Douglas Lam

[Henry]

Dear Friends,

Douglas Lam's kindness in helping people perform Chinese genealogy research in Zhongshan is even known in the USA:

uat.heritagecorridor.org.au/people/douglas-lam

Henry

[douglaslam]

Oh Henry, this is very flattering and embarrassing. I think I gave an interview to a university academic / researcher here and this is the end result. There is a couple of minor errors but I won't go into it.

I am thinking of retirement from my day job in the first half of the new year. I'll take up field search more earnestly as a paying hobby as I do run into expenses big time. I am open for business to find your roots and origins for a modest fee.

I have many successful hunts, as I call them, and equal measure in misses. Some of the cases are plainly difficult to crack. Many of you will remember a young Mexican girl who wanted to find her grandfather. She only had a family name Lee and a photo for me to work on. I went to so many Lee villages, including the one which was the ancestral home of a former Mexican envoy to Beijing. But all to no avail and the girl did not even get back to me before I abandoned the hunt.

I derived tremendous satisfaction and exhilaration in getting a desirable outcome I wanted for the people I was helping. It can become emotional at times. Starting from zero, I've now gained much experience and built a small network I can call on for assistance.

[evelyn]

Happy New Year Douglas!
I had the pleasure of meeting you when I was with Gail in Zhongshan!
Are you now retired? I'm so happy we made the journey to China in 2019 when
we did. One can't imagine how things have changed.

I visited the Situ Library twice when I was there (I'm a Seto). The gents there were
very kind and nice and came with me to find an ancestral village where my dad was to have been born. Unfortunately, it just left me with more questions.

I'm not able to see the photos you posted and very curious on the progress of what is going on in Chikan. While visiting the library, I went up to the roof and was astonished at the changes within two weeks. I visited when I was with my first Situ clan trip and again with Henry's group. I'm curious how it's changed now with so much time has passed. I've asked the contact I had at the Library but haven't gotten a response. I relay on the We Chat translator and it sometimes isn't very helpful. Regards, Evelyn

[douglaslam]

Hi Evelyn,

It's a surprise to meet up again on this forum. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner because I did not find it easy to navigate on my smart phone to this thread. My apologies.

Yes, I remember I spent time waiting at the border for Gail and our driver to accompany you crossing from Macao into China. I could not go to Macao without cancelling my China visa on that occasion. I think we did dine without wine as well as lunching on the same day before you and Gail went on to Fujian.

On my last visit to Chikan, I did take many photos on my digital cameras. I'll make Hoiping and Toishan on my itineraries in all future visits after all my wife was from the four counties and I have good contacts there. On that visit I was doing a job for a good friend to find the diaolus his maternal grandfather built. His grandfather was the first Chinese to have a novel (in Chinese) published in Australia.

I'm still working, and putting retirement on hold because international borders are still closed and airfares are prohibitively expensive and you have to factor in quarantine time and costs as well.

I did plan to retire last year, but the pandemic put paid to that. From early April last year, all staff member at 70 years of age or older as well as those who had a chronic condition were put on indefinite paid leave, and it went on to early December,eight months of paid leave to stay home. The olds like me were overjoy. I resumed in early Dec, barely two weeks later, a local surge in Covid cases resulted in a second period of paid leave for close to two months. I had about 10 months of paid leave to stay home in the last twelve months. Why retire?

Hope to catch up again soon.

Douglas

[evelyn]

HI Douglas,
No apologies needed. I find this site a bit hard to navigate and have a hard time finding my way
sometimes. I haven't been on all that frequently. I notice that the Forum with the Situ, Szeto, Soo Hoo is definitely one of the more active ones. Fay Chee is amazing with her searching abilities even though she's not literate in Chinese.

I just spoke to Gail earlier this evening and she mentioned someone seeing my post to you. Well, with the pandemic,
I suppose it was just as well that you didn't retire and looks like you got some benefit from it. There's more to look
forward to. It doesn't look like a good year to travel back to China anyway. Too soon. I'd be fascinated to see update photos from Chikan whenever you get to go. Although for some reason, I can't seem to access photos on this site for some reason. I know Fay Chee has posted photos and other folks have as well and it's a bit hit/miss. 

