Genealogy Gems

I do vital records transcriptions in Los Angeles county, California (for a very slight, tiny fee to cover gas costs.) I also do "free" tombstone transcriptions and upload them to http://www.findagrave.com. 

Up until recently, the gravesites I had uploaded were directly related to me. One of them was a grand aunt on the Chinese side of my family; a baby girl who was given the name of 'Baby' followed (erroneously) by the given names of her father. So her death certificate reads: Baby Dep (as first given names) Goon (as middle name) Wong.

So that's how I listed her in findagrave: "Baby" Dep Goon Wong. 

Another findagrave researcher sent me a message advising me that I shouldn't list her as "Baby" in the given name section. "Baby" should be listed in the nickname section. W-h-a-t-e-v-e-r.

Then I realized that although I had entered in findagrave her, my grandmother (her sister), and their mother (my great grandmother), I had not entered the father of the family (my great grandfather.) "Hmmm," I thought, "that's strange. I'm sure I have that info."

So I checked my databases. NOPE. Nada. A little voice said, "hey, you should enter his name into Ancestry.com and see what pops up."

Now, those of you in the small minority who do Asian research are probably either busting a gut laughing, or trying to bring back your eyes after rolling your eyes straight to the back of your head. Anyone who's done Asian research knows that it's exceptionally R-A-R-E that a name will be written "in english" the same way. Ever. Although thanks to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (that would be the immigration law that kept the Chinese OUT of the USA unless they belonged to a certain "class") once you proved you belonged to that "protected class" you did tend to make sure all of your legal documents kept that same spelling. But I digress.

I typed his name, Dep Goon Wong, into Ancestry.com. Guess what popped up? Dep G. Wong, died 28 Feb 1930, Los Angeles county, born about 1858. HMMMM. Pretty close to the birth year I had. Except that branch of family was never near LA county as far as I knew (which granted, isn't much.) 

The great thing about the 1905-1939 index is it lists the initials of given name of the spouse if it's on the death cert. His listed the initials O.F.

Alarm bells start ringing at this point. My great-grandmother's name was Oy Fong LEE. 

Ok, I bit. Heck I'd been meaning to go to the LA County Hall of Records anyway. And I still had the Prius, which made it cheap to get there. So I went.

I don't know why I doubted that this WAS my great grandfather. Seriously. You'd think I'd know by now how the spirit world works in this universe. 

Yep. My great grandfather. Marital status: Widowed. Wife's name: Oie Foong Wong (hey white folk wrote it, give me a break.) Listed his PARENTS names, that was a shocker, you never get that lucky on a Chinese death cert. Gave his date of birth (yeah, ok.)

Turns out he died at the Los Angeles County Poor Farm, (yes, that's the city it listed), in Los Angeles county. 

I've been doing genealogy research in LA county for a long time, and that was a new one. So I dug a little deeper. Turns out there really was a "poor farm" for indigent patients, and a really big one at that. This blogpost http://www.avoidingregret.com/2013/04/photo-essay-rancho-los-amigos-abandoned.html is really worth reading. With pictures even, which really makes it come alive. I'd heard of Rancho Los Amigos before, but not the name LA County Poor Farm. It's cool to look at these pictures on the blogpost and realize that's where my great grandfather passed. From bone cancer. Without family.

His burial information is listed as "Los Angeles, CA." Gee, that's a help. It's such a small town and all. Most who died at the "poor farm" were buried at Evergreen Cemetery, a place with its own history  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Cemetery,_Los_Angeles. Except by the time he died, Evergreen was out of space. Even if he "was" there, he may or may not have been buried in the Chinese section (that would be too easy), or buried over when they added 8 feet of topsoil to the Potter's Field section (which frankly, sounds way too macabre, even for me.) Most likely he was cremated and who knows what happened to his ashes. Many Chinese were cremated and their ashes sent back to China, but you'd have to have family to do that, and clearly he didn't (forgot to mention my grandmother was adopted out, so she wasn't in the picture.)

Other than gaining the names of my 2nd great grandparents (which is actually pretty cool. In Chinese genealogy you take what you can get when you can get it), I didn't add much to my "database" than I already had, although I did gain specifics. Still, I have been nicely haunted by the feeling all day that my great grandfather had finally come "home" to his family. It is a reunion which has warmed my heart and buoyed up my spirits. 

Hou hoisam joi gin neih Jaang Jaang leuih Fuh.

(Very happy to see you again great grandfather on my father's mother's side.)

UPDATE: Ok, that is beyond spooky. After finding ZERO info for decades, I just found the WW1 draft card for my grandmother's brother. With his father, Dep Goon WONG listed as next of kin.