VOLUME 11

Table of Contents

Series No. Title Author

802 / The Search for My Japanese Roots: Using Kin-itsu Hirata

Buddhist and Local Sources

805' Family History for Japanese-Americans Greg Gubler

807' Family History for Chinese-Americans Jean B. Ohai

809 • Genealogy and Family History i n Mongolia Sechin Jagchid

Paul V. Hyer

Contracts and Other Old Docunents as Shih-Ching Wang

812 Sources for Family History and Genealogy
in Taiwan

Panel: East Asian Family Sources: The John W. Orton (Mod.)

814 Genealogical Society of Utah Collection Basil P. Yang
Ted A. Telford
Kenji Suzuki

816 Family History i n Korea: Yangban Family June-ho Song

History

818 Panel: Family and Local History i n Japan Kenji Suzuki (Mod.)
Ann Walthall
Kin-itsu Hirata
Greg Gubler

820 y
Oral Family History i n Sarawak Benedict Sandin

822' The Family i n Japan IS L. Keith Brown

824^ Panel: Chinese Clan Genealogies and James W. Hayes (Mod

Family Histories Shin-Ching Wang
Tien-Wai Lin

825 Genealogical Research i n the Absence Russell N. Horiuchi

of Written Records: The Case of the Annette A. Horiuchi
Ainus, the Aborigines of Japan
V Using Family Linkages to Reconstruct Norio F u j i k i
826
the History of an Isolated Japanese
Village
831" Panel: Women and Traditional Sources June-ho Song (Mod.)
Ted A. Telford
Mark Peterson

901 African Family History through Oral Donald R. Wright

Traditions David Henige
William F. Lye

902' African Families; Black and White Quintard Taylor

Ronald G. Coleman
R.T.J. Lombard

903 How to Trace Your Heritage to Africa: Alex Haley, with

The Voice of Experience James D. Walker

904 Roman Catholic Church Records i n Turkey: Livio A. Mi ssir

How to Use Them for Genealogy and Family
History

905 West African Cultures: Past and Present Victor Uchendu

Marion Kilson
Derrik J . Thorn

906 How to Trace Your Family History i n R.T.J. Lombard

South Africa through Written Sources

907 Pilgrimage Records of India: A Rich B.N. Goswamy

Source for Genealogy and Family History

908 Christians i n India and How to Trace Katharine S. Diehl

Their Family Histories

909 Sources i n the Arab World for Genealogy Arnold H. Green

and Family History

910 Islam and the Family i n the Arab World Lee L. Bean
Peter von Sivers

Tradition of Genealogy Among Moslems Michel M. Mazzaoui

Genealogical Records of Medieval India S.A.I. Tirmizi

 PREFACE

This i s volune 11 of the 13-volume proceedings of the 1980 World Conference on

Records, held 12-15 August 1980 i n Salt Lake C i t y , Utah.

This volune includes papers 802 , 805 , 807 , 809 , 812 , 814 , 816 , 818 , 820 , 822 , 824,
825, 826, 831 and 901 through 912. These papers represent a l l of the presentations
made at the conference on Asian and A f r i c a n f a m i l y and l o c a l h i s t o r y .

A l l papers i n t h i s volune have been paged separately, to f a c i l i t a t e t h e i r p r i n t i n g as

i n d i v i d u a l papers. There w i l l o c c a s i o n a l l y be blank pages at the end of a paper.
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

The Search
for My Japanese Roots:
Using
Buddhist and Local
Sources
Kin-itsu Hirata
Series 802
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 THE SEARCH FOR MY JAPANESE ROOTS:
USING BUDDHIST AND LOCAL SOURCES

Kin-itsu Hirata

Bom i n Japan. Resides i n Mino City, Japan. Director, Hirata Institute of Health,
Chukyo University. M.D., Nagoya Medical School, Japan. Author, lecturer, gene-
alogist.

Recently I published a book on my family together and a committee of fifty-three

roots, entitled Kakocho kara mita kakeifu
(family history as seen from Buddhist
death registers). I sent a copy to the
Asia/Pacific subcommittee of the World
Conference on Records with my proposal
and fortunately was invited to present a
synopsis of this work as part of my
presentation. Today's presentation i s a
special honor for me and I would like to
express my appreciation to the committee
for this opportunity.
My i n t e r e s t i n genealogy and f a m i l y
history began during my childhood, almost
sixty years ago. It was at this time
that I f i r s t heard about some of our
ancestors from my parents and developed
enough interest to v i s i t the tombs and
graves of ancestors and family members.
Later, when I was a university student, I
investigated the inscriptions (posthumous
names, death dates, and relationships) on
the tombstones of the H i r a t a f a m i l y
cemetery and recorded Information from
the family death r e g i s t e r (kabetsu
kakocho) and mortuary tablets (ihai) on
the butsudan (Buddhist a l t a r ) i n my
house. With this information, I was able
to complete a genealogy of my Hirata
family.
After the Second World War, I returned
from military service as an army doctor
and became a physician i n my native town.
I was able to v i s i t many of my relatives
as patients and to investigate the re-
cords of Ryutai Temple and Its branch,
Zeno-o Temple which our families have
been a f f i l i a t e d with for many genera-
tions. Finally i n 1971, our families met
members was chosen to undertake the great
task of reconstructing the family his-
tory. These committee members are from
the various lines descending from a com-
mon ancestor, Masasumi Yamada (d. 1442)
who i s known posthumously on this mortu-
ary tablet (ihai) as J i k i s h i Inden Beppo
Sogen Daikoji. The committee investi-
gated about 200 f a m i l i e s composed of
around 1,200 identifiable individuals who
descended from the early well-known r e s i -
dent of Mino no Kuni (the old name for
the country or province of Mino which i s
located i n present-day Gifu Prefecture).
It was engraved on the tomb of our common
ancestor that he came from Kozuke no Kuni
(an old name for one of the provinces
located i n present-day Gunma Prefecture).
It i s common knowledge, too, that he was
referred to as "Kozuke Dono" (a special
t i t l e of respect meaning Lord or His
Lordship) by the villagers of the area.
We had not, however, known where he came
from except for the reference to Kozuke
no Kuni. One day, while looking at a
d e t a i l e d map of Gunma Prefecture, I
noticed that there was a Yamada Gun
( d i s t r i c t ) , Yamada V i l l a g e near K i r y u
C i t y i n the southeast part of the
prefecture. A member of our committee,
Tadayuki Yamada, found a reference i n Ryo
Ota's Seishi kakei daijiten (comprehen-
sive dictionary of surnames and lineages
[vol. 3, 1963 ed., p. 6309]) that one of
the origins of the surname Yamada was
Yamada Village, Yamada Gun ( d i s t r i c t ) ,
Kozuke no Kuni. We therefore believe the
information on the epitaph of our
ancestor's tomb to be true.
802/Hirata
On my way home from the Japanese Confer-
ence on Physical Fitness, held i n October
of 1977 i n Aomori Prefecture, I stopped
off i n K i r y u C i t y and v i s i t e d some
h i s t o r i c a l s i t e s i n Yamada Gun ( d i s -
t r i c t ) . Of special interest to me was a
monument i n Shirataki Shrine that com-
memorated the t r a d i t i o n a l story about
Princess Shirataki and Toneri Yamada (see
chronological table f o r approximate
dates) and a notation i n the Kiryu-shi
Shi (history of Kiryu City) that Noriyuki
Yamada was defeated by Kunitsuna Kiryu.
After this tour, the Chief Librarian, a
Mr. Kobayashi, t o l d me that Hidemine
(Hideo) Ueki had done considerable
research on the origins of the Yamada
family. A few months later, on 3 January
1978, six members of the research com-
mittee visited Yamada Gun ( d i s t r i c t ) i n
Gunma Prefecture to continue this
research. While there, they were given a
guided tour by Mr. Ueki and Mr Kobayaski.
They were shown important ruins and
h i s t o r i c a l sites and were able to learn
more about Mr. Ueki's valuable research
work.
On 18 September 1978 (the 536th anniver-
sary of our common ancestor's death), the
book our committee had begun to compile
seme seven years before f i n a l l y became a
r e a l i t y . I t was only through the coopera-
tion of the many conmittee members and
t h e i r f a m i l i e s that we were able to
accomplish so large a task.
SOURCES MATERIALS
The source materials we investigated i n
our research included the following:
1. S e k i h i (tompstones, gravestones,
monuments and slabs)
a. Gorinto ( l i t e r a l meaning—"five
ring monument")
This o l d - s t y l e tombstone f i r s t
appeared i n the Yamato period and
was used u n t i l the Kamakura period.
The shape, size, and type of stones
used varied from place to place and
from period to p e r i o d . It i s
possible, therefore, to t e l l the
2
approximate time period of a
particular Gorinto.
b. Itabi (means "plate stone" or slab)
This type of tombstone appeared i n
the l a t e Kamakura and e a r l y
Muromachi periods. Sometimes a
posthumous name or epitaph was
engraved on the tombstone.
c. Common tombstones
Whereas the Gorinto and I t a b i
tombstones were erected mainly for
lords or e s p e c i a l l y famous
individuals, these tombstones were
f o r the common people. These
appear at the beginning of the Edo
period (1600-1867 and some types
have continued to the present. In
addition, there were some wooden
markers used, but few of those
remain today. The following are
types of tombstones erected for the
common people: sharp head type
tombstone (built from 1600-1700),
cupola type tombstone (built from
1700-1900), child body type
tombstone (built for a child or
infant), egg-shaped tombstone
(built mainly for priests) and the
natural stone tombstone (found
sometimes i n special families).
d) Stone monuments
Stone monuments have been erected
i n Japan since the beginning of the
M e i j i era (1868-1912) for famous
persons or f o r those who made
significant public contributions.
2. Ihai (wooden mortuary tablets)
These are Buddhist mortuary tablets
made to memorialize the deceased.
They are g e n e r a l l y placed on the
butsudan (Buddhist a l t a r ) i n i n d i -
v i d u a l homes and sometimes i n the
Buddhist temple. The size, shape and
decoration of the t a b l e t s u s u a l l y
varies according to the status and
prominence of the deceased. The
posthumous name, death date, and
sometimes the r e l a t i o n s h i p are
inscribed on the tablet. In rarer
cases, the birthdate or highlights of
802/Hirata 3

the person's l i f e may also be found. until around 1870, they are
This i s a u s e f u l genealogical source frequently scattered, l o s t or have
w i t h a few p r e d a t i n g the Tokugawa perished; complete c o l l e c t i o n s are
period. extremely r a r e .

3. Kakocho (Buddhist death registers) b) S a s h i d a s h i M e i s a i - c h o ( d e t a i l e d

reports on the c o n d i t i o n s o f
There are two kinds o f kakocho: one villages)
f o r the f a m i l y and one f o r the temple. This was an annual report from the
Since the f a m i l y kakocho l i s t s the v i l l a g e headman to the chief
posthumous name, death date, and o f t e n magistrate (daikan) mandatory i n
the common name and r e l a t i o n s h i p of most han (domains) during much of
a l l the f a m i l y progenitors, i t i s very the Tokugawa period (1600-1867).
u s e f u l i n reconstructing the f a m i l y This report l i s t e d the number of
h i s t o r y . The temple kakocho includes f a m i l i e s and animals, the kokudaka
s i m i l a r information but f o r the danke (amount of r i c e p r o d u c t i o n i n
(parishioners) of the temple. I t can k o k u ) , the nengu" (annual l a n d
be arranged c h r o n o l o g i c a l l y by year taxes), the temples and shrines,
and/or a deathday calendar f o r the the natural resources and
priest. It i s very u s e f u l f o r topography of the v i l l a g e and other
m o r t a l i t y r e s e a r c h and as a check such i n f o r m a t i o n . This type of
against other sources. record can be q u i t e useful,
t h e r e f o r e , f o r l o c a l h i s t o r i c a l and
4. Komonjo (old documents) geographical research.