It was fun to tag along with Gail as she researched her family with your help. It made the trip a lot more interesting for
sure. Meeting Carlos was fun also. We did share some good meals together. I wouldn't have seen the Opium museum had you not take us there. 

Wishing you a good year of the Ox and look forward to chatting again.

Warm Regards,
Evelyn 

[douglaslam]

Evelyn, We did have fun, fun like looking for a place to eat after the Museum visit. We wanted to eat in comfort but could not find a more upmarket eatery with air-cond., remember? The meal was inexpensive but quite pleasing.

I made many valuable friends while I was in China over the years . Gail is in frequent contact with me, I help her with some of life's small problems and queries.

I think you can find more updated images of Chikan online. Some old ones I took are in a hard drive of an old broken desktop. I have yet to retrieve the data after many years have lapsed.

Hope we can catch up in China, soon.

All the best,

Douglas

[kjhong]

Hi Douglas,
Thank you for your help tracking down my grandmother's village Shek Doi 石嘴村 in Toisan in 2014. I've been away from this forum for a few years, but have recently started to update and expand my family history records.

I still have not been back to see my ancestral villages. So, I'm very envious of your many trips to China.

Perhaps we can meet in person sometime, either in China or when I'm visiting my in-laws in Sydney.

Cheers,
Ken

[douglaslam]

Ken, I did have a very good time going to your maternal side of ancestral village. I was fortunate on that occasion to have a Moy clansman to take me and my companions to places off to most tourists. It was an eye opener. I tried to contact the Moy fellow to thank him but without luck.

I did not go to China last year for a very obvious reason, and 2021 is not going to be any different, even 2022 is in doubt the way things are. Valuable years lost.

I look forward to you coming down under but that is not possible in the short term.

Always good to be in touch again.

Good luck

Douglas

[evelyn]

Hi Douglas,
Hope you are well and travel restrictions have lifted a bit. Many friends here in the states have been reluctant to fly still. I did make one flight to last month to visit my family but most of the time I drive.

When I was in China, the last day I visited the last village name on my list, Shoulaucun, and had one of those regrettable moments as it turned out, that village was one of the same villages my Seto clansmen had said their families were from. My Seto clansman was in China the week before I met up with Gail. So on this last day, I was with student interpreter and we managed to meet up one village elder but I neglected to inquire about an ancestral hall that might have information on my grand, great or great great ancestors. Perhaps you can assist me with this. Let me know the next time you go to Kaiping and I provide the information I have. The few pages of my Jaipu shows only generation 11-22. A fellow from Family Search was kind enough to help translate some of the information for me. I found out my grandfather had siblings (and I don't know what became of them, whether they migrated etc.) 

There was another village name Dailong, in Cheksui. I visited there where the student researcher found perhaps a distant relative. When I met the couple, the wife mentioned some relatives that visited a while back and they had three sons. She started naming the sons, so that confirmed the names of some cousins. The folks lived in a Market Town nearby and pointed out a three story building they believed my grandfather and a brother might have had a business. I disagreeumption is my grandfather had his business there and that town is where my father was born. They took me to the small hamlet. They said the mud rammed earth house my grandfather lived in was since long gone, built over (good feng shui). They showed me their old earth home which a ghost of a place. I wasn't able to get much more info due to my language limitations. 

Let's chat more and if you plan to go, I can share more info. 

Best Regards,
Evelyn

[douglaslam]

Hi Evelyn,

For one obvious reason not anyone of us can make a or trips to China. I do have very good contacts in Hoiping and in Hong Kong who can accompany me there. I am keen to make a trip as soon as practicable when international borders are open once more.

In the meantime, I keep working because my job is secure even during the pandemic. Last year, older workers like myself were given about ten months stay home covid leave on base pay.

Currently, we are in lockdown and have been so for about two months. Because of reduced demand, we are getting extra days off on full pay to stay home. I guess I am surviving the pandemic better than many, many people.

I'll let you know when things are looking up. In the meantime, keep well and keep safe. Hope to see you in China once more, soon.

Douglas