know it either. The lack of having that name pretty much has gotten me stuck US wise. I am doubting he returned the US. I have yet to see if the High Schools might have any type of information, maybe that will possibly lead to a Chinese name or guardian he could of stayed with besides Soy Siu when he attended Berkeley.

I am going to check with Lazora to see if by chance the small amount of photos that she had would have anything written on the back.

Also I was wondering, is "Morse" Chinese?

[helen]

Interesting to see a Walter Wong as signatory to the above letter.

Not sure Morse was a Chinese name - more likely he adopted it to fit in with Western Society?

[franciscocn]

Kind Response to Flying Tigers inquiry:
From the information which you so kindly provided to me it is clear that Mr. Henry Morse Siu was not associated with the Flying Tigers. The Flying Tigers operated in Burma & China between mid-1941 and the time when they were disbanded in July, 1942.

The key info is that Mr. Siu was associated with an aircraft factory in Shiuchow, China in 1938. It is most likely that he was working for either:
1. The Chinese Air Force (under General Mow)
2. CAMCO (Central Aircraft Manufacturing Co. under William & Ed Pawley)
3. Intercontinent Aviation Co. (William Pawley)

The Japanese invaded China and began WWII in Asia in 1937. It appears that Mr. Siu's engineering & technical background would make him highly suited for work in the aviation industry.

I did check the records of The Flying Tigers/American Volunteer Group (AVG) and Mr. Siu does not appear on the roster.

[laohuaqiao]

Franciscocn,
I just want to make it clear, so that you leave no stone unturned:
1. Henry worked in the aircraft factory in in Shiuchow, Kwangtung in 1938. Shiuchow is today known as Shaoguan. Records indicated that, because of Japan's attack on the city, the only aircraft factory in Shaoguan moved to Kunming in 1938. Had Henry stayed with the factory beyond 1938, then he would have been in Kunming.

2. The Flying Tigers were stationed in Kunming.

3. We had Chinese American pilots and aircraft mechanics in Kunming, and we had the Chinese American engineers, assembly workers and technicians for a military aircraft factory also in Kunming. Even though they were in different organizations, because they were Cantonese-speaking Chinese Americans and because they could talk technical about fighter planes, there was a chance, maybe only a small chance, that they hung out socially together, that some surviving Flying Tiger members may remember meeting Henry. Flying was such a new war tool, all those men were pioneers; I'm sure at the time the Flying Tigers must have known about the aircraft factory in Kunming, and vice versa.

In a more "recent" analogy, back in the early 1980s, it would be hard to imagine Bill Gates never having heard of or met Steve Jobs, and vice versa.

The unknowns are: Did Henry stay with the factory and move to Kunming? Did he survive the Japanese attacks? Did any of the surviving Flying Tiger members meet him?

I think it's worth giving it a shot, to contact Flying Tigers. Maybe they could provide some useful info on the aircraft factory.

[franciscocn]

Laohuaqiao,
I should of clarified better on the prior post. The response above was from a member of the Historical & Museums Committee for the Flying Tigers Association. I am currently waiting for a response on an inquiry about the social setting and if any living member would remember him. It is definitely worth a shot to ask. Thank you for helping me out with this.

I do want to add to the time line:
1924 photographed as a freshman at Armijo Union High School, Fairfield, CA.

I requested student records last week in hopes of getting more information.

[franciscocn]

I wasn't able to get student records due to HIPAA. I did talk to Lazora a little bit and she believes his Chinese name is Siu Moi Kit(pardon the spelling), and she said hers is Siu y jun (again the spelling, going by how it verbally sounded). She does have old letters but they are at her winter home and she won't be able to get them until she returns there. She believes Henry has a brother who died in the war.

[franciscocn]

Wondering if I could get a stone translation on Chan Wong See? I found a family of interest in the 1920 and 30 census but the spellings are off.
findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=10324149&PIpi=1521105