A number of komonjo ( o l d documents) c) Kokudaka Aratame-cho (examination

have been passed down i n the f a m i l i e s of y i e l d r e g i s t e r )
of former shoya ( v i l l a g e headmen), This record i s u s e f u l f o r research
daikan) chief magistrates, or other i n t o f a m i l y w e a l t h and p r o p e r t y
formerly prominent or powerful f a m i - holdings i n a h i s t o r i c a l context.
lies. Some of these documents are i n
l o c a l archives and c o l l e c t i o n s while d) Goningumi-cho (five-men-in-a-group
others are s t i l l i n the possession of or neighborhood association
descendants. These sources i n c l u d e : registers)
These r e g i s t e r s were used to pro-
a) Shumon Aratame-cho (examination of v i d e m u t u a l a s s i s t a n c e and to
r e l i g i o n r e g i s t e r s ) t h i s source was guarantee p u b l i c peace and order
o r i g i n a l l y created i n the seven- among the inhabitants of a p a r t i -
teenth century as a check on the c u l a r neighborhood. This type of
r e l i g i o u s a f f i l i a t i o n of v i l l a g e r s r e c o r d was used by many han
and townsmen. I t c o n t a i n s the (domains) and or l o c a l administra-
family temple affiliation tions during the Tokugawa period
(bodaiji), the personal name (1600-1867) f o r s u r v e i l l a n c e and
r e l a t i o n s h i p and f r e q u e n t l y the age c o n t r o l of the population.
of family members. Family names
are entered f o r i n d i v i d u a l s that e) There were a d d i t i o n a l l y many r e -
had t h a t p r i v i l e g e . Since a l l ports about v i l l a g e s and townsmen
members of the community had to be d u r i n g the Tokugawa p e r i o d t h a t
entered to c e r t i f y they were not d e t a i l e d c e r t a i n i n c i d e n t s and
Christians and in many han events of import.
(domains) censuses were made
annually, t h i s record i s extremely 5. E n g i ( h i s t o r y of t e m p l e s , s h r i n e s ,
u s e f u l f o r demographic and f a m i l y etc.)
reconstruction purposes. Although These are accounts of the o r i g i n s and
sources of t h i s type c o n t i n u e d h i s t o r i c a l development of the respec-
802/Hirata
tive temples and shrines. Of par-
ticular interest i n my research were
the Engi of Shirataki Shrine, Ryutai
Temple, Yokogoshi Yakushi Temple,
Daisen Temple, etc. as they related to
the Yamada ancestry.
6. Chihoshi (local histories)
These are books detailing the history
of a particular locale. I referred to
the Gifu-ken S h i ( h i s t o r y of G i f u
prefecture), Mino Koku Shi (history of
Mino province), Mino-shi Shi (history
of Mino c i t y ) , Seki-shi Shi (history
of Seki c i t y ) , Kiryu-shi Shi (history
of K i r y u c i t y ) , Yamada-gun S h i
( h i s t o r y of Yamada d i s t r i c t , Gunma
prefecture) and several others.
7. Traditional histories
8. Kamon (family crests)
The kamon of the Yamada family i s
kenkatabami, the same as that of the
Jion Temple, which Noriyuki Yamada,
the Lord of Takatsudo (see item K-10
i n chronology) had i n Kozuke no Kuni.
9. Y a s h i k i Ato (ruins of the Lord's
house)
We also looked around the ruins of the
Lord's house and at those of another
temple at the foot of Mtayama and
Takatsudo castles.
In reconstructing my family's history, I
found the kakocho, ihai and tombstones to
be the most valuable source materials.
A l l the above were, however, consulted i n
my search.
RESULTS OF RESEARCH
1. Outline of the Yamada family history
Table 1 l i s t s the generations of the
Yamada family placed i n their h i s t o r i c a l
context. A few important h i s t o r i c a l
facts, both i n Japan and elsewhere, are
also enumerated i n chronological
sequence.
This table begins with the traditional
Yamada ancestor, Toneri Yamada (see K-T
4
on Table 1 at end of paper). He married
Princess Shirataki i n the seventh century
A.D., about the same time as Mohammed was
preaching his doctrine i n Arabia.
In the eleventh century, Tadayuki Yamada
became a lord at Nitayama Castle i n
Kozuke no Kuni. He was the f i r s t i n a
line of prominent Yamadas i n this area.
The family's destiny changed completely
when Noriyuki Yamada, the Lord of
Takatsudo Castle, was defeated by the
combined forces of Kunitsuna Kiryu and
Y o r i y u k i Hosokawa some three hundred
years after Tadayuki became a lord. With
the defeat at Takatsudo Castle and the
annihilation of most of the family, the
young Masasumi Yamada escaped with his
mother, who was the daughter of the head
of Mino no Kuni. Together they went to
Mino where Massasumi was to become a
general at Saruhami Castle. Masasumi i s ,
as mentioned, the common ancestor of the
Yamada family i n Mino (see M-l).
At the time Japan was being reunified
under Nobunaga Oda, Masatorna Yamada (see
M-4) helped Yoshitatsu Saito, the lord of
Inabi Castle, defeat Dosan Saito but he
died during the Battle of Nagara River.
During the time of Masatoki Yamada (M-8),
the Tokugawa government and the various
han (domains) required the a f f i l i a t i o n of
the people with Buddhist temples to
ensure that no Christians remained i n
t h e i r respective areas. The Shumon
Aratame-cho (examination of r e l i g i o n
registers) was instituted as a periodic
survey or census. The c i v i l authorities
and Buddhist priests certified that the
persons l i s t e d were members of the
particular Buddhist temple to which they
claimed a f f i l i a t i o n . As a result, house-
holds throughout Japan became c l o s e l y
linked with a particular temple. And
since one of the primary r o l l s of the
temple p r i e s t was to memorialize the
dead, kakocho (Budhist death r e g i s -
t e r s ) — b a s i c a l l y obituaries to remind the
priest and family of anniversary dates—
also flourished with the increased orien-
tation of families toward the temple i n
the last half of the seventeenth century.
 802/Hirata
Around 1800, there was a serious epidemic
i n the d i s t r i c t s i n Mino. Masayuki
Yamada piled up a mound of stones with
Buddhist characters on them ("Hokekyo
Zuke") in order to extirpate the disease.
During the last days of the Tokugawa era
there was a conflict between the farmers
and landowners i n our native v i l l a g e ,
Shimouchi Village i n Mino. Shunzo Yamada
played a key r o l e i n r e s o l v i n g the
conflict. As can be seen, the Yamada
family has been prominent in Mino since
Masasumi Yamada arrived in the fifteenth
century or for over 500 years.
2. Table 2 shows the genealogy of the
Yamada family from the t r a d i t i o n a l
beginnings with Toneri Yamada (ca. 670
A.D.) to the annihilation of most of the
family by Kunitsuna Kiryu and Yoriyuki
Hosokawa in 1351.
Mr. H. Ueki did most of the research on
the origins of the Kozuke Yamadas by
investigating tombstones—Gorinto, I t a b i ,
Hokyoto (square tombstones), the ruins of
the Yamada house, local traditions, and
local histories. The accompanying
genealogical table was largely a result
of his efforts.
It i s noteworthy that the surname Yamada
has a l l but vanished i n the Yamada
d i s t r i c t i n Gunma prefecture even though
at one time the family was very prominent
there. The only evidence of i t remaining
is at the Shirataki Shrine where priests
s t i l l use the name and there are Gorinto
and I t a b i recently uncovered i n the
shrine garden that relate to the name.
It i s f a i r l y clear from the h i s t o r i c a l
research of tombstones and ruins that the
descendants of the Mino Yamada family
once existed i n f a r away Gunma
prefecture. Even though there are few
with the surname there today, the name of
the d i s t r i c t , and other names such as
Yamada Village and Yamada River, etc. are
indicative of the former influence of the
Yamada family there.
3. Table 3 shows the genealogy of the
Yamada family from the time our ancestor
5
escaped from Kozuke no Kuni and became
established at Saruhami Castle i n Mino.
Members of the research committee i n -
cluding myself, Ryoichiro Yamada,
Tadayuki Yamada, Masahiro Yamada, Chiyuki
Yamada, Tamotsu Yamada, and Masatoshi
Yamada investigated tombstones, monu-
ments, many kinds of komonjo ( o l d
documents), local histories and the thai
of kakocho of the various families as
well as those of the Ryutai and Zin-o
temples i n our search for our family
lines.
This table includes only the main line
(honke) and a few of the branches. In
the book, Kakocho kara mita k a k e i f u ,
cited earlier, there are seventy-eight
tables such as this one completed for
every branch of the family from our
common ancestor, Masasumi. The book
deals more extensively with the various
important i n d i v i d u a l s of the Yamada
family, the contributors to the family
temple, those who were local o f f i c i a l s
and bureaucrats and those who
distinguished themselves i n battle, etc.
4. Table 4 includes the genealogy of the
Hirata family. As can be seen, this
family connects at several points with
the Yamada family. I , myself, entered
the Hirata family from the Yamada family.
The great majority of names i n t h i s
genealogy are kaimyo (Buddhist posthumous
names) rather than zokumyo ( common
names). This information was gathered
from investigating the death registers
(kakocho) of my family and Daisaku's
l i n e , those at Zeno—o temple, the family
ihai (mortuary tablets), the tombstones
of the deceased and monuments.
We discovered a number of important
individuals i n researching these lines.
These included one who was a hero at the
B a t t l e of Osaka C a s t l e , a well-known
Japanese l i t e r a r y scholar, several
o f f i c i a l s i n the village and local area,
and a m i l i t a r y figure of note.
5. Table 5 (1, 2 and 3) shows the yearly
number of deaths recorded i n the death
802/Hirata
registers (kakocho) at the two temples—
Ryutai (R) and Zeno-o (Z)—with which our
families have been a f f i l i a t e d from gener-
ation to generation. The period covered
i s 1646-1977. This information can be
compared with the events recorded i n
local histories and documents to observe
the e f f e c t s of epidemics, f l o o d s ,
famines, earthquakes and other such
natural catastrophes and events both on
the coummunity and on the family i t s e l f .
For example, there was a severe flood i n
Mino i n 1653; and earthquake i n 1708; an
epidemic i n 1774, a famine i n the 1785-88
period; another famine about 1831-32, a
severe earthquake and peasant uprising i n
1838; typhoon, rains, and a flood i n
1855; a rebellion of tenant farmers i n
Shimouchi Village i n 1862; a number died
during the Meiji Restoration i n 1868-69;
typhoon, snows and a flood i n 1878;
another earthquake i n 1892; a severe
epidemic of Spanish influenza i n 1919;
and a high incidence of death during
World War I I .
As can be seen, the temple kakocho i s
extremely valuable i n showing mortality
rates and the effects of natural dis-
asters and epidemics on the population.
It i s also helpful for correlating and
comparing with the family kakocho.
6. The Shumon-cho (examination of r e l i -
gion register) i s extremely valuable for
surveying the composition of families,
when this source i s available. We were
able to use a number of these from
several locations to i n v e s t i g a t e the
structure of the Yamada family. Family
relationships, adoptions, and age group-
ings were of p a r t i c u l a r value. For
example, the second son of Kusuke
(Masaei) and younger brother of Kusuke
Masayoshi was adopted into the Masatomo
Yamada line as Chubei Masaei. He later
became a very prominent village headman
(shoya). An example of an entry for
Chubei from the 1783 census of a section
of "Takenouchi" illustrates the value of
this source i n reconstructing families
(Figure 1):
Listed are the family temple for each
individual (Ryutaiji), the name of the
6
head of the house (Chubei Yamada) and his
age (26), the term "nyobo" (wife) and her
age (24), the age of the mother (44) and
younger sister Tsune (12), and the name
and age of Chubei's son (Genzaburo, age
6) and daughter (Sho, age 4) at the time
of the census. Also listed are the names
and ages of the servants—male servants
Asashichi (age 28), San'nosuke (age 18)
and Yohachi (age 27) and a female servant
Sumi (age 22). There were a total of ten
persons i n the household, five male and
five female. The source also notes that
an elder sister Tai married Kinbei of
Shimouchi village and that Yamada Chubei
was the adopted son of that village's
Taibe who was the son of Kusuke.
The age groupings and sex of Individual
members of the various households can be
measured by using the Shumon-cho. Copies
of t h i s source at various Intervals
(1783-1858) show the composition of this
village i n the Tokugawa period. These
can be compared to a recent survey (1970)
to study the changes and differences
since the feudal era.
The following facts can also be surmised
from this table:
1. The percentage of living over age 60
was largest i n 1834 and was smallest
in 1858.
2. Those i n the 0-5 age group were at a
peak, percentage-wise, i n 1858, while
1800 had the smallest group.
3. The percentage of l i v i n g i n the age
groups between 20-40 was largest i n
1793 and smallest i n 1858.
It i s apparent from these facts that the
prohibition of birth control by mabiki
(thinning out or exposure), which was
popular i n the earlier periods (1793,
1800, and 1834), was being followed in
this village by 1858. The effects of
birth control i n the 1970 survey are also
apparent as i s the increased l i f e span.
THE QUESTION OF RELIABILITY
In this search for our ancestory, we were
802/Hirata
able to use a number of sources and to
compare them against each other. The
following observations about the r e l i a -
b i l i t y of various Japanese sources and
the compatability of our product with
Japanese h i s t o r y , i n general, i s
pertinent.
1. Tombstones, ihai (mortuary tablets)
and kakocho (death registers).
While these items had essentially similar
information, there are some important
differences. I t i s hard to use
tombstones to reconstruct f a m i l i e s
because of the limited coverage. I t i s ,
indeed, rare to find tombstones and ihai
for babies and infants and sometimes
there i s only a collective tombstone or
grave for the family. While newer
tombstones and ihai have been erected for
some of the more noteworthy ancestors, i t
is not uncommon to observe that the new
kaimyo (posthumous name) can be different
from the original one, made at the time
of death. Many of the earlier ones are
d i f f i c u l t to read or they may have been
l o s t or discarded. thus, family
reconstruction with these items alone i s
impossible.
2. On the other hand, the family-type
kakocho i s extremely useful since i t has
almost a l l family deaths included and i s
found i n the home of the family l i n e
involved. The temple kakocho i s harder
to use for family reconstruction because
one cannot always d i s t i n g u i s h one's
ancestors within the pages of the parish
l i s t of the deceased. This i s because
the prominent entry i s the posthumous
name and many of the entries are i n terms
of relationships. I t i s d i f f i c u l t to
determine which kaimyo belongs to which
family when many persons may have passed
away i n the same year or have the same
anniversary date. But these sources can
be checked against each other and the
results evaluated and recorded. Since
these sources were usually created at the
time of the event (death) and no ulterior
motives were involved—they were written
for memorials and for prayer, not for
b o a s t i n g — t h e y are generally quite
7
reliable and are, therefore, of immea-
surable value i n extending one' s
research.
In addition, the kakocho of the temple i s
also very useful i n recording the varia-
tion In deaths from year to year as shown
previously i n table five (1-3). Sudden
increases i n the death rate can often be
attributed to natural disasters or war.
By extending one's survey to the temples
in a particular locale and by consulting
local histories, i t i s possible to plot
the incidence of death and note the
probable cause of a sharp variation.
2. The Yamada family genealogy vs. the
t r a d i t i o n a l Japanese kaf u or kelzu
(compiled genealogies)
Compiled genealogies i n Japan are natur-
a l l y suspect since many of them were
compiled by so-called "professional
genealogists" i n the Edo period. Because
of the business connotations, many do not
have a reliable foundation.
Our family genealogy i s different than
the majority of these since i t was based
on recent research of both primary and
secondary sources. We referred to the
family kakocho of the various Yamada
lines and to the tombstones and ihai that
were available. We also used the temple
kakocho as far as possible. Komonjo (old
documents), monuments and local histories
were also referred to.
There are s t i l l some unanswered questions
in the Kozuke or earlier portion of the
family genealogy, however. the Gorinto
tombstones do not contain inscriptions
about the deceased and the Itabi are
in d i f f i c u l t Bongo (Sanskrit). Much of
this information i s , therefore, based on
oral tradition and the examination of
local h i s t o r i c a l sites and ruins. While
the h i s t o r i c a l facts seem correct, the
names of a l l the individuals may not be.
4. The value of Shumon-cho
Since the village headman (shoya) was
responsible for a complete and accurate
record—under penalty of law, he was very
802/Hirata
careful to comply with bakuhan (shogunate
and domain) policies. There are, how-
ever, some omissions as regards to
infants. The age group 0-5 seems f a i r l y
small i n the previous table for the years
1783, 1793, 1800 and 1834. This may be
partly due to mabiki (thinning out or debt of gratitude to the other members of
exposure) and also due to recording
procedures. I t i s not as yet clear at
what age an infant had to be recorded and
whether or not i t was o p t i o n a l or
necessary before then.
Conclusion
This interest in genealogy and family
history, sparked in my youth, reached i t s
f r u i t i o n with the p u b l i c a t i o n of the and cooperation of family members and a
volume, already c i t e d , on the Yamada
family history. Through the years, I
8
have discovered the value of Buddhist and
local sources in extending the family
pedigree and in authenticating i t . A
momentous task, such as t h i s with
seventy-eight family l i n e s included,
could not be done by me alone. I owe a
the compilation comittee and to the many
friends and relatives who have inspired
me and given me shreds of information
through the years. It i s deeply s a t i s f y -
ing to be able to reconstruct this puzzle
called family history and to find out
about the deeds and exploits of one's
ancestors. I encourage you to become
involved i n this lifelong search just as
I have and to find what your roots are.
It i s a task that w i l l require the help
great deal of dedication. But i t is more
than worth i t .
 ;
•- H i II t : i t í i .. å l 11 i i \ % i l l H i
802/Hirata 9

