Cantonese characters: CHOU/ZHOU and LEE

[manaia]

Hello:

Wondering if anyone can help to get Cantonese characters for surnames: CHOU/ZHOU and/or LEE?

Is it common in China homeland to have two surnames or hyphenated surnames, e.g., CHOU-LEE?

Chinese labourer from Guangdong vicinity arrived to the Samoas c.1896 with the name: Aso Chou-Lee.

Sorry don't know if or when hyphen was applied or what original surname is CHOU or LEE.

Does anyone know a Cantonese surname sounding like CHOULEE as one word?

Thanks!

--Manaia

[geoff]

Hello Manaia,

Check "The hundred Families Surnames" at.........
www.geocities.com/Tokyo/3919/hundred.html
to see if you can match the chinese characters of your names.

[Ah Gin]

manaia,

To add to Geoff's posting, Lee 李 and Chow 周 are fairly common surnames. I am not familiar with double character surname of Chou-lee. Double character surnames are not uncommon in themselves. As other members of this message board will point out, some of the common double characters surname inclued 司徒 歐陽 司馬 There are others of course.

To sharpen your research,it will help if you can locate and share source documents written in Chinese. Sources include Wills, letters, trading document, headstones, tablets in temples.

Regards, Ah Gin

[laohuaqiao]

Was the person male or female?

If a person is female and married, her maiden surname and her husband's surname are often both used, and sometimes the name is hyphenated, Chou-Lee would mean nee Chou and married to a Lee.

[Ah Gin]

laohuaqiao,

Good point. On headstones (in Australia and recent ones anyway) that convention is followed in some cemeteries, as in 李府

Regards, Ah Gin

[geoff]

Hello Manaia,

Ah Gin suggestions are excellent.

I found the 1899 Australian will of a clan member of a country general store. The will may have been written in english but it was signed in chinese characters by one of the partners of the business. This was conclusive proof of the correct written version of the Wong character. His embalmed body was returned to China so there wasn't a local headstone to view for any chinese characters. My ggmother accompanied this clan member's body back to China so I was able to establish her whereabouts as well.

[helen]

Try and see what these records hold -

Administration and Miscellaneous - Chinese in Samoa - Repatriation of 1917 - 1917
agency series accession box / item record part alternative no. AD 1 858 23/94
Archives New Zealand, Head Office, Wellington PO Box 12-050 10 Mulgrave Street
Wellington email: [e-mail]

[helen]

Also these records

Chinese Labour for Samoa 1920 - 1933 agency series accession box / item record part alternative no. T 1 405 23/67/25

Do a simple search on Chinese in Samoa - a few more records are there

www.archway.archives.govt.nz/CallSimpleSearch.do