Chinese Genealogy

China and India form two (2) of the hemisphere's most populated nations but due to communication barriers their impact is not as big as that of the English language and this is often found in the understanding of naming practices of individuals of other cultures.

Therefore, individuals in the Western world often assume (due to lack of cultural understanding) individuals of other cultures conform to the identical patterns as follows:

(First Name) + (Middle Name) + (Surname)

Like the convention of:

James Stephen Barrows

Not long ago, the Western hemisphere populations were not that big and as a result individuals were more often than not known by their personal names. However, as time went by the population in towns and villages began to grow and very soon the same personal names were repeated over many times and the people then experienced difficulties in differentiating between them. This led to the necessity of identifying the different individuals bearing the same personal names. The easiest method was that relating to their trades, say millers, blacksmiths, farmers, coopers, etc. Others came from the names of places where they lived and then came professions. In this culture the personal name was the main identifying characteristic rather then the differentiating names that came in later.

In the Chinese culture, family names arose first and they dated back to the start of Chinese history well over over 4,000 years ago. These identifiers were later attached to tribal names and came to be called clan names which are the equivalent to the term surnames. Personal names were therefore secondary and were attached after the clan names.

(Family Name) + (Descent Classifier) + (First Name)

And can be illustrated by a name like:

Huang Zicheng

Chinese Names also come with three characters like Western names but there are also those with simply two parts. Previously, a married individual would receive an "adult name" which is different and separate from his birth name. Within this adult or married name there is an extra part which is a descent identifier or classifier of the person in that family and clan. However, most overseas ethnic Chinese no longer follow this specific practice mainly because most have lost the clan poem relating to their generations. But it does exist, especially when seeking for old ancestors.

In ancient times, this fundamental divergence in the naming sequence between Western and Chinese names caused some very strange results. When a Chinese person arrived in a Western country, the immigration officer who registered the new arrival would write the name in an imperfect Romanized way in an attempt to match the verbal words annunciated by the individual when asked their full name. For instance, if the respondent said his name was Kong Chung Wai (this is a Cantonese Romanization) which matched the conventional Chinese naming pattern. It was thus recorded into the official register. But, this simple act of ignorance on the part of the immigration officer had suddenly transformed the Chinese person into Mr. Wai according to Western practice though he was really Mr. Kong. That often occurred in the past and many overseas ethnic Chinese descendants have inherited very peculiar "surnames". The mix-up is quite comical today but these overseas descendants would have no luck of tracing their Chinese roots by their Romanized "family names" unless they are fortunate enough to have the proper Chinese characters for their ancestors' names carved on their gravestones or official Chinese papers.

Chinese genealogy is not a straightforward endeavor due mainly to the language barrier for some of you. At one point or another in your search you will be faced with the activity of having to deal with the Chinese script once you begin the task of trying to track down your ancestor who arrived in the country where you were born. However, let not the language problem dissuade you from pursuing your Chinese genealogy as you might be able to find somebody who is Chinese literate to help you, or obtain the services of a translator.

For some of you your ancestor may have a Chinese sounding name but sometimes it may not be enough to trace his roots back to China. In certain situations you will have to find his proper Chinese name as it may not even contain a proper Chinese surname, especially those with pseudo or hybrid "surnames" coined through the lack of past cultural awareness. After you determine your ancestor's real Chinese name, the other chore is to find the site of his home village in China. These two tasks can be a major undertaking. Some are lucky in their pursuit while others are less so.

Genealogy is quite different from other undertakings; you do not start from the top and work your way down. In this case, the procedure is reversed because at the top of the family tree is your progenitor, an unknown person, and right at the bottom somewhere near the roots will be you. It would make sense to start with what you already know and work towards the unknown. So the logical procedure is to begin from the bottom where the roots of the tree are and work little by little upward to the top. How far you will be able to scale up the family tree will depend largely on the quality of information you will be able to dig out during your Chinese genealogy search.


Great Wall at Juyongguan

Start with yourself first and record all the information you know, such as your date and place of birth, schools attended, university, etc. Then, proceed to your sisters and brothers. Then ask your parents for information about themselves, and through them you will be able to find out additional about your grandparents. If your grandparents are still alive, ask them to fill in any gaps you may have about them and don't forget to ask them about your great-grandparents. Failing that you will have to start probing for all sorts of documents; like church certificates, government records, school records, university records, birth and death certificates, marriage records, naturalization records, etc. And, so the process moves along one step at a time until you come to a dead-end, which most likely will be about the time of the arrival of your Chinese ancestor in the country where you were born.

If you are serious about finding your Chinese Genealogy, then you'll want to get a copy of this book. Take a look at the comments from the author about this book:

Chinese genealogy has always been a life long interest of mine. It was only in the last ten years or so that I was able to devote much time researching my family genealogy followed by the discovery of a copy of our clan zupu during my first visit to my ancestral village in Xinhui district.

Thereafter I spent about a year sifting through the zupu to piece together my family's lineage with the help of notes left by my father and additional books on the Chen clan I bought in China. It was a very long road and arduous but it culminated in a fairly comprehensive family record or jiapu.

I kept copious notes when I was doing my own research and these were later organized into a book form and You Are Royalty, A Guide to your Chinese Ancestry came to be published. The title may sound a little off beat, so an explanation is in order. Some of the existing Chinese surnames were derived from well known personages from Chinese history and some were derived from the names of kingdoms, states or feoffs whose ruling classes were in essence considered royalty. In the case of my surname, the blood line reaches way back to one of the five sage emperors called Shundi from whence came the royal connection. Another example is surname Zhou which came from the Zhou Dynasty but the rulers' (royals) surname was Ji. So, both Zhou and Ji surnames may be considered as royalty.

Most of the contents of this website on Chinese genealogy have been excerpted in brief from my book, which of course, is more detailed. The book contains 20 chapters plus 9 appendices as shown by the attached image of the Table of Contents shown below. The book is written in English but Chinese characters have been included to enhance the explanations of the terms encountered in Chinese genealogy.

Click here for more information on this book on Chinese Genealogy. Scroll down to the middle of the page to find out more about this book.

"Patience is a bitter plant, but it has sweet fruit." Chinese ProverbChinese genealogy can be a very challenging process demanding significant amounts of time, much aggravation, ingenuity, imagination and a lot of patience. Results come sporadically, most times none at all but when you do find something it will be well worth the effort. Above all, do not give up once you begin your search!

Your genealogy search begins by tracking down the following two items:

1. The proper Chinese name of your ancestor.
2. The name of the village in China where your ancestor came from.