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Post by ian54 on Aug 27, 2018 20:47:34 GMT -5
So here is my second post!
Firstly, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Henry Tom, whom I contacted one year ago via siyigenealogy and I subsequently purchased his excellent Tan/Tom/Tham genealogy book. Within an amazing 4 months, Henry was able to find my mom's CHAN village and my dad's THAM ancestral villages in Guangdong. My deep gratitude also to Dr. Philip Tan, whose Tan/Chen/Chan lineage scrolls have also had a profound effect on me.
Our family has a truly fascinating history. My grandparents moved from Guangdong province to Calcutta, India back in the 1920s-1930s, travelling back and forth between India and China. During World War II, my mom's father migrated to Tanzania (formerly Tanganika), East Africa, and the rest of his family followed in 1939. I never realized but my mom said that Japan had bombed Bombay, so my grandmother took them by ship to join my grandfather in East Africa.
All of us children were born in Tabora, Tanzania. My father was killed in a car accident in 1959, leaving behind my mom aged 29 and eight children aged 12 years down to 10 months, so we endured a very difficult, hard life. Subsequently, my mom took us to Liverpool in 1964 (Beatles story to follow in future post). After graduation, some of the boys, including me, emigrated to Toronto, Canada. The company I worked for was an American corporation, who transferred me down to the USA, where I now live in Louisiana. So, I am a Chinese, African, British, Canadian, America Asian Cajun...beat that if you can!! When people ask me where I'm from, I tell them I am a multi-national but wish I was a multi-national corporation instead.
We spent a little time in the capital city Dar es Salaam, so Chansomia, please let me know some names of Chinese families you know in Dar es Salaam, whom we probably know! I shall have to recount tales of pirates, my opium smoking grandpa Tham, cobras and lions etc in future posts.
I hope some of you join in here with posts of your parents/grandparents stories of their journeys around the world.
Ian
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Post by Henry on Aug 28, 2018 16:39:58 GMT -5
Hi Ian,
You & your family have my admiration for your family's struggles in overcoming all the adversities in your migrations across so many countries.
It was so good of you to return to Toronto to celebrate your mom's 90th birthday.
Henry
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Post by ian54 on Aug 28, 2018 21:15:11 GMT -5
Thank you Henry.
Yes, it was a very difficult time in our lives. Imagine being a widow with eight children, isolated in the middle of the country in Africa, trying to survive with no welfare or government handouts.
As a family, we have come a long way since, having worked hard to get our education and all becoming successful adults and now with our own families. How ironic that we have people in many countries that go on welfare & handouts, and claim they are disadvantaged because they were brought up in poor circumstances. I think its more to do with the oriental philosophy; the Chinese work ethic, upbringing, loyalty, love, respect, education etc., that was instilled in us throughout our lives, which made all the difference, not just in us but many other families past and present here on siyigenealogy.
Onto my cobra story. My mom just turned 90 years a couple of weeks ago and still has a very good memory. She can literally talk for hours and hours about her family history. Fortunately she had good genes and looks about 65 years of age. also, more fortunately, I have been able to record many of her stories, some of which are so interesting.
So when my dad was still alive in Tanzania, he had built a chicken coop and stocked it full of chickens. During the evenings, there often was a commotion in the chicken coop. Dad noticed that eggs and chicks were disappearing, so he started to keep a close watch on what was happening. He finally spotted the culprits...cobras, which were devouring the eggs and chicks. So he got out his shotgun and started shooting them. However, mom said one time a cobra did spit in his eyes but he was able to very quickly wash his eyes out and did not suffer any ill effects. The end.
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Post by douglaslam on Aug 28, 2018 22:37:26 GMT -5
ian54, Henry is definitely your go-to man. He is a noted cartographer and accomplished genealogist. Henry can give pinpoint accuracy to the most obscure of villages in Guangdong province. I had the good fortune of meeting Henry about eight years ago and with a bit of luck, our paths should cross again sometimes in November when he leads a large group of Americans on a roots journey in South China.
