Linguist Patrick Chew provided a basic introduction on Chinese dialects, focusing primarily on the Pearl River Delta of Guǎngdōng/Gwong-dung Province and how these dialects affect not only identity, but also inter-communication and the effects on genealogy research. Patrick Chew is a UC Berkeley graduate with degrees in Linguistics, East Asian Languages and Literatures, specifically Chinese…

Michael Ho gave an overview of Chinese naming conventions and practices that family history researchers may encounter in their research. Topics included surnames, differences in pronunciations, name order, married women’s names, and alternate names. He provided a demonstration of conducting searches using Chinese names, along with strategies on how to obtain better results. Michael Ho…

Patti Dung, Steve Kwok and Shirley Chu-Ng shared how the Chinese Exclusion Act impacted their family members.

Kitty L. Lew shared her journey to three of her four ancestral villages in Taishan, Donguan and Zengcheng. 

Trae Nicholson shared her varied approaches to identifying “mystery people” in family photographs. After finding her father’s box of photographs that had been in storage for nearly 45 years, Trae spent 6 years identifying the 20 unknown people in the photographs.

Steve Kwok discussed family ancestral books (jiapu and zupu) including: how to find them; how to make sense of the content (even if you do not read Chinese); and how to fill in the last generations based on your family research and generational poem. Steve Kwok, former Chair of CFHGSC, is passionate about genealogy and…