Members of the CFHGSC Planning Group discussed how they broke through their own personal Chinese family history research brick walls. Cases included unknown "relative" found through DNA testing, an adoptee finding her biological family, handling too many female "shees", finding grandmothers' names and identifying unknown persons in family photographs.

Selected volunteers shared their unsolved cases with attendees for ideas and alternative methods to try to break through these brick walls. 

The group celebrated the Year of The Rat 4718 with a wide array of Chinese New Year delicacies prepared by members.

Helen Lim and Carol Ng gave a short presentation on the importance of the 2020 Census. An accurate 2020 U.S. Census count is vitally important for equitable representation in government and government funding for federal, state and local programs. Future family historians will research where their family members were living in 2020 and information gleaned from census questions. Attendees found out how they could help.

Attendees learned about the history of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and how it impacted Chinese immigrants and Chinese American families.

The Chinese Exclusion Act signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, was followed by a series of laws that extended the exclusion of Chinese until December 17, 1943, when the Magnuson Act was enacted. The laws made it illegal for Chinese laborers to immigrate to the United States and for Chinese nationals already in the U.S. to become citizens. The Chinese were the only specific ethnic group excluded in the history of the United States. Potential Chinese immigrants were interrogated and many were detained at Angel Island after 1910. Case files of interrogation transcripts and other records, kept at the National Archive and Records Administration (NARA) regional offices, are some of the most valuable research resources for Chinese American family historians today.

Attendees discussed how the Chinese Exclusion Act and feelings toward the Chinese impacted their family members.

DNA BASICS AND WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO BE TESTED: 

Patti Dung discussed basic DNA background information, how DNA is inherited and changed and the amount you share with relatives. She pointed out issues with migration and ethnicity.  Reasons why Chinese Americans would want to be tested include finding & confirming relatives, validating Chinese family genealogy books, ancient migrations, and solving family mysteries such as  "mystery people", paper sons and daughters and adoptions. Patti is a former high school AP Biology and UCLA Secondary Science Methods Instructor.
 
Steve Kwok, former CFHGSC President, discussed third party DNA databases, such as GEDmatch and the security of information that you may opt to share.  He will share a recent discovery.
 
WHAT MEMBERS FOUND FROM DNA TESTS:

• Trae Nicholson discussed efforts to find relatives  through DNA testing.  She and Wayne Louie demonstrated how they validated part of the Louie zupu,
• Carol Ng showed how she would have been able to see if a "cousin" was really a cousin. 
• Ron Chun talked about his results from 3 different DNA test companies and how he used mtDNA and YDNA tests to try to answer a family question.

Marisa Louie Lee is a freelance researcher and genealogist, who specializes in 20th century immigration and naturalization records. She formerly worked as an archivist at the National Archives at San Francisco and is the co-author of the article "The A-Files: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestors", published in the Spring 2013 issue of Prologue magazine. She worked as an archival researcher for the PBS American Experience documentary “The Chinese Exclusion Act” (Steeplechase Films, 2018). A fifth generation Chinese American, Marisa is a proud alumna of the "Roots" program which brought her to her maternal grandfather’s village in rural Kaiping, Guangdong Province.

Marisa demonstrated how to search for records relating to those who immigrated during and after the Chinese Exclusion period. She talkedabout accessing Alien Files (“A-Files”), Chinese partnership case files, and more. She shared records she has discovered on behalf of our own CFHGSC members attending the meeting. ​