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Post by ian54 on Sept 27, 2018 21:08:47 GMT -5
Thanks Doug for your last post. I was hoping that other members would also add some interesting stories about their parents/grandparents or even themselves growing up.
Here is another story about Africa. My Uncle Laing owned a small gold mine in the African bush, probably similar to the early prospectors in California. One time another of my uncles was visiting a family friend in the capital city Dar es Salaam. This friend told his 17 year old son to go work at the gold mine and learn how to extract gold, so maybe one day he could own his own gold mine.
So my uncle took him to the gold mine.
The mine was in the middle of nowhere, in the wilds of the African bush, with no houses or grocery stores…nothing. All it had were two thatched roof shacks with completely shattered windows.
During the first night, this young man heard the roaring of lions right outside. He said the lions would come right up to the fence near the shacks and roar all night. If you ever heard the deep lion roar at the zoo, it is quite a frightening experience. He said one of the other guys told him not to be scared, as the lions would not come in and attack them. But the lions roaring outside the shack was a terrifying experience! This was not what he signed up for!
Shortly after this, my uncle took him fishing. My uncle told him they would go to the pond. The fish were about sardine size but extremely plentiful, so that you did not even need bait...all you had to do was throw a hook into the water and snag the fish. They caught plenty of fish for dinner. Unfortunately, he discovered later that this was the tailing pond (where all the process waste mercury-water mix ended up settling in!) This would be their meal whenever they wanted fish. Fortunately they only ate fish maybe once a week. This young man was only there for a couple of months, so he was not exposed long enough to this toxic brew.
However, many years later my uncle did suffer problems, which the doctor attributed to years of exposure to both cyanide and mercury used in the gold extraction process.
Also, since they were in the wild bush, with no neighbors or stores nearby and especially no grocery stores for meat, every Friday at dusk, late in the evening, they would drive into the bush to go hunting for food. This was the way they fed themselves and the 15 African miners that worked for them. This young guy was designated the spotter. His job was to hold the spotlight. It would dazzle the eyes of the antelope, impala or kudu and they would shoot the animal. This would allow them to eat until the next hunting trip.
Two months after arriving, this young man went back to the capital city and decided that a miner's life was not for him! My uncles worked at the mine for some 30 years before emigrating to Britain and America.
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Post by ian54 on Dec 4, 2018 20:57:24 GMT -5
Beatles Story: So how can a Chinese boy born in the middle of Africa have any connection to the Beatles? Well…Tanzania gained its independence from Britain in 1961. Life became more difficult and so many Asians began emigrating. My Uncles migrated with their families to Liverpool, England. In turn, my mom followed and took us to Liverpool in 1964. The Beatles were in their prime having returned from their successful USA tour earlier that year. At this point, they had already moved down to the big bright lights of London. Meanwhile, I was just a very naïve boy from Africa with no idea who the Beatles were. The only beetles we knew were the numerous bugs in Africa, especially the water beetles which we enjoyed roasting on a charcoal fire and eating! Another tasty dish or two were the flying ants and the green grasshoppers which were plentiful during the rainy season. We arrived on October 6, 1964 but school had already started a month earlier, so my uncle crammed us younger ones into his car (probably 6 kids counting his own kids) and drove us to register at the various schools. Being 8 and 10 years old, my younger brother and I got dropped off at my cousin’s school called Dovedale Primary School (equivalent to elementary school in the USA). Lo and behold, this turned out to be the same school that John Lennon and George Harrison had attended some 12 – 13 years earlier. So, as time went by and it was time for high school, I would catch the public bus (England does not have school buses) to a roundabout, then catch another bus to my high school a few miles away. This roundabout had a shelter in the middle which we took refuge in, as Liverpool is frequently windy and very cold, being located right by the sea. Surrounding this roundabout was a barber shop and a bank but I never did see any pretty nurses selling poppies, nor did I see the fire engines getting cleaned (the fire station is about ½ mile farther away) …this was of course, the Penny Lane roundabout in the Beatles song! But to us, it was just where we caught the bus to school. Also, every Wednesday, another bus took us to the playing fields for cross country and soccer. Little did I know until much later that we passed John Lennon’s Menlove Avenue home back and forth each time. As I got older and was able to go to the pub to drink, we went to our usual haunts such as Ye Cracke, the Grapes, the Phil…all hangouts of the Beatles but again I did not know that until much later after reading more about them. Even now, I still have my Cavern club membership card. We took for granted a lot of places the Beatles hung out at, because they were just places that we hung out at too while growing up. To get more of an appreciation of these places, check out “Paul McCartney Carpool Karaoke” on YouTube. So here I am, having migrated again many thousands of miles to Northern Louisiana and local people wonder how on earth could this Chinese guy have any connection to the Beatles!
