Tong family of Jung Sen

[tongy]

Hi everyone,

I am new here and not quite sure where to start. I am Australian and am interested in researching my husband's family tree. I have spoken to my father in law about the family and any information he has.

He says his grandfather's name was TONG Hin Leung who was from the village of Jung Sen (?not sure of spelling) near Guangzhou. I would guess he would have been born about 1880. As far as we know he moved to the Philippines and served in WWI in the US Navy as a cook.

We are planning on taking a trip to China in the next couple of years to try and research the family history. I would appreciate any advice about doing this....

Thanks!

[geoff]

Hello Tongy,

I haven't researched the "Tong" surname in China or in Vic or NSW Australia.

My ancestors originated from 3 villages in Jung Seng province near Guangzhou.
Any idea how far & direction the village is from Guangzhou?

Helen,
Have you researched Tongs from any Jung Seng villages?

Geoff

[Ah Gin]

Tongy,

Welcome to the wonderful world of "In Search of Roots". Some folks view us with amusement, some share our passion in tracking down our family history, and many more rejoice with us when we do find the missing link. I am sure you will find folks on this Message Board is very helpful and giving.

I too am a young player in this sand box. That said, I will share with you some of the more obvious starting points. Other on the MB will no doubt want to add to this.

1. If you are based in the Aus Capital City, e.g Melbourne, head to the State Library and some Regional Libraries. They usually have a good collection of Family History Resource, such as Shipping, Passanger Lists, Birth Death Marriage (BDM), Will & Probates, and other Indexes.

2. If Great Grandfather worked with the US Navy in the Phillipines, that might be an obvious source of info.

3. Nothing beats source document written in Chinese. See if you can hunt them down. The Colonial Clerks did wonderful things to tranliteration of Chinese Names :-) So ideally, to get to the "real thing" you need to be certain of grandfather's Chinese name (in Chinese). The Surname TONG itself could one of a few variations of spellings / transliterations. And the village "Jung Sen" is intriguing -- but we can only guess if that might be ’†ŽR, the birthplace of Dr. Sun Yat Sen. But then Zhong Shan was known as ŽR, Xiang Shan, not exactly near "Canton". Sorry, it's quite a few things to think about.

Good that you have a wish to explore China. I am sure many including Henry can give you his personal view.

Hope this is a small help.

Regards, Ah Gin

[tongy]

Thanks everyone for your replies!

My father in law came to Australia in the 1950s so immigration records are out - we have first hand info there which is wonderful.

He grew up in Hong Kong so has little information about the original family village... all he knows is that we came from the "village" Jung Sen near Guangzhou and that the village had a famous lychee tree that grew fruit for the Emperor. This is a story he was told by his parents.

He has visited me today and has said that the interesting thing about our surname is that it is not the normal character for TONG. Ours is the one that reads as "soup".

I have tried looking in to the US records for the great-grandfather but it seems as though I may need his full name and more information than I am able to provide - I am considering getting a researcher to try to hunt him down.

The hunt continues

[tyuti1668]

www.gzsdfz.org.cn/ycjg/ycfw/ycfw024.htm ...县城“三大强族”之一的称号（三大强族：城北汤氏、城南... | "Tong" was big family in county town's north part
Maps with "汤" in 增城 ( #5 & #10 is near the county town's famous tree )
That lychee is Hanging Green.

[Henry]

Hi Tongy,

Welcome to our Forum, I would like to contribute some maps to your search:

This bi-lingual map of Guangdong province provides an orientation of the places:



This is a map of Conghua and Zengcheng districts:



It would be great if you can find and post the Chinese characters for the name of your ancestral village from documents and/or a digital photo of the gravestone of your ancestors. Sometimes, much of the information you need is inscribed on the gravestone. Good Luck !

Henry

[tongy]

Thank you very much for your helpful information. I will pass the information on to my father in law. That is exciting news about the lychee tree and it may just help with the missing link in the hunt for the village we are looking for.

