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.
Tag: storytelling
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
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.
Our families in WWII: The 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day
The Toronto Sun interviews Lesley Anderson and I about our families in WWII
An extraordinary, ordinary life: Dorothy Gibson
The story of Dorothy Gibson and her life as a journeyman printer, living through WWII and the Great Depression
Women’s History Month – Lily’s War
For Womens History Month, I look at the hidden story of Lily's time in WWII.
Travels in China – the Overseas Chinese
One of the more startling revelations from the trip was learning about the Overseas Chinese - that's us. We folk of Chinese origin, we whose ancestors migrated from Sze Yup/Wuyi, China from about 1850-1949, we who are Chinese-something, be it Chinese Canadian, Chinese Hawaiian, Chinese Malay, Chinese South African, Chinese Thai, Chinese Singaporean and about 100… Continue reading Travels in China – the Overseas Chinese
Genealogy gold, part 1: the who, what, why, where and how of local history books in the Canadian prairies
I share with you my techniques for finding digitized local history books, using 3 randomly chosen pioneers found in the 1916, 1921, and 1926 censuses
11 tips for blogging your own genealogy story
Ever wanted to blog a genealogy story of your own? Here are 11 tips to get you going.
My TV guest spot: talking about the power of a good family story on Lit Happens
I go on TV to talk about life as a genealogy blogger