Yew, Ewe & Yu?

[eweewe]

I am a Ewe from Batu Gajah.  Heard our ancestors are from Papan, a small town near Batu Gajah.

[philiptancl]

Jul 24, 2018 4:50:44 GMT -5 eweewe said:

I am a Ewe from Batu Gajah.  Heard our ancestors are from Papan, a small town near Batu Gajah.

Hi eweewe,

What is your area of interest? I know where Papan is located. If you are from that place, likely you are a Hakka.

[hokkien]

Hi, my Surname is "YEW" too. In Chinese word pinyin as "YOU" 尤。I am Hokkien Lang (Fu Jian Ren) from Medan, Indonesia.
I have been stay in Penang, Malaysia since 1998. Just curious about my ancestral region in China.

[Henry]

hokkien

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokkien

Henry

[yewkwanghooi]

Hello everybody.
I am a Yew too. Regardless Yew, Yoo, Ewe, if your Chinese character is 尤, then it is the same surname.
My ancestors are from Taiping, probably entering Malaya through Penang in 1900s.
Most Yew in Malaysia are from Fujian China. I learnt from some research that the county in Fujian that has a large population of surname Yew is Yong Chun county.

If you want to know more about the history of this surname, you can read up this link baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%B0%A4%E5%A7%93
It is in Chinese.. so if you can read in Chinese, good for you.
For those who cannot, you can use Google Translate to do that.

Apparently, it is an old family name. There are several sources of how the name came about. The popular version is that the Yew originated from one of the first five ancient kings in China. Then the other version is the Yews are actually manchurian who have mixed with Han. It is said that the surname is on one of the 8 manchurian flags when they invaded and conquered China. A friend of mine from China said that Yew surname is originally from Manchuria but many were scattered. If some of your ancestors were working for the emperor of Qing dynasty or serving in army as traditional job, there is a good chance you have Manchurian origin. Apart of Fujian, there are many Yews in Henan, Harbin and border as well as within North Korea.

As to why there are many Yew in Fujian, a source says that there are two Yews. One is original Yew. The other is adopted Yew. The adopted Yew clan actually has a different surname Shen. But because the surname Shen reads like "drowned", the clan decided to modify the Shen Chinese character by removing water character and thus become a character 尤 that reads Yew. The Shen clan depends on the sea for livelihood so the surname Yew is more auspicious for them.

Hope this is informative. Do point out any incorrect info if any.

Yours,
Yew

[abracadayum]

Hi, this thread was rather insightful as I was wondering about my genealogy too.

I am a Yew as well, from Singapore. However, my surname is the Chinese character 游 (You) from You-Yong (Swimming).

My father's side is Hakka Chinese.

[shewe]

Hi - I am from the same surname originating from Yu to Yew to Ewe... My paternal family originally resides in Paya Terubong, Penang. My late grandfather was borned in Penang in the early 1900s. He told me that he and his friends skipped school to see a plane landing at the Batu Gantong horse racing track. My great grand father came from Hui Lai in Guangdong but I will need to check from which particular village. We speak Hakka at home...

[jayu]

Hi All. I also have the same last name, 尤.
I am now starting with my research on our genealogy.
My grandfather was originally from Amoy, China. Based on google, it is now Xiamen.
Anyone from you knows anyone with the same last name?
Thank you and keep safe!

[Henry]

jayu,

If you are from the Malaysia area: en-gb.facebook.com/pg/myyouclan/posts/

Henry

[jayu]

Hi Henry,

Unfortunately, I am from the Philippines. 
My late grandfather moved here but we do not know anyone from his family from Amoy.

Thanks,
Jayu