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Post by ian54 on Mar 9, 2019 15:50:13 GMT -5
First photo: Dovedale Primary School where John Lennon & George Harrison attended. Second photo is John Lennon's Childhood Home where our school bus went by every Wednesday
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Post by ian54 on Mar 9, 2019 15:54:15 GMT -5
DOG BITES GIRL…GIRL EATS DOG!
Well not quite exactly… another childhood memory from my mom
When Mom was quite young in China, her mother Grandma Chan told Mom to go get some gloves from a Chinese neighbor.
As soon as the neighbor’s door opened, their dog attacked Mom, badly biting her in the leg, right down to the bone (even today after all these decades, she still has the scar). There was a lot of blood. The neighbors put boiled rice on the wound. They then gave the rice to the dog to eat. According to Chinese tradition, this was supposed to prevent Mom from getting sick. The wound was dressed in tobacco and wrapped with bandages.
Mom said she cried and cried when she got home, so Grandma Chan said she would give her a puppy.
They got a black puppy. This made Mom and her younger brother Uncle Francis (aged around 3 or 4) both very happy. They fed the puppy rice and it grew big and fat. Those same people came and bought the dog back from Grandma Chan. They killed and cooked it. They brought a bowl over for dinner. Grandma Chan and Aunt asked Mom if the “food was good”. Mom said it was good. Next day, Grandma Chan told Mom that she had eaten her own puppy meat! Uncle Francis and Mom cried and cried.
Grandma Chan told them not to cry. She would take them to the market to buy a pig. So, they bought a baby pig. Every day they would chop sweet potato, cook it and feed the pig
In time, the pig got very big. Grandma Chan and Aunt then loaded the pig onto the bicycle and took the pig to the market to sell!
After that, they were told they could not buy another animal as they had to move to Hong Kong.
The End
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Post by ian54 on Apr 6, 2019 19:26:13 GMT -5
For the above story...how did my mom and aunt manage to get a big pig to the market on a bicycle. Maybe this photo is one method. Ian
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Post by ian54 on Apr 6, 2019 19:33:57 GMT -5
So its been very quiet the last few days...time to liven things up. My mom is 90 years old...born in 1928. Her dad (my Grandpa Chan) was born in 1884. This is a first hand story from her dad had told her of an incident that occurred to him when he was 16 years old, which would be back in 1900 (119 years ago!!). THE PIRATES AND THE HAND Grandpa Chan said when he was around 16; he worked for the “tall ships” at the Pearl River in China. There were many pirates back then. The tall ships would take food and vegetables to sell to the pirates. When pirates saw other ships sailing by, they would attack those ships, rob them and sometimes kill the people. The pirates gave a special flag to the tall ship, which Grandpa Chan worked for. They would raise this flag when the pirates were nearby, so as not to be attacked. The pirates knew this flag signaled a supply ship with food and vegetables. Grandpa Chan said the tall ships made a lot of money. When the pirate ships came for supplies, the men from shore, would jump in the water, wade through the reeds in a single line hauling the heavy rope to tie-off onto the pirate ship, then haul the pirate ship closer to shore. On one occasion, when he was about 16 years old, he was the first one to jump into the river, pulling the rope over his shoulder, grabbing onto tall clumps of reeds to wade toward the pirate ship, while the other helpers followed behind hauling the rope. With the heavy rope and current, you had to grab onto something, usually a clump of reeds and pull your way forward. One time, he thought he grabbed some reeds, but he had grabbed the hand of a dead body. This terrified him. Mom said he went home and got sick for a very long time. His long coolie hair fell off. He prayed and prayed. He said he was so lucky that he eventually got better. After that he went to India. The End Ian
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Post by chansomvia on Apr 30, 2019 6:26:44 GMT -5
There are a few families from Tanzania in Toronto. The Wongs and the Ng Having. I was born in Dar. Now in New Zealand. In correspondence with Henry cousin Tan Shi King who moved to Hong Kong. Went back to Haiyan to celebrate Ching Ming. Cannot trace my Chan tree as all dead leaving no trace due to poverty or other reasons.
