Searching for Lao and Ong Family Origins in Xiamen & Fujian

[francis3]

If you are talking about ONGs in Quanzhou, they are mostly concentrated in Xiangyunzhen, Quanzhou. The distance is about one and half hour ride by car from Xiamen airport to Xiangyunzhen. In this province, there are 3 major surnames (ONG, NEO and TOH or Zhuo. The marriage between these 3 surnames is very common. They are normally hokkien peple.

[Doug 周]

bengtek,

Only you can interview your extended family and confirm the surnames and importantly the given names of ancestors born in China. You need to narrow down which is your ancestral village. Don't depend on phonetic spelling. You need Chinese characters. Check gravestones for Chinese characters; check immigration documents and letters. Post them for Forum members to translate.

francis3 gave you some hints. Your family interviews will need to confirm them.

Try these two how to start sites:

chinese.rootswiki.legacy1.net/doku.php?id=techniques:how_to_start

houseofchinn.com/HowToStart.html

[naycoyap]

Hi I am looking for my relatives Amoy. My grandfather's name is Yap Naya with origins from Amoy. I have another relative by the name of Qui Chan (I think his mother- She never visited the Philippines) He migrated in the Philippines in the late 1800s and settled in the Province of Romblon. He has 12 children. 2 of his son when back to China with a Filipino name, named Blas and Vicente Yap and never came back to the Philippines. Only 2 surviving children are now in the Philippines in their 80s. There are so many Yap in the Philippines and it seems they are not related with eache. My uncle told me that Yap means leaf in hookien. Naya or Nayco is a chinese name in Amoy (which is my name) means patience.

[Doug 周]

Look at my reply above. You need Chinese characters. Phonetic spelling, no matter how prevalent in your part of the world, provides an imprecise method of finding your ancestors.

Check with your prominent elders in your section of the world. They might be able to guess the Chinese characters of the surname. However, the given names will be extremely difficult to correlate Chinese characters without finding some previously written text.

[gab]

I don't know where my grandpa came but he migrated from the phillipines and marry my grandma so the connection was lost between his family. But his brother was searching for my grandpa but failed in searching because my grandpa past away few years ago. He was Felipe Ong and Ong Tong Hua in chinese you can email me if you're interested

[gab]

Btw we're in the philippines and he is a good friend of henry sy and the tan brothers

[aishierlao]

Hi! Does anyone around here knows about Lao family? Particularly, I guess I am one of their relative. I am currently here at Jolo, Sulu Philippines. Just gathering information about my ancestor. My Mother's Mom (in short my Grandmother) was a part of Lao family until she had been abandoned at the time she was kidnapped for marriage purposes. Out of pity for my grandmom, at least, I think it is the only way that I could help her. Thanks in advance for those who will gonna give us an information about this. Good Day and God Bless

[shankho08]

hi, i am jestine shanen kho and i am the descendant of my great grandpa who named nietson ong pwe kho who lived in amoy china who migrate during world war two in philippines in mindanao. i am looking for my possible relatives in amoy china. by the way i am a history student who research of kho history here in the philipines and my research is still ongoing and i am looking for possible accounts of my relative in amoy china. i have some documents of my great grandpa of migration certificate. i wish that you may help me track my ancestor and relative in amoy china. 

[philiptancl]

Hi Shankho08,

You said your ancestry originated from Amoy, also known as Xiamen. It is likely your ancestor left Fujian through Xiamen. Just this week, I had someone from US who contacted me via email wanting to locate his ancestor’s tulou (土楼) from Fujian Province (福建省) located in Huangxi Cun (璜溪村), Longyan Prefecture-level City (龙岩市). His ancestors left China via Xiamen some 83 years ago. That does not mean that his ancestral place is from Amoy (Xiamen). From many postings in this Forum, I notice almost all the search of ancestry from Philippines invariable would say their ancestors were from Amoy (Xiamen). Even if this is so, Xiamen is a big city managed as a sub-provincial covering the districts of Huli (湖裡), Siming (思明), Jimei (集美), Tong'an (同安), Haicang (海滄) and Xiang'an (翔安). Without narrowing down further the particularly location where your ancestry was from, it would be an onerous task to even locate whatever your surname clan ancestral records jiapu (家谱) or zupu (族谱) that may still exist from your ancestral place. Even when you could find it, you still need to have to locate the names of your ancestor(s) in them. For that, you would require their name(s) in Chinese characters.

