Tracing Ancestral Chart for Hilda Chan of the US
This is the ancestral chart I designed and constructed for Hilda Chan of the US. She has given me permission to show her chart to others.
Hilda Chan obtained her zupu (族譜), through My China Roots, from Dagang Village (大岡村) administered under Tanbian Community (坦邊社區), Chaolian Subdistrict ( 潮連街道), Pengjiang District (蓬江區), Jiangmen City (江門市), Guangdong Province (廣東省). Below are how finding details of her zupu (族譜), how data I gathered through my involvement when assisting others to do their ancestries, and how when piecing them together from the various sources, helps me in compiling a more complete ancestral charts and ancestry for Hilda Chan.
Hilda Chan from the US has seen my postings in the Chinese Genealogy Forum at
siyigenealogy.proboards.com/ where I am a moderator. From there she thought I collect zupu related to the Chen (陳) surname. When she obtained her zupu through My China Roots she offered to forward her zupu to me. I told her that not only do I collect Chen's surname zupus, but others as well; especially those who I assist in designing and constructing their ancestral charts. I assist, wherever I can help with Chinese genealogy, especially when others request me to design and construct their ancestral charts with information taken from their zupus. Each zupu has its own challenges but it is satisfying when you can solve the intricacies within it. Each case, adds to my knowledge of Chinese genealogy. So far the following surnames are of people who had requested my help:
Li/Lee (李), Wang/Wong (王), Zhang/Chang (張), Chen/Chan/Tan (陳), Huang/Wee/Ng (黄), Lim/Lin (林), Yu/You (余), Lai/Lye (賴), Chu/Chee (朱), Wu/Goh (吳), Zhou/Chow (周), Lan (蓝), Mei/Moy (梅), Zeng/Chan/Chen (曾) ), Tan (譚), Liu (劉), Ye (葉), Zheng (鄭) ), Situ (司徒), Qiu/Khoo (邱), Xu/Chee/Chi (徐), Hu/Foo (胡), and Kuang (鄺).
The Chen/Chan (陳) zupu that Hilda Chan forwarded to me, though limited in scope, still provides me a new source of information for descendants from her Chen clan progenitor Chen Long-he (陳龍壑). In her case, her own ancestry is mainly contained within one page (Page 43) of the zupu. There are other branches inside the zupu that I could extract digitally for use later, i.e., if I have the time to digitize them. As I am illiterate in Chinese, and not able to read, write and type in the language, digitizing Chinese characters takes up a lot of my time. Like the information and names on those handwritten sheets Hilda had forwarded to me, I had to trace out each character using the computer mouse through a website provided on the internet. Because the characters are handwritten, for one illiterate in Chinese as I am, I don’t exactly know how the stroke should be written, especially when there are so many different styles of handwritten Chinese. In a situation like this, I would need to ask others, who are literate in Chinese, to see how the strokes of each character should be written. This too could also be difficult at times as those studying Chinese nowadays do not practice Chinese calligraphy as part of their course works. Maybe because of that, many literates Chinese nowadays are not familiar with the different styles of written Chinese characters.
On Hilda's handwritten documents, I notice many quoted dates (on birth and/or death). Whether they were based on the Gregorian calendar or on the Chinese Lunar calendar, I was not able to figure it out. If they are on one form of a calendar, I could, if requested, convert each date to the alternative form as well. Traditional Chinese observe the anniversary of deaths based on the Chinese Lunar calendar; just as my wife does on the anniversary of my father’s death which was some 77 years ago.
Initially, when Hilda contacted me and quoted me where her ancestry in Guangdong is from, I guessed then her ancestry should be descended from one of the seven sons of Chen Hui (陳輝) aka Cheng Feng Tai (陳鳳臺). However, there was no mention of this name or that of one of the seven sons among what she originally provided. What was provided was the name of the progenitor Long-he (龍壑). When I searched among my digitized records for “龍壑”, I could not find a match, though there are others having the character “龍”.
I thought, then, her branch might not be descended from Chen Hui (陳輝) /Cheng Feng Tai (陳鳳臺) but from another Chen (陳) branch; just like the one, I did for June Chan of Australia many, many years ago. June Chan is of English descent and searching for her husband’s Chan/Chen (陳) ancestry for many years previously. I, therefore, search extensively on other digitized records of Chen branches to see whether there was any match with “龍壑” but alas, I could not find any. With the 20-plus generation that Hilda’s current family members are now in, I estimated her progenitor must be around the time of the sons of Chen Hui (陳輝) /Chen Feng Tai (陳鳳臺). It was really disheartening to me then that I had lost the challenge that time around.