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Post by ian54 on May 2, 2019 19:13:40 GMT -5
Hi Chansomvia,
Well its a small world! What are the chances of two Chinese people born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Africa (now in NZ) crossing paths with someone else born in Tabora, Tanzania (now in Louisiana, USA) on this website after 55 years, as we emigrated to England in 1964
My Grandpa Chan migrated to Tanganika (now Tanzania) around 1937. After Japan bombed Bombay (Mumbai), he told my Grandma Chan to flee with the children to Tanzania and so they arrived in Dar es Salaam around Christmas 1939. Dar was only a transition point. My Grandpa being a Chan had met another Chan in Dar two years earlier, who found him a job at the Geita gold mine, near Mwanza, by Lake Victoria. Maybe you are related to this other Chan.
There was yet another Chan family in Dar es Salaam (The Ahchong family). Their dad's real name was Chan Chin Chong but since we Chinese write our surnames first it was CHAN Chin Chong. It morphed to Ah Chong and next thing their surname became Ahchong. The Ahchongs are good family friends and migrated to Toronto. Another family were the Kanhai family. The same issue occurred with them. their surname was KWAN. The father was probably KWAN Hai and soon their surname became Kanhai. My dad's name was THAM Chin Fun. Since Africa was a British colony, they followed British protocol with the last name being the surname, so we were called the FUN family. Although a cool name, luckily it did not stick and we retained our real THAM surname. Our Dar es salaam connections include:
The Kanhai family migrated to England but Kenneth Kanhai is in Toronto All the Ahchongs are in Toronto The TANG family (sons Frank and Henry) are in Toronto The NG HAING are in Toronto and Vancouver (sons Joe, Denny and Vincent). They were best friends with my mom and dad. LAO Kai Wah and LAO Kai Loon were cousins. They went back to Hong Kong. I believe they are from the same ancestral village in Kaiping as my uncle LAO Laing. Did you know my aunt Clara CHAN? She went to St Joseph school in Dar (so did my Uncle Francis and Uncle Laing)
Another name my mom remembers is LAO (LOW) Chee.
My dad owned a large garage in Tabora and mom said that any Chinese that failed their driving test in Dar would write to dad. He was qualified to issue driver's licenses, so they would come down by train and he would test and they would conveniently pass.
If you were raised in Dar then you lived in the city. We lived out in the boonies in Tabora. I recall we used to chase the baboons, not realizing how dangerous that was, because if they ever felt threatened, they could easily have attacked and made mince meat out of us. Or we would go hunting for snakes...crazy things we did as kids but fond magical memories of Africa.
Ian
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Post by chansomvia on May 13, 2019 2:17:28 GMT -5
Yes we know the Kanhai family. Our Chan family started in Dar. Dad opened a furniture and carpentry shop. My mother is a Tam who caught a slow boat from toisan to Dar. My father Chan Foi had a lot of Chinese friends. His English name was George I went back to the villages in Haiyan where they originated. With the help of Henry. Small world. Joe
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Post by ian54 on Jun 23, 2019 20:52:49 GMT -5
Chansomvia,
What a coincidence. My dad was a Tham why my mom is a Chan, while your Dad is a Chan and your mom is a Tam! My dad also was a carpenter and built and sold furniture. Later he decided to become a mechanic. My mom said we are friends with three generations of Kanhai, which is her dad's generation, her generation and I was good friends with Phil Kanhai when I lived in Canada. Here is a story you might enjoy.
