Canadian Genealogy · Chinese Genealogy · Family history stories

Finding the story behind the story: why is there a school room at Wing Sang?

From my research, it appears the famous school room at Wing Sang has a deeper history than first suspected. In this post, I've compiled building permits, family stories, immigration records, newspaper articles, original correspondence, and passenger manifests to create a richer picture of the past. Yip Sang did indeed build a school in his home that his family could enjoy, but he also founded a school for the community and used his influence to hire its first principal and teacher.

Family history stories · Womens History

The “Linda learns to dance” project, chapter one

Caelia created a new jazz routine with All That Jazz by Liza Minelli. For the next six weeks, she taught me the routine - thirty seconds at a time - until we'd done the entire three minutes. She recorded each segment. My weekly dance regimen became learn, practise, practise, repeat. Then she taught me more: how to walk onstage and offstage, musicality, marking, and timing. I learned things you can't learn from the internet.

Canadian Genealogy · Family history stories

Reflections: My life as a Chinese Canadian genealogist

There has never been a better time to get into Chinese genealogy. More and better records are being digitized, found, and released as privacy laws and resources permit. I'm excited to see what the future holds and I can't wait to teach more people how to find their own families. The fact that I, a non-Chinese speaker, can do what I do is testament to titanic changes in genealogy. As well, the story of Chinese settlement in Canada has all the hallmarks of a great novel: enormous sacrifices against overwhelming odds, generations of time, and oceans of distance. All it needs now is us to find and interpret the hidden stories and tell them to our kids.

Canadian Genealogy · Family history stories

The holiday read: “Finding Mr. Wong” by Susan Crean

In Finding Mr. Wong, Susan Crean (b. 1945; Toronto, Ontario, Canada) weaves together the histories of two significant men in her life: her grandfather Adam Gordon Campbell Crean, a second-generation Irishman from County Roscommon; and Gordon's cook-cum-consigliere (see below), Wong Dong Wong (黃宗旺) (pinyin: Huang Zong Wang) (1895-1970), a first-generation Chinese from Taishan County. Their… Continue reading The holiday read: “Finding Mr. Wong” by Susan Crean

Canadian Genealogy · Chinese Culture · Chinese Genealogy · Family history stories · Genealogy How Tos

Connecting, capturing, conversing, creating, and learning: celebrating Asian History Month in genealogy

It's Asian History Month and Asian genealogy has never been hotter. In this post I celebrate connecting to elders, gathering stories, courses I've taken, and courses that are coming.