Some of you may not know that I am bi-racial. One of those halves is Chinese (my dad's). Most of you will not know in my non-genealogy life I worked for decades for organizations which operated on a need to know basis. I'm more comfortable in the shadows: my email account doesn't have my full name, my twitter account has a complete pseudonym, it took a lot for me to adjust to having a full LinkedIn profile. I didn't let my kids have Facebook or Instagram until they turned 18, and even then, they are prohibited from having their full names on their accounts, and they stress to their "friends" not to tag them in photos.
I am also a fervent genealogist, for my own lines as well as assisting others (probably more than for my own) in hunting down their ancestral lines. I am skilled, talented, advanced, and don't even try to hide how genealogically skilled I am anymore. Yeah, I'm that good.
In my travels I have researched and assisted (usually for free) people from all walks of life and occupations, including academic researchers, the casual inquirer, others who live far far away and need a vital record transcription etc. I have volunteered as a Beta tester for every genealogy rollout the LDS church has ever put out for FamilySearch as well as third party software systems such as PAF (yes, I'm that old), FamilyInsight etc. Like many of you, I have volunteered as an Indexer for the 1940 census transcription, still volunteer as an Indexer and as an Arbitrator.
I tell you all this not to brag or give you proof that I'm paranoid, but to set the stage. While there is always more work to do on my mom's side of the family tree, it's leaves look nice, green and full. On my father's side however, it looks a lot like a tree in winter: bare, brown (lol), the occasional dead leaf attached to a branch (that's a pun!)
My father's grandfather was the "mother" of the Republic of China (that's what they call him!) While Sun Yat Sen was the military face of the Republic overthrowing the empire, my grandfather was the political face and arm, equally well known in and out of the Chinese and white communities. I have been fortunate to gather snippets of information here and there about him. I was able to gather documents on him at NARA in San Bruno California before they locked the facility down and made research all but impossible. I found a Chinese organization which connected me with articles written about my great grandfather.
Unfortunately, 97% of these articles are in chinese, and my language skill is a shadow of what it once was. I have longed for the day when I could research the chinese side of my family, and my great grandfather particularly.
Then I found that he had written a book (in Chinese) written to the Overseas Chinese people, but geared toward the President of the USA promulgating the reasons why the USA should support the overthrow of the Chinese Emperor. UC Berkeley has the lone surviving copy. They would not interlibrary loan it to me, nor make me a copy. A professor at the University of New Mexico, for whom I had done some research, managed to get Berkeley to scan and send a copy to him. So now I have it. (Haven't gotten it translated, but it's at least in hand!)
Getting this copy ignited my desire to research this line. My children and I traveled to the Bay area just before we moved to Texas. I ran into people who actually knew who my great grandfather was; found a picture of him hanging in the Sun Yat Sen museum; hit a major roadblock at NARA (we could help you but we won't, we don't have to, we're NARA.)
THEN THIS MORNING, THE MIRACLE. I got a TWEET, a TWEET mind you via my "my real-name-is-not-attached-to-my twitter-account" Twitter account from an academic in China which said:
"Kathryn. Just to say hello and tell you I'm preparing a Ph.D. thesis on your great grandfather Tong, King Chong. Will tell you more later."
A total stranger, PhD candidate, in China reached across (practically the dark-in-China) web, to call me by name, and tell me they are writing a thesis on my great grandfather. I am so excited by the thought, and even more importantly, am thrilled to find out there is enough material out there, surviving the communist purge, to even withstand defending a PhD.
It gives me hope. It brings home the reality for me, that there is more to eternity than this life. That our ancestors are as keenly aware of us, as we are of them, perhaps more.
I wait with baited breath to receive and share any and all information which will help expand my knowledge of my family, and bring us closer to each other.
God is great.
:-)
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