Happy Return To My Lam Village (林村) Jiangmen & Tips: 很难忘记的一天
Jan 10, 2019 8:29:51 GMT -5
Post by viclam on Jan 10, 2019 8:29:51 GMT -5
大家好！
Last December 2018, I successfully returned for the 2nd time to my ancestral village in Jiangmen City with 11 of my family members.
My greatgrandfather had left for the tin mines of Ipoh, Malaysia over 100 years ago. We are of the 林 surname.
Thank you to lachinatown twoupman for their previous help in this previous post : siyigenealogy.proboards.com/thread/2333/late-grandfather-address-village-xinhui?page=1&scrollTo=16900 . Now hopefully I am able to share some tips on locating one's 乡下.
KEY INFORMATION TO PREPARE
Prior to bringing my family members back this in 2018, I took a first step to Guangdong in 2017, with only what my grandfather had written down in a piece of paper which contained the :
1) address of the village
2) family generation poem (字辈) which also forms part of the genealogy book (族谱) and contains the naming sequence of male members for each generation
*Note : I do not have access to my family's 族谱 unfortunately
USEFUL RESOURCES
1) Online Maps : If you can read Chinese then definitely start off with Baidu Maps. If you can't read, then Google Maps also works but in my opinion Baidu Maps is a lot more detailed and precise. With the address given, I was able to narrow down a possible location of the village and plan my journey from there.
2) 微信 (Wechat) - Before you go, please download Wechat and put in some money in your e-wallet. Everyone and every institution uses Wechat to communicate and to transact. You can still get around with cash but it would be of some inconvenience.
3) Overseas Chinese Bureau : China is now very receptive of the return of 华侨 (overseas Chinese). Upon reaching China, I called up the Overseas Chinese Affairs Bureau. I sent the bureau officer (assigned to help me) the address of the village as well the family generation poem using 微信 (Wechat). The Overseas Chinese Bureau has offices around in China set up for this purpose of helping overseas Chinese locate their villages. Its important to also prepare your family tree in Chinese as well as preparing some old photographs when communicating with the bureau.
Within 24 hours or less, the officer contacted me and sent me a location of my village in Jiangmen. Not only had she accurately identify the village but also identified possible relatives using the family generation poem. As per tradition, when Chinese males get married, they get to put up a wooden plaque engraved with their generational name in the household. The officer found a few houses that had such wooden plaques bearing the exact names as indicated in the poem.
As a result, I was able to meet some of my clansmen from various generations.
1 month later upon my return to Malaysia, the officer contacted me and stated she had found an ancestral home that belonged to my greatgrandfather's nephew and that led to my second return to Jiangmen with my larger family, exactly 1 year after I had first visited.
If people are interested to get in touch with the bureau, I can check with the officer to see if she is keen to have her details shared here so that more interested parties can contact her. Plus point is that she also speaks English but at the very least, try to brush up on your Chinese before you go
All the best everyone, I hope this information is useful!
Last December 2018, I successfully returned for the 2nd time to my ancestral village in Jiangmen City with 11 of my family members.
My greatgrandfather had left for the tin mines of Ipoh, Malaysia over 100 years ago. We are of the 林 surname.
Thank you to lachinatown twoupman for their previous help in this previous post : siyigenealogy.proboards.com/thread/2333/late-grandfather-address-village-xinhui?page=1&scrollTo=16900 . Now hopefully I am able to share some tips on locating one's 乡下.
KEY INFORMATION TO PREPARE
Prior to bringing my family members back this in 2018, I took a first step to Guangdong in 2017, with only what my grandfather had written down in a piece of paper which contained the :
1) address of the village
2) family generation poem (字辈) which also forms part of the genealogy book (族谱) and contains the naming sequence of male members for each generation
*Note : I do not have access to my family's 族谱 unfortunately
USEFUL RESOURCES
1) Online Maps : If you can read Chinese then definitely start off with Baidu Maps. If you can't read, then Google Maps also works but in my opinion Baidu Maps is a lot more detailed and precise. With the address given, I was able to narrow down a possible location of the village and plan my journey from there.
2) 微信 (Wechat) - Before you go, please download Wechat and put in some money in your e-wallet. Everyone and every institution uses Wechat to communicate and to transact. You can still get around with cash but it would be of some inconvenience.
3) Overseas Chinese Bureau : China is now very receptive of the return of 华侨 (overseas Chinese). Upon reaching China, I called up the Overseas Chinese Affairs Bureau. I sent the bureau officer (assigned to help me) the address of the village as well the family generation poem using 微信 (Wechat). The Overseas Chinese Bureau has offices around in China set up for this purpose of helping overseas Chinese locate their villages. Its important to also prepare your family tree in Chinese as well as preparing some old photographs when communicating with the bureau.
Within 24 hours or less, the officer contacted me and sent me a location of my village in Jiangmen. Not only had she accurately identify the village but also identified possible relatives using the family generation poem. As per tradition, when Chinese males get married, they get to put up a wooden plaque engraved with their generational name in the household. The officer found a few houses that had such wooden plaques bearing the exact names as indicated in the poem.
As a result, I was able to meet some of my clansmen from various generations.
1 month later upon my return to Malaysia, the officer contacted me and stated she had found an ancestral home that belonged to my greatgrandfather's nephew and that led to my second return to Jiangmen with my larger family, exactly 1 year after I had first visited.
If people are interested to get in touch with the bureau, I can check with the officer to see if she is keen to have her details shared here so that more interested parties can contact her. Plus point is that she also speaks English but at the very least, try to brush up on your Chinese before you go
All the best everyone, I hope this information is useful!