Thanks again

[geoff]

Hello Tongy,

As I mentioned earlier, we originate from 3 villages in JungSeng province. GGFather (maternal) departed Bak Shek (now Bai Shi) village, Jungseng Province for Melbourne Australia in 1856. His son was born in Melbourne Vic in 1877, & c1905 married a lady with surname "NG" from a village called Ngar Yiew. Bai Shi & Ngar Yiew are nearby villages in the region famous for lychees. Bai Shi village is approx 40 km north east of Guangzhou, near Shatin, on the Guangzhou to Hong Kong Railway line, according to Henry.

Maybe your "NG" was from Ngar Yiew village. Can you find the chinese character?

There are stories of Jungseng people living in New Zealand on the Tungjung of New Zealand web site www.tungjung.org.nz

Geoff

[raymond]

For those of you who are interested in genealogical searches in the Jungseng area, here is a weblink to the Tung Jung Association of New Zealand, and the most notable informational piece in this website is a list of some 32 villages in the Jungseng area and the specific Chinese surname(s) in each village: www.tungjung.org.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=15&Itemid=32

The Tung Jung Association was founded by Chinese who came to New Zealand from the Jungseng and Dongguan districts in the Guangdong Province.

Check out this most informative website for yourself............

Raymond

[geoff]

Hello Henry,

Thanks for the above maps. I've found my father's village of Zhucun, just west of Zengcheng City on route 324. Eventhough I can't read or speak chinese, I've learnt the chinese characters of our ancestral villages.

A correction to my reply #7. It should read, Bai Shi village is approx 40 km north east of Guangzhou, near Shapu (not Shatin), on the Guangzhou to Hong Kong Railway line, according to Henry.

Geoff

[Henry]

Hi Geoff,

I, as well as you, have learned Chinese characters in this process of Chinese genealogy research - which can sometimes be characterized as the process of the " agony and the ecstasy ".

Perhaps, when Tongy is able to acquire the Chinese characters for the name of his ancestral village - these maps may be useful. If not, I have some really detailed topographic maps that that show many more villages that this map of the Conghua and Zengcheng districts.

Henry

[helen]

Hi everyone. Jungseng is actually called Zengcheng . It is an area of many villages, scattered alonng the Canton-Hong Kong Railway. Geoff, Sharon Wong and my families come from there. The great Lychee tree can be found in Gualin - but that is the Wong village. The map is great Henry.

I think if you ask around the older Chinese, they will be able to help you. Look for the oldest person.

[geoff]

Hello Tongy,

Chinese family names & meanings can be viewed at

www.geocities.com/Tokyo/3919/hundred.html

Geoff

[tongy]

Hello everyone again,

I have spoken to my father in law again about his ancestral village and he has written for me in Chinese characters the name of the village as was told to him by his parents:

I have scanned a copy of this:


Can anyone help with locating this village?

We are planning on taking a trip to China at the end of this year and to try and find more information on their ancestry. I have read some information about Jiapu - how can I go about finding the Jiapu for their clan?

Thanks very much for your help

[Henry]

Hi Tongy,

Thank you for the Chinese characters of the village, this is Tang village [ 湯/汤村] - I have separated the traditional Chinese character with a slash from
the simplified Chinese character for "Tang".

The first map is a general map of the Guangzhou (Canton) city area and the second map is a more detailed map showing how to reach Tang village. Tang village is
about 35 km / 22 miles from the center of Guangzhou - as the crow flies.



mysite.verizon.net/vzepzaui/Tang village.jpg[/img]


I suggest you contact Su Zhiwei, who is a manager of a travel service in Guangzhou and he can provide you with a car and driver
[ guide & translator services ] to visit your ancestral village. Some Forum members have used his service and found it to be reliable:

Su Zhiwei
Manager of Europe & America Dept.
China Merchants Travel
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email addresses:
Email [e-mail]


In terms of the Chinese genealogy books [ jiapu (family)/zupu (clan) ], you need to have the Chinese names for your grandfather and/or great grandfather
[ Chinese names may be on their gravestones or from family information]. Then, ask Mr. Su to contact the village chief of Tang village to identify relatives
still living in the village and to see if they have any genealogy books. These genealogy books are great to have because they are an archival source
for your family lineage and they also can verify who your relatives are. I suggest that you keep some family information confidential - this information
would be known to "true" relatives and can help to confirm their family relationship to you.

Henry