Wu family from Taishan

[jimbo]

Ok, so, I'm doing some genealogy research for my half-siblings (because I'm such a great big brother haha) and I'm running into some issues... 

I managed to trace back to their great-great-grandfather, and I've hit a snag. His name here in the US was Sam Ching Eng, and he was born in *maybe* 1852. I've found a couple passenger manifests with his name or similar, but they either landed in L.A. or San Francisco, so I can't tell which is which (or if it was even him!). ANYWAY. I found his wife's gravestone, and it's confusing at best. The name on the stone is Samona Botyera Eng, but there is an attached marker that has made the story much stranger... On the attached marker, it reads "伍祥之妻呂氏墳" (Wǔ xiángzhī qī lǚ shì fén), something along the lines of "Wu Xiang’s wife Lü’s grave" (Thanks, Google Translate!). So, is it Lü or is it Samona? Or is it BOTH?! And is it her given name or a surname? Too late to ask as they've been gone over a hundred years lol. And while that is a wonderful mystery, I'd also like to know about the other line of text, which reads "台山斗洞濠冲巷裡村" (Táishān dòu dòng háo chōng xiàng lǐ cūn). Someone else tried to help me locate the area and they said they think it's within Tau Tung Heung, Taishan, but couldn't pin it any closer than that. It definitely seems to be a hotspot for the surname Wu, so I think we're on the right track, but I'd love to narrow it down as much as possible. The best I could think is that it's literally just saying it's a house by a small river or something, but who knows? Maybe one of you! I'm also attaching photos of the full gravestone and just the marker - maybe it'll help. Thanks in advance! 

[Henry]

jimbo,

From: 台山斗洞濠冲巷裡村

Here is the village from the Village Database:




Click in Village Database:

Here is the Google Maps location:

Click on XiangLi

You will need the names of the males on her family in order to find the family lineage in the village genealogy book.

During April 2025, I will take a group of Chinese American seniors to visit their ancestral villages in the SiYi area - if interested - email me at " [e-mail] "

Henry

[gckimm]

Hi jimbo:

Wu/Eng is my surname, too. Your family members are welcome to take a look at the website put together by Ron Eng Young and me years ago: sites.rootsweb.com/~chinesesurname/sueysun.html#origin. It has a lot of good information about the history of the clan in Toishan. Right now I don't have access to the books that will tell me the branch or "house" to which your relatives belong, but I can try to tell you later, if you are interested. If your relatives belong to my branch, I have a genealogy that was published a few years ago but I might need a different name for 伍祥; because it is one character only for the personal name, it looks like it is not the name by which he would be listed in the genealogy.

The lower headstone says "The grave of Lui Shee, the wife of Eng Cheung." Lui 呂, sometimes spelled "Louie" in the U.S., is a Chinese surname. Shee 氏 in combination with a surname is the traditional way of referring to a married woman. Here you might translate literally as "a woman of the Lui clan." Since it does not appear at all that Samona is Chinese (and her surname does not sound anything like Lui), my guess is that Sam Ching Eng had two wives: one Chinese and one who was not Chinese. Probably the first wife was Lui Shee and then he married Samona after she died. Note: it was illegal in CA for people of different races to marry until 1948 but that law was not always enforced, especially if no one went to the authorities for some legal document like a marriage license.

Greg