h2, p, td, li { font-family: Helvetica; /* Use Times for Chin Family Posts, Helvetica for Hong Family posts */ font-size: medium; } h1, h3, h4, h5, h6 { font-family: Helvetica; } td.tr-caption { font-family: Times; /* Use Helvetica for Chin Family Posts, Times for Hong Family posts */ font-size: medium; } h3.post-title { font-size: 20px; } Here' s a short primer for Americans interested in researching their Chinese Roots. First of all, there are a lot of English language resources, especially for people with Toisan roots. Online resources in English include: Taishan 台山 Hoisan FB Group - It's public, but they seem to have a lot of people with good Chinese skills and local knowledge Hoisan (Toisan) 台山 Home Style Cooking & Cultural Traditions FB Group - I prefer this group since it's private Chinese Genealogy Forum: https://siyigenealogy.proboards.com Siyi Chinese Genealogy Website (related to the forum): http://www.legacy1.net American Ancestors - Chinese American Guide https://www.americanancestors.org/.../chinese-american-guide Chinese Family History Group of Southern California: https://www.chinesefamilyhistory.org Friends of Roots (Village Database): https://www.friendsofroots.org Bay Area Chinese Genealogy Group: https://bacgg.org The US National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/.../chinese-americans FOIA Requests; https://www.uscis.gov/.../request-records-through-the... Non-Chinese specific genealogy sites like ancestry.com, heritage.com Commercial Services like mychinaroots.com (this is not an endorsement) Crowd-sourced family tree for the world: www.geni.com If you don't have any records or genealogies, start with interviewing your elders, to get names, dates, places (villages), and relationships. Try to get as much as possible in Chinese characters. Be aware of multiple names and aliases. Chinese might have different birth names, married names, paper names, etc... as well as different English spellings. Look at tombstones which will often have village names, birthdates, and actual family name if they had been using a paper name. Look at photos and letters for similar information.
Also, try to capture the stories of your elders that wouldn't be written down in any family tree. What it was like growing up? Memories of their parents or grandparents or siblings? Fondest memories or family traditions?
Enjoy the journey! Little by little you'll make connections and perhaps a few friends and surprising discoveries along the way.
Surname Origins: Chen 陳 - https://www.mychinaroots.com/blog/surnames/chen-family-history/               - House of Chinn - Archive Gao 高 - tbd Liu 劉 - https://www.mychinaroots.com/blog/surnames/liu-family-history/