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Post by lachinatown on Jul 10, 2020 20:42:41 GMT -5
Julio, The papers you posted provide a great detail of information for you to search for your roots. Maybe at the village someone would remember him and his family.
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Post by gckimm on Jul 10, 2020 23:59:48 GMT -5
Hi Julio:
There are some ways you can try to contact your relatives in China. It just depends on how determined you are.
You have some things in your favor. First, the most recent letter from China that you have in your possession is relatively recent: 1974. Second, the person who wrote that letter is not too distantly related to you: your grandmother's sister. Third, you know the names of your other relatives. Fourth, you know the location of your great-grandfather's village. I think there is a high likelihood not only that you have family in China but also that you have relatives there who have some recollection of your family, the family that your great-grandfather had after he moved to Cuba.
I have two suggestions. One is more direct. It is to send a letter to the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs in your great-grandfather's village, giving the names of your family members and asking for help in locating any relations currently living in the village. Now it is quite possible that no such office exists but in a small village your letter may be opened by the mail carrier and its contents made known to the villagers. Someone in the village may recognize the names of your family members and then contact you. This may sound like a crazy idea but it is exactly the plan recommended to me by a representative of the China Travel Service in San Francisco many years ago when I wanted to see if any of my relatives still lived in my ancestral village. And it worked! Some weeks after I sent this letter, I received a letter from some distant relatives. We then corresponded for several months, establishing the family connection, and I went to visit them the following year.
The less direct approach is to send a letter with the appropriate family information to the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs in Taishan City. This office does exist and it has a website with a mailing address and even an e-mail address. You can ask someone on the staff to go to the village and check out the situation on your behalf.
In both cases, it is not a sure thing that your message will get results. But again, if you are willing to try, you might get lucky. Of course, because you are not able to correspond in Chinese, you will need assistance. If you really want to send a letter to China to find your relatives, I am willing to help you. Send me a private message and I will tell you how to get in touch with me.
Greg
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Post by jasonwu on Jul 11, 2020 0:45:46 GMT -5
I agree with Greg, many people in Taishan are very happy to meet lost relatives. Julio now has the village location and contact names to work with. According to the ages accompanying the names of Jose's three grandsons in the notarization from 1971, their current ages would be 71, 69, and 63 - it's very possible that they are still alive. Even if they aren't, or even if they have moved elsewhere, people in the village will definitely recognize their names. By the way, in Google Maps satellite view, I counted less than 50 houses in Gaowei village - if all of the villagers are Wu's/Ng's and stem from the same ancestor, it's probably a very close-knit community (as is the case for most villages in this region). To echo Greg's suggestion about contacting the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs in Taishan, one of their main purposes is to help foreign-born descendants like yourself who have ties to Taishan but do not know how to get in touch with them. They have trained personnel who correspond in English to cater to this.
Once you have gotten in contact with your relatives, you can probably use WeChat to converse with them. Most retirees in China, particularly in the 60's age group, are very smartphone-savvy - they use the app as a social media platform and even as a digital wallet. A few of our forum members have found success in using the translation options in the app to converse with elderly relatives in China.
Jason
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Post by julio on Jul 11, 2020 0:50:15 GMT -5
Greg- I just sent you a private message I truly appreciate your help Jason- I will definitely try that way. I just need to find the contact info of that institution and hope that they can understand me haha. Do you happen to know if they have email address?
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Post by jasonwu on Jul 11, 2020 1:04:05 GMT -5
Julio,
Several years ago, I reached out to the OOCA in Taishan on behalf of a friend at the following email address: ts686@ 1 6 3 . c o m (remove the spaces in the URL).
I am not sure if it is still functional but do give it a try. I am positive that they deal with a lot of English correspondence so do not worry about the language barrier. Just make sure to provide all of the individuals' names that have been idenitified and the village location. Include the documents in your initial post as well.
Jason
P.S. The second character in Fulin's wife's name is 羣 Qun. A more common form of this character is 群. The two parts in the character are just reorganized.
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Post by julio on Jul 11, 2020 1:18:34 GMT -5
Jason- You are so kind, thank you for all your help I will contact them right now. Stay safe!
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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 11, 2020 11:40:57 GMT -5
If you haven't, you should create a family tree using the names of your ancestors that you find. I created one using Geni (www.geni.com) back in mid-2013 to create mine, which is what I recommend for keeping track of family members and lineages.
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