Table 1. The Yamada F a m i l y i n H i s t o r i c a l Context

DATE •RA INDIVIDUAL* YAMADA FAMILY EVENT HISTORICAL EVENT

YAMATC

Mohammed preaches Islam

K-T . in Arabia
-70.0 Tonen Yamada Toneri Yamada marries Princess Shirataki,
(traditional who-was noted as a teacher of weaving silk, Hsuan Tsung establishes the
ancestor) and was later deified at Shirataki Shrine. Chinese T-'ang dynasty
NARA

Emperor Shomu-promotes
Buddhism in Japan
800 Emperor Kanmu establishes
capital in Kyoto

900
• Alfred the Great becomes
the Anglo-Saxon King
(of England)

Masakado Tahira occupies

the Kozuke province in
Japan
YAMADA
ANCESTRY
1000 IN KÖZUKE Raiko Minamoto becomes
HEIAN

NO KUNI Lord of Mino province in

Tadayuki Yamada becomes the Lord of Nita- Japan
yama in Yamada district (Mino); his wife is the
Krrrjadayuki younger sister of Atsunobu Fujiwara, the head of
the province wliile his older sister is married to
Yoshiie Minamoto, the victor over Takenori
1100 K-2 Yoshiyuki Kiyohara in the Ou districts
Yoshiyuki Yamada becomes the Lord of Taka- The First Crusade to the
tsudo Castle; he is presented large silk colors Holy Land is launched
K-3 Takayuki for his victory

K-4 Shigeyuki
Yoritomo Minamoto defeats
Kiyomori Taira for control
1200 of central Japan; the Kama-
K-5 Tokiyuki
kura Shogunate is establish-
KAMAKURA

K-6 Kaneyuki ed

K-7 Yoriyuki Khublai Khan's Mongol ships

are destroyed by kamikaze
K-8 Tsuneyuki and his troops repelled
1300 by Japanese warriors in
K-9 Sadayuki Sadayuki noted for making weaving of silk popula
Kyushu
in Kozuke's Yamada district
K-10 Noriyuki Noriyuki, the Lord of Takatsudo Casde, was The Hundred Year's War

•Generation number
1 Masayuki
Masatomo
defeated and the most of the family killed;
Masasumi escapes with mother to Mino no Kuni
~ ———
begins in Europe

—• .• 1
 802/Hirata 10
T a b l e 1. cont.

YAMADA Masasumi becomes a general at the Saruhami

1400
ANCESTRY IN Castle; his mother is the daughter of the head of Joan of Arc defeats the
MINO NO KUNI the Mino province, Dansei Toki English Army in France
M - I Masasumi
Masasumi establishes Yakushi temple
The Onin War begins a
hundred year period of
infighting and chaos in Japar

M-2 Masataka Columbus discovers the

1500 Ryutai Temple is burnt New World

M - 3 Mas as hige Masatomo dies in the Battle of Nagara while

assisting the Lord of Mino, Yoshitatsu Saito, in
M - 4 Masatomo his victory over Dosan Saito Nobunaga Oda pacifies
much of Japan; he is suc-
M - 5 Masahiro The Ryutai Temple History was written
ceeded by Hideyoshi Toyo-
tomi who becomes " K a n -
paku"
1600 Ieyasu Tokugawa becomes
M - 6 Masatomo
Shogun and establishes an
,M-7 Masaoku authoritarian regime

M - 8 Masatoki Forced affiliation to Bud-

dhist temples is required;
M - 9 Mïsaoki use of Shumon Aratame-cho
to check compliance
M-10 Masakatsu The present temple gate at Ryutai Temple was Buddhist kakocho for famil
constructed ies and temples adopted
1700 throughout Japan
<
< M - l l Masayuki
O
\£
o M-12 Masayoshi
The 16 "rakan" in the Ryutai Temple gate were
constructed
George Washington becomes
the First President of the
United States of A-aerica
1800 M-13 Masabi Epidemic disease spreads in the Mino districts
M-14 Másamura The "Hokekyo" monument was established

M-15 Masayoshi Ryutai Temple rebuilt The Tokugawa Shogunate is

Conflict between farmers and landlords in Shimo- overthrown by the forces of
M-17 Shunzo uchi village Empetor M e i j i
M-18 Masahiro

1900 M-19 Tatsu

Q
The authpr is born (1911)
O
Genealogical interest begi
gin World War I
2
World War II
^yoPcbiro Research committee commences project (1971)
Book on family history published (1978)
 802/Hirata 11

Table 2. The Yamada Family i n Kozuke (670-1351)

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 802/Hirata 13

Table 4. The H i r a t a Family i n Mino (1452-1980)

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802/Hirata

Table 5-1. Yearly v a r i a t i o n s i n the death rate based on the Kakacho

of Ryutai and Zen-5 Temples, Mino, G i f u (1640-1740)
802/Hirata

Table 5-2. Yearly v a r i a t i o n s i n the dath rate based on the Kakoch5 of

Ryutai and Zen-S Temples, Mino, Gifo (1740-1860
802/Hirata

Table 5-3. Yearly v a r i a t i o n s i n the dath rate based on the Kakochg of

Ryütai and Zen-ö Temples, Mino, G i f u (1860-1977)
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Family History for

