Saturday, May 24, 2008

The prized possession


In year 2000, the Loh clan in Kangtou Village complied the family records and pictures, and published "The Big Red Book" that recorded our ancestors for more than 500 years.

According to this genealogy, my dad is the 19th generation, I am the 20th generation, John is the 21st generation. The 13th generation migrated from Northern China and settled in Kang Tou Village, Dapu County, Meixian, about 50 km from Meizhou City, North East of Guangzhou China. The village is now well served by well paved roads.

John was given a copy of the ancestral records by one of his grand uncles and was elated and gave him a Chivas Regal in return. He shall now be tasked to continue his genealogy for his future blood line.

He asked the elders about the naming convention for future descendants, and was happy to find out that his generation's children will have the "Ping" or 'Peace' as middle name. This book and knowledge made the whole trip worth it weight in gold. Given China's one-child policy, I don't know if the future generation in China would even bother to keep the genealogy, so I guess we better salvage it before it gets lost permanently. At least outside of China, and in and from Singapore from the 19th generation onwards.

1 comment:

lsh said...

Hi,

I find your blog really interesting, especially about the Loh ancestral history.

I am also a Loh with anscestry from Dapu Guangdong and currently residing in Malaysia.
I am very interested with the sequence of the middle generation name. Our family hardly has any record of the names and wish if you could help with the "Big Red Book" that you had in the blog...

Hope to hear from you soon.

SH.
lohshenghuah@gmail.com