Genealogy Insider - Asian roots

Genealogy News Corral: October 19-23

Diane — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:08:48 GMT

Here are some of the week's genealogy news tidbits:

We wrote about ethical wills (last statements concerning personal values rather than property) in the September 2008 Family Tree Magazine. (Family Tree Magazine Plus members can read the article here.)

Ready to get started on one? Personal historian Dan Curtis is offering a free, seven-part online course on writing an ethical will for your heirs.

The 2010 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, five days of family history classes happening Jan. 11 to 15, is taking registration. Learn more about the schedule, registration fees and course descriptions on the Utah Genealogical Association website.

We don’t hear a lot of news about Chinese genealogy in the United States, but there’s an article about China's ancestral halls on the Wall Street Journal website. (Thanks to Tom Kemp of GenealogyBank for sharing this link.)

Discover more resources for Chinese genealogy in these Genealogy Insider posts.

The new Amelia Earhart movie is getting tepid reviews (from what I’ve seen, anyway), but the real-life details of her 1937 disappearance might be more interesting. Ancestry.com’s "Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad" collection contains a case file of correspondence concerning an investigation into the theory that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were imprisoned in Saipan. Find out more about the case on Ancestry.com’s blog and on Ancestry.com's “What really happened to Amerlia Earhart?” page.

Genetic genealogy company DNA Consultants has added a blog to its revamped website; posts review news and research on dna testing and popular genetics. That involves some complex scientific terms and concepts, so put on your genetic genealogist hat when you visit.

Chinese Canadians Profiled on Genealogy Wiki

Diane — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:27:10 GMT

Canada’s Vancouver Public Library (which started the Chinese-Canadian Genealogy Web site) and Library and Archives Canada have created a genealogy wiki centered around the country’s Chinese Immigration List.

The list bears the names of Canadian-born Chinese who registered with the government as required by the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923. Designed to curtail Chinese immigration to Canada, the act joined a procession of laws levying head taxes on Chinese immigrants. The regulations were finally lifted in 1947.

The wiki contains transcribed information on 461 people recorded on the list, covering the years from Won Alexander Cumyow’s birth in 1861 to Lee Kang Gee’s birth in 1900 (both were born in British Columbia, where most of Canada's Chinese residents lived).

Researchers with more details on any of the 461 individuals can help build their profiles—see the Participate page to get started.

You can search 98,361 names from Canada's General Registers of Chinese Immigration at the online Canadian Genealogy Center.

See the May 2009 Family Tree Magazine (now mailing to subscribers; on sale March 10) for more help researching immigrants to Canada from all over the world.

New Year, New Genealogy Resources

Diane — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:27:50 GMT

Happy Chinese New Year! Today begins the Year of the Ox.

The subscription Web site Ancestry.com has posted several databases for those researching Chinese roots, including Chinese Arrivals at Philadelphia, 1900 to 1923; US Chinese Immigration Case Files, 1883 to 1924; New York Chinese Exclusion Index; and a Chinese Surname Index for the Jiapu collection of Chinese family histories (which are recorded in Chinese).

Get details about these collections on the Ancestry.com blog.

We put together some Chinese research resources and posted them here.

Chinese Genealogy Resources and Ancestry.com’s Jiapu.cn

Diane — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:25:59 GMT

We’ve heard some questions about Ancestry.com’s recently launched Chinese site, Jiapu.cn, and help for researchers who want to use it but don’t know Chinese.

“There isn’t an English version of the Chinese site, just as there isn’t an English version of our Italian, French, German or Swedish sites,” says Simon Zivian, spokesperson for the Ancestry.com’s international business. “These international sites have been launched in local markets for those markets.”

In addition, the jiapu (family histories) on the site are in Chinese.

You can get a rough translation using Google’s Web page translator, but you’d need to search using Chinese characters, and you’d need translation help with the digitized records.

For translation help, I’d suggest contacting a university Asian Studies department or a local Chinese organization to ask for recommendations. Here are a few other Chinese genealogy resources:

Shanghai Library (the Web site has an English version)
The site states a genealogy service is available by telephone or writing but you still may need to have your communications translated.

Genforum China forum

In Search of Your Asian Roots: Genealogical Research on Chinese Surnames by Sheau-yueh J. Chao from Genealogical Publishing Co

China Gateway
Links to repositories in North America, China and elsewhere that have Chinese collections

Chinese Immigration from the National Archives

Chinese-Canadian Genealogy

I did a search for professional genealogists specializing in Chinese research and came up empty. Hit Comment and add a post if you know of one.

Ancestry.com Launches Chinese Site

Diane — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:07:26 GMT

First, The Generations Network (owner of Ancestry.com) just launched a Chinese family history Web site at jiapu.cn.

The site, written in Chinese, provides access to jiapu (family histories) online. They're available through a partnership with the Shanghai Library, which holds the largest collection of Chinese family history records in the world. So far, 1,450 jiapu covering 270 surnames are online; eventually, jiapu.cn will contain 22,700 jiapu.

As of now, the family histories are accessible at no cost.

The World's Longest Family Tree?

Diane — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:47:32 GMT

Chinese philosopher Confucius (who tradition holds was born 551 BC) has 2 million recorded descendants in 83 generations, says one of that number, Kong Dewei, in China Daily.

Dewei is a member of the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee, which will publish the fifth edition of the family register next year. For the first time, it includes women and those living outside of China. Each person paid 5 yuan (about 70 cents) to register; the committee has stopped soliciting names.

People without pedigrees proving descent could take a DNA test to compare with Confucius’ genetic signature, which scientists in China discovered in 2006.

It may sound as though Confucius, whose proper name was Kong Zi, was particularly prolific, but all I could find (in the Handbook of Today’s Religions) is that he had a son and a daughter—I guess that's what 2,500 years can do for your family tree.

The descendants have held noble titles and governmental posts throughout history. The main lineage fled from their ancestral home in Qufu during the Chinese Civil War, but now the Temple of Confucius and the Confucius Mansion (the residence of the philosopher’s descendants) are tourist attractions.

Now, if only I can figure out how to set up a genealogy compilation committee for my family ...