Japanese Americans
Greg Gubler
& Series 805
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 FAMILY HISTORY FOR JAPANESE-AMERICANS
Greg Gubler
Born i n Utah. Resides i n Bountiful, Utah. Senior research specialist, Genealogical
Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ph.D. (Japanese and
Chinese history), Florida State University.
INTRODUCTION
Historical inquiry i s but one aspect of
the larger search we are or should be
involved i n — t h e search f o r t r u t h .
Family history research i s one of the
most intimate of l i f e ' s searches, the
discovery and contemplation of one's own
heritage. While most people know some-
thing of their forefathers, this knowl-
edge i s often very s u p e r f i c i a l and
limited unless a special effort has been
made to record the details or "stuff" of
family history. I t i s through h i s t o r i c a l
i n q u i r y that a whole s e r i e s of d i s -
coveries about one's heritage can be
made. This inquiry leads to the dis-
covery of real people whose decisions
affected your l i f e i n myriad ways and
whose genes are part of your personality
and present physical makeup. You did not
become Japanese and American by accident.
Your destiny was shaped by the past.
This search into the past requires that
you trace your parents, grandparents and
other family members from place to place,
from period to period. There i s also the
special challenge of crossing the Pacific
to Japan. In order to reconstruct your
family history you w i l l need to be able
to picture i n d i v i d u a l family members,
both deceased and l i v i n g , at c r u c i a l
points along the journey through l i f e .
How well this is done determines i n large
part how meaningful the history w i l l be
to you and to your posterity. And since
i t is a family history, i t i s helpful to
have the cooperation of the family i n
order to ensure the success and com-
pleteness of the venture.
In order to understand and interpret your
Japanese heritage, I t i s , of course, an
advantage to know as much about the
language, history, and culture of Japan
as possible, though these shortcomings
can be compensated for to some degree by
borrowing s k i l l s or consulting those with
expertise. I t i s imperative, too, that
one have the desire and drive to see the
project through.
Before beginning the actual research, the
f i r s t step i s to define and analyze the
specific research problems you may have.
What are the relevant data and what are
the most effective means of obtaining the
information? I t i s imperative that
research be viewed as a problem-solving
activity. Despite the similar Japanese
American label, there are wide d i f f e r -
ences i n research approaches and the
problems one encounters. For example,
newly a r r i v e d Japanese, who have a
capability i n the language and close ties
to their native Japan, do not have the
problems of those who are into the third
(sansei) and fourth (yonsei) generations
i n this country.
GETTING STARTED
Getting started i s often the biggest step
in any endeavor. This reluctance may
stem from one or several reasons: A fear
of something new, a lack of knowlege, or
simply a failure to make family history a
priority. One must, therefore, conmit
oneself to take t h i s giant step and
continually try to find opportunities to
learn about the family heritage and to
record the information for posterity.
805/Gubler
The best place to start the family his-
tory i s with y o u r s e l f . With a few
minutes of reflection and meditation, you
may be able to sketch out some highlights
of your own l i f e and name a few people
who have affected your l i f e i n one way or
another. These are the outlines of a
personal history. You can f i l l i n the
gaps and expand the narrative by looking
through personal effects and by asking
close relatives and friends for their
recollections. This information can be
taped on a handy cassette or recorded on
paper as i t i s spoken. It i s , however,
e s s e n t i a l both to document and cor-
roborate information since people's
memories and interpretations of the past
often differ widely.
Since your personal and family history
w i l l overlap in many instances, one of
the natural consequences of starting a
personal history is that i t w i l l lead you
into the discovery of your family his-
tory. As you talk to close friends and
relatives, you w i l l want to find out
about their lives and their recollections
of the past. Your parents, grandparents,
etc., i f l i v i n g , are natural starting
points for inquiry, but one should not
neglect older l i v i n g relatives. Once
they pass away, so do their memories.
You may glean a wealth of information
from them, and i f lucky, be able to
locate those who have saved family
heirlooms and items of consequence to the
family history. These items are becoming
i n c r e a s i n g l y rare as they are uncon-
sciously discarded by those who do not
understand the cultural significance or
language.
There may be items of family history
value stored in your home, the home of
your parents, or in the homes of rela-
tives and close family friends. These
are called home sources for they are
close at hand yet they can provide clues
or information of value to the jigsaw
puzzle that i s family history. You can
f i l l i n many of the pieces just from home
sources, and the clues should take you
even further. One cannot always be sure
of the location of these sources without
any actual search. In some traditional
2
homes, seme of these items are kept i n
s p e c i f i c places, such as the family
butsudan (Buddhist a l t a r ) . At any rate,
a thorough search w i l l l i k e l y be needed
and this may prove time consuming. Among
the items that one should look for are
the the f o l l o w i n g , applicable to the
combined Japanese-American heritage: old
copies of the koseki (family or household
register); family genealogies (keizu or
kafu) and histories (kashi); family death
r e g i s t e r s (kakocho); paper or wooden
mortuary tablets (ihai); family crests
(kamon or iemon) or r e l i c s , letters and
correspondence with persons abroad;
passports, alien registration cards and
personal papers; old journals, diaries,
and notes; o l d newspapers, newspaper
clippings and obituaries; materials and
p u b l i c a t i o n s of ethnic a s s o c i a t i o n s ,
biographies and references to family
members; church certificates and records;
employment records and business corres-
pondence; school records, diplomas, and
yearbooks; records of residence, travel
or transfer; records of military service
or deferment; records of cremation or
burial; receipts and financial records;
maps, plots, deeds, and w i l l s , photo-
graphs, albums, scrapbooks, and mementos;
certificates and applications.
You may not immediately recognize the
value of some of these items, e.g., old
receipts and letters, but they may prove
quite helpful i n f i l l i n g a gap or pro-
viding a clue. There are also clues i n
obituaries, i n personal notes, and even
i n p i c t u r e s . Pictures can show the
relationships between people, personality
t r a i t s , dress preferences, and other such
hints. Because every family has i t s own
climate and traditions one can learn and
surmise much from home sources. This
w i l l not only enable you to understand
more about yourself, but also more about
i n d i v i d u a l family members and your
Japanese heritage.
If one i s fortunate to find a family
genealogy, copies of the koseki (family
register), or a family death register
(kakocho), i t may be a simple matter then
( i f language expertise i s available) to
reconstruct, at least, the outlines of
805/Gubler 3