HEFTY COMMISSION FOR FINDING EMPLOYMENT
Grandpa Chan wanted to go to East Africa but did not know anyone there. He asked the Chinese sailors that came to visit Calcutta if they knew any Chinese families in Tanganika (now called Tanzania). One sailor did know a Chinese man called Chan (not a relative) and gave Grandpa Chan the address to correspond with him. This is how Grandpa Chan ended up migrating initially in Dar es Salaam, Tanganika.
When Grandpa Chan first came to Africa, he stayed in Dar es Salaam at the Chinese Fraternity Club. This other Chan in Dar es Salaam knew about the Geita Gold mine.
Since there was very little work available in Dar es Salaam, this Chan man heard that the Geita Gold Mine needed some carpenters. Grandpa knew a little English. This other Chan asked Grandpa if he wanted to go work there. He was told that he could take eight Chinese workers with him. Grandpa Chan could speak Chinese, Indian and a little English, as well as read blueprints, so he was immediately made the supervisor.
The other Chan’s commission was a hefty 66% for sending Grandpa Chan and the eight Chinese men to the Geita Gold Mine. After arrival in Geita, these Chinese men subsequently learned the African Swahili language. So for many years Grandpa Chan would collect money from these men and send it to this other Chan in Dar es Salaam as part of his commission for finding them the job.
After many years, the men revolted said they would not send money anymore. Grandpa Chan wrote a letter to this Chan and told him the crew refused to pay further commission and apparently the matter ended there.
So Chansomvia…if this other Chan was your dad or uncle, I wish to claim reparations…lol
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Post by ian54 on Aug 9, 2019 22:17:17 GMT -5
Here is another story told to my mom by her dad: My Grandpa Chan married Grandma Chan (Tang) approx. 1919. HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
How did my Grandpa CHAN, Fat Sing and Grandma Chan (TANG, Yan Ho) meet?
Grandpa Chan was 35 years old and had lived in Calcutta for a while. He was not a drinker or smoker, had a good business making furniture and was a good man. He was friends with a sailor who would drop in to eat whenever he arrived in Calcutta. This sailor sailed back and forth between China and India. He returned to Hong Kong and asked Grandpa Chan’s brother- in-law, if he knew anyone who would marry Grandpa Chan.
There was a man Mr. Tang from Chuk Chun (Zhucun) village, who had a daughter that was 16 years old. Mr. Tang said he would let his daughter marry Grandpa Chan. Apparently this daughter had previously gone to a fortune teller who said that she would not marry someone local. She was only 16 years old. She could not read or write. Her mother had just recently died. Her father made a passport for her. Because he had no money to escort his daughter to Calcutta, he let her sail there alone.
Can you imagine how terrifying and frightening it would be for a 16-year-old girl to sail away to an unknown land, to marry someone she had never met. This was very dangerous, as she could have been kidnapped or sold. Luckily, she arrived safely in Calcutta. So Grandpa Chan made a big party. Unfortunately, there was a slight communication problem. Grandma spoke Tung Kun wah dialect, while Grandpa Chan spoke Si Yap wah, which are two distinct and separate dialects and they could not understand each other (like the languages of Wales and England).
Grandma Chan was very scared. She was all alone and could not speak Grandpa Chan’s dialect.
Luckily, there was another Chinese woman nearby who could speak her dialect (she was from the same region as her). Grandma Chan did not know how to cook and so she learned to cook from this other woman. Grandma Chan started to pick up Grandpa Chan’s Si Yap language one word at a time, until eventually they could converse.
For the first year of marriage, Grandma Chan slept at the kitchen table laying her head over her crossed arms. So Grandpa Chan talked to the other lady and said there is “no use in being married, as she does not sleep in our bed”. The lady was surprised! So she spoke to Grandma Chan and told her that “when a man marries, he would like to have children…you do not even want to sleep in the bed…you must not do like that”, so after that Grandma Chan did go sleep in the bed. In time they had five children with my mom being the fourth child. I hope you enjoyed this story.
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