Finding our Fung Family Roots

[fungfamilysearch]

We have been researching for many years, without any success, my wife's Fung family history. Thanks to the wonderful assistance of Mr. Henry Tom, a frequent contributor to this website, we have finally found our Fung family. I can't say too much but it was big news to find that her Grandfather had lived in America ( California ), not sure of the exact dates, where his eight daughters were born. All of the family returned to China where a son was born. We are looking forward to meeting these relatives and also learning more about their details. I really wanted to thank Mr. Tom for his help and also his williness to allow his nephew in China to do some genealogical research for us. This opened up many doors, including the local government family research services. This website, siyigenealogy, in bringing together Chinese genealogical researchers is doing a great service to mankind and to the Chinese diaspora.

[helen]

Please can you tell us more of the local government family research services? I have been luck to get information recently from family, and have discoverd Grandfather's neice living in the village - many people are not as lucky. It would be intertesting to hear how the Chinese government can help.

[Henry]

Please see my webpage for a listing of:
Foreign & Overseas Bureaus & Offices in Guangdong Province, China

mysite.verizon.net/vzepzaui/village.html

[fungfamilysearch]

Hello, my wife and I returned from China. We did learn more about her family whom she was separated from when she was three years old. Here is some of what we learned. The village is in Zhuhai and called Zaobei in Mandarin and Chopui in Cantonese.

Her grandfather, Gum Ling Fung travelled to America indentured for the purpose of working on the railroad. At this time we are not sure which railroad or when. He was a supervisor. When his work with the railroad was completed an American who was involved in Surgar Cane asked him to come work with him in California. He agreed. While working the Sugar Cane he lost two fingers. Later, the American died. He had a son and a daughter. He left one third of the factory to his son, daughter, and Gum Ling. ( I guess there might be probate records we can check ). We don't know more than this. But we understand that he became very wealthy. He was married to Lady Chan and they had eight daughers born in America. Before leaving America he started a restaurant. Up until he died, the restaurant in America sent money to him in China. He chartered a ship for he and his family and travelled from America with his wife and eight daughters, returning to their ancestral home. He was the 12th Generation to have lived in Zaobei. Upon arriving in Guangzhou he bought much land, built a new house, and entered into other businesses. All of the boats who came to Zaobei paid for the services of his company. At some point he married or had a second wife ( Lady Wong ). From this union were born a daughter and then a son. The house which Gum Ling built after returning from America was centered around a water well. The house still stands. It is two stories. Inside and outside were beautiful paintings and poetry however during the Red Guard era all of these paintings were white washed and pretty much destroyed. But some of them have survived with even the painters signature intact. I have put several photos on my website which I hope you will enjoy. The family had traditional wooden slats with ancestor names hanging in the family house. During the Red Guard area the Red Guard came and took all the slats down, broke them, and used them for firewood. The family when working their rice fields hired the people on a wage basis so there was no tenancy common throughout China. For this reason the family was able to survive the purges which took place. Also they had to burn all of their records. There is more but I'm not sure what all can be said. We will be researching further since it appears he had an interesting life. Since they returned to China sometime around 1900 the house you see in the photos is at least one hundred years old. In the first photo you can see the flowers which once adorned the outside but now pretty much destroyed. The link where you can see the photos is:

www.childtalk.com/History/fungclanresearch.html

I will try to add a few more photos later.

[fungfamilysearch]

I am replying to my original message with more information about Gum Fung Ling. His real name is Fung Heng Yuen. We learned recently that in America he had a second wife who was of Japanese ethnicity and they had two daughters. Gum Fung Ling asked them to return to Zaobei however she refused to leave America.

So far I have not been able to identify where he was in America. I though it would be easy with 8 daughters.