Hi all.
I am trying to find this on a map
广东省深圳市福田区华富北村82栋 (my relative in Shenzhen)

I know it is Shenzhen, Guangdong Province in Futian District of Wah Fu North Village Estate 82.

I found the Futian district but can’t seem to get Wah Fu North Village other than Hong Kong.

If anyone can find it on a map for me I would greatly appreciate it

Thank you

… Henry Tom replied:

Hi Harc3,

I believe the following 2 maps identify the location of Wah Fu North Village 华富北村 and it is near 笋岗西路 as noted by tyuti1668.

Henry

Bookmark to:

Over the years visitors to our forums had contributed many maps of Siyi and the surrounding regionals. The biggest contributor, however, is Henry Tom, one of our moderators. The forums currently is unsearchable which makes referencing next to impossible and leads to much duplicated postings of the same maps.

In these pages we’ll harness the power of WordPress to enable our visitors to search for the map that is helpful in their genealogy research.

Bookmark to:

My father had three older brothers (Lee Kam Man, Lee Kam Chun, Lee Kam Hing) and at least two older sisters. My father returned to China in 1922 and eventually settled in Hong Kong.

My grandparents once lived on a back street near the Quan Yin Temple in Penang. If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of my uncles and aunts or any members of the Lee family, please contact Simon Lee through this website. Thanks in advance.

Simon W Lee

家祖李公宜煦祖貫廣東省台山縣 (昔之新寧) 東坑塔腳鄉。於十九世紀未期，以十七之齡，年未弱冠，遠涉重洋，僑居於馬來西亞之檳城、從事木匠之業。育有四男：錦文、錦全、錦興、錦茂 (即先父。字炳華、號偉茂) 、二女、名字不詳。

先君於一九二二年 (時十六歲) 獨自返回祖國，後定居於香港。時逢亂世，日寇侵掠，魚雁不通，音訊斷絕。今欲聯絡各伯姑兄弟，以圖聚首，惟時移世換，不知其所，而資料稀少，只知家祖於先父年幼時搬遷到新埠觀音廟後街。

本人於二零零一年旅遊檳城時、會唔觀音廟後街之長久居民李亞娥女士、相信家祖曾於三品巷三十三號居住。各位賢君如有上列各人或其子孫之消息請與此網站聯絡，萬分感謝。

李煥祥謹啟

Bookmark to:

This site is devoted to the genealogy of Chinese families from an area of Guangdong, China (中國廣東)commonly known as Siyi (四邑) or four counties. The counties are Xinhui (新會), Taishan (台山), Kaiping (開平), and Enping (恩平). The families in this area have much in common besides geographic location. The great majority trace their origin to China’s central plain. Each faamily may have different reasons for leaving the Central Plains and migrated southward. The most common would be fleeing the turmoil caused by an invading nomad tribe, internal uprising or natural disaster. This southward journey happened in multiple stages and over hundreds of years. Each major unrest or disaster drove them further south until they finally settled in their current locations. In many cases this final settlement took place five to six hundred years ago.

Due to crowded living condition and lack of agrarian land the migration, however, continued. At first a small number headed to the South Pacific. Since the 1850′s an increasing large number had crossed the Pacific and Indian Oceans in search of work. This is not a true migration in that they seldom settled in their new locations due to cultural and political reasons. This, however, began to change in the latter half of the 20th century as the Western nations amended their immigration policies primarily because of the overseas Chinese’s contributions to the war effort during World War II. This coupled with events in China made many decided to have their families joined them and settled in the foreign land.

A place of great significant during this southward migration is Zhujixiang, Nanxiong (南雄珠璣巷). A vast majority of the families in the Pearl River Delta area trace their roots to there. One can say it is Pearl River Delta genealogy’s equivalent to the Americans’ Mayflower and Plymouth Rock.

The surnames we are actively researching are: Chan, Chow, Der, Kwan, Lee, Mak, Wong, and Zhao (陳周謝關李麥黃趙). So far we only have time to compile some of the information on the Chow (周), Der (謝), Lee (李), and Zhao (趙).

