China Collection of Genealogies - FamilySearch Historical Records

General Description &amp; Background:
This collection contains Chinese genealogy titles from Hong Kong University’s Feng Ping Shan Library. Microfilms come from four acquisition projects from the Hong Kong University. Other record types in these projects, such as cemetery records and local history records, are excluded from the current collection. The records are not always complete and may not contain information that would normally appear in traditional Chinese genealogies, such as ancestral burial ground descriptions, family mottos, or generation poems, and so on.

Collection Time Period
Records in this collection contain information between the Qing dynasty and the Republic era (1700s to early 1900s), even though some preface material includes earlier dates.

Collection Description

The records are mostly about families who have lived in Guangdong province for several generations. Some of the records contain information about only the most recent few generations. Some of the records are hand-copied, while others are published records in standard format. Most of the records are written in traditional Chinese characters. Most of the records are easily readable, although some have damages due to age, water, and tight bindings.

Record Content
Information found in this collection includes the following:


 * A brief history of the origin of the family and the dispersion pattern of some of the branches.


 * A list of male ancestors’ names according to generation order.


 * The birth year or death year of the ancestor, if known.


 * The maiden surname of the spouse, if known.


 * The number and names of the male descendents of each couple, if known.

How to Use the Collection
Begin your search by using the family surname, then the country (which is China most of the time), then the province, and then the county if known. The title of the records from the county will be listed. Some of the records include a publication year, if known. Even though many records are from Guangdong province where most of the families lived in the last century, some of the records are listed under the province and county where the ancestors originated. Some records list “unknown” as the family’s locality because the record itself does not specify any particular place or no single place can be used because the family is too widely scattered.

Assumption
Since most of the records are written in traditional Chinese characters, it is assumed that the user should be able to read Chinese or get help from someone who can read Chinese to fully benefit from this collection.