2nd visit to the Song Homestead

A couple of weeks ago we posted a blog called "Doing family history in Taiwan".  We were able to follow up on a lead and visited DaJia 大甲 again.  My cousin Waka's friend, Mr. Cao, drove us around last time while we were there visiting.  He mentioned a person with keen memory of the history that we should talk to.  He helped us make an appointment to visit with her on Friday, November 16.

宋冬菜, Waka and Shirley

宋金樹, 宋冬菜, Waka and Shirley

Mr. Cao picked us up at the little Bao-an train station.  We went to a place in town with a large yard, a shop, and a row of apartments in the back side of the property.  The man who came out to greet us is 宋金樹, the local magistrate and a cousin of ours.  My great-grandfather is his great-great-grandfather's brother.  He's a kind man with gentle demeanor.  He took the day off for us to visit with him and another cousin.  There were a few men sitting there chatting.  They were distant cousins.  There was also a table set up for us to visit.  We waited for a few minutes and the cousin with a good memory came.  She came on a bicycle.  宋冬菜 was sprite and looked no more than 80 years old.  I guess we were all expecting a sage who might be 95 years old and with long beard.  Her great-grandfather and my great-grandfather are brothers.  We share the same great-great-grandfather.  I asked her if she was born in the winter since her name means "winter vegetables".  She said it was Lunar September 9, and she was a chicken in the zodiac sign and said that I could figure that out.  She was 80.  :-)  She was friendly and started talking right away.  She knew my dad and remembered him as a nice man.  She said my grandfather was a very wealthy man, appointed by the government to be in charge of sugar and salt sales.  Isn't that what makes family history interesting?

We continued to visit until almost lunch time.  We offered to take everyone out to lunch, but the two cousins had to go somewhere.  Waka's friend, Mr. Cao, took us to Tainan to a SiChuan restaurant.  We had a special fish that was caught in the wild.  They steamed half of it and made the other half a miso soup.  It was so good, and so beautiful.  The food was excellent.

We visited a couple more cousins before heading home.  One is cousin Lin Hong Ji, the 2nd son of my father's eldest sister and Maylin's brother.  Maylin is one of my favorite cousins who lives in Manhattan, New York.  She came to visit us in Hong Kong while we were on our mission.

While we were in Tainan a couple of weeks ago, Elwin dropped his wallet in the taxi when we got out at the Tainan train station.  It had cash, our foreign residency cards and a Costco card.  It was truly a miracle to find his wallet again.  We didn't even know the wallet was lost until we were on our way to Jia Yi for a family history training meeting the next day.  We thought Elwin got pick-pocketed, or left it in the local bus on our way home.  Waka told me to report the incident to the police because it had foreign residents' cards in the wallet.

We didn't get a chance to call the police until Sunday afternoon.  The policeman came right to the church to meet us.  When he found out that Elwin was with me, he went back to the police station to pick up the cruiser instead of taking me to the police station on his motocycle.  It did crack me up when I found out he was going to take me to the police station on his motocycle though.  For some reason, it just wouldn't be right for me, a sister missionary, to ride with him...alone.  The ride in the cruiser was fine since most people were still in church when the police came.  They had to take a report from us.  They were very nice.  We also called our cousin b/c we took the taxi from his apartment complex.  My cousin's wife, Ah Hua, was so smart.  When we left their house a couple of weeks ago, she took us down to take the taxi and talked to the taxi driver.  The doorman also took pictures of the taxi.  So when I called her, it didn't take her long to find out what taxi company took us to the train station.  She called the taxi company and asked them to look out for the wallet.  The next day, she received a phone call from the local police station that someone had turned in the wallet.  Apparently, the taxi driver was washing the car Monday morning and found the wallet.  He took the whole thing to the police station and called his boss.  They contacted my cousin and she called me.  Wow, it's amazing.  Everything was there.  We asked my cousin to give the taxi driver $2000 NT as a reward.  He first refused, but was told it was okay to take it.  What a special event that was for us to find such honest people in Taiwan!

Before coming home that day, we went to visit Waka's brother 宋博明.  He owns a car detailing shop by the freeway.  He has a book including the village where the Song family settled.  He was so sweet to give it to me.  He believed that I would put it to good use whereas it would have just stayed in the drawer in his house.  I felt so blessed to have such wonderful cousins who value what I'm doing to gather information for the Song family.

