Sijiu Town, Nam Ching? Village Toisan

[Peter]

I am trying to track down the name of a village in the area of Si jiu. My uncle remembers it as Nam Ching/Qin. But not which dialect, how it is written, or how it is pronounced exactly, but that it stands for Southern Village.

The closest I have seen on a map is Shang Nan Cun. I also see that there is a Dong and Zhong Cheng..perhaps there is also a Nan Cheng.

My grandfather Lee Po Loi left the village around 1905-1907 for Mexico. He returned with his Chinese-Mexican family briefly in 1932 before moving them all to Hong Kong in 1932/1933. His Latin name was Enrique Leychen...the origin of the Chen is a mystery.

My mother believes her paternal grandmother might have been a Ng. Both grandparents passed away 1945/1946 ish.

Any help with the villages or names would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Peter

[Woodson]

Peter, there is a Nan Cun on the southeast of Taishan. As far as I know there are 9 surnames in this village and Lee is one of the surnames.

[Peter]

THanks, Woodson. Sorry for the delay in responding.

I will keep that town in mind. The only thing is that it is farther away from Sijiu.

Nothing will substitute for getting out there and pounding the pavement!

[MH Yee]

Your guess of shangnancun is probably correct. "Nam Ching" is probably a local pronunciation of Nancun. Shangnancun is found in Sijiu market region of Taishan and is a collection of Li (Lee) surname villages. I have seen in a Taishan magazine (Xin Ning Magazine, published in the 1980s), a hand drawn map of Sijiu which marks Shangnancun as Nancun, but this may be an error. However, it is not unreasonable to assume that Nancun would be a variation or shorten version for Shangnancun (Upper Southern Village).

[twoupman]

Peter, that Southern Village (Naahm Chyun/Nancun) you are looking for is just to the east of Sei Gau/Sijiu town, at approximately 112deg 53'E & 22deg 13'N. You will not find this on most ordinary maps. If you wish to see the location you should get in touch with Henry Tom and purchase a speical large scale map from him.

[twoupman]

Peter, if you go to the topic "Help with Locating my village" you will now see a map posted by Henry Tom. If you look to the right of the Arrow 1 (pointing at Sijiu town) you will see Nancun.

[cl172]

When I looked at the date, these messages were being posted two years ago.. I hope that someone is still viewing this.. well, My last name is Lee as well and my greatgrandfather's name is Lee Yee Hon and my greatgrandmother is Fong Kam Yok. I was wondering if you came across these names as you did your family history. I believe that they are from Taishan.

[leycheni]

Hi, my name is Isaac Leychen Ramirez, I live in Monterrey N.L. Mexico and I´m very interesting about my roots ,the past of my first name ,and my genealogy tree, mi father´s name was Alfonso Leychen Avila and he deceased 42 years ago.

Waiting for your reply, best regards.

thanks

[krizpe]

I want to revive this thread after a crazy several years. First of all, my apologies for the nonresponse. Life got busy and I lost track of many things. Second, thanks to all those who responded. I appreciate it.

In recent years, I learned the following:

