Wah Sue

[kishtu67]

Hello,  my name is Kim.  I have been researching my family tree and about 6 years ago discovered I had Chinese ancestry.  My great great great grandfather's name was Wah Sue,  he was a Baker,  his son, Peter See Kay is my great great grandfather. I found a newspaper clipping,  stating Peter See Kay was born in Amoy, China,  around 1832.  Peter died in Moama,  New South Wales in 1895. I'm not sure if his father came to Australia,  Peter was to become a very wealthy man and left a store and 2 properties to his 3 children, his eldest daughter,  Emily Jane being my great grandmother.  If there is anyone out there who could help me with information, it would be greatly appreciated 

 Kim Evans 

[twoupman]

Kim,

Do you have a photo of Peter's tombstone in Moama, NSW? It may have Chinese inscribed on it.


twoupman
houseofchinn.com

[kishtu67]

Unfortunately he has an unmarked grave. He only had his 3 children when he died. Although a quite wealthy man no one arranged a head stone for him.

[helen]

Is this another family member?

The roadman (Mr G. Clemence) reported : —I have repaired the damage in Heath's lane, near Miss Harding's property. I would
suggest that Miss Harding be requested to fill tho hole inside the fence. If this is not done the work I have completed on the road
will be absolutely useless. I would also suggest that the owner of the property known as Peter See Kay's be asked to
repair the bridge leading to that property, as it is broken down on to the brick channel. There are a number of Bathurst
burrs on the roads and streets, and I request instructions with regard to same.—Miss Harding to be requested to do work mentioned by the roadman and the owner of See Kay's property to be asked to repair the
bridge, or the work would be executed by the council at owner's expense. The roadman
was also instructed to cut the Bathurst burrs on all roads within the town boundary. . .
Riverine Herald (Echuca, Vic. : Moama, NSW Wednesday 13 March 1907

[helen]

Lots of newspaper articles in Trove

Debt Cases.—Peter See Kay v. Southey,goods sold, £1 4s. 5d. Mr. Conant for plaintiff. It was proved that the debt was
incurred by defendant's daughter-in-law, so the case was dismissed
Riverine Herald (Echuca, Vic. : Moama, NSW Tuesday 10 August 1880


Undefended Cases.—Peter See Kay v.M'Clure, £5 9s. 3d., goods sold and delivered Riverine Herald (Echuca, Vic. : Moama, NSW Tuesday 17 August 1880

[kishtu67]

Hi Helen, yes this is the same Peter See Kay, I think I have exhausted all references to Peter See Kay and his children on the TROVE website. I'm now hoping because I have a village name where he may have come from, I can find links in China. I cant find any in coming passenger lists to Australia for either his father Wah Sue or himself. I've been told it could be possible they were in America and or New Zealand before coming to Australia.

[twoupman]

Kim,

What is the name of the village and do you have Chinese characters for it? How about the name Wah Sue and See Kay in Chinese characters to nail down the surname?

twoupman
houseofchinn.com

[kishtu67]

this is what I found on the TROVE site. Peter See Kay Amoy, also known as Xiamen (pronounced Ah Mo), China.
I have used a translater on the internet for the names. I have never thought of using the chinese characters to search

Peter See Kay 彼得看到kay, there is no translation for Kay

Wah Sue 华提起诉讼

[kishtu67]

This is Xaimen, 厦门, this is Amoy 淘大

[twoupman]

Kim,

You cannot transliterate Romanized Chinese names to derive the actual Chinese names using a translator program because Chinese have many dialects like Mandarin, Cantonese, Minnan (Hokkien), etc. As for Amoy (pronounced A Moi) it is the Hokkien pronouncement for Mandarin Xiamen (厦门), i.e. it is the same characters in both cases. Where did you get the characters 淘大 as it is not for Amoy?

twoupman
houseofchinn.com

[kishtu67]

you learn something new everyday ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiamen, i have been using google and came across this site

[douglaslam]

淘大 is a name in Chinese for the firm Amoy. It makes condiments, sauces, like MSG, soy sauce etc., It is very well known in Hong Kong. Peter See Kay becomes Peter sees Kay in Google translate, and Wah Sue becomes Wah sues. Chinese characters are indispensable.

[kishtu67]

Amoy was also known as Xiamen in china or thats what the link above reads. I have no knowledge of Chinese history as I have only just found out my great great great Grandfather was Chinese. On my great great grandfathers death certificate it said he was born in Singapore, as did his father Wah Sue.

[twoupman]

Kim,

To reiterate, Amoy is the Hokkien dialect pronunciation while Xiamen is in Mandarin but the Chinese characters are still the same 厦门.

Since both your ggggf and gggf were both born in Singapore, do you by any chance have a copy of their birth certificates? If not, I suggest you write to Singapore and try to obtain their birth certificates. It will help to establish what was their surname. At the moment based on what you have posted the surname is either Sue or See, but I have a feeling it is the same in Chinese except the English transliteration was different. In Singapore the majority of the Chinese are Hokkien from southern Fujian Province.

twoupman
houseofchinn.com

[kishtu67]

Thank you for the explanation.
I dont have birth certificates, for either relatives. I have tried using the BDM site for Singapore but found it confusing. I should persevere and try again.
Thank you again