Shirley, Waka, 宋博明/his wife, and Ah Hua

Cijin Island

Cijin (sounds like Chee-Jeen) Island off the coast of Gaoxiong

Cijin Island

Cijin Island, Kaohsiung is a small island just a 5 minute ferry (Cijin Ferry) journey across Kaohsiung Harbour (it is also reachable by car from a bridge further south). It’s a very exciting place to visit with lots to do and see. Cijin Island is reputed to be the best place to eat fresh seafood in Kaohsiung. As well as the attractions and food, the island offers a nice clean beach where the sea is lovely and warm for swimming.

We didn't go swimming, but went with a couple of special friends, LiYun and her husband Min for seafood.  LiYun and I went to primary school together in Tainan, and we both ended up in education.  She became a special ed teacher in Kent, Ohio, and I became a professor at Dixie State, also teaching classes for Utah State and University of Phoenix.  We connected back when we lived in El Paso.  After 50+ years we finally met in Macau last year when LiYun and her husband went to Guangzhou to do a speaking tour about education.  It was a joyous reunion and we both vowed not to wait so long before meeting again.

Well, LiYun and her husband came to Gaoxiong to do some workshops on International sign language at the local schools.  Here, we met again.  We were so happy.  LiYun had great impact on me when we were in 5th grade.  My handwriting was atrocious.  Mrs. Chang, our 5th grade teacher made me sit by LiYun to learn how to write by watching her and imitating how she wrote.  LiYun's father was an educator and a famous calligrapher, and she took after her dad.  My handwriting kept improving.  By the end of our 5th grade, I placed #1 in the school-wide "calligraphy contest" at our primary school.  My teacher was so proud of me, and, of course, I was so grateful for LiYun.  We became best friends the rest of our primary and secondary school years.  It was special for me to see her again.  She stayed in contact with Mrs. Chang, our 5th grade teacher.  I remember Mrs. Chang because she was what I called my "enlightening" teacher.  I don't remember much about my schooling before the 5th grade, but she opened up my understanding and helped me developed a love for learning and a love to do well in what I do.  We were going to visit her in Tainan, but she has been sick and has Alzheimer's.   Her son took her to Taichung to live with him.  Bless her for what she has done for me and for the many youngsters she has taught and influenced for good.

Seafood at the YaJiao Restaurant
Pick out what you want in a basket and they cook it for you 

Elwin/Shirley, Ming/LiYun at Cijin Island

Doing Family History in Taiwan

One of the largest, most widespread hobbies in the world is doing family history. Elwin has been an avid genealogist since his BYU days. Some of his lines span hundreds of years. Coming on a family history mission is a very fitting call for him. He probably would have enjoyed going to Wales to further his search for his kinfolks, but for the love of Shirley and her ancestry, he was willing to come to Taiwan and do whatever he can to advance the cause.

Shirley is a Song and her ancestors came from FuJian, China back in the 1600's with General Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga). They settled in southern Taiwan, a village called DaJia (大甲) near Tainan, which was the capital of Taiwan at that time.

This is a statue of Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga). Previous to his coming, it had been colonized by the Dutch and Portuguese, and before them by the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan. In that respect, Taiwan's history is similar to America's. The Americans settled in the Americas along the east coast beginning at about the same time.

It also means that most of the Taiwanese people face similar challenges to what people in the US faced in America when it comes to searching for ancestors. It doesn't take many generations before one has to start searching in the mother countries for their roots: Europe, for many Americans, and the Chinese mainland for the Taiwanese.

A few years ago when we were visiting relatives in Taiwan, we got hold of a Song Clan book.  It had my grandfather in it as he was a representative in the government.  It also has other information that might be of our line of the Song's, but we couldn't be sure.  After our call as family history missionaries, things started to open up.  The Spirit of Elijah has come to help, several times already.  We are truly grateful for this opportunity to come to Tainan.  So far we have found:

1. Government record of my great-grandfather, Song Lu (宋陸，meaning #6).  He's the number six son, born in 1835 and died in 1915.
2. Song Lu's record indicated that his father is Song Zhang 宋彰, his mother is Liu He （劉蚵).  No birth dates recorded.
3. My friend, Sister Lv found a thesis written by a Tainan Cultural University graduate student on the FuJian immigration to Taiwan, listing my great-great-grandfather, Song Zhang, who was born in 1791 according to his research.
4. In Da-Jia, we went to the old homestead and met a 2nd cousin, Song Wen Yan.  He told us that our great-grandfather Song Lu settled in Da-Jia and built a Song village with 8 homes with courtyards for each of his 8 sons.  I remember the old homestead as we lived there for a time when I was little.  Below are some of the remains of the old homestead.

