From Guangdong to Singapore

[orangeabundance]

Hi,

Does anyone have any info regarding the migration of Cantonese people from Guangdong to Singapore in late 1800s to 1900s?

I would also like to find out more if anyone could trace back the ancestral villages of the surnames Chan and Cheong people in Singapore.

Much appreicated.

Regards

Rick

[raymond]

Rick,

First things first. You need to do as much research as you can within you own family and locale before launching into a trip to Sze Yup.

As other members have suggested, quiz your grandmother and other elder relatives for information; rummage through any official documents and old letters from China; pay a visit to a nearby Chan family association and to a Cheong family association; and extract information from ancestral headstones in Singapore. Otherwise, a trip to Sze Yup would likely prove useless and frustrating for you.

First of all, you need to find out the full Chinese names of your parents and grandparents, and great grandparents if possible.

In addition, you do not even know which of the 4 Sze Yup districts your family is from - - Taishan, Hoiping, Enping or Xinhui? There are likely Chan family clans in all 4 of these districts. So, it would facilitate your search immensely if you could find out the names of your ancestral villages. The more information you can obtain ahead of time, the more fruitful your trip to China will become.

As for the danger element in Sze Yup, rest assured it is not as dangerous as you are led to believe. Stories of the danger are likely to have originated from Chinese who had lived in the villages of rural China and had experienced kidnappings, robberies and killings in the late 1800's and early 1900's when famine, floods and bandits impoverished the Chinese farmers and peasants even more so. These conditions that had induced a criminal environment are no longer prevalent in today's China. People are no longer starving to death in rural China, and their standard of living has improved greatly of late. As you would behave in any other place in this world, exercise common sense when you are traveling.

Good luck in your quest.

Raymond

[raymond]

Rick,

For your information, here is a link to a brief history of Chinese migration to Singapore: www.tsinoy.com/article_item.php?articleid=659&pageid=709 It mentioned Cantonese being the third most populous Chinese dialect group in Singapore, Hokkien
being the most populous and Teochiu's being the second.

Raymond

[helen]

There are Chans in the Zengcheng area - eg Sun Gai, Sa Chuen. Does the family speak Cantonese or Si yip. Any headstones with village names?