Then Hilda sent me My China Roots report, who she had engaged to do her ancestral search, and then with photos of every page of the zupu, My China Roots had found for her. I thought then I should be able to design and construct a proper ancestral chart for her by extracting information I needed from the My China Roots report. From it, however, I find it listed her ancestry from the progenitor Long-he (龍壑) down to her grandfather, Guo-rong (國榮). It neither provides the spouses of each generation for her ancestors nor provides the brothers for each generation of her ancestors. These are what I would normally include on charts I design. The report itself does not say from who the progenitor Long-he (龍壑) was descended. With such information, it is not much of a chart to view when constructed.
With Hilda so willingly providing me the zupu she had obtained, I somehow feel obligated to search more through the zupu she had forwarded to me to see what else I could uncover. However, the zupu consists of some 50 pages of photos, taken from each page of the zupu, which had been reconstructed and compiled in 1992. It is with some dismay that I find photos of each page are not flat and come in different forms and sizes. Though the zupu provides charts form from Huang Di down, looking for 龍壑 through each page of the whole series of charts, is daunting; especially for one who is illiterate in Chinese as JPEG versions of pages are not searchable. When going from one chart to another in the search and with only the image of “龍壑” in my mind, soon the memory of the image of the characters for 龍壑 is forgotten, for one as old as I am. (I have yet to find 龍壑 among the charts in the zupu). When compiling ancestral charts for others, by first trying to solve the intricacies within what the zupu provides, especially one without charts being provided that show connection from one generation to another, and not having printed copies to flick through, is indeed daunting even for one who could read and understand Chinese. In Hilda's case in point, there is then no alternative but to go through each page of her zupu, by flicking through each image page uploaded on the computer screen, one at a time. Though My China Roots report mentioned that they found her ancestry on Page 43 of the zupu, that page showed her ancestry from Generation 2 to Generation 14. That page, however, does provide the names of spouses of each generation and the names of children required for compiling her ancestral chart; it still does solve her earlier ancestry before her progenitor Long-he (龍壑). For that, I try going through each page of the zupu, one page at a time, till I came to page 35 which mentioned Chen Feng Tai (陳鳳臺) and his seven children 謨, 宣, 英, 閏, 愷, 圖, and 仁. That is when I strike gold, which then enables me to trace her ancestry all the way to Huang Di (黃帝). The other three charts from Huang Di (黃帝) down to Chen Feng Tai (陳鳳臺) are already standard for all the Chen/Tan/Chin/Chan (陳) ancestries I have been doing.
There are three things on this page of Hilda zupu which were somewhat different from other sources which I have.
Firstly, the other name quoted for Chen Feng Tai (陳鳳臺) is Chen Wan Shan (陳萬山) rather than Chen Hui (陳輝). Other sources quoted Chen Wan Shan (陳萬山) as the father of Chen Feng Tai (陳鳳臺). Among other interests in Chinese genealogy since 2007, when I found my Chen clan zupu in Yongchun County (永春縣), Fujian Province (福建省), are the various other Chen (陳) ancestries of Guangdong. Invariable those that came to me for assistance have zupu have their ancestry to the progenitors in Guangdong; the majority would quote to be descended from Chen Feng Tai (陳鳳臺). They, however, did not provide ancestry before Chen Feng Tai (陳鳳臺). My very good friend Henry Tom from the US had purchased a zupu for me from a temple near Meiguan (梅關) of Nanxiong (南雄). (Henry is also a moderator for the Chinese Genealogy Forum at
siyigenealogy.proboards.com/ and he regularly organizes talks on Chinese genealogy in the US). Henry used his contact in Taishan (臺山) who traveled all the way to a remote temple near Nanxiaong to purchase that zupu (which is edited by a monk there) for me, packaged it, and couriered it to me. That zupu then provided me the ancestry down to Chen Feng Tai (陳鳳臺). Gene Chin of New York subsequently did make contact with me regarding his ancestry; which he had traced to Chen Feng Tai but no further back. With the ancestral charts I had already done from Huang Di down to Chen Feng Tai, Gene then had his ancestry complete all the way to Huang Di.
