Looking for chao. Finding 超 and 巢

[kstormo]

Hello I am very new to Chinese genealogy. I am looking for Cifong Mo Chao, which if I use google translate is 慈峰莫超. His father is on his death certificate as Chang Hon Chao 張漢超. Chao being the family name 超, that I can tell. When I look for Chao in the family search China, Genealogy Collection 1239-2014, the chao last name is listed as 巢. Why is this? 

Here is documentation I have if it would be helpful. www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9HD-24ZQ?i=87&cc=2060123&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQP7X-WC9F 

Any advice, help, suggestions, would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you, 
Kaylinn

[jeremychin]

Hi Kaylinn,

Welcome to the forum! We are here to help with any of your questions and we know this stuff can get pretty complex, so don't be afraid to ask us anything! 

When writing Chinese characters based on how they sound, there are standardized forms called romanization. There are different types of romanization depending on the Chinese dialect. Pinyin is the standardized Mandarin form of romanization. Cantonese has a few varieties, but the main form is called Jyutping. Also, there are many tones in the Chinese language which can make a similar sounding character be written and mean something completely differently depending on the tone. 

The family search database as well as google translate has everything in mandarin/pinyin.  The surname you listed 超 is indeed pronouced Chao in Cantonese and Mandarin, but be careful about using google translate. It does not account for tones, so just putting "Cifong Mo Chao" straight into google translate will most likely not give your the correct characters, because out of the 4 tones in mandarin, how does it know what character to choose? The character google chose (超) means to "jump over." lol

The correct character for the surname you are looking for would be 趙 which is Chao in Cantonese, but Zhao in Mandarin, so in family search you would look under the pinyin Zhao. The character 巢 is both Chao in mandarin and Cantonese, so that is why it can get confusing. It is much easier to figure out surnames as they are very common, but the given name of Cifong Mo is going to be much harder to figure out without already having written down characters because of the endless possibility of options and tone/character combinations. People can take guesses, but the chances of being wrong could be high. So do not use any of the characters google gave you. Also, please be aware that there is a local dialect from where you ancestor is from (Toisan, China), in which you can encounter even more spellings. In the local dialect the surname can also be spelled "Jew."

It would be helpful if you could give us a little background on who Cifong Mo Chao is, and the purpose of your research. How is he related to you?  Do you know when he left China and came to America (it looks like it could be multiple dates of traveling back and forth)? If he is an ancestor/relative of yours, where is he buried in the US? Does his grave stone have any Chinese characters on it? Do you know what year he passsed? You can usually find the person's name and ancestral village on a gravestone (according to the doc you posted, he came from the Taishan(mandarin)/Toisan(Cantonese) area 台(Tai/Toi)山(Shan/San). A gravestone would be able to possibly confirm the accurate Chinese characters for him. Is it accurate to say that King Mo as listed in the document you posted is the same person as Cifong? Was Mary, his wife also living in China for a time?

These are just some questions to better understand your story and how to point you in the right direction.


- Jeremy