Origins & Ancestry: Part 2. Dad's Family

Dads side

Yeh-yeh, my paternal grandfather came to the United States from Toisan, Guangdong in 1914, before World War 1. My uncles said that he came on a boat to Vancouver, British Columbia, then traveled by train across Canada to the east coast before entering the US.

My father was one of 11 children. They were actually 13 but two of them died young. He was born in 1927 in Boston Chinatown and he was born at home, not in the hospital. He said that Chinatown, growing up in the 1930s and 1940s was not only a ghetto, but a very isolated and insulated one. People grew up in Chinatown and they never left. They didn’t need to never learn English. Dad talked about growing up poor, working in the family restaurant and going around Chinatown collecting leftover rice so that his mother could make rice wine from the rice kernels. The reason why the family was poor was because his father, Yeh-yeh, was a gambler and he also loaned a lot of money which was never returned.

My uncle Tommy said that Yeh-yeh had a big sea chest full of I. O. U. Paper slips. Lots of people owed him money, but he was too soft and didn't collect. It made it hard on Yun-Yun, dad and his brothers and sisters. Yeh-yeh was intelligent and spoke English. He did interpretation and served as a leader of the Wong Association. The family could have done well, but he neglected his parental responsibilities .

Dad and his older brother, uncle Bart, were the first two students from Chinatown to go to college. He got a full scholarship to go to the Museum of Fine Arts School or to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. Dad was smart and he was also artistic. He was also practical. So, he decided to go to MIT. He graduated in 1948 and got a job in Baltimore.

I don't remember many of the older uncle or aunts except that dad had several brothers older than him who fought in World War II.​ One uncle died in the Pacific Theater in the Philippines. He caught malaria. He left a guitar for my dad. I remember seeing it for years in the living room in the corner. No one really played it until my brother, Steve took it up. We still have it in the family cottage. It must be 80+ years old.

Uncle Tommy died in 2011, my second youngest uncle. Before he passed on from throat cancer , I visited him at the hospital. He told me stories of his experience growing up in the 1940s and 1950s in Chinatown. He was a leader, helping to start the Chinatown Boy Scouts troop 34, and later the Gung-ho club in 1948, which continues to this day. His wife, aunt Nancy typed up his story. I include that in a separate chapter appendix.

Yunyun, my paternal grandmother was one of three wives attached to Yeh-yeh, my paternal grandfather. Yes, Yeh-yeh had 3 wives, two in China in one in America. The first wife in China could not bear any children so Yeh-yeh married Yunyun and brought her to America. The third wife was back in China, I guess when Yeh-yeh traveled back during one of his trips.

There is a  aunt in England who married a British soldier. They met in Hong Kong.

Dad told me that we had many relatives in Arizona from that wife. He was closest to uncle Francis, as they were the same age. When Steve was 15 and I was 14, he sent us to work at the relatives. Steve went to Phoenix to Uncle Francis' grocery store. I was sent to California to work with Aunty Corky, mom's sister. The Arizona clan is big. In recent years we have reconnected and held family reunions. We missed the first one, but we made it to the 2018 reunion in Phoenix.

Is ancestry important? Is there is there any value in it?

Family is interesting to me because It is part of my origin, my life and my ancestral history. Growing up I was largely ignorant or I wasn't interested in it. As such my roots were shallow. I had no depth. But, thankfully I have been learning more and more about my extended family, my ancestors. It is intriguing, even fascinating. 

Genealogy is a family record of the good, bad and the ugly. When we inherit good DNA for ability in music, art, smarts, or business acumen, we rejoice. On the other hand, if we acquire bad traits like anger.

In the gospel of Matthew chapter 1:1-17 there is a detailed genealogy listed. Beginning with Adam, the human ancestry of Jesus is covered through dozens of generations. To the Jews, ancestry was and is important. It showed that they had a special family bloodline.

I also believe that God values all races, ethnicities, tribes because of Acts chapter 2 the Holy Spirit being poured out on all people and everyone speaking different languages. And that people heard the good news in their own mother tongue. Languages are important whether they are from a small African tribe or a large country like China. I truly believe that God values all peoples.