Bookmark to:

The name was changed to Taishan in 1914 to avoid confusions with counties having the same name in other provinces. However, this switch creates another problem. The name in pinyin is exactly the same as China’s most famous mountain in Shandong (山東泰山). As a test go to any search engine, do a search on Taishan and see what happens.

Taishan is generally accepted as the county with the most overseas-Chinese. Up to and until the early 1970′s it’s dialect, Taishanese, was the de facto Chinese language of North America’s Chinatowns. At the time for a person who didn’t speak Taishanese it was next to impossible to find work in a Chinese establishment.

This created an unique problem for the boomer generation. The language of their parents are Taishanese yet at Chinese school (99.9% of us attended Chinese school at one time or another) the teachers taught in Cantonese. So what’s the problem you ask? There’s no problem until the student started to do the assignments, if my experience is any indication, generally it’s the night before and always encountered at least one new and forgotten word. What to do? Ask your parents. What’s more logical?

The next day in class, the student may be asked to recite the previous week’s lesson in Cantonese or the teacher may randomly tested students on the new words from the previous lesson. The Taishanese speaking students would find their lesson with their parents on the previous evening resulted in incorrect answers. However, because of similarities between the two dialects the parents’ pronunciations were not always wrong according to the teacher. This lack of consistency just added to the confusion of whether to consult with one’s parents or not.

One would think this only happened to those students who asked their parents for help. Those who didn’t wouldn’t have this problem. But this is not really true because most parents liked to monitor their children’s progress and reviewed the school works at home. Their good intention would started to confused the non-confused and compounded for those who were.

Bookmark to:

Since 1949 due to political reason his grave haven’t been tended to. Consequently, weeds took over, fell into disarrayed and deterioration sets in. Finally in August 2000, it was decided to renew the grave site. A committee consisted of people from China and overseas was formed to raise the necessary funding and to oversee the work. Work started on November of the same year and completed the following Spring in time for Qing Ming (清明). The photo above was taken at that time.

Bookmark to:

In 1871 BC agreed to enter Confederation as a province of Canada, on the condition that a transcontinental railway be built to link it to the rest of the country. The construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway brought the second wave of Chinese immigrants. The 1885 Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration reported that 15,701 Chinese entered Canada between 1881 and 1884. In 1882 alone, eight thousand arrived in Victoria.

However, the long journey extracted a heavy toll. The travelers faced with numerous hazards such as storms, pirates, insanitary conditions, starvation and scurvy. It was estimated that nearly ten percent died of scurvy. In December 1859, the Lady Inglis was lost on her voyage from China to Canada. The Lawson arrived at Victoria in June 1860 with 68 passengers, although its list showed 280; the missing passengers couldn’t be accounted for. The captain was later charged with having no clearance paper and no medicine chest on board.

The majority of the immigrants came from the two southern coastal provinces of Guangdong (廣柬省), particularly the four adjacent counties of Xinhui (新會), Taisan (台山), Kaiping (開平) and Enping (恩平)- collectively known as Siyi (四邑), and Fujian (福建省). The similar dialect spoken by these Siyi people are commonly referred to as Taishanese (台山話). It became the defacto Chinese language in North America up to and until the early 1970′s Then Hong Kong became the primary source of Chinese immigrants and Cantonese (廣東話) is now the most commonly spoken dialect in the communities. However, majority of Chinese immigrants now come directly from China. This shift will not only impact the spoken language but also the written form as Simplified Chinese, standard in Mainland China, replaces the current popular Traditional Chinese.

Here is a listing of the Chinese in British Columbia 1884 – 1885 by surname and county of origin as compiled by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association.

By 1886, Chinese begun to settle at the corner of Carrall and Pender (was Dupont at the time). The main business was laundries. Slowly the settlement spread eastward along Pender. However, all was destroyed during the disastrous Vancouver fire of June 13, 1886.