the family history. But for most people, spelling and translation problems i n the
the search w i l l be a more d i f f i c u l t one. records themselves, as a r e s u l t of
The following clues, both from home language and cultural differences. For
sources and interview, with relatives and example, the order of the name may be i n
friends of the family, should be among the Japanese fashion (opposite), the
those sought i n the quest to make con- romanization may vary considerably for
nections with other sources and to extend the same name (or character) or there may
family lines: complete names of individ- be a misinterpretation of the date since
ual family members and friends, names and the Japanese use a different system i n
addresses of r e l a t i v e s and friends counting years. In some cases, the error
abroad, dates and means of a r r i v a l , names can be serious enough to be a real road-
of fellow immigrants, addresses and jobs block to research. This i s true not only
after a r r i v a l , information on citizenship regarding v i t a l records, but to a l l
and naturalization, dates of family v i t a l records that have been transliterated or
events ( b i r t h s , deaths, marriages, converted or English.
e t c . , ) , places of o r i g i n i n Japan,
information on religious a f f l i a t i o n or
Most of the birth and death records are
patron temples, information on f a m i l y available from bureaus of v i t a l statis-
successes and f a i l u r e s , and of
tics or departments of health i n the
biographical import. c a p i t a l s of the respective states.
Hawaii has f a i r l y extensive records since
1896 while Idaho was one of the later
ON TO CIVIL SOURCES states to keep records state-wide,
beginning i n 1911. Most of the other
The majority of Japanese Americans des- states and those of interest to Japanese
cend from immigrants who arrived between Americans began keeping these types of
the date when the f i r s t shipload of records during t h i s time period.
plantation workers l e f t for Hawaii i n Marriage and divorce records are found
1868 to 1924, when Japanese exclusion was either at the county or state level and
legislated. There are, of course, a sometimes both. For example, marriage
smal ler number that have arrived i n the records i n Hawaii have been kept at the
past few decades with the relaxation of Department of Health while divorce
entry requirements. Because most records since 1900 are i n the c i r c u i t
Japanese Americans are now s e v e r a l courts. In California, on the other hand
generations removed from Japan and ties marriage records are kept by the county
with the past are Decerning more remote, clerk i n the respective counties while
c i v i l records i n this country and Hawaii divorce records are kept by the court or
are becoming more and more useful. county clerks. For a nominal fee of one
dollar, the specific information on where
Among the most valuable c i v i l records are to wrote for birth and death, marriage,
the v i t a l records of individual births, and divorce records can be obtained from
deaths, marriages, and divorces—ordi- the Superintenent of Documents,
narily i n certificate form—kept at state Washington, D.C. 10402. The addresses of
and county l e v e l s i n most instances. the offices and charges are included i n
While there may be some duplication i n three separate pamphlets.
other sources of this information, these
records are nonetheless u s e f u l f o r The type of information found i n v i t a l
documentation and as a means of tracing records usually depends on the type of
one's family back. There are limitations record and form used. Birth records
to v i t a l records that one must be aware generally include the following: com-
of: most (but not a l l ) began only after plete name of the individual; birthplace
the turn of the century, the immigrant and date; sex; name of father; maiden
generation ( i s s e i ) d i d not always name of mother; whether c h i l d i s
understand or comply with laws to report legitimate; and usually additional items,
these events, and there are often such as the age of each parent at the
805/Gubler
time of b i r t h , occupation of each
parent, etc. Marriage records include
names of the bride and groom, place of
marriage, names of parents and signatures
i f underage, names of witnesses, and
often birthplaces, etc. Death records
include the complete name of the
deceased, sex, age of the individual at
death, date and place of death, b u r i a l ,
cause of death, m a r i t a l s t a t u s , and
sometimes valuable information on
parents. Divorces records are basically
court records produced at the county or
local level. They include the names of
the parties involved, date and grounds
for divorce, state or country of birth of
both parties dates and places of birth
and marriage, and sometimes the names and
ages of the couples' children.
There were many Japanese i n Hawaii who
did not register births i n i t i a l l y , but
did i t after the fact and sometimes years
later. These Delayed Birth Registrations
are at the Department of Health,
Honolulu. The Genealogical Department
has filmed earlier portions of this f i l e
including the registrations (ca. 1859-
1903) and the index (ca. 1859-1938). The
indexes are cards arranged i n alphabet-
i c a l order with reference numbers to the
appropriate delayed birth registration i n
the corner. There are also some pre-1900
v i t a l records i n the Hawaii State
Archives. A few scattered Japanese names
appear a f t e r 1885 and these v i t a l
records, too, were filmed by the Gene-
alogical Department. These records may
be worth searching i f there i s a reason-
able chance such as an event occurred In
your f a m i l y h i s t o r y i n Hawaii during
these periods.
Census records can also be helpful i n
family history research primarily because
they record the family as a unit at a
point i n time. The information varies i n
content according to the p a r t i c u l a r
schedule and the amount of information
the census taker was able to extract from
the informant. Communications was often
a problem with many of the immigrants so
the information was not always reliable
or complete.
4
A few Japanese appear i n the 1890 and
1896 Hawaiian censues, but these do not
cover p l a n t a t i o n workers very w e l l .
These census reports are housed i n the
Hawaii State Archives and are also on
microfilm at the Genealogical Department.
The 1900 census of the U.S. i s more
valuable since i t includes the states and
the newly added Territory of Hawaii. The
Genealogical Department Library and
Federal Archives and Records Centers
(including branches i n San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Seattle, and Denver) have copies
of this census on microfilm. The record
i s arranged by state and l o c a l i t y and a
Soundex system (indexed roughly by the
sound of the surname) i s used as an index
of heads of houses. The 1900 census
schedule includes the names of individual
family members, relationship to the head
of the family, race, sex, month and year
of birth, age, marital status, number of
years married, number of children born
and alive, state and country of birth of
each individual and their parents, year
of immigration, number of years i n U.S.,
whether naturalized or not, occupation,
education and language a b i l i t y , and home
ownership and street address i f a larger
city.
Later censuses, at ten-year i n t e r v a l s
from 1910 down to the present, are
restricted and can be searched only by
personnel of the Bureau of the Census.
S p e c i f i c information about the person
whose record you want searched and a
proven relationship to the person are
required before a search can be approved.
The information available i s similar to
that l i s t e d i n the 1900 census, but the
schedules vary to some deagree. The
application form (BC-600) and search can
be obtained form the Personal Census Ser-
vice Branch, Bureau of Census, Pittsburg,
Kansas 66762. Since a fee i s paid for
each search, even i f nothing i s found, i t
i s imperative to provide complete and
accurate instructions. Since the 1920
census uses a Soundex as well, i t can be
searched without the complete address as
i s required for other censuses.
A l l those who enter the United States and
i t s territories are required to submit to
805/Gubler
certain procedures upon arriaval. The
Immigration and Naturalization Service
(hereafter referred to as INS) has
records of those who have arrived at the
West Coast ports and i n post-1900 Hawaii.
These include some from the port of San
Francisco from 1882 (because of the
earthquake and f i r e of 1906, these are
not complete), the port of Honolulu from
3 February 1900, Seatttle from 1894, and
Portland from 1888. They also have f i l e s
of a l i e n r e g i s t r a t i o n s , which were
required from 1940 on, and of naturali-
zation records and c e r t i f i c a t e s since
1906. These records are not open to the
public, but are searched by personnel of
the INS. Applicants must f i l l out a
G-641 at the f i f t y or so l o c a l INS
offices i n major U.S. c i t i e s . In order
to make the search effective, specific
information i s asked for on the appli-
cation form. The INS abstracts infor-
mation such as the following depending,
of course, on what i s available to them:
dates of birth or age at a r r i v a l , court
of naturalization, place of origin (not
always complete), destination i n U.S.,
occupation, etc. In order to have a
search made, one must e s t a b l i s h a
relationship to the person whose records
are being searched and state the purpose
of the search.
In order to locate arrivals prior to 1900
in Hawaii, i t i s helpful to refer to the
ships and passenger manifests for Hawaii.
The originals are i n the Hawaii State
Archives and microfilm copies are a v a i l -
able at the main library of the Gene-
alogical Department or through i t s branch
l i b r a r i e s . The passenger manifests cover
the years 1879 to 1900 and are generally
more u s e f u l since many of the ships
manifests (1843-1890) predate the periods
when the i n f l u x of Japanese contract
laborers was heavy (roughly 1885-1900).
The l i s t s provide such information as
approximate birth dates, probable future
occupations or addresses, places of
origin, sex, information on arrivals and
departures, and on families and relation-
ships i n some cases. These items are
rarely indicated i n f u l l and when they
are the Anglicization of the names and
places i s sometimes d i f f i c u l t to relate
5
to Japanese characters or sounds. Most
of the Japanese were single males
arriving to work at the plantations on
limited contracts. The number covered by
these l i s t s i s approximately 67,000.
Since this i s a large number to s i f t
through unless one knows the approximate
time of a r r i v a l , i t i s helpful to use the
accompanying index to find an individual.
The index covers the years 1888 to 1900
and i s i n alphabetical order. There i s
one card per individual and a reference
to the ship and date of a r r i v a l .
Information i s also abstracted from the
entry. Although valuable as a finding
aid, i t i s s t i l l only as good as the
information i t came from and there are
problems with s p e l l i n g s and with the
order and completeness of names.
There are a number of other c i v i l records
that may apply to specific cases. These
include court records of naturalizations
and declarations of intent and petition,
though not many Japanese qualified as
restrictions gradually barred them by the
1920s. Restrictions on Japanese leasing
and holding land i n many states also
limit the scope of these records though
there were many Japanese who had land,
especially i n Hawaii. Probate records
and deeds also are useful i n some circum-
stances as are military records. Oregon
and California have voting registers that
give information on e a r l y n a t u r a l i z a -
tions , while there are some assorted
records dealing with the registration and
identification of aliens i n Hawaii during
the 1890s. These records are not always
complete and cover r e l a t i v e l y few
Japanese. For an inventory of other
general records of the continental U.S.
r e f e r to the Genealogical Department
research paper, e n t i t l e d Genealogical
Records i n the United States ( r e v i s e d
1977 edition).
THE ETHNIC COMMUNITY
From the outset Japanese immigrants
tended to cluster together i n "Nihomachi"
(Japanese towns are areas) or on a street
or two i n the older part of town.
Farmers often l i v e d i n c l u s t e r s on
_
805/Gubler
marginal land i n certain counties. The
immigrant laborers on Hawaiian planta-
tions also lived and worked i n close
proximity. This provided a greater sense
of security and a feeling of community.
It also enabled the Japanese to continue
some of the traditions of their native
country and to remain culturally dis-
tinctive. The community was organized
and the interests and needs of individual
members and families were met with a wide
variety of a c t i v i t i e s , publications and
services. The ethnic community was i n
many respects self-contained and
s e l f - r e l i a n t though i n d i v i d u a l s d i d
interface with the colder "outside world"
though mostly out of necessity.
The Japanese ethnic community was charac-
t e r i z e d by a s o c i a l cleavage between
those born i n Japan and those born i n the
new country. While i n the i n i t i a l
stages—around the turn of the century,
when many of the communities became
e s t a b l i s h e d — m a l e immigrants heavily
outnumbered others, the ratio dropped to
about 2 to 1 by 1920 with the arrival of
women, may of whom were "picture brides"
from Japan. With the cessation of immi-
gration i n 1924, many never married or
had f a m i l i e s . Many immigrants were
followed by r e l a t i v e s and f e l l o w - v i l -
lagers to jobs and opportunities i n the
new country. On occasion, some were able
to return to Japan either to stay or to
v i s i t . These ties should be kept in mind
when searching for clues to the family
history.
The ethnic communities usually a f f i l i a t e d
with Japanese a s s o c i a t i o n s , which
promoted the broad interests and coor-
dinated a c t i v i t i e s among the respective
communities. Among the notable Japanese
associations were the Hawaiian C i v i c
Association (forerunner to the present
United Japanese Society), the Japanese
Association of America (founded i n 1901
for Japanese in northern California, this
a s s o c i a t i o n spread east as f a r as
Colorado), the Central Japanese Associa-
tion (strongest i n southern California
but with branches as far as New York),
the Northwest American Japanese Associa-
tion (mainly i n Washington but also i n
Montana), and the Japanese American
Association of Oregon (mainly i n Oregon
and Idaho). An independent intermountain
Japanese association was organized by the
t h i r t i e s i n the Rocky Mountain area.
These associations were active u n t i l the
outbreak of World War I I , when Japanese
immigrant organizations were disbanded on
the pretext of being alien organizations.
The Japanese associations and the i n d i -
vidual communities produced a number of
records that have family history value.
Among the most valuable are directories
that l i s t the name of the immigrants i n
Japanese, the prefecture and place of
origin i n Japan, the occupation, as well
as family and biographical items.
Business advertisements and pictures are
common i n many of these d i r e c t o r i e s .
There were also membership l i s t s ,
newsletters and bulletins, either printed
or mimeographed. While many of these
records were discarded i n the hysteria
following Pearl Harbor, a number s t i l l
e x i s t i n private c o l l e c t i o n s and
libraries.
Japanese p r e f e c t u r a l associations or
kenjinkai (basically made up of people of
the same state or area in Japan) also had
their directories and other publications.
These organizations assisted immigrants
from the same general locale i n making
the adjustment and in finding employment.
While many of these associations declined
with the passing of the immigrant genera-
tion, there are s t i l l a few that are
active. Hawaii, where the Japanese
portion of the population exceeded one-
t h i r d of the t o t a l , had the largest
number of p r e f e c t u r a l associations
including strong associations f o r
Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Okinawa, Niigata,
Fukushima and Fukuoka. (Refer to Map 1
at the end of the paper for the location
of the various prefectures.) Los
Angeles, Seattle, and Portland also had a
number of kenjinkai as did other areas.
Some of these associations covered
several states while others were limited
to a small area. Some of these records
are s t i l l i n the possession of members
and t h e i r f a m i l i e s or i n p u b l i c
l i b r a r i e s . There are a number of these
805/Gubler
in the libraries of the University of
Hawaii and i n the Asian collection at
U.C.L.A. For example, those from
Hiroshima Prefecture i n California (as of
1916) and from Fukuoka Prefecture (as of
1936) are covered i n two of a number of
publications deposited in the l a t t e r .
There are also larger directories such as
the Japanese American Directory of 1941
(Nichibei jdshoroku), published by the
Japanese American News ( N i c h i b e i
Shinbunsha). I t includes the names,
addresses and businesses of Japanese a l l
over the continental United States.
There is also a three-volume history of
Japanese immigration to America (Amerika
Imin Hyakunen-shi), w r i t t e n by Katö"
Shunichi and Published i n Japanese by the
J i j i Press i n 1962. The Japanese Chamber
of Commerce of Southern California pub-
lished a history i n 1960 called Japanese
In Southern C a l i f o r n i a ; A H i s t o r y of 70
Years (Minami kashü" N i h o n j i n s h i c h i -
jünen-shi). The Hilo times published a
thorough l i s t of Japanese on the big
island of Hawaii i n Okubu Kiyoshi, ed.
Imin hyakunen kinen Hawaii to Nihonjin
imlnshi (1971).
A survey of the sources i n Hawaii is
l i s t e d i n Matsuda Mitsugu, Comp. The
Japanese I n H a w a i i : An A n n o t a t e d
B i b l i o g r p a h y of Japanese Americans
(revised 1975 edition) published as part
of the Hawaii Series by the University of
Hawaii Press. The best general history
of the Japanese i n Hawaii i s James H.
Okahata's A History of the Japanese i n
Hawaii, published by the United Japanese
Society of Hawaii i n 1971. An older
Japanese publication along the same vein
is Ernest K. Wakukawa's A History of the
Japanese People i n Hawaii (Toyo Shoin,
vmy.
In terms of Immigration s t a t i s t i c s and
basic facts, Ichihashi Yamato's Japanese
In the United States published o r i g i n a l l y
by the Stanford University Press i n 1932
is excellent. B i l l Hosokawa's Nisei: The
Quiet Americans (William Morrow & Co.,
1969) focuses more on the achievements of
the second generation though the back-
ground information is u s e f u l . Marjory
7
Steam's 1927 thesis on The Japanese In
Oregon has been reprinted (San Francisco:
R & R Associates, 1974); i t is a good
survey of the Japanese i n that area.
Budd Fukui's The Japanese American Story
(Minneapolis: Dillon Press, 1976) pro-
vides some insights into the community i n
Seattle where the author grew up. These
are some of the histories and
p u b l i c a t i o n s that can be found i n
libraries and collections.
University and public libraries usually
have some of these materials in their
c o l l e c t i o n s , e s p e c i a l l y f o r groups i n
their respective areas. There are also
special collections such as oral history
tapes of a number of early Immigrants at
U.C.L.A. and the growing collection at
the Japanese immigrants' section of the
Bishop Museum in Honolulu. These are
worth checking i f you l i v e nearby or plan
to v i s i t .
The Japanese American Citizen's League
(hereafter r e f e r r e d to as the JACL),
founded i n San Francisco i n 1929 to
represent the interests of the American-
born Japanese, emerged from World War II
as the spokesman for Americans of
Japanese ancestry. JACL chapters and
branches publish newsletters and maintain
interest i n those of Japanese ancestry i n
the locale. Seme also have materials
r e l a t i n g to h i s t o r i c a l aspects of
Japanese i n the areas. There may be
someone i n the JACL branch who may be
able to assist you in your research and
can provide you with background informa-
tion either from memory or frem recorded
sources. While members of the Japanese
American Community generally know about