You will need to do more research to have any chance of finding your Chinese ancestry. One way is to locate your ancestral graves in Philippines to see whether your ancestor names and name of ancestral place were engraved on the gravestones. Another is to check out whether any old correspondences still existed. Sometime ancestors may write down ancestral details (in Chinese) to pass on for future generations but very often descendants think they are just worthless pieces of papers and would discard them. A couple of years ago, a friend who is the 5th generation here in Malaysia, showed me a piece of paper his great grandfather left behind. In it was written the ancestral details (including the ancestral hall they belonged to) and the ancestral village his family originated from. With the information provided, he took his parents and a cousin a couple of years ago to seek out his roots. He not only met up with his distant relatives but brought back their recently updated ancestral records that included the name of his great grandfather.

As you are a student of history, which I am not, I shall try to give you a bit about the history of a branch of Kho/Khoo/Qiu (邱). I suppose your surname Kho, in Chinese character could be 邱. In Pinyin, 邱 would be Qiu. If it is, you might be of the same surname clan as the famous Long San Tong Khoo Kongsi (龙山堂邱公司) of Penang, Malaysia. Long San Tong Khoo Kongsi (龙山堂邱公司) and its sub-clans, Boon San Tong Khoo Kongsi (文山堂邱公司) and Khoo Si Toon Keng Khoo Kongsi (邱敦敬堂邱公司) do not represent every Chinese with the Khoo (邱) surname. Instead those whose ancestral origin is from Xinjiang She (新江社), Xin’an Village (新垵村), Sandou (三都) District, Haicheng County (海澄县), Zhangzhou Prefecture (漳州府), Fujian Province (福建省), China (中国) are accepted as clan-men. Xinjiang She (新江社) was the Xin’an Village (新垵村) in Xinglin District (杏林镇), Xinglin Town (杏林区), Xiamen (厦门). Xinglin (杏林) actually does not exist anymore (administrative jurisdiction changes over the years). Today’s name for what used to be Xinjiang She (新江社) is actually Xinyang neighborhood / 新阳街 道, in Haicang District (海沧区), Xiamen (厦门).

Long Shan (龙山) is the name of a branch of the Zeng (曾) surname. This branch started in Tang Dynasty (唐朝) when one of Zeng (曾) ancestor (Zeng Yan Zuo/Yan Shi (曾延祚/延世)) moved from Jiangxi (江西) to Fujian (福建) and settled down at a place call “Longtou Shan” (龙头山). The descendents of this family were subsequently named as “Longshan Pai” ("龙山派”). Members of this branch mostly originated from China, Fujian. When in Fujian one could find houses that have lanterns with "龙山" written on them hanging outside their main doors or have "龙山堂", "龙山派衍" written on top of their main doors. Most likely these houses belong to members of Long Shan Zeng (龙山曾) Clan.

In old time, Qiu is often written as “邱” or “丘”. The name was change from “丘” to “邱” in the year 1725 when the Qing Dynasty (清朝) Emperor crowned Confucius as Ultimate Holly One (至圣). In addition he ordered the Qiu (丘) family to change their name to “邱” as “Kong Qiu (孔丘)” was the personal name (Ming) (名) of Confucius. When the Qing Dynasty ended, some of the Qiu family members did change their family name back to “丘” but many continue to use “邱”.

Coming back to Long San Khoo Clan (龙山邱氏), the Khoos (邱) of Xin’an Village (新垵村) and the Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi (龙山堂邱公司), Penang have the same progenitor, who is Khoo Chian Eng (Qiu Qian Rong) (邱迁荣). 迁荣 is the Hào (号) name, the Zì (字) name is Yong Zai (永在) while the Hu (讳) name is Míng (明). Zeng Ming (曾明) was adopted by the Qiu “丘”family. His descendants continue to recognize Long Shan Zeng (龙山曾) as their ancestor. Zeng Ming (曾明) or Qui Ming (邱明) was the fourth son of Zeng Chang (曾昌) and the fifth descendent of Zeng Guang Chuo (曾光绰). I have the pedigree chart from Huang Di down to Zeng Guang Chuo (曾光绰). The son of Qui Ming (邱明/邱永在/邱迁荣) is Qui Wan Cheng (邱晚成). Taking Qui Ming (邱明/邱永在/邱迁荣) as generation 1, I should be able to add in the names up to generation 6.