* I found a document that has his Chinese passport number issued in 1947 probably at the embassy in Mexico City. Is there any way to trace this? I will open a separate thread on this question.
* I have is departure vessel and date from the time of the expulsion.
* I have several vessel manifests from travel between Canton and either SF or Mazatlan.
* I have what he wrote down as his parents names in China. But of course these are Spanish names and it is any one's guess as to whether his parents even knew about them. They were Enrique Leychen and Jesus Cinco.
* His family name is of course 李 (Li/Lee/Ley)
* On his mother's side, it is the same 陳 (Chen) with the idea that her Mom was a 吳 (Ng)
* In the earlier documents, his last name is listed as one might expect from a Latin family: Ley Chen. Only later was that combined to Leychen.
* In reading the marriage registry documents from Mexico, it states that he is from the "Pueblo de Sineng." I am realizing now that he simply meant 新寧, Sunning, the old name for Toisan.
* When he returned to Mexico, he listed a "Fernando Wong Ley" with an address in Mexico City.
* Enrique Leychen was born October 10, 1889. My Mom thought he entered Mexico when a teenager. HIs brother, Alfonso, was I think five years younger. But I do not have the definitive document for that.
* He married by grandmother (Carmen Avila Felix) in Navojoa, Sonora on March 25, 1917.
* HIs Chinese name--and to be honest I am not 100% convinced--the only documentation is the writing on a bon voyage inscription-- 李寳來
* He was a merchant in Navajo and owned a store that sold all kinds of goods.
* To my knowledge, his brother remained in Hong Kong or China after the war.
* After the expulsion, he returned to Canton. After a shortish stay (my Mom recalled about 6 months), they settled in Kowloon.
* They lived on Nathan Road, somewhere near Prince Edward Road.
* Precious Blood Church and St. Mary's ring a bell both for school and Church. During the War, Instruction in English was prohibited. Only instruction in Chinese schools allowed. So there she went.
* Her brother, Enrique Leychen b. 1924, attended LaSalle. My Mom said he was such a good student that he was invited to teach at La Salle, but that such plans were thwarted by the war. He spend much of the war on the Farm because a namesake was being hunted by the Kempetai and he was warned to leave.
* I had a few email exchanges with La Salle but they told me many records were destroyed in the war. I think I did the same for the Church and school. Of course, if I was there in person, perhaps I would have a chance to dig in deeper?
* During WW2, they survived well because his "uncle" had a farm on the outskirts of town below the CalTex refineries. (A good family friend told me, they did not suffer like those in the city who had no such access to food.
* After expulsion, a trusted employee/family friend agreed to run the store and send 50% of profits to him. No such luck. He lost everything.
* After the war, the family for personal and practical reasons decided not to return to Navajo but when to Tampico where Enrique Leychen had a family contact or friend (was it Fernando Ley)??
* The family loved their new life in Tampico. He passed away there on Dec 20, 1958.

I would love to find the ancestral village and to learn all I can about the ancestry on that lost side. DNA results show that there my Mom had a great grand-parent who was "Southeast Asian" entering her DNA in 1780-1840 and that she is only 38-40% East Asian (instead of the 50% I expected).

To get further up the tree to know the 李 and possibly the 陳 and 吳 would be amazing.
A final comment, before my first trip to Asia in the 1980s, my Uncle (full Chinese) wrote down that the "Chen" in the family name was 珍 (Zhen1 in Mandarin). At the name, I could barely write any Chinese and I knew very little. When I was in Taiwan, the people I told this too responded very quizically. The older dictionary I used had this as a family name through uncommon. Later, when I had returned I asked my Mom what she though it was. She was not sure. They I asked her, "was it this?" writing down 陳 and she reacted positively.

That is all I know. It is a lot of background but still very little to go on..at least I think.

[krizpe]

Thank you Woodson. My next trip to Asia next year, I will target Nan Cun!

[krizpe]

Thank you, MH Yee. I probably need to get hold of a map of the early 1900s. and overlay that onto a modern map.

Do you happen to know where I might be able to find?

[krizpe]

Thank you, twoupman, I will do so.

[mleemd]

I recently had similar experience on another thread regarding Nom Toon village
.
My father's story is eerily similar.
He left China around 1920 and completed High School in Washington DC Central HS.
He married my mom in Taishan, but could not bring her to US because of the Exclusion Act.
He served in the the US Army in his late 30's and retrieved my mom after the War Brides Act in 1945.
My four siblings and I were born in Washington DC.
My father left his Chinese family and resettled with his American wife in the LA Chinatown area for his final 40 yrs.

Henry Tom and Jason Wu concluded that my ancestral village is in the same Nancun, Shangnancun, Sijui area

I neither speak nor write Chinese and consider myself fortunate to have stumbled across this resource.

.

[chimex64]

Hi mleemd ,



I got caught in a other vortex. Very interesting story. 

I will focus on the Nancun area and contact Henry Tom and Jason Wu with more info.

[Henry]

chimex64,

Nancun, Shangnancun, Sijui area

Here is a link to this village, please cut & paste the entire link:

www.google.com/maps/search/Nancun,+Shangnancun,+Sijui+Taishan,+Jiangmen,+Guangdong+Province,+China/@22.2132934,112.8750488,15z/data=!3m1!4b1?hl=en&authuser=0

Henry