the JACL, information on the specific
addresses of chapters and the leadership
i s a v a i l a b l e from the National JACL
Headquarters, 765 Sutter Street, San
Francisco, California 94115.
Japanese community newspapers are often
e x c e l l e n t sources on the community
members and a c t i v i t i e s . They not only
provide in-depth coverage but also have
considerable information of f a m i l y
history value. While the majority of
these papers are i n Japanese, many have
805/Gubler
English sections or pages f o r those
without the language capability.
Obituaries and funeral notices can be
extremely h e l p f u l i n f i n d i n g out the
prefecture and sometimes place of origin,
biographical highlights of the deceased,
and the s u r v i v o r s . The Appendices
include a l i s t of these papers and some
notes on where copies might be located.
They are often worth scanning but this
should be done with an objective i n mind.
One should isolate the problem as far as
possible before the search. Many of the
newspapers on the coasts, both i n Hawaii
and in the west, also published passenger
l i s t s and information on newly-arrived
Japanese immigrants. For example, the
Hawaii Hffchi of 18 October 1922 l i s t s
those who arrived, by the ship Taiyo Maru
the previous day their origin and destin-
ation, etc. The Genealogical Department
has filmed the Hawaii Höchi (Herald)
(1912-1940) and the Nippu J i j i (Hawaii
Times) (1896-1942). Original copies are
at the Bishop Museum i n Honolulu.
There are also a number of other poten-
t i a l sources of value associated closely
with the community. These i n c l u d e :
records of cremation and burial and even
sometimes personal papers of the deceased
from Japanese mortuaries and f u n e r a l
homes; membership l i s t s and v i t a l
statistics for those who a f f i l i a t e d with
ethnic and regular Christian churches;
and Buddhist death registers (refer to
the coverage on s p e c i f i c Japanese
sources), mortuary tablets and strips,
membership l i s t s and h i s t o r i e s at
Buddhist temples. You should inquire of
r e l a t i v e s regarding p o s s i b i l i t i e s i n
these areas and should check them out i f
possible.
Cemeteries are another of the places one
should v i s i t i n the search for family
history. While some Japanese are buried
in public cemeteries, many are buried i n
"Niho bochi" or Japanese cemeteries.
There i s one i n Salt Lake City and there
are cemeteries of this type where there
are concentrations of Japanese. Many of
the inscriptions are i n Japanese, though
English i s becoming common. Many record
the Buddhist posthumous name and death
8
date as i s done i n Japan though the
common name i s also usually recorded.
Japanese i n the l o c a l area generally
known where cemeteries are, but local
government agencies or churches may also
be able to help. Some cemetery
inscriptions are i n published sources but
there are few of these on "Nihon bochi".
PERSONAL AND SPECIAL RECORDS
Once you have exhuasted sources associ-
ated or produced by the ethnic community,
i t ' s time to go on to additional sources.
Among the sources that one should look at
are those dealing with employment, i f
they are available. Many of the planta-
tions and sugar companies i n Hawaii s t i l l
maintain personnel records and employee
f i l e s . The evacuation of Japanese on the
West coast during World War I I , however,
disrupted the operations of many firms.
These types of records, therefore, are
hard to find and the information often
duplicates that of other records. School
records, either i n public or Japanese
schools, are another possibility. These
records are found i n the schools and
libraries or even i n ethnic collections.
There are also yearbooks, report cards,
certificates and diplomas that may be
found as home sources and i l l u s t r a t e the
human or personal side of a family member
of ancestor.
Most Japanese were very close to the
nearest consulate since the consulate
handled paperwork and was responsible for
them while they remained Japanese
citizens. The f i r s t consulate was
established i n Honolulu i n 1886.
Consulates were established i n San
Francisco (1890), Tacoma (1895; moved to
Seattle i n 1900), Portland (1906),
Chicago (1906), New York (1906), New York
(1906) and Los Angeles (1912). While
most of the records of the West Coast
consulates were returned to the Foreign
O f f i c e Archives (Gaikö Shiryökan) i n
Tokyo during World War I I and after, many
of those i n Honolulu remained. There i s
an e x c e l l e n t c o l l e c t i o n of materials
there including household registration
cards that are abstracts of the registers
805/Gubler
i n Japan (see section on family and
household r e g i s t e r s regarding this
source), records of domiciles i n Japan,
records relating to entry and departure,
and to births and deaths. The individual
r e g i s t r a t i o n cards begin i n 1885 and
continue to the present. The other f i l e s
are excellent, especially for the early
1885-1910 p e r i o d . These records are
a v a i l a b l e only to f a m i l y members and
descendants through the Japanese
Consulate General's O f f i c e , 1742 Nuuawu
Avenue, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813. seme of
these records are microfilmed and in the
c o l l e c t i o n at the Bishop Museum i n
Honolulu.
There are also records from a number of
t r a v e l agencies that handled t r a v e l
arrangements and assisted immigrants both
in Hawaii and on the West Coast. Most of
the Travel agencies and boarding houses
on the West Coast were disrupted by
relocation. There are, however, some
records i n Hawaii i n c l u d i n g passenger
l i s t s , personal items for safekeeping,
and other paperwork. The makeup of
immigrants parties, date and ports of
entry, destinations, and seme v i t a l i n -
formation i s mentioned i n these sources.
Seme also provide the place of o r i g i n . A
l i s t of travel agencies would include the
following ones i n Honolulu: Kawasaki,
Kobayashi, Komeya, Nakamura and Töhoku.
The Onomichiya Travel Agency was also
prominent but no longer services
inquiries. These travel agencies usually
s p e c i a l i z e d with people from c e r t a i n
areas as they worked with firms and
agencies i n Japan.
Finally, there are personal papers and
documents that the immigrants c a r r i e d
with them or had deposited for safe-
keeping a f t e r they a r r i v e d . A list
(Table 1) of personal papers and docu-
ments and their contents i s included. An
example of an actual Japanese document
giving permission to leave by ship for
the U.S. is included i n I l l u s t r a t i o n 1.
It is stamped with the seal (han) of the
Governor of Hiroshima Prefecture and i s
dated 27 September 1916. It gives the
name and address of the head of house of
the person departing (Yabumoto J i r ö ) and
9
even his height (4' 8") and birthdate (7
November 1878).
FAMILY OR HOUSEHOLD REGISTERS
The key to family research i n Japan i n
the modern period (since the M e i j i
Restoration of 1868) i s the family or
household register (koseki). This i s
essentially a c i v i l register covering a l l
Japanese-born or l i v i n g i n Japan or the
Japanese nationality since i t s inception
In 1872. This includes many N i s e i
(children of the immigrants) who were
considered by the Japanese government
(but not American) to have dual
citizenship prior to World War I I . Also
in this category are the children of
non-immigrant Japanese (businessmen,
students, etc.) who are or were i n the
United States and have registered their
children at the local Japanese consulate.
Entry into the koseki implies, therefore,
that a person i s a Japanese citizen.
The Japanese household register i s an
excellent family history source. I t i s
handy to use, since one needs only to
refer to a single source rather than many
separate documents and certificates to
reconstruct the family pedigree. Entries
of family or household events are tran-
scribed from notification reports i n a
prescribed manner soon after they occur.
This includes the name of the head of
house (koshu) or since 1947 the " f i r s t
one entered" (hittösha) or family head,
the r e g i s t e r e d l o c a l i t y or permanent
address (honseki-chi), the name of the
previous head of house or predecessor,
names of parents, sex and order of birth,
place and date of birth, place and date
of marriage, place and date of death,
names of children, family relationships
(tsuzukigara), name of spouse and her
previous registered l o c a l i t y , name of the
father of the spouse, information on
divorces, adoptions, d i s s o l u t i o n of
adoptions, transfer to another record,
name changes, and the withdrawal of a
record. This last procedure occurs when
a l l the individuals on the record have
been crossed off due to death, marriage,
forfeiture of citizenship, etc. and the
805/Gubler
record i s put i n the inactive f i l e . I t
i s then called joseki (expired register).
There i s another kind of register called
the kaisei (revised) that i s a rewritten
copy of entries from the original on the
present form.
Generally, an individual can be traced
from birth to death following entries i n
the register The copies can be followed
both on the direct lines and laterally by
paying attention to compilation informa-
tion and following i t to the register of
the head of house at the l o c a t i o n
specified. By systematically acquiring
copies of the koseki and i t s expired
counterpart, the joseki, one should be
able to extend the family history by two
or three generations or more. I t i s a
requirement that one specify the p a r t i -
cular records desired and know the office
that has jurisdiction over the record.
The permanent address or r e g i s t e r e d
l o c a l i t y of the family as well as the
name of the head of the house are
necessary to locate the record. You can
determine this information by searching
for clues i n immigration records, per-
sonal records, and in community sources.
One of the problems Japanese Americans
face i s determining the appropriate
office and the address. Since there have
been dramatic changes i n some areas of
Japan over the past century, i t i s ordering copies send U.S. five to ten
sometimes very d i f f i c u l t to determine the dollars to cover the costs of the copies
present j u r i s d i c t i o n f o r many of the and postage.
v i l l a g e s have been amalgamated i n t o
larger units. One must use contemporary
maps such as the Shin Nihon bunker chizu
(revised annually by the Kokusai chigaku
Bunken Chizu Kyokai) to find the location find the register, you should receive
and address of offices. Some older names
cross referenced to the present equiva-
lent are listed i n the Zenkoku shichösbn
yoran (an annual publication of the Dai read the Japanese. Naturally, friends
Ichi Hoki i n Tokyo). But many must be
found i n larger works such as Yoshida
TögD's Dai Nippon chimei j i s h o
(comprehensive d i c t i o n a r y of Japanese
place names) (7 volumes, Tokyo: Aasakura
Shoten, 1972, revised edition). Even
then, i t takes considerable research
s k i l l to find some of these equivalents.
10
In some cases one w i l l need to write the
general office i n a prefecture, such as
the Hiroshima KenchØ koseki-gakari. They
may be able to assist i n finding the
o f f i c e with j u r i s d i c t i o n . The same
procedure may also be helpful i n larger
areas such as Tokyo, e.g. the Tokyo-tö
koseki-gakari (or office i n charge of
household r e g i s t e r s i n metropolitan
Tokyo). An address for the prefectural
or c i t y office should be included i f at
a l l possible. Remember to include a l l
pertinent information i n requesting fam-
i l y or Household registers. Mention that
you are a Nisei and Japanese American and
that your immigrant ancestor ,
your (state r e l a t i o n s h i p ) , came from
village, town or city in
prefecture. Try to be as complete and
precise as possible since the more
information you can provide the office,
the more l i k e l y they w i l l be able to
help. I t i s usually easier to go through
relatives and friends of the family i n
Japan i f they are known.
An international money order i s the best
method of paying f o r copies. One
register covers the household or family
unit during the tenure of the head of
house. The older and larger withdrawn
household registers are slightly higher
than the koseki or revised koseki. Some
Japanese Americans with experience i n
The difference w i l l be
refunded or applied to future purchases
so i t i s better to send more than force a
delay i f the amount i s insufficient. If
a l l goes well and the office i s able to
copies within a month.
The next step i s to find someone who can
and relatives are the best resources and
they may have helped you get this f a r .
Otherwise, i t may be necessary to hire
someone to help translate and record the
information. The trouble with most
translators i s that they lack experience
with the sources and often know l i t t l e
about genealogy.
805/Gubler
DEATH REGISTERS, TABLETS, AND TOMBSTONE,
INSCRIPTIONS
Buddhist death r e g i s t e r s are normally
found i n the family temple though some
traditional homes have a family version.
With the help of r e l a t i v e s and
directories you should be able to locate
the family temple either i n the United
States or Japan. A l i s t of a number of
those i n Hawaii, the continental U.S.,
and Canada i s provided i n the appendixes.
The Genealogical Department has filmed
the kakocho (death r e g i s t e r s ) of the
Honolulu Soto mission (1913-79), Lihue
Hongwanji (1899-18965), H i l o T a i s h o j i
Soto Mission (1916-79) Kuai Soto Zenshuji
(1900-79), and the Paia Mantokuji Mission
(1907-79) along with the kakocho of
several dozen temples i n Japan. Since
these records cover a large portion of
the population and are f a i r l y reliable to
1700 or so, they are vary valuable i n
expanding the family history.
Death registers do, however, have their
limitations. They are essentially an
obituary records i n which a vow or
posthumous name i s bestowed on the
deceased. The nature of the name and
lack of relationship can be a barrier to
research. Nonetheless, some of the
better kakocho include r e l a t i o n s h i p s ,
common names, and even ages at death.
Some of them i n Hawaii ( r e f e r to
I l l u s t r a t i o n 2) can even include the
family residence i n Japan and the name of
the head of house. They, however, do not
go back much beyond the turn of the
century, however, except i n cases where
information was copied from records i n
Japan.
Since there are about 80,000 temples i n
Japan, i t i s a matter of confirming
family membership and making contact with
the appropriate temple. The temple can
be visited with a prior appointment, but
in order to make the v i s i t meaningful the
researcher should know what he or she
wants, and, i f possible, have the kaimyo
(posthumous name) or homyo (vow name i f
Shinshu) available as well as an idea of
the approximate death data. This i s
especially true of larger temples while
11
smaller temples being more intimate, may
be able to service the request more
easily. This, of course, depends on the
information i n the records. One should
allow time for a thorough search, be
polite, and should offer to pay for the
service.
Buddhist mortuary tablets ( I h a i ) are
oblong tablets usually made of wood and
lacquered. Many traditional homes i n
Japan have them on the but Sudan (family
altar) while those of contributors are
found i n the temple as w e l l . They
contain essentially the same lnformaton
as Kakocho since they were composed at
the same time—death of the individual.
Seme i h a i , however, do have biographical
information on the reverse side. These
tablets are limited, however, i n that
they are generally thrown away after a
generation or two or when moving. Some
nonetheless, are kept and may prove
helpful i n verifying other sources or i n
expanding one's lines.
Tombstone incriptions at the ancestral
o-haka (grave) are also worth checking i f
one i s able to make a t r i p to the place
of ancestral origins i n Japan. While
some tombstones are for the collective
dead, there are those for individuals as
well. They have the individual's vow or
posthumous name, the death date, and
often the common name. Some of the more
impressive ones also include biographical
information though not for common people.
For those that have weathered, special
rubbing techniques may be required.
FAMILY CRESTS
Family crests or i n s i g n i a have been
passed down from generation to generation
i n most families. Some are simple and
some are very ornate and complex. They
can be found on tombtsones, some temple
mortuary tablets, ceremonial dress, and
personal effects. Some feudal records,
such as bukan (heraldry records) also
i l l u s t r a t e the kamon (or lemon) of feudal
lords and Important samurai f a m i l i e s .
While there are nearly ten thousand
Japanese crests or insignia, many are not
805/Gubler
used by families but by temples, shrines,
etc. the favorite designs are plants,
birds, animals, characters, and geometric
figures. The most definitive work on the
subject, Naumate Raisuki's Nihon
monsho-gaku (The Study of Japanese Family
Crests) (Tokyo: Orai-sha, 1968 reprint
edition), discusses i n depth the orgin
and typology of family crests. These
crests do not represent surnames but are
more properly linked with family branches
i n p a r t i c u l a r areas. Many of these
motifs varied from the orignal by some
small d e t a i l as family branches were
formed. Crests can be used as a supple-
mentary means to help identify and locate
family sources and items but one should
avoid arriving at hasty conclusions based
on this evidence alone. Otherwise, one
can t i e into the wrong family.
COMPILED FAMILY GENEALOGIES
Some families have elaborate genealogies
of their surname line, often extending
back many generations. Many of these
genealogies, i n chart or book from, were
written by professional genealogists to
enhance the status of the family. They
should be viewed c r i t i c a l l y , especially
when they run into a r i s t o c r a t i c or
imperial lines. While these genealogies
are more prevalent among those with upper
class or samurai class origins, they are
not t o t a l l y l i m i t e d to these groups.
Many of these are highly treasured and
are kept i n the butsudan (family altar)
of one of the descendants. While the
likelihood of having a family genealogy
i s small, many have lines that do have
t h i s kind of source. One should,
however, t r y to authenticate t h i s
information as much as possible and
remember that portions are h i g h l y
secondary.
FEUDAL SOURCES
Research beyond the modern period i s
extremely d i f f i c u l t i n Japan. It
requires considerable s k i l l i n paleo-
graphy and a knowledge of local history.
The sources depend largely on the class
origins of the individuals or family.
Those of samurai ancestry should pursue
samurai genealogies, r o s t e r s , service
records, etc. The merchant class had
census records, town records, and
f i n a n c i a l records as w e l l as some
genealogies. The hardest research i s for
those with peasant ancestry. They were
not allowed surnames so i t i s hard to t i e
i n t o the appropriate feudal record.
While there are census records, examina-
tion of religion records, land records,
and v i l l a g e records, the problem of
continuity i s often too much of a barrier
to overcome. In some cases, the connec-
tions have been made, however, and the
family history has been extened consider-
ably. These types of breakthroughs re-
quire considerable luck with records
preservation and the s k i l l s equal to the
task.
CONCLUSION
There i s no denying that many Japanese
Americans face a formidable task i n
attempting to reconstruct their family
history. This i s exacerbated by the
language and cultural problems that are
encountered to bring such a search to i t s
f r u i t i o n . This i s not to say that the
task i s hopeless, for a number have found
a way. The secret i s i n using the
resources and information a v a i l a b l e ,
however sparse, to the f u l l e s t , and i n
persevering.
This paper sets forth some ideas on how
to go about finding one's family history.
The process w i l l be f a i r l y simple for
some who have contacts In Japan. Others
w i l l require a l l the ingenuity they can
muster i n order to make the various
connections that lead to partial break-
throughs. There are s t i l l many uncharted
waters i n developing a sure-fire course,
but i t i s hoped that this information
w i l l , at least, steer the research i n the
proper direction.
 NOTES

