Ancestral Villages
May 4, 2008 9:41:46 GMT -5
Post by Henry on May 4, 2008 9:41:46 GMT -5
Dear Friends,
The following are some Chinese on-line sources for information that will allow you to determine if the location of your ancestral village is within the boundaries of a specific town within a particular county and province in China, and according to the most recent name of the village.
Since I cannot read Chinese and please correct me if I am wrong, it seems that these sources can only provide information on "town" level consolidations and does not go down to next lower level of the "village / hamlet". But, it will reveal and/or confirm the town, county, province for the village of interest.
After 1949, some villages and smaller hamlets within Taishan county, Guangdong province have been consolidated into larger village clusters that have retained the name of the largest village or may have new names. I do have a Chinese Taishan county gazetteer [ geographic dictionary of information about places ] which provides information on village/hamlet consolidations and name changes.
While this Forum is focused on the SiYi region, the following URL is a Chinese online gazetteer of all villages in China - which is awesome and you can go to any China province - this is a link to Guangdong province and all its prefecture levels and counties:
www.xzqh.org/quhua/44gd/index.htm
In order to navigate down to the town level for the province of interest - you may need to look at the Wikipedia page on China's Administrative Divisions which provides the hierarchy of administrative levels:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_divisions_of_China
The following Jiangmen prefecture contains 6 counties - 4 of which comprise the SiYi region:
www.xzqh.org/quhua/44gd/07jiangmen.htm
The following is the official government website for Taishan and it also has an English version:
www.tsinfo.com.cn/
Also, here is the webpage within the Taishan County website that has a map showing the locations of the "town" areas within Taishan county and also tabs for all the towns with an English narrative:
www.cnts.gov.cn/EN/05.htm
The following is the official government website for Kaiping county and it also has an English version:
www.kaiping.gov.cn/07gb/index/index.htm
The following is the official government website for Xinhui county:
www.xinhui.gov.cn/export/xinhui/index.html
The following is the official government website for Enping county:
www.enping.gov.cn/
Please remember that a "town" within a county is a district/area - different from a "market town" - which is a major place located within the area of a town. Most people describe the location of their ancestral village near a particular market town within a county.
For those of us that cannot read or write Chinese - these online sources provide the Chinese characters for the names of the villages, towns, county, prefectures, counties, and provinces within China. The official county websites also provide contacts that can be used to help locate ancestral villages.
Sometimes, the only written source for the Chinese characters for your ancestral village may be on the gravestone of an ancestor. A digital photo of these characters can help a lot more than a romanization of the ancestral village name because there are several romanization systems that you need the Chinese characters to clarify.
The following information is for Taishan county:
In 2008, Taishan county has 17 towns including Taicheng [Taishan City ]:
Taicheng [ Taishan City ]台城
Dajiang 大江
Shuibu 水步
Sijiu 四九
Duhu 都斛
Chixi 赤溪
Chonglou 冲蒌
Doushan 斗山
Guanghai 廣海
Chuandao Islands 川岛
Duanfen 端芬
Haiyan 海宴
Wencun 汶村
Sanhe 三合
Beidou 北陡
Shenjin 深井 [ included Napu 那扶 in 2006 ]
Baisha 白沙 [ included Sanba 三八 in 2006 ]
Finally, here is a map of the towns in Taishan county with English annotations:
mysite.verizon.net/vzepzaui/Taishan Towns.jpg[/img]
Enjoy,
Henry Tom
The following are some Chinese on-line sources for information that will allow you to determine if the location of your ancestral village is within the boundaries of a specific town within a particular county and province in China, and according to the most recent name of the village.
Since I cannot read Chinese and please correct me if I am wrong, it seems that these sources can only provide information on "town" level consolidations and does not go down to next lower level of the "village / hamlet". But, it will reveal and/or confirm the town, county, province for the village of interest.
After 1949, some villages and smaller hamlets within Taishan county, Guangdong province have been consolidated into larger village clusters that have retained the name of the largest village or may have new names. I do have a Chinese Taishan county gazetteer [ geographic dictionary of information about places ] which provides information on village/hamlet consolidations and name changes.
While this Forum is focused on the SiYi region, the following URL is a Chinese online gazetteer of all villages in China - which is awesome and you can go to any China province - this is a link to Guangdong province and all its prefecture levels and counties:
www.xzqh.org/quhua/44gd/index.htm
In order to navigate down to the town level for the province of interest - you may need to look at the Wikipedia page on China's Administrative Divisions which provides the hierarchy of administrative levels:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_divisions_of_China
The following Jiangmen prefecture contains 6 counties - 4 of which comprise the SiYi region:
www.xzqh.org/quhua/44gd/07jiangmen.htm
The following is the official government website for Taishan and it also has an English version:
www.tsinfo.com.cn/
Also, here is the webpage within the Taishan County website that has a map showing the locations of the "town" areas within Taishan county and also tabs for all the towns with an English narrative:
www.cnts.gov.cn/EN/05.htm
The following is the official government website for Kaiping county and it also has an English version:
www.kaiping.gov.cn/07gb/index/index.htm
The following is the official government website for Xinhui county:
www.xinhui.gov.cn/export/xinhui/index.html
The following is the official government website for Enping county:
www.enping.gov.cn/
Please remember that a "town" within a county is a district/area - different from a "market town" - which is a major place located within the area of a town. Most people describe the location of their ancestral village near a particular market town within a county.
For those of us that cannot read or write Chinese - these online sources provide the Chinese characters for the names of the villages, towns, county, prefectures, counties, and provinces within China. The official county websites also provide contacts that can be used to help locate ancestral villages.
Sometimes, the only written source for the Chinese characters for your ancestral village may be on the gravestone of an ancestor. A digital photo of these characters can help a lot more than a romanization of the ancestral village name because there are several romanization systems that you need the Chinese characters to clarify.
The following information is for Taishan county:
In 2008, Taishan county has 17 towns including Taicheng [Taishan City ]:
Taicheng [ Taishan City ]台城
Dajiang 大江
Shuibu 水步
Sijiu 四九
Duhu 都斛
Chixi 赤溪
Chonglou 冲蒌
Doushan 斗山
Guanghai 廣海
Chuandao Islands 川岛
Duanfen 端芬
Haiyan 海宴
Wencun 汶村
Sanhe 三合
Beidou 北陡
Shenjin 深井 [ included Napu 那扶 in 2006 ]
Baisha 白沙 [ included Sanba 三八 in 2006 ]
Finally, here is a map of the towns in Taishan county with English annotations:
mysite.verizon.net/vzepzaui/Taishan Towns.jpg[/img]
Enjoy,
Henry Tom