Because of the depression at the time, the local unemployed white workers, through the Knights of Labour, expressed strong feelings against Chinese labour. The Knights of Labour were adamant that Vancouver should excluded all Chinese. In early 1887, Anti-Chinese Leagues were formed and meetings held throughout British Columbia. On February 24, 1887, an Anti-Chinese meeting was held in Vancouver because it was rumoured that at least a hundred Chinese had landed in Vancouver. This eventually led to the February 24 Chinatown Riot.

The Vancouver Anti-Chinese League held a meeting on February 24, 1887 when twenty-four Chinese arrived from Victoria to clear the Brighouse Estate. After the meeting was formally adjourned, someone called for “Those in favour of running out the Chinese tonight.” The crowd responded with a roar and they, estimated at three to four hundred strong, marched through the snow to the Chinese camp at the western end of the Coal Harbour Bridge. The Chinese were roughly herded outside and the camp destroyed. To escape the kicking and manhandling, some of the Chinese jumped into the icy water and the rest were chased onto the CPR right-of-way without shelter. Not satisfied, part of the mob returned to Vancouver and set fire to some of the Chinese buildings on Carrall Street. The mob returned to Chinatown the next day and forced the Chinese to leave for New Westminster.

The Chinese didn’t return to Vancouver until the Attorney General in Victoria introduced An Act for the Preservation of Peace within the Municipal Limits of the City of Vancouver and brought 36 constables from Victoria to Vancouver. By 1887 present day Vancouver Chinatown began to take shape along Dupont (present day Pender) from Carrall to Main (was Westminster Avenue at the time) with thirty-two businesses. For the next eighty years the Vancouver Chinese community remained in this area which expanded later to Gore St. on the east and Keefer on the south.

Bookmark to:

The next time I met Margaret’s parents was a week before the wedding. Again, time was tight. This time it was my turn to be on the run. As it so happened, both of our families were living in other parts of the country and all were arriving at different times which resulted in the seemingly endless trips to the airport plus all the odds and ends that required time. Later in the week, her out-of-town nephews arrived and took up some of her time. We’ve had to wait another two years before we became acquainted.

She was born in An Min Lai, Kaiping County, Guangdong, China, (中國廣東開平縣安民里) April 1, 1911. She was the second daughter but fourth child of Wing Shui Xie whose hao was Yu Zuo (謝永述號堯作) and Guan Shui (關瑞) who had a total of three sons and five daughters.

We don’t have much information on her formative years except she, unlike the majority of rural children of the time, received some formal education but wasn’t able to continue as her elders followed the tradition of giving the girls minimal or no education. We learned in later years that after her marriage she tried valiantly to self-educate. But she met great resistance from her in-laws. Despite the opposition, at the end, she learnt enough and was able to correspond with her husband who worked in Canada.

In 1928 she was married to Cho Lai Chow (周麗操) who five years ago went to Canada, stayed and worked with his two uncles. This marriage was arranged through the efforts of her eldest sister, Kung Di (謝拱娣) whose husband’s village is close to the Chow’s. The following year she gave birth to a baby boy. Sadly, the baby didn’t survived. She seldom talked about this child but we know he was always on her mind because she expressed a desire to follow the Chinese tradition of him adopting a male child of her other sons (過繼) to carry on this line.

On November 8, 1929, her husband boarded the Empress of Russia and returned to Canada. Because of world events it would be over twenty years before they would see each other again.

At the conclusion of World War II, an application was made to the Canadian Parliament to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923. Taking advantage of this change in Canada’s immigration policy, her husband applied and became a Canadian citizen in 1949. Immediately he applied for his wife of twenty years to join him in Canada. From Hong Kong she boarded a CP Air flight, Empress of the Air, and landed at Vancouver on February 10, 1950 where her husband was waiting. Together they took the train to Elrose, Saskatchewan where Cho Lai Chow owned and operated the Liberty Cafe. Over the next six years they had three children, their only daughter, Margaret (周惠連), two sons, Harry (周錦達) and Kam (周錦東).