Conroy, Hilary, and Miyakawa, T. Scott, ed. East Across the Pacific: Historical and
Sociological Studies of Japanese Immigration and Assimilation. Santa Barbara,
Calif.: American Bibliogrpahical Center, Ohio Press, 1972.

. The Japanese Frontier i n Hawaii, 1868-1898. Berkeley and Los

Angeles: University of California Press, 1953.

Fuchs, Lawrence H. Hawaii Pono: A Social History. New York: Harcourt, Brace &
World, 1961.

Fukei, Budd. The Japanese American Story. Minneapolis: Dillon Press, 1976.

Gubler, Breg. "Characters and Ancestors: Observations on Genealogical i n the Far

East, Part I I , And Then There i s Japan." Genealogy Digest (Spring 1979):

. "Looking East: The Realities of Genealogical Research i n Japan."

Genealogical Journal (March 1979): 43-50.

. "Nihon keizu tankyu no yoran" [an overview of Japanese genealogical

research]. Seito no michi. (January 1978): 15-19.

Hosokawa, B i l l . Nisei" The Quiet Americans. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1969.

Ichihashi, Yamato. Japanese i n the United States. Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford
University Press, 1932.

Kort, Blanche L. and Yamato, Mitsuo. A Bibliographic Record of Americans of Japanese

Ancestry. Honolulu" Stowe & Associates, 1963.

Kitano, Harry H. L. Japanese Americans: The Evolution of a Subculture. Englewood

C l i f f s , N.J.: Prentice H a l l , 1969.

Lind, Andrew W. Hawaii's People. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1967.

Major Genealogical Record Sources of Japan. Genealogical Research Papers, series J ,

no. 1. rev. ed. Salt Lake City: Genealogical Department of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1974.

Major Genealogical Record Sources of Japan. Genealogical Research Papers, series J ,

no. 1. rev. ed. Salt Lake City: Genealogical Department of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1974.

Matsuda, Mitsugu, Comp. The Japanese i n Hawaii: An Annotated Bibliography of

Japanese Americans. Revised by Dennis M. Ogawa with Jerry Y. Fujioka. Hawaii
Series, no. 5. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1975.

Modell, John. The Japanese i n Los Angeles: A Study i n Growth and Accommodation,
1910-1946, A City within a City. Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University,
1969.

Nihon no koseki [the Japanese household register]. Genealogical Research Papers,

series J , no. 5. Salt Lake City, Genealogical Department of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1978.

•Lí
Norkyke, Eleanor C, and Matsumoto, Y. Scott. "The Japanese i n Hawaii: A Historical
and Demographic Perspective." The Hawaiian Journal of History (1977): 162-74.

Okahata, James H. A History of the Japanese i n Hawaii. Honolulu: United Japanese

Society, 1971.

Ota, Ryo. Kakeizu no nymon [guide to the study of family lineages]. Tokyo: Jinbutsu
Orai-sha, 1967.

. Seishi to kakei [surnames and lineages]. Tokyo: Sogen-sha, 1942.

Scanland, Roger. "An Introduction to the V i t a l Records of the Kingdom of Hawaii,

1826-1896." Genealogical Journal (September 1979): 159-62.

Tracing Your Ancestors to Japan: A Guide for Japanese Americans and Canadians.
805/Gubler 15
ILLUSTRATION 1
PERMISSION TO LEAVE JAPAN

IE
in 1>

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B

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. if *~ i
i;/; ;
805/Gubler 16

ILLUSTRATION 2
PAGE FROM HAWAII KAKOCHO

year: 1901
date s
4/9/Meiji 34
(9 A p r i l 1901)

Buddhist vow name:

(Shaku) Myö-sen

age: not l i s t e d

common name:
Kiku,
wife of
Wakabayashi Kinbe

ancestral home
( i n Japan):
Yamaguchi Prefecture,
Yoshiki-gun ( d i s t r i c t ) ,
Kikawa-mura (village)
[now part of Ogoori-
cho or town]

cause of death:
strangulation
805/Gubler 17

HOKKAIDO

MAP 1
JAPANESE PREFECTURES

YAM AG ATA

SADO

NJlGATAs

l fTOïAtAS «ÓUWMA7
K ^ "13ARAK1
ISHlKAVÍAý^—4 "i v

— —/
 18

Document Purpose Contents Authorization

i ._ J
Labor emigr- permission t o name, date o f by signature
a t i o n permit work abroad departure, ad- or s e a l of
or e x i t permit or leave dress i n Japan prefectural
Japan ( i n Japanese) governor

Local ident- l o c a l ID name, head o f from v i l l a g e

ification house, r e g i s t e r - o f f i c i a l or
card or ed d o m i c i l e and/ mayor of c i t y
paper or address i n or town
Japan, u s u a l l y
a p i c t u r e o f the
i n d i v i d u a l and
description
( i n Japanese)

Passport foreign name, passport by Japan

t r a v e l or number, r e g i s t - Foreign O f f i c e
residence ered d o m i c i l e and M i n i s t e r
and/or address of Foreign
i n Japan, date Affairs
passport i s -
sued, age a t
time and/or
b i r t h d a t e , date
of admittance,
s h i p , stamp o f
immigration i n -
s p e c t o r , head of
house, e t c .
( i n Japanese)
!

Labor employment name, employer, by p a r t i e s

contract conditions terms and dura- i n v o l v e d , v i z .
and t i o n of c o n t r a c t , r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s
guarantees wages, e t c . of immigration
( i n E n g l i s h and bureaus and
Japanese) companies
 805/Gubler 19
Öv SSI
APPENDIX 1
AN OVERVIEW OF SOURCES

Begin w i t h s e l f
I n v e s t i g a t e home sources
I n t e r v i e w r e l a t i v e s and f r i e n d s o f f a m i l y
C o n t i n e n t a l U.S. Hawaii
V i t a l records V i t a l records
Census schedules Delayed b i r t h r e g i s t r a t i o n s
A r r i v a l records (INS) Census schedules
A l i e n r e g i s t r a t i o n f i l e s (INS) Passenger manifests
N a t u r a l i z a t i o n records (INS) Ships manifests
Court records Index t o passenger manifests
Probate records and w i l l s Japanese consulate records
Land records T r a v e l agency records
Local newspapers ( o b i t u a r i e s ) Certificates of registration
Certificates of i d e n t i f i c a t i o n
Community and Personal Sources A r r i v a l records (INS)
Japanese community newspapers A l i e n r e g i s t r a t i o n f i l e s (INS)
Records and d i r e c t o r i e s o f N a t u r a l i z a t i o n records (INS)
prefectural associations Court records
Records and d i r e c t o r i e s o f Deeds and mortgages
Japanese a s s o c i a t i o n s Probate records and w i l l s
Newsletters, papers and L o c a l newspapers ( o b i t u a r i e s )
records o f JACL
Japanese f u n e r a l home f i l e s Sources i n Japan
Records o f cremation and b u r i a l Family or household r e g i s t e r s
Employment records ( k o s e k i , .joseki and
School records k a i s e i hara koseki)
Special collections TthT primary Japanese
C h r i s t i a n church records source; kept i n o f f i c e
Buddhist church records of r e g i s t e r e d l o c a l i t y ]
Buddhist death r e g i s t e r s Buddhist death r e g i s t e r s
and cards (kaköchó; kept both
Buddhist mortuary t a b l e t s i n temple and i n homes
L.D.S. Church records of some f a m i l y successors)
Community newsletters and Mortuary t a b l e t s ( i h a i )
correspondence [some i n temples and
Exit-permits some i n homes]
Passports Tombstone i n s c r i p t i o n s
Labor c o n t r a c t s (bohimei)
I d e n t i f i c a t i o n papers Compiled f a m i l y genealogies
( k e i z u and kafu)
Examination o f r e l i g i o n /
Census records
(shumoncho/ninbetsucho)
Foreign O f f i c e records
Emigration company records
Local and p r e f e c t u r a l records
805/Gubler 20

