Gang Mei in Kai Ping from 1850 to 1950

[peter8753]

I have some elderly relatives who were from Gang Mei in Kai Ping. Some of them lived there until the 1950’s. I want to know more about Kai Ping and Gang Mei from the 1850 to 1950. My relatives are elderly. They have problems remembering things that long ago. I hope someone or some websites can provide more information about that period. I now live in the United States.



My relatives have the surname Kwan. Is Kwan a common surname in Kai Ping and Gang Mei?



My questions



1. When did the people of Gang Mei start to leave their home village? Soon after gold was discovered around 1850’s? What countries and cities did they go to? I heard my relatives said their ancestors went to Gold Mountain. Was that California, Canada, Australia, New Zealand? Did most Gang Mei people go to the United States? What jobs did they do in Gold Mountain? Did they stay in the United States? Did they come back to Gang Mei?



2. How old were the laborers? Were they single or married? How did the laborers send money home to their families? Did the married laborers get married in the U.S.?



3 How much money did they pay for the ship journey to Gold Mountain? Could the poor laborers afford to pay the tickets?



4 Between 1882 and 1943, the Chinese Exclusion Act banned Chinese laborer into the U.S. Could laborers from Kai Ping and Gang Mei entered the U.S. during this period?



5. I found more than one Gang Mei when I searched for it on the internet.



廣東省 江門市 開平市 錦星管區 崗美村

宅群鄉 崗美村



广东省 江门市 台山市 白沙镇 岗美村



I guess the Gang Mei from Kai Ping is different from the Gang Mei in Tai Shan. I think my relatives were from the Gane Mei in Kai Ping.





錦星管區 崗美村

宅群鄉 崗美村



What is the difference between 錦星管區 and 宅群鄉

Are there a detailed map of Gang Mei? How far is Gang Mei from downtown Kai Ping?
  and from 長沙, 三埠, 塘口, 赤坎?

 
6 what is the location of Gang Mei? Is it north or south of the Tanjiang River?



7. How many percent of the men in Gang Mei left to find work away from the villages? With the husband away, did it mean the wife run the household? Was it unusually to live in a villages where so many men were away? How did the separation between husband and wife affect the village socially?



Thank you very much for any information you have.

[chinesesurname]

I visited Gang Mei in KAIPING 3 times. 2000,2004, and 2017. The one I visited is known to be an NG(伍) village. I got the name of the village from my father who visited it shortly before he came to usa in 1922. In 2004 I met with the village genealogist. In 2017, with HenryTom’s nephew as guide, I visited again, as well , my wife’s Kwan village in KAIPING. There are a lot of Kwan villages in KAIPING. The guide helped me trace my wife’s father’s line back to the first Kwans in GUANGDONG.

[chinesesurname]

You asked about people from Gang Mei. The first person from the Gang Mei I know of , to leave to work in the USA , was my great grandfather, Ng Weng Thlen, who was one of the railroad workers recently honored for completing the transcontinental railroad.

I estimate the time period to be in the range of 1866-1869.