During the same period of time, they arranged to bring three nephews from China over to Canada. They are:

* Ming Chow (周錦信)
* Kam Fay Chow (周錦煇)
* Jim Der (謝丁財)

All three were in their late teens, no more than a year apart in age. All stayed and worked at the cafe until they were old enough to go out on their own. She had the satisfaction of seeing them become successful in life and eventually started families of their own. But she was hurt by the actions of a couple of them. She never really talked about it. I would think the sharpest and deepest hurt came in the early 60’s. At the time the Canadian government was investigating the Chinese immigration irregularities of “Paper Sons” which involved the selling and buying of immigration documents. And that was the one and only route available for the three nephews to come to Canada. One of them, however, turned against his aunt and uncle. As a result, the RCMP made an unexpected visit.

Margaret remembers that her family was traumatized. To this day, Margaret’s recollection of this event comes with mixed emotions. She doesn’t remember the time span but she knew her parents were very upset and worried, particularly her mother who was trying to hide her tears most of the time and feared being sent back to China. Margaret’s parents did not want to talk about these matters with her and her younger brothers. Since Margaret and her brothers were born in Canada, she says that she didn’t fully understand the seriousness of the situation until much later. She remembered a flurry of phone calls to and from some relatives and some people within the local Chinese community in Moose Jaw. She remembered that, even though she was only a child at the time, she felt helpless and confused. To this day, she has not talked about this time period with her brothers, not knowing whether they remembered or want to be reminded of those past days. Because Margaret did not comprehend the situation at that time, the RCMP’s unannounced visit to their home was a total shock and surprise. The visit came during a late afternoon or evening. Her father ushered her and her brothers out of the living room to one of bedrooms with instructions to do their homework, while telling the RCMP that the children knew nothing. Through the closed bedroom door, Margaret remembered hearing the two male officers interviewing and questioning her father, going through certain documents and photographs of family relations. The visit lasted several hours. The officers left, taking some of her father’s papers and photographs with them. From this time forward, Margaret remembered her father hiring a lawyer to sort everything out. Margaret believes that there were ongoing investigations into other Chinese families also in this similar situation. From what she could recall and from all indications, no charges would be laid against all the families once they gave the correct and factual information regarding their immigration documentation. Margaret doesn’t know whether there were fines or not. The RCMP eventually returned the documents and photographs taken from Margaret’s parents, even though her mother insisted to her father that one important photograph was not returned. When going through my father-in-law’s possessions and papers, I noticed on the back of many documents – in unfamiliar handwriting –were numbers denoting them as part of a series, the date “October 17, 1962″ and an initial which bear testimony to the happenings of that day.

However, my mother-in-law and father-in-law didn’t let this nephew’s actions against them and the resulting consequences spoiled their belief in people. Far from being discouraged, they took advantage of Canada’s more liberal immigration policies of the 70’s and sponsored her youngest brother Ping An Xie’s (謝平安) son, Tho Lim Der (謝 素林),and his wife and their two young daughters to Canada. Tho Lim Der immigrated first, who in 1980 arrived at Moose Jaw. A year later his family joined him there. In 1986 they moved to Vancouver where they now reside.

After Margaret’s family moved to Moose Jaw in 1960, my mother-in-law started another garden where she grew Chinese vegetables. Every year she would send us a box of her harvest by inter-provincial bus (Greyhound Bus Lines). The first time I saw her melons, jie gua (節瓜), my eyes were the size of golf balls. The jie guas were the size of winter melons (冬瓜) or about 10 times larger than normal. So we used them as winter melons. Great soup!

One of her desires was to move from Moose Jaw to Vancouver. During her last trip to Vancouver, we even took her to look at “open houses.” Unfortunately, her health started to deteriorate soon after her return to Moose Jaw. Knowing her wishes, the family decided it is fitting that her final resting place should be in the Vancouver area.

Bookmark to:

On June 28, 1923 he set sailed aboard the Empress of Australia from Hong Kong and arrived at Victoria, BC, Canada on July 17. Held in a holding cell until his sixth uncle, Zhong Xuan Chow (周宗漩), came and paid the $500 Head Tax. Together they went to Milestone, Saskatchewan where his fourth uncle, Zhong Lan Chow (周宗瀾), was staying. Went to school during his stay at Milestone.

