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Post by ahkam1 on May 29, 2009 20:27:31 GMT -5
Aloha!
I'm new to this but am trying desperately to locate my grandpa's dad's family who is Chinese. My great grandfather was said to be in Samoa since 1926 but then he left his wife and kids to go back home (I'm guessing back to China.) The only information that I have about my great grandfather is that on my grandpa's baptismal certificate it said the name "Cheungwa AhKam" However, I'm not sure how to spell the Chengwa part. I kind of went off of how my grandma pronounced it. Here's the weird part, most Chinese-Samoans had grandfather's who worked in the plantation but mines was a cook. He worked for the casino that was built in Apia (near the market). I know, casino in Samoa right? that's what my grandma said. My grandma did have a picture of my great grandfather but it got destroyed in the hurricane that hit upolu. I apologize for this long post but I thought it would be worth a try to see who ever had any useful information in my search. God bless!
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Post by Henry on May 31, 2009 9:13:58 GMT -5
Aloha Ahkam1,
The romanization of Chinese names can be very nisleading and therefore unreliable as a source. They are usually more of a confirmation - after you find the true name.
Do you have any digital photos of the gravestones of your ancestors ? The gravestones in many cases, have the Chinese names for the person and the ancestral village, and county. With this information we can confirm your true Chinese surname and possibly locate your ancestral village - from there, it may be possible to identify village relatives and try to find and copy your family gnealogy book.
If you not have access to gravestones, do you have any immigration, official documents, or old letters from China with return addresses that would contain Chinese characters for the names of ancestors and ancestral villages?
Please see what you can find - we'll try to help you.
Welcome to our Forum :-)
Henry
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Post by helen on May 31, 2009 18:28:26 GMT -5
My suggestion is that you try archives NZ (google "archways" + new zealand) The NZ government may have some information - maybe not in particular to your relative - but general information re where they came from - the history of the indentured men. I know they were not Cantonese - They were all picked up one day, and sent back to China. That's why there may not be any headstones...
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Post by twoupman on Jun 1, 2009 10:46:57 GMT -5
Your ggf’s name was transliterated from Cantonese and should have been written as Cheung Wa Kam (if you wish to learn more about Chinese names please refer to my website at houseofchinn.com/ChineseNames.html). Now to break down his name: Cheung = 張 or Zhang in Mandarin which is the third largest surname in China Wa (also commonly written as Wah) = 華 or Hua in Mandarin to mean splendid Kam = personal name and there are few characters that fit this pronunciation, so it is hard to guess which one it was Ah = 阿, just a prefix to make it easier to pronounce a single syllable personal name As you can see, Ahkam, unfortunately became you present “manufactured” surname, whereas your real surname is Cheung. This was quite a common occurrence due to cultural ignorance in the past. Hope this is of help to you. |
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Post by ahkam1 on Jun 8, 2009 16:56:00 GMT -5
Thank you very much for all your responses. I have spoken to my grandmother, and she informed me now that his name was pronounced Sing Wa (again I'm not sure if the spelling is correct.) However, I am going to Samoa for my grandfather's family reunion in December, where I can really be doing some hands on research. I plan to go to the church where my gf's baptismal certificate is, and find out the name of my ggf (that was written.) I will also try to go to the Apia immigration office to see if there are any records. As well as his place of employment at the Casino which is now called "Tusi Tala".
From what I understand my family has no documents of my ggf, but I hope on my trip to Samoa I can discover new and more information from my gf's stepfather's family. I wish I had more useful information to go off of, therefore, I feel that my search in finding my ggf may be impossible. However, I will stay hopeful and continue to do my search. I do appreciate all your help. Till then, I will try to find out more information from both my gm and gf. God Bless!
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Post by harc3 on Jun 8, 2009 19:30:22 GMT -5
Believe me...perseverance pays off.
I started out 3 years ago with nothing and now have an enormous amount of info. The name thing made it VERY difficult.
I have tracked down immigration years of numerous family members, have found out the village where they came from and have found numerous living relatives, some of which are in the village and spoken to them on skype with the aid of a translator.
We have shared numerous photos and now I will be going there to meet them soon.
So just keep trying and it will pay off. And the people on this site are second to none. They do everything they can to help.
I couldn't have done it without them.
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