Philip Tan

[shankho08]

good day Mr.tan this morning i search my great grandpa's document and i find out that my great grand's chinese nameis ong pue and he wat born on jan. 21, 1900 in Amoy China

[shankho08]

for the addition of the information my great grandpa was married to his first wife named Preciocsa Faustorilla on January 21,1928 in cagayan de oro city in mindanao and re married my great grandma who was a half spanish and and his son's name is Jhonson Oscar Jabulan Kho which is my grandpa. I think there my grandpa adopt the family name of kho. My prof. said that there is a discrimination of a certain group of chinese.

[philiptancl]

Hi Shankho08,

So your great grandfather family name (surname) is 王. “王”in Pinyin would be “Wáng” but in my Fujian dialect (which is his as well) it would be “Ong”. His name in Chinese characters is “王杯”. “杯” in Pinyin is “Bēi” which mean “cup”. In his dialect it would be “Pue”. So his name王杯 in his Fujian/Hockien dialect is Ong Pue or Wáng Bēi in Pinyin. So o your surname is therefore not Khoo/Qui (邱) but Wang/Ong (王). As such you should be looking for your Wang/Ong (王) ancestry.

You said your great grandfather was born on January 21, 1900. I suppose you arrived at that date because it was stated in one of the document you posted posted. How sure are you that was his date of birth? Chinese during your great grandfather’s time would know their birth date according to Chinese Lunar Calendar and the age of 41 years stated in the document could be his age according to the way of Chinese recording. If that is so he would be aged 40 according to Western way of reckoning. Do you know his Chinese Zodiac sign he was born under (i.e. dragon, rat, monkey, etc)? If you do, then I can check his actual year of birth and possibly establish whether January 21 is according to Gregorian date or not.

His place of birth was stated as Amoy. If it is so, it could be on the original Amoy Island itself and not the sub-provincial city I was referring to. If that is so, the area to concentrate upon would be substantially reduced. Even so, it still covers a considerable area. Would you have any old correspondences of your great grandfather from China to see if you could narrow down the search for your ancestral Ong (王) clan? Amoy is huge developed city now and the Ong (王) records may be destroyed during the social-political movement that took place in China from 1966 until 1976. If so destroyed, it is whether a copy was secretly hidden or buried by one of your clan member or a copy is in possession by a clan member who had migrated overseas. Many clans then had their records buried away or sent overseas. Should the ancestral records be destroyed, it is then whether you wish to undertake the task of doing extensive research to rebuild it again or whether the clan in the ancestral place has the resource and determination to do so, based on whatever material still available that could be recovered. My friend Erik Ng Poh Sing (surname 黄) from Brunei did just that and he eventually returns the result of his compilation back to his ancestral village. I also heard of another case where the ancestral record existed in Indonesia and when it was eventually handed back to the ancestral hall in Fujian, the head of the clan wept with joy for he had not seen it for the previous 30 years. He had thought it was lost forever.

The surname of my mother-in-law is also Ong (王) but his ancestral place in one part within the City of Yongchun in Yongchun County. Her family in Malaysia has the original set of six volumes of the ancestral records that was updated in 1930s. However the record only went from the progenitor in Yongchun down to her generation of brothers which covers only 21 generations (around 600 years). I have not check if there is a recent update of her family records in Yongchun and I had not put any effort to trace the ancestry further back, as I had done for my wife surname (余) and her grandmother surname (林); both going back some 5,000 years.

Now that you know your surname is Ong (王) and assuming your great grandfather’s ancestral place is in Amoy island, what are you contemplating as your next course of action? Depending on that, members of this Forum may then be able to provide you with further advice.

Philip Tan

[chinito]

Aug 16, 2014 3:39:49 GMT -5 francis3 said:

If you are talking about ONGs in Quanzhou, they are mostly concentrated in Xiangyunzhen, Quanzhou. The distance is about one and half hour ride by car from Xiamen airport to Xiangyunzhen. In this province, there are 3 major surnames (ONG, NEO and TOH or Zhuo. The marriage between these 3 surnames is very common. They are normally hokkien peple.

[chlorine]

If its not too late to reply and you still need your answers, I might be able to help. The ancestral house of the Lao family (that I know of) is in Gandara, Samar. I'm also a Lao and can attest to its existence. I also want to know more about the China side of the Lao family; where the most concentrations are in China etc, as I will be visiting this coming January.

[Henry]

Hi Shankho08,

As my dear friend Dr. Philip Tan has provided you with much insights, I would like to add an article I found on the Internet which may be useful:

dx.doi.org/10.13185/KK2013.02106



Henry