   

   Da-Jia Train Station 

   

   2nd cousin, Song Wen Yan, Cousin Waka Song, Shirley Song and Yan's wife

   

   Cousin Song Wen Yan and me (He gave me the Song Genealogy book)

   

   The Song Homestead from 1791 AD

   

   The Song Homestead from 1791 AD

   

   Song Worshipping Hall

   

   Song Worshipping Hall with Ancestral Name plates

   

   fruit on the altar

   

   the altar

   

   the altar

   

   Guanyin Goddess 

   

   Song Old Home 

5. While in DaJia, a third cousin (related through a common great grandfather) came to visit.  He went to Zhang Zhou, FuJian, China and met the Song descendants who have been living there since our first ancestor was sent there during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD). 

   

   3rd Cousin Song who went to China to meet the cousins there. He looks like my dad
   

   
   

6. That first ancestor's name is Song Yong (宋用). He was a court physician and was ordered there with the battalion to settle a rebellion during the Tang Dynasty. He was asked to stay and helped build what is now the city of Zhang Zhou.



Song Yong's graveside @Zhang Zhou, FuJian, China
Song descendants paying respect (taken from a picture)

7. Song Yong (宋用) had 6 sons (names all listed in the clan book).  His youngest had 4 sons and we are the descendants of the youngest son, Song Su (宋數). 
8. No records (yet) found between Song Su and the ancestors who migrated to Taiwan with Koxinga in 1636, a span of 750-1000 years.
9. There are also missing links between 1636 to 1791 when my great-great-grandfather, Song Zhang, who was born in 1791 settled in Da-Jia.
10. One of my grandfather Song's brother is 畑.  We could not find the character in various dictionaries.  Finally, I posted it online (FB), especially for my Chinese friends to land a helping hand.  The answer came.  It was a Japanese word, meaning "field".  How fun it was to learn the word.  I showed it to my aunt (mom's younger sister who lives in Taipei), and she immediately recognized the word as "field" since she went through Japanese education during her growing up years.  
     

These findings have been very exciting to me.  I know the Spirit was there to help us.  When we were at the government office to get the records for my great grandfather Song Lu, 1835-1915, the man told us to go to the Archives division where they kept the records dated between 1895 and 1945.  Taiwan (including the Pescadores) was a colony of the Empire of Japan. The lady searched reluctantly, as the Japanese Occupation period was between 1895 and 1945, and I was looking at records 50 years before that. Then I heard her exclaimed excitedly; "I found it". It was incredible.  On this record was Song Lu's parents, but without birthdays.  We found his birthday through a different document (the thesis).

Yes, things are happening and we are very excited.  We'll be starting mom's side of the family.  Her sister kept a pretty good record and we are hopeful that it'll go well.  Aunt Mei Juan also has lots of stories to tell.  She's 84 and in good health condition.  We look forward to seeing her whenever we can.         

We have also contacted all the bishops and branch presidents to offer our services where we serve.  We have great responses from these leaders.  Our October calendar after General Conference was full each Sunday.  Had a great time visiting the Qishan Ward, about 20 miles northeast of Gaoxiong.  We did a mini Family History workshop after the 3-hour block.  We were amazed at the number of people who stayed.  People are interested in doing family history here.  We were asked to come back to speak at the Sacrement meeting later this month.

Brother Liu, Sister Guo (Family History Consultants),  and E/S Davis

We visited Gangshan Ward and found the people there to be quite familiar with family history research.  We are delighted.

A lot of the Taiwan members do have clan books from their families.  Those without one are usually from the mainland when their grandparents came with Jiang Kai Shek in 1949.  Since China has opened up their national libraries, we are seeing some exchanges of information going on.  Similar to my 3rd cousin who went back to mainland China, a lot of the people with mainland ties have gone back to find their relatives and also ancestors.

It's an exciting time to be here.  We are grateful.