I was subsequently contacted by Mitrophan Nelson Chin of Boston to inquire why the father of why Chen Feng Tai’s father is Chen Wan Shan (陳萬山) and not Chen Feng Shan (陳鳳山), as was quoted in his ancestral document which indicated the father to be Chen Feng Shan (陳鳳山). Chen Feng Shan (陳鳳山) and Chen Wan Shan (陳萬山) are brothers whose father is Chen Ding (陳鼎). When I provided Nelson with my source, he accepted it.
Secondly, going back to Hilda zupu, Chen Feng Tai (陳鳳臺) was quoted to have one wife, who is of the surname Kuang (鄺氏). She was quoted to bore him all the seven sons. My other sources showed that Chen Feng Tai (陳鳳臺) has two wives, the first with the surname Kuang (鄺氏) and the other with the surname Hou (侯氏). Kuang (鄺氏) bored him 謨, 宣, 英, and 愷; while Hou (侯) bore him 閏, 圖, and 仁.
What intrigued me was the surname Kuang (鄺氏), which is that of the first wife of Chen Feng Tai (陳鳳臺). It is a rather rare Chinese surname and that also happened to be the surname of one of my wife’s late friends, a person famous in Kuala Lumpur for making moon cakes, and his relatives in Bidor, Perak; famous for inventing “chicken biscuit”. Then years back, Steve Fong of Liverpool, England contacted me to design and construct his ancestral chart from part of his zupu that was forwarded to him by his old uncle from Canada. From that zupu, I learned that his surname Fong is the transliteration of the surname Kuang (鄺). (I never got to see the complete zupu. As such, unfortunately, I never was able to get to trace the ancestry of my wife’s late friend). I understand Steve Fong had since migrated to Australia. From doing his ancestry and his chart, I learned that the father of Chen Feng Tai's first wife, Kuang (鄺), is Kuang Zhun (鄺諄). Kuang Zhun (鄺諄)’s father is Kuang Yi Ping (鄺以平); born Sep 14, 1103, died Oct 8, 1166. Kuang Yi Ping (鄺以平) is the progenitor for the surname Kuang (鄺) in Guangdong (廣東). Originally his surname was Fang (方) but he changed it to Kuang (鄺) in the year 1121.
Thirdly, going back to Hilda zupu again, Chen Xuan (陳宣), the second son of Chen Feng Tai (陳鳳臺) was quoted to have three sons by the name of Long-he (龍壑), Feng-he (鳳壑), and Lin-he (麟壑). That really shook me up, because I knew I already have all the names of the sons of Chen Xuan (陳宣) and they are all the while in my database. I had done at least three other ancestral charts for others descended from Chen Xuan (陳宣)! One of the three was for Jimmie Chan, the late brother-in-law of Henry Tom. Henry wanted to present Jimmie the four printed ancestral charts for Huang Di down to him as Henry’s birthday gift during Jimmy's 80th birthday celebration. (I understand from Henry, that the Chinese waiters at the Chinese restaurant were in awe when seeing such ancestral charts on display, they said never had seen a person’s ancestry shown in that manner).
When I checked back again and on the general database I maintained for all the seven sons of Cheng Feng Tai, I had quoted the three sons of Chen Xuan (陳宣) as Long-ge (龍閣), Feng-ge (鳳閣), and Lin-ge (麟閣) instead. It was also quoted as such for the chart I had done for Dore Chin. The charts I had down Jimmie and Amy Chin and from another source, I subsequently checked, did quote Long-he (龍壑), Feng-he (鳳壑), and Lin-he (麟壑) as the three sons of Chen Xuan (陳宣).
With all these solved, I designed and constructed Hilda Chan's ancestral chart for her. I've attached her chart which she has given me permission to share.
This is part of the responses I received from Hilda Chan:
“
I also feel perhaps I was guided towards contacting you, because without doing so I wouldn't have managed to understand my family roots even with the My China Roots report.
I lost both my father and brother close proximity almost 3 years ago. Afterwards, I set a goal to trace our family's roots for my brother's son as well as my cousins. I feel like I achieved a very important task by seeing the scrolls you made, I feel a bit of peace somehow. Like an important task fulfilled to my father and my ancestors. I suppose this is a very Chinese idea. My next step will be to bring my nephew and children to Dagang.”
“….. it seems that most overseas Chinese do not know their ancestral history. I am so fortunate to have your help in unraveling my ancestral family tree. Even with the My China Roots report I would not have been able to understand any context in how my family fit into the historic history of the Chan clan.”