APPENDIX 2
JAPANESE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS
(Listed by c i t y )
CHICAGO
Chicago Shimpo. Biweekly mimeographed paper for Midwest area; 1945-present; copies on file at
newspaper office, 3744 No. Clark St., Chicago, 111. 60613
DENVER
Kakushi J i j i (Colorado Times). Small Japanese daily/biweekly; 1918-43; portions at Univ. of Illinois
Lib. (1918-21) and Lib. of Congress (1940-43)
Rocky Mountain Jiho . Japanese weekly; 1962-present; predecessors were the Rocky Mountain Post
(1896-1941?) and the Rockii Shimpo (1942-61); there are a few copies at the Lib. of Congress and
at the Univ. of Colorado L i b .
HILO, HAWAII
Hawaii Mainichi Shimbun. Small Japanese daily; 1909-41; some later copies (1935-41) at Hilo Times
Hilo T i m e s . Semiweekly Japanese paper; 1955-present; copies on file at newspaper office, 636 Kilauea
A v e . , Hilo, Hawaii 96720
HOLUALOA, HAWAII
Kona Hankyo. Weekly paper for Kona coast area on Island of Hawaii; 1897-1926; copies at Hilo Times
HONOLULU
Hawaii Hochi (Herald). Japanese daily; 1912-42, 42-present; copies at Bishop Museum and news-
paper office; filming by Gen. Dept. of earlier copies
Hawaii Shimpo. Japanese daily; 1894-1926; some copies at Hilo Times
Honolulu Star & Advertiser. Index and selected obituaries of Japanese Americans; 1929-?; not an
ethnic newspaper, but a collection; available at Hawaii State Archives
Nippu J i j i (later called Hawaii Times). Japanese daily with English; 1906.-41, 42-present; nearly
complete set at Bishop Museum; filming of earlier portions by Gen. Dept. ; copies also at Univ. of
Hawaii Lib. (1936-41, 42-present) and Hawaii State Archives (1942-present)
Yamato and Yamato Shimbun. B i - and triweekly; 1895-1905; became the Nippu J i j i ; a few copies
at the Univ. of Hawaii Lib. (1904-05) and at Bishop Museum
LOS ANGELES
Kashu Mainichi (Calif. State Daily). Japanese language daily with English section; 1931-42, 46-present;
U . C . L. A . Lib. has almost complete set
Pacific Citizen. English language paper of Japanese American Citizens League; scattered monthly issues
from 1931 to March 1942, weekly from June 1942 to present; formerly published in other cities, presently
published at 125 Weller St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90012; microfilm copies at Lib. of Congress and copies
at San Diego State Univ. L i b .
Rafu Shimpo (Los Angeles Daily Japanese News). Japanese daily with English section; 1903-42, 42-present;
nearly complete sets on microfilm at U . C . L . A . and Univ. of So. Calif, libraries; partial set (from 1937)
at Los Angeles Public Library
NEW YORK CITY
New York Nichibei (Japanese American News). Weekly Japanese paper with English section; successor to
Nichibei Jiho (1902-41) and New York Shimpo; copies of more recent papers at newspaper office, 260 W.
Broadway, ' N . Y . , N . Y . 10013
PORTLAND
Oregon News. Small Japanese daily/weekly; 1902-42; some copies at Univ. of Illinois Lib. (1917-23)
SACRAMENTO
Ofu Nippo (Sacramento Daily News). Japanese daily; 1907-41; copies at Calif. State Lib. (1909-16)
and Univ. of Illinois Lib. (1917-25); later copies at Univ. of C a l i f . , Berkeley Lib.
SALT LAKE CITY
Utah Nippo. Japanese daily/triweekly; 1914-42, 42-present; English section since 1940; predated by
the Rocky Mountain Times (ca. 1900-14); microfilm copies at Univ. of Utah Lib. (1917-75) and Lib.
of Congress (1942-45)
 805/Gubler 21

APPENDIX 3
BUDDHIST SECTS AND TEMPLES*
(Most have death registers from l i s t e d beginning dates)

HAWAII
Shin Sect (Nishi Hongwanji)--37 temples in Hawaii
Headquarters temple: Honpa Hongwanji (1898)
1727 Pali Highway, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Older branch temples include: Aiea Hongwanji (1902; Aiea, Hawaii), Ewa Hongwanji (1902; Ewa, Oahu),
Hanapepe Hongwanji (1913; Hanapepe, Hawaii), Hilo Hongwanji Betsuin (1889; Hilo, Hawaii), Honohina
Hongwanji (1907; Honohina, Hawaii), Honokaa Hongwanji (1907; Honokaa, Hawaii), Honomu Hongwanji
(1907; Honomu, Hawaii), Jikoen Hongwanji (mainly feinawans) (1938; Honolulu), Kahuku Hongwanji
(1902; Kahuku, Oahu), Kealia Hongwanji (1899-1922; records at Kapaa Jodoin), Kohala Hongwanji (1908;
Kohala, Hawaii), Koloa Hongwanji (1910; Koloa, Kauai), Kona Hongwanji (1898; Kealakekua, Hawaii),
Lahaina Hongwanji (1904; Lahaina, Maui), Lihue Hongwanji (1901; Lihue, Kauai), Moiliili Hongwanji
(1908; Honolulu), Naalehu Hongwanji (1900; Naalehu, Hawaii), Paauilo Hongwanji (1915; Paauilo, Hawaii),
Pahala Hongwanji (1902; Pahala, Hawaii), Paia Hongwanji (1907; Paia, Maui), Papaaloa Hongwanji (1902;
Papaïkou Hongwanji (1909; Papaikou, Hawaii), Pauwela Hongwanji (1914; Pauwela, Maui), Pearl City
Hongwanji (1906; Pearl City, Oahu), Puna Hongwanji (1902; Keaau, Hawaii), Puunene Hongwanji (1910;
Puunene, Maui), Waialua Hongwanji (1903; Waialua, Oahu), Waianae Hongwanji (1903; Waianae, Oahu),
Wahiawa Hongwanji (1907; Wahiawa, Oahu), Wailuku Hongwanji (1900; Wailuku, Maui), Waimea Hon-
gwanji (1910; Waimea, Kauai), and Waipahu Hongwanji (1901; Waipahu, Oahu)

Jodo Sect--16 temples in Hawaii

Headquarters temple: Jödoshu Betsuin (1901)
1429 Makiki, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
Older branch temples include: Hakalau Jodoin (1904; Hakalau, Hawaii), Hilo Jodoshu Meishoin (1911;
Hilo, Hawaii), Hilo Wainaku Jodoin (1905; Hilo, Hawaii), Kahului Jodoin (1910?; Kahului, Maui),
Kapáa Jodoin (1911; Kapaa, Kauai), Kohala Jodoin (1902; Kohala, Hawaii), Koloa Jodoin (1909; Koloa,
Kauai), Puunene Jodoin (1909; Puunene, Maui), and Wailuku Jodoin (1915; Wailuku, Maui)

Shingon Sect--14 temples in Hawaii

Headquarters temple: Koyasan Shingonshu Hawaii Betsuin (190?)
915 Sheridan St., Honolulu, Hawaii 96814
Older branch temples include: Hilo Shingonshu Hoganji (1907; Hilo, Hawaii), and Wailuku Komyoji
(1910; Wailuku, Maui)

Soto Sect--10 temples in Hawaii

Headquarters temple: Sotoshu Hawaii Betsuin (1912)
1708 Nuuanu Ave., Honolulu, Hawaii 96817
Older branch temples include: Aiea Taiheiji (1900; Aiea, Oahu), Eleele Zenshuji (1903; Eleele, Kauai),
Hilo Sotoshu Taishoji (1916; Hilo, Hawaii), Kona Daifukuji 0914; Kealakekua, Hawaii), Paia Mantokuji
(1907; Paia, Maui), Wahiawa Ryusenji (1900; Wahiawa, Oahu), and Waipahu Taiyoji (1912; Waipahu,
Oahu)

Shin Sect (Higashi Hongwanji, Otani Faction)--7 temples in Hawaii

Headquarters temple: Higashi Hongwanji Mission (1916)
1128 Banyan, Honolulu, Hawaii
Older branch temples include: Hilo Higashi Hongwanji (1928; Hilo, Hawaii), and Waimea Higashi Hon-
gwanji (1899; Waimea, Kauai)
 805/Gubler

Nichiren Sect—4 temples in Hawaii

Headquarters temple: '3508 Nuuanu Ave., Honolulu, Hawaii

Rinzai Sect—2 temples in Hawaii

Headquarters temple: 2428 Wilder St., Honolulu, Hawaii
CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES
Shin Sect (Nishi Hongwanji)--59 temples in continental U. S.
Headquarters temple: Buddhist Churches of America Headquarters (1899)
1710 Octavia St., San: Francisco, Calif. 94109
Older branch temples include: Florin Buddhist Church (1896; Sacramento, Calif.), Gardena Buddhist
Church (1926; Gardena, Calif.), Guadalupe Buddhist Church (1909; Guadalupe, Calif.), Marysville
Buddhist Church (1908; Marysville, Calif.), Ogden Buddhist Church (1912; Ogden, Utah), Oxnard
Buddhist Church (1900; Oxnard, Calif.), Reedley Buddhist Church (1926; Reedley, Calif.), Sacramento
Betsuin 0899: Sacramento, Calif.), Salt Lake Buddhist Church 0912; Salt Lake City, Utah), San
Francisco Buddhist Church 0899; San Francisco, Calif.), San Jose Betsuin (1902; San Jose, Calif.),
San Luis Obispo Buddhist Church (1924; San Luis Obispo, Calif.), Seattle Betsuin 090?; Seattle,
Washington), Tacoma Buddhist Church (1912; Tacoma, Washington), Watsonville Buddhist Church
0907; Watsonville, Calif.), and West Los Angeles Buddhist Church (191?; West Los Angeles, Calif.)
Shingon Sect—9 temples in continental U. S.
Headquarters temple: Los Angeles Koyasan Buddhist Temple
342 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90012

Nichiren Sect—7 temples in continental U. S.

Headquarters temple: Nichirenshu Minobusan Beikoku Betsuin (1914)
2800 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90033

Shin Sect (Higashi Hongwanji, Otani Faction)--4 temples in continental U.S.

Headquarters temple: Higashi Hongwanji Los Angeles Buddhist Church (1914)
118 N. Mott St., Los Angeles, Calif.

Soto Sect--4 temples in continental U. S.

Headquarters temple: Zenshuji Betsuin
123 So. Hewitt St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90012

Jodo Sect—2 temples in continental U. S.

Headquarters temple: Los Angeles Jodoshu Betsuin
2003 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90018

CANADA
Shin Sect (Nishi Hongwanji)--18 temples in Canada
Headquarters temple: Buddhist Churches of Canada Headquarters
918 Bathhurst St., Toronto, Ontario

^Information and figures from Zenkoku J i i n Meikan Kankokai, comp.

Zenkoku .jiin meikan [nationwide directory of Buddhist temples]
(Tokyo: Zenkoku J i i n Meikan Kankokai, 1973), V o l . 4, pp. 244-52,
index pp. 127-33; Mitsugu Matsuda, comp. (revised by Dennis M.
Ogawa with Jerry Y. Fujioka) The Japanese i n Hawaii: An Annotated^
Bibliography of Japanese Americans (Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press, 1975), pp. 216-44; and from Genealogical Department survey.
 23

SAN FRANCISCO
Hokubei Asahi (No. American Sun). Japanese daily; 192?-35; merged with Shin Sekai in 1935;
had Englisksupplement; some copies at Univ. of Calif., Berkeley Lib. (1932-35)
Hokubei Mainichi (No. American Daily). Japanese daily with English supplement; 1948-present;
microfilm copies at Univ. of Calif., Berkeley Lib. (1948-74) and Calif. State Lib. (1962-present)
Nichibei (Japanese American News). Japanese daily; 1895-1942; started first English language
section in 1925; copies at Calif. State Lib. (1919-25) and Univ. of Calif., Berkeley Lib. (1927-42)
Nichibei Times. Japanese daily with English section; 1946-present; copies on file at newspa per ofice,
1375 Eddy St. , San Francisco, and at Lib. of Congress (1957-67)
Shin Sekai (New World Daily News). Japanese daily; 1897-1935; English section added in 1930;
microfilm copies at Univ. of Calif., Berkeley Lib. (1899-1935)
Shin Sekai Asahi (New World-Sun). Japanese daily with English section; 1935-41; merger of Shin
Sekai and Hokubei Asahi; microfilm copies at Univ. of Calif., Berkeley Lib. (1935-41) and Lib.
of Congress (1940-41)
SEATTLE
Asahi News (Sun). Japanese daily; 1905-18; portions preserved in Washington State Univ. Lib.
(1918) and Univ. of Illinois Lib. (1917-18)
Hokubei Hochi (No. American Post). Dally since