In 1924 he moved to Plato, Saskatchewan where his uncle, Zhong Xuan, had just bought a restaurant. Next year went to Conquest, Saskatchewan because Uncle Zhong Xuan had sold the business and returned to China. Spent a year in Conquest then went to Elrose, Saskatchewan and worked as kitchen aide in the Elrose Hotel.

In 1928 return to China where he got married to Der She Chow (謝秀琴). He stayed in China till the end of 1929. He returned to Canada on the Empress of Russia on November 8. While in China, the new couple welcomed a baby boy into the family. However, the baby didn’t survived.

After returning from China he went to Plato where he stayed till 1943. This was the Great Depression years. Despite the fact he seldom talked about it but from the bits and pieces we know it was hard. He went prematurely grey. Potato must be the main food staple because he had an aversion to it. One of the benefits of slow business is ample spare time. He used this time to raise chicken, to go fishing, to learn curling. This love of curling never left him. Up to his last days it is the only televised sport he would watch. He even arranged his meals so it wouldn’t interfere with his viewing.

In 1943 he moved to Elrose where he purchased the Royal Cafe and changed the name to Liberty Cafe. Applied and became a Canadian citizen in 1949. In early 1950, after almost twenty years, his wife joined him in Canada. They started to raise a family in Canada with the birth of their only daughter, Margaret (周惠連), two sons, Harry (周錦達) and Kam (周錦東).

During the 50′s he, in keeping with Chinese tradition, arranged to bring his eldest brother, Shui Shao Chow’s (周瑞韶) second son, Ming (周錦信), his younger brother, Shui Can Chow’s (周瑞燦) eldest son, Kam Fay (周錦煇), his wife’s older brother, Ping Xiang Xie’s (謝平相) second son, Jim Der (謝丁財). In fulfilling a promise made to his former business partner, he arranged for Lai Chow (周黎) to come over from China. All four were in their late teens, no more than a year apart in age. They stayed and worked at the cafe. Eventually the time came for them to spread their wings. Ming was the first to leave. He and his family is now in Edmonton, Alberta. Jim settled in Rosetown, Saskatchewan operating his own restaurant. In 1982, a year after his death, his family moved to and settled in Vancouver. Lai and Kam Fay continued to operate the Liberty Cafe until 1965 when Lai, a non-smoker, died of cancer. In 1981 when Kam Fay sold the restaurant and moved his family to Vancouver, BC.

In 1960 after selling the business to Lai and his nephew Kam Fay, he moved his family to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. His intention was to operate a restaurant there. This never happened because of lacking a suitable partner. He converted the upstairs of the building earmarked for his new restaurant into a rooming house for elderly Chinese. He spent the next quarter century looking after his tenants’ needs, such as booking and accompanied them to doctor’s appointments, writing letter to relatives, corresponding with all levels of government, and keeping them abreast with events of the outside world.

Canada’s more liberal immigration policies of the 70′s enabled him and his wife to sponsor one more nephew to Canada. In 1980 his wife’s youngest brother, Ping An Xie’s (謝平安) son, Tho Lim Der (謝素林), arrived at Moose Jaw. A year later his family joined him there. In 1986 they moved to Vancouver where he now operates his own restaurant.

In September 1984, almost two years after the death of his wife, he moved to Burnaby, BC, to live with his daughter and her family.

An Eulogy
by
Patrick Lee

My grandfather will be remembered as a hardworking and modest man. He had simple needs. He was forthright and honest, a person with humble beginnings who placed a great value on education and friendship.

I will remember him as the only grandparent I ever knew. I will remember him as a man who was content with what life had given him. He never asked for much and in the years I knew him, he lived a simple life.

My grandfather’s lifetime could be divided into three different parts.

He was born in An Kai Lai, Kaiping, Guangdong, China on May 29, 1909.

