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Post by julio on Jul 7, 2020 17:01:58 GMT -5
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Post by lachinatown on Jul 8, 2020 18:19:08 GMT -5
Wencunzhen 汶村镇 Taishan, Guangdong, Jiangmen, Guangdong Province China is the area of the letters. One from a daughter, the other from a younger brother.
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Post by julio on Jul 8, 2020 19:48:41 GMT -5
Thank you very much! That will help me for my future trip If anyone else understands anything else from these documents, please share. Thank you for your time.
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Post by Henry on Jul 9, 2020 8:43:21 GMT -5
Julio,
Contingent upon the availability of a vaccine, I will be leading a tour to China during April 2021 and we will be visiting ancestral villages.
If you are interested in joining us - my email is: Tomclan@Gmail.com
Henry
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andytan
Member
If you'd like to reach me, please feel free to send me an email via tomguojie@gmail.com
Posts: 85
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Post by andytan on Jul 9, 2020 12:33:14 GMT -5
Have you tried importing these scanned images of your ancestor's letters onto Google Translate? It's not 100% translation but it'll give you the general idea of the message conveyed in these letters.
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Post by Henry on Jul 9, 2020 13:09:57 GMT -5
Julio, Online: I believe Google Translate only works on text characters. In my experience, Google Translate does not perform a optical character recognition (OCR) function in converting scans of Chinese characters into actual Chinese text characters that can be translated directly by Google Translate into a desired language. I suggest using: www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html to get the Chinese characters to submit in Google Translate. To translate a photo of a scan of Chinese characters using cell phone Play Store apps - Google Translate and Microsoft Translator - either offline or real time. Henry
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Post by lachinatown on Jul 9, 2020 14:12:22 GMT -5
BTW Julio, The surname is 伍 (Wu in pinyin or Ng, Eng). (Spelled as Hing or Heing for Spanish?) The letter was addressed to 伍世煖 (Wu Shinuan) or Hing, Jose. 世 (Shi) has the meaning of world or life. One letter written the last character as 暖, one as 煖, apparently both meaning the same, warm. Wu (surname 伍) Click for Wikipedia articleAlso: Ng (name) link
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Post by julio on Jul 9, 2020 15:46:57 GMT -5
Wow, now it makes sense! I was so confused with the surname because I know it is "Hing", but OCR/Google was translating it as Wu. I wasn't aware that they are spelled differently. That means that my family's surname is Wu after all... This is so interesting! my parents are going to be so happy to know this. Regarding the name, Chinese immigrants changed their names to a Hispanic name when they arrived to Cuba, but they maintained their surname. Does Shinuan literally translate to "Jose", or is Shinuan his actual Chinese name? Thanks to everyone for your kindness, I hope you are having a great day
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Post by jasonwu on Jul 9, 2020 19:33:53 GMT -5
Hi Julio,
The first image you shared, a notarization issued by the Taishan County Court in 1971 confirming the relations of Jose Hing aka Wu Shinuan, mentions that his son, daughter-in-law, and grandsons were left behind in China and lost contact with him for a period of time. Their village address is written as 台山 汶村 鳳村 高圍村 Gaowei Village, Fengcun Village, Wencun Town, Taishan County. In Google Maps, you can see that Gaowei is a small village found to the east of the larger Fengcun. Click here for the Google Maps link.
Jason
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Post by julio on Jul 9, 2020 20:34:38 GMT -5
Thank you very much jasonwu for the details! Have a great day
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Post by gckimm on Jul 9, 2020 22:16:38 GMT -5
Hi Julio: It is always nice to greet a fellow clan member, and I am especially happy to meet one with roots in Cuba. My father's second cousin left China in the 1930s to seek his fortune in Havana. I don't know if he ever returned to China. As you have learned in the posts above, your real surname is Wu (Mandarin) or Ng (Cantonese). I am guessing that the surname Hing is derived from the Cantonese pronunciation of our surname. In Spanish the "h" is silent, leaving "ing." The Cantonese pronunciation "Ng" is often difficult for people who do not speak Cantonese and Ng clan members who move to another country frequently add a vowel to make the surname easier to pronounce, ending up with surnames like Eng, Ung, and Ing. Your ancestor's given name, Shinuan (or Sai Nuen in Cantonese) has its own meaning, unrelated to the name Jose, which was a name that your ancestor adopted in his new land. Taishan/Toishan City was formerly a county in Guangdong Province (in former times known as Canton Province). The Wu/Ng clan is one of the great clans of Taishan/Toishan; however, the Wu/Ng surname is not commonly found outside southern China. In Taishan/Toishan the Wu/Ng clan is primarily divided into two "houses" or branches. Your family undoubtedly belongs to one of them. Unfortunately, after searching through the genealogies in my possession and sites on the internet, I was not able to discover the branch to which your family belongs. For more information about the Wu/Ng clan of Taishan/Toishan, I refer you to the website put together by our clan brother (and Chinese Genealogy Forum member) Ron Eng Young and me: sites.rootsweb.com/~chinesesurname/sueysun.html#origin. If you happen to find any other information about your Chinese ancestors, please share it and I would be happy to do more research for you. Greg P.S. The Chinese character to the left of my post is the character for our surname.
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Post by julio on Jul 10, 2020 14:37:22 GMT -5
Hi Greg:
Thank you very much for providing me with this information! I was able to translate the letters and discovered that one of them was sent by my great-aunt (my grandma's sister). Supposedly she had 5 children of her own and also other siblings. I wish that one day I can get in contact with them. Do you have any idea of how to search for a relative in China? I know it's probably quite difficult. I currently cannot travel since I am a college student with not much free time or money for such a trip, but I was thinking of one day traveling there and going to the government of the area and see if it is possible to find their contact information. Probably it's very unrealistic but I can't think of another way.
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Post by lachinatown on Jul 10, 2020 16:09:15 GMT -5
julio, Which letter are you talking about? One of the two letters you posted above? I read the letters as one from a daughter, one from a younger brother.
So Jose Hing your grandfather? or great grandfather?
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Post by julio on Jul 10, 2020 17:02:32 GMT -5
Jose Hing is my great-grandfather. He had children in China with another woman before going to Cuba. In Cuba, he married my great-grandmother and had my grandma (Nelida Hing). That's why I said that my grandma's sister (referring to his Chinese daughter that wrote the letter) had 5 children; she says that in one of the letters that I posted here. Below, I attached a picture of Jose Hing and my grandma (his Cuban daughter)
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Post by julio on Jul 10, 2020 17:43:28 GMT -5
New Update: on the notarized document that I shared above, it shows the names of Jose Hing's Chinese son, his son's wife, and 3 grandkids.
These are their names:
Wu Fu Lin (伍福林): Jose Hing's son Zhao ? Ying (赵?英): Wu Fu Lin's wife
Jose Hing's grandkids in China (my distant cousins). They could still be alive, in their 50s or 60s. Wu Chang Qing (伍长庆) Wu Chang Ning (伍长宁) Wu Chang Fu (伍长富)
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