Once-Lost Pioneer Chinese Immigrant Docs Go Online

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Rare, once-lost historic records about pioneer Chinese immigrants to the Northwest have found a new life online. The digital archive is hosted by Oregon State University. A Chinese-American civic group hopes the document trove can help families locate ancestors gone missing early in the last century.

This document collection includes names, dates and places where the remains of Chinese immigrant workers were systematically dug up across Oregon. This actually was a custom across the American West decades ago. Mostly bachelor Chinese laborers wished for their remains to be returned and reburied in their home villages.

These documents show how the bones of more than 550 workers never quite made it home, mainly because of the outbreak of civil war in China in 1949.

www.opb.org/news/article/rare_once-lost_pioneer_chinese_immigrant_docs_go_online/

Oregon Chinese Disinterment Documents:

archives.library.oregonstate.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/oregondisintermentdocuments/

Previous coverage - "Unfinished Journey: Historic Documents Trace Immigrants' Remains Long Trip Home" (July 12, 2010):

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128464249
Copyright 2012 N3. To see more, visit www.nwnewsnetwork.org/.

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“This collection not only adds to the documentation of Oregon’s Chinese history, it adds to the state’s history,” wrote Natalia Fernández, Oregon Multicultural Librarian, in an email. “The Chinese immigrants that came to Oregon beginning in the mid-19th century had a significant impact on the state, especially economically via various industries, and even though they made arrangements for their remains to be returned to China, their impact should not be forgotten and, in fact, should be celebrated,” Fernández added.

However, the remains from this disinterment process did not make it back to China. Due to an individual absconding with the funds, the ship carrying the remains was not allowed to dock and deliver the cargo. Shortly after, war broke out in China and the borders were closed. Today, many of those remains are still held at the Tung Wah Hospital in Hong Kong.

The documents contain information on the purchases of boxes to hold the remains, shipping invoices, receipts, insurance, names of the deceased and even the names of their home villages. This is significant because many documents at the time would simply record the Chinese as “Chinaman” instead of with actual names. The papers can now be used to reconstruct lost history and family lines.

“These are important because they work in hand with some of the other documents we have of the Chinese disinterment,” said Marcus Lee, member of the CCBA board of directors. “It is part of the overall puzzle and gives a more complete picture of the process. Every time you get another piece of the puzzle, you get another part of the story.”

psuvanguard.com/news/once-lost-chinese-disinterment-documents-now-available-to-psu-and-osu-students/