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Post by vyyu1982 on Jul 27, 2022 22:31:02 GMT -5
Hello,
I hope somebody can help me.
My great-grandfather immigrated from China to the Philippines in the late 1800s.
His immigration record says he was born in Oeking, Amoy. I know Amoy is Xiamen but I don't know where Oeking is.
He wrote his signature in Chinese, I can only make out 葉健哥. Not sure about 哥 since the handwriting isn't great but based on the romanized Hokkien (Yap Quianco) it's more likely that it is 哥。
您可以帮我？
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Post by gckimm on Jul 28, 2022 0:23:54 GMT -5
Hi:
My guess is that "Oeking" was a way of writing Fukien Province, now known as Fujian Province 福建省.
In regard to your great-grandfather's name, it is likely that it was simply 葉健 (Mandarin Ye Jian or Hokkien Yap Quian). Chinese men in the Philippines had a custom of referring to each other as "____ Co" (哥) or "Elder Brother ____." This is why there are so many Filipinos who have surnames of Chinese derivation that end in "co." The surname of former President Cory Aquino, Cojuangco, is an example.
Greg
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Post by vyyu1982 on Jul 29, 2022 15:43:29 GMT -5
Hi,
Thank you for reply.
Regarding Oeking as possibly Fujian, I am doubtful since in the Amoy dialect, Fujian province is transliterated to Hok-kian.
It's really good to know about his name just being Yap Kian coz I always thought it was Yap Kian Co.
What advice can you give regarding finding out where his hometown in Xiamen is? Or where is ancestral clan is based in?
Vince
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Post by gckimm on Jul 30, 2022 12:36:32 GMT -5
Hi Vince:
The reason why I believe "Oeking" is Fujian/Fukien is because of the problem of Romanization, that is, using the Latin alphabet to write a word in Chinese. In former times, there was no standard way of doing this and it was just left to an individual to decide, based on what what was heard and the ability to transliterate it. Sometimes, you could end up with various spellings for the same words. "Oeking" sounds like Hok-kian, and Amoy was a town in Hok-kian. But again, this is just my guess.
In order to find out more about your ancestor's native place, you will need to come up with the Chinese characters for the name of that place. If you know the location of your great-grandfather's grave, see if his village is written there in Chinese, as this was the custom. You can take a photo, post it here, and a forum member will help you with the translation. If the grave does not help, try to find any family documents, for example, old letters, that may have the name of the village written on them.
Good luck!
Greg
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