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Asia South Korea

Guide to South Korea, family history and genealogy parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



---LOCATION---

South Korea occupies the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula, which extends some 1,100 km (680 mi) from the Asian mainland. This mountainous peninsula is flanked by the Yellow Sea to the west, and Sea of Japan (East Sea) to the east. Its southern tip lies on the Korea Strait and the East China Sea.

South Korea's terrain is mostly mountainous, most of which is not arable. Lowlands, located primarily in the west and southeast, make up only 30% of the total land area.

South Korea can be divided into four general regions: an eastern region of high mountain ranges and narrow coastal plains; a western region of broad coastal plains, river basins, and rolling hills; a southwestern region of mountains and valleys; and a southeastern region dominated by the broad basin of the Nakdong River.

---HISTORY---

Prior to the Korean War, there was only one country of Korea. This country traces its modern founding to 2333 BC by Dangun Wanggeom. Historically, this discussion will consider primarily the pre-war Korea.

The Lower Paleolithic era in the Korean Peninsula began roughly half a million years ago. The earliest known Korean pottery dates to around 8000 BC, and the Neolithic period began after 6000 BC, followed by the Bronze Age by 800 BC, and the Iron Age around 400 BC.

The Gija Joseon was purportedly founded in 12th century BC, and its existence and role have been controversial in the modern era.

Since the 1st century AD, Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla grew to control the peninsula as well as Manchuria as the Three Kingdoms (57 BC – 668 AD) until unification by Silla in 676.

From the late 16th century, the Joseon dynasty faced foreign invasions, internal power struggle and rebellions. Support from China, particularly militarily, became increasingly important to maintaining rule, and the dynasty maintained a strict isolationist policy to all countries except China. By the 19th century, with the country unwilling to modernize, and the decline of China due largely to European powers, Korea became subject to foreign powers. After Japan defeated China, a brief period of independence and reform occurred.

After the defeat of Japan in 1945, the country was divided into a northern area, protected by the Soviets, and a southern area protected primarily by the United States of America. In 1948, when the powers failed to agree on the formation of a single government, this partition became the modern states of North and South Korea. The "Republic of Korea" was created in the south. This initiated the Korean war of 1954, and resulted in a total separation of the 2 countries, with North Korea remaining a rogue state.

---RELIGION---

Buddhism was introduced to Korea in the year 372 AD. Today, about 90% of Korean Buddhists belong to Jogye Order. Most of the National Treasures of South Korea are Buddhist artifacts. Buddhism became the state religion in some of Korean kingdoms since the Three Kingdoms Period, when Goguryeo adopted it as the state religion in 372, followed by Baekche. Buddhism had been the state religion of Unified Korea from North South States Period (not to be confused with the modern division of Korea) to Goryeo before suppression under the Joseon dynasty in favor of Neo-Confucianism.

Buddhism remained the predominant religion in Korea until the introduction of Christianity in the eighteenth century.

Christianity is now South Korea's largest religion, accounting for more than half of all South Korean religious adherents. There are approximately 13.7 million Christians in South Korea today.

---ECONOMY---

South Korea's market economy ranks 13th in the world by both nominal and purchasing power parity GDP, identifying it as one of the G-20 major economies. It is a developed country with a high-income economy and is the most industrialized member country of the OECD.

South Korea's economy was one of the world's fastest-growing from the early 1960s to the late 1990s, and South Korea is still one of the fastest-growing developed countries in the 2000s, along with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, the other three Asian Tigers.

However despite the South Korean economy's high growth potential and apparent structural stability, the country suffers damage to its credit rating in the stock market because of the belligerence of North Korea in times of deep military crises, which has an adverse effect on South Korean financial markets. There seems to be no solution to this conundrum.



It should be noted that South Korea is showing remarkable strength in the development of world class products in the following major categories:

1) Automobiles and automotive technology.

2) Robotics.

3) Aerospace technology development.

4) Biotechnology, and,

5) Cybersecurity.

---RESEARCH TOOLS---

While the two Korea's have an outstanding history of genealogical record keeping, the division into two countries has made researching these records extremely difficult. An excellent treatise on Korean Genealogy can be found through the following link:


 * Korean records



---CEMETERIES AND GRAVEYARDS---


 * South Korean Cemeteries


 * Wikipedia references for South Korean cemeteries

---GENEALOGY SOCIETIES---


 * Korean Genealogy


 * Family History, South Korea