Locating the villages of my grandparents

[carolross]

Hi, 

My grandfather comes from Miu Bin village in Miu Bin Heung in Toishan. The family surname is Yung. How can I locate this village on a modern day map?

In an immigration interview, my grandmother states that she is from "Ai Long village, Sun Ning district". The family surname is stated as "Jee" or "Gee". Click here for a link to a photo of her gravesite marker. I don't read Chinese, but someone translated the village on the marker as Miu Bin, and the family name, using Hanyu Pinyin romanization as "Zhu". Can someone help me verify the family name and the village? If the village is not Miu Bin, I'd like to see how far away it is from Miu Bin. 

Thanks for any help you can provide. 

Carol 

[Henry]

Hi CarolRoss,

Welcome!

Your GF ancestral village:

翁 Yung 廟邊/庙边 Mui Bin /Miao Bian


Your GM ancestral village:

朱 / 陳 Gee / Chan 大蓢 Tai Long / Da Lang


Chinese men usually marry women that live nearby





Distance between Villages


This is about 4 miles / 9 minutes by car, and usually takes a person an hour to walk 4 miles.

Henry

[carolross]

Wow. Thanks, Henry, for the quick response. Does the gravesite marker for my grandmother confirm her village as Tai Long and her surname as Gee? I find the different names using different romanizations confusing. 

I looked closer at the info on my grandfather's village and it's Miu Bin Kau, also known as Fung Lok Sher--not Miu Bin as I originally thought.  Is this similar in location to village of Miu Bin? 

Carol

[gckimm]

Hi carolross:

If you are looking at the Village DB, you will see that Miu Bin and Miu Bin Kau are both listed. “Miu Bin Kau" means "Old Miu Bin," so apparently there was another, older village by the name of Miu Bin before the other Miu Bin. I assume they were located very close to each other. I don't see any modern reference online to Miu Bin Kau; maybe it was eventually merged with the newer Miu Bin.

As for your grandmother, traditionally, married women's headstones were inscribed with the name of their husband's village--which is not very helpful from a genealogical point of view. Gee is the common spelling used by Cantonese people for the surname which in Mandarin is Zhu. Another note about different Chinese dialects: "Ai Long" would be the Toishan pronunciation of the standard Cantonese "Tai Long." Sun Ning is the old name for Toishan (changed in 1914).

Greg

[Henry]

Carol,

The Village Database has the clarifying information:




Number 7 village is the Mui Bin you first mentioned, your second reference Number 8 village is Fung Lok Sher is an alias for the old Mui Bin





Look at a 1940s map:




It shows the :original / old village - now known as "Le She"

Click:

Google Map Location of Le She


Henry

[carolross]

Thanks, Greg, for the explanation on the two different Miu Bin villages. That makes sense. 

Also, it was helpful to hear that my grandfather's village is listed, instead of my grandmother's village, even though it is her headstone. 

And finally, I appreciated your patience in listing Cantonese vs.Mandarin pronunciations for the same names.  

[carolross]

Thanks for the additional information on the two villages. I can see how close the villages are to each other!

Best, 

Carol