The direction of this early period started with his steamship voyage at the age of 14 from China to Victoria, B.C., Canada, in 1923. He was held in a holding cell until his 6th uncle came and paid the Head Tax.

His early life was marked with many obstacles and hardships. He worked as a kitchen aide and cook in various small towns in Saskatchewan, where he learned to speak and write English. He developed an independence that I could still see during the time that I knew him. At age 19, he returned to China in 1928 to get married to Der She Chow, returning to Canada alone in 1930.

He lived through the Great Depression of the 1930′s in Saskatchewan, becoming prematurely grey in his 20′s. He didn’t talk much of this period of his life. From the bits and pieces he shared with family, it was a very difficult time for him. However, he did learn the game of curling, a favourite Saskatchewan sport. His love of curling never left him. Up to his last days, it was the only event he thoroughly enjoyed to watch on TV. He even timed his meals around the curling schedules. It gave him great pride whenever Canada won the world titles.

From 1943 to 1960, he purchased and operated the Liberty Caf?in Elrose, Saskatchewan. Despite the long days in the restaurant business, he developed many close and valued friendships with the Canadian townspeople and farmers within the community. People called him “Lee” and loved his home-baked pies, sugar doughnuts, and fresh bread. When the surrounding farmers came into town for their supplies, it was a special treat to stop into the Liberty Caf?for coffee and a piece of pie. He took pride in his abilities and in the respect he had earned in the community.

He became a Canadian citizen in 1949 and arranged for his wife to join him in early 1950, after a separation of 20 years. At the late age of 41, my grandfather was able to start his family in Canada with the birth of his three children: my mom, Margaret, and two sons, my uncles, Harry and Kam. Also during this time period, he was able to assist extended family still in China by bringing over some nephews to Canada. It is good to see that all their families are presently thriving.

The second part of my grandfather’s life covered another quarter of a century from 1960 to 1984 when he moved his family from Elrose to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He owned and operated a 3-story building in which many of the tenants were elderly Chinese. Besides being their landlord, his tenants became his friends and they trusted him to be their English translator in personal and medical matters. He was respected and active within the Chinese community in Moose Jaw. In the 1970′s, he was able to sponsor another nephew, Tho Lim Der and his family, to Moose Jaw.

After my grandmother, Der She Chow, passed away in late 1982, my grandfather spent the third part of his lifetime in retirement in Burnaby, B.C., living with my parents and me. He spent the last 20 years of life in relatively good health. During the 92 years of his life, he spent more than 75 years in Canada. He helped many people and he fulfilled some heavy responsibilities. Through it all, he remained a practical man with simple needs. Perhaps this was a secret to his longevity.

My grandfather was a man who touched each of our lives in different ways: as a father, as a grandfather, as an uncle, and as a friend.

I will remember him growing snow peas in the garden. I will remember him teaching me card games. I will remember him laughing at how hot it is in the summer, how cold it is in the winter, how rainy it is in the spring, and how windy it is in the fall. I will remember carving pumpkins with him on Halloween. I will remember joining him on walks as a child. And on those walks stopping to talk to neighbours. Neighbours who’d greet him as if they’ve known him for years. Just from his daily walks, he’d gotten to know everyone in the neighbourhood, and everyone had gotten to know him. I don’t think his small town roots ever left him. He was a man who held basic values of trust, honesty, integrity, and friendship.

It is so difficult for my generation to understand the hardships endured by those who walked before us. Seldom do we recognize the sacrifices made for us. Hearing stories of my grandfather’s life, I cannot imagine what it must have been like. Such a life is not lived without courage, determination, and perseverance. It’s true that the battles and times we face now are different than those of the past, but we can always draw from the knowledge that we too can find inner strength during hard times just as he did.

So as we commemorate his life, we celebrate the legacy he has left us. His legacy is in his family and his friends. His legacy is the people that he has helped, and in the lives that he has touched. He has left us a history. A history of pride in culture and of pride in family. And now this history is in our hands to carry on where he left off.

He will be greatly missed and always remembered.

July 16, 2001

Bookmark to: