Widowed Chock Sai Shee (See) and Family taken about 1905. It includes the first Son King Lun before he went to China as part of a swim team where he unfortunately drowned.
Left to Right: 3rd brother King Chee, 3rd sister Ah Lan, 2nd brother King Ho, 1rst son King Lun.
Front row: 4th son King Tan, 1rst sister, baby sister Bernice, Chock Sai Shee, 2nd sister Kum Pung( My popo).
Talking to Mayblossom Wilkinson. When I told her about GoonTong instead of GooHokChyun, she said that that sounds right. So I am going to go with GoonTong as our Chock and Chang home village. In Mandarin, it is GuanTang. I also talked to her about the time that Popo and Uncle Jack went back to China. This was because GungGung didn’t feel that he could go back to China because he was unsure whether or not he could get back to Hawaii. He felt he was an illegal (this is why he said that he was from Kauai). Anyway, his parents had fallen ill or passed away and Popo/Uncle Jack went back to visit the Chang and Chock shrine at the ‘village’. So I’m assuming that this village is GoonTong (in Cantonese). I believe it is GuanTang in Mandarin.
Again, the problem is that I’ve seen two chinese characters describing ‘Guan’ but look to be the same town. The other thing is that I’ve seen two sources describing that they belong to two different districts and two different towns. Chock Sai Shee’s Manoa Tombstone indicates Goon Tong 官 塘 Joong San (ChungShan and Zhongshan). In mandarin, it is GuanTang.
On google maps, I found Guantangcun but the chinese characters are 关塘.
Mayblossom Wilkinson related a story to me.
She said that Chang Ah Gett came to the US from China at the age of 14 with a group of chinese because he could read and write. He was from a family of scholars that were stripped of their ‘title’. Couldn’t make a living so he left. He came from the same home town as Chock Sai Shee and my grandmother Gam Pang Chock (Goo Hok Chyun). They were setup in marriage by Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s brother Son Hu (Sun Mei in Honolulu?). She also relates that my grandmother was presented to Dr. SUn Yat Sen as a possible bride since our families knew each other and were from the same village… but was eliminated.
The interesting thing is that Sun Yat-sen’s village is Cuiheng 翠亨村 (now a part of Nanlang)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuiheng. It is about 10 miles from Guhe or GooHok.(Chock Sai Shee’s village).
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Chock’s (Cheuk) also come from Ngan hang or Yinkeng which is about 10 miles from CuiHeng.
http://chinese.rootswiki.legacy1.net/doku.php?id=references:villages:village_database:cheuk
I believe that I found our town for Chock Family
Verbally, our town is Goo Hok Chyun, Kung Seong Doo, Chungshan. This is Cantonese
Chungshan is the district in Guangdong province.
Kung Seong Doo is the district which I think has changed.
Goo Hok is the village. Chyun (village).
In Mandarin, it is pronounced GuHe Cun
Kung Seong Doo is one of the administrative districts of Chungshan. Chungshan was named Heungshan pre 1911. Doo is a district so Kung Seong Doo is one of 10. In 1911, there were slight boundry changes and doo became ‘kee’. There were 9 districts. Kung Seong Doo became #6 precinct. I guess it would be called no 6 kee now. I haven’t found a map that states these precincts or districts today, but I did find maps of the ‘doo’s.
Each of these districts then had ‘villages’ within them called chuen (jyutping) or cun (pinyin).
You may see Heung (jyutping) that is a subdistrict made up of one or more villages.
I found several maps of Chung Shan ‘doo’ or ‘kee’ districts: One of them from Wai Jane Char’s ‘Geography of Kwangtung Province for Hawaii Residents’ ( a good read) indicates ‘Goo Hok’ on the left or west side of Kung Seong Doo.
![[image]](http://sjsue.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/map-of-villages.jpg)
I found this map 1954 army map which indicates Ku-Hao. In the middle next to Mao-wan. I put the larger map also..
Google maps indicates that this area is Guhecun
guhecun, near Zhongshan, Guangdong, China
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Satellite Map
Here is a link that has a satellite Map of Guhe along with Panoramio pictures that other people have uploaded to the site of Guhe
of a map and pictures of the town.
I think that this pic is Guhe on top of the building.
Gu He (pinyin) or Gu Hok (jyutping)
The character for Gu is
It is pronounced Gu in pinyin and jyutping. It means
1] old; classic; ancient; antiquated; antiquity [2] not following current customs or practices [3] a Chinese family name
He (pinyin) or Hok (jyutping) can be written like this.
It means ‘crane’
You may also see or hear the word
cyun/chuen (jyutping) or cun (pinyin) following Guhe or Guhok
This means village.
村
[1] village; countryside; hamlet
[2] vulgar; coarse
[3] naive; simple-minded
[4] [v] embarrass
[5] [v] scold
Other variations:
I was searching on Google Books and found this excerpt from the book
Chinese Historic Sites and Pioneer Families of Rural Oahu by Tin Yuke Char 1988
There are references to the Chang Ah Gett family. Need to get a copy of this book and article.
Tin Yuke Char also got a book ‘Chinese historic sites and pioneer families of Kauai. THere are Ching’s and Chang’s here.
Aunty May Blossom Chang Wilkinson mentions that Chang Ah Gett had a sister and he came from Kauai. Need to discover and research more of this. Ching’s, is the last name of E.K. Wung’s wife Alicia (Ching) Mother of Jean Wung Chang. The Ching’s came from Kauai.
Chinese historic sites and pioneer families of rural Oahu |
I had asked Mayblossom Wilkinson about the village we came from. She verbally talks about the village and county where Chock Sai Shee comes from. I tried to write it in English here.
Jung San Goo Hok cheun Kung seong doo
I found some maps and got ‘Geography of Kwangtung Province for Hawaii Residents’ here. Read it and it will tell you a lot about the villages etc. To find Goo Hok Cheun (village) in Kung Seong Doo #6 district may take some more research. The names have changed.
Such as Doo changed to Kee.
I think that one of the maps shows Goo Hok in the upper left of Kung Seong Doo.
I have to verify this.
Here are some maps of the area:
Jack Chang, eldest son of Chang Ah Gett,made and put a headstone for our Great Grandmother Chock Sai Shee at the Nuuanu Cemetary. She is buried in the Chinese Cemetary in Manoa.
