Chen Genealogy Book?
January 24, 2010
Here is the latest update on my book Journey to Chen.
Planning and Development has been substantially completed and I have commenced writing. Hopefully, it may be completed sometime toward the end of the year.
There are a few changes on the availability of this publication. There will only be a single print run and only those who have contacted me personally will be informed when the book will be ready for sale. To reserve a copy will require advance payment in full. The book will no longer be available on a Print-On-Demand basis as there are too many conditions and complications involved. As a reminder, there will be no inventory to minimize capital outlay on my part.
This publication will not be available in any bookstore as the subject has a very limited appeal worldwide and major book companies shy away from such ventures.
If anyone is interested in this book there is still time to contact me (twoupman@yahoo.com) and remember, once the print run is completed the book will no longer be available in the future.
November 19, 2008
There have been several enquiries by viewers to my website asking if I would consider writing a book in English on Chen genealogy. They said that except for this website there is no meaningful information available for building their own family record.
Since this kind of book will have very limited readership, I need an assessment from viewers before undertaking such a major project. Would all Chen/Chan/Chinn/Chin/Tan or other viewers who are interested in purchasing such a book please e-mail me at twoupman@yahoo.com so I may be able to inform them on future developments. Suggestions will also be welcome.
To be of value to family historians I envisage this book will have to be comprehensive and should include charts, maps and a contiguous chronology spanning some 2,300 years (about 80 generations) of Chen history from its inception during the start of the Zhou Dynasty to the eventual southward migration in the latter part of the Song Dynasty to Fujian and Guangdong Provinces where the majority of present-day Chens are to be found in China. The text will also include Chinese script for all genealogical information to avoid any misinterpretations.
The tentative title of this new Chen genealogy book will be Journey to Chen in English and in Chinese it will be 陳 氏 淵 源. If this book becomes a reality it will probably be the only definitive publication of its kind on surname Chen available to English readers.
A price cannot be determined as yet for this niche market, so, it will most likely be a “print-on-demand” (POD) basis to eliminate any expensive inventory on my part. If the responses are worthy of consideration, further news will be forwarded to all those who respond to the assessment call and also on this website.
Village Database
If your ancestor originated from the Siyi (四邑) region of Xinhui (新會), Taishan (台山), Kaiping (開平) or Zhongshan (中山) this database may be of help.
To help find the name of your ancestral village all you have to do is enter your surname (it would be helpful if you also know the Chinese characters) and the database will display a list of village names in transliterated Cantonese plus Chinese characters.
The website is: http://www.c-c-c.org/villagedb/search.cgi
Chinese Genealogy Forums
At the present time there are only two forums dealing with Chinese genealogy where participants try to help each other with queries. These are:
http://www.ziplink.net/~rey/ch/queries/
http://siyigenealogy.proboards28.com/
PUBLICATIONS
You Are Royalty, A Guide to your Chinese Ancestry
Wish to learn about Chinese genealogy and how to search for your roots? This book will provide you with some helpful information which should help you initiate your roots search.
To learn more, click here
Roots Search Surname Booklets
Have you ever wondered where your surname came from or how it originated? Take for example an English surname like Cooper; it does not take much imagination to realize it came from a worker making wooden barrels. Likewise, Chinese surnames can be derived from many sources.
Imagine visiting China one day and being able to stand at the site where your surname began thousands of years ago. Would that not be something worth experiencing? I personally did and it can be a very surreal experience to realize your surname survived through the turbulent past to the present. Just think about it, your surname could have originated perhaps a thousand years before Jesus Christ was even born in Bethlehem and there are quite a number of the ancient ones that have such a distant past.
This series of booklets on some of the Chinese surnames deals with their past histories and places of origins. These booklets will be of assistance to family historians with their family genealogy research.
The text format for each booklet consists of the following: a Foreword, an Introduction, Surname Totem, Place of Origin, History, Migration, Historical Places of Interest and Famous Personages. Illustrations are also included to compliment the text.
These booklets are specially hand bound in Chinese fashion employing back wrap folding sheets fastened together at the book spine with traditional Chinese string binding. They make unique and novel gifts to friends and relatives for any special occasion.
These Roots Search booklets will provide a human touch to a surname with an interesting story on how it started which may sometimes surprise you. To learn more just click on a surname of interest in the following list of available booklets:
1. Li (李)
2. Wang (王)
3. Zhang (張)
4. Liu (劉)
5. Chen (陳)
6. Yang (楊)
7. Zhao (趙)
8. Huang (黃)
9. Zhou (周)
10. Wu (吳)
14. Zhu (朱)
17. He (何)
39. Peng (彭)
65. Tan (譚)
70. Lu (陸)
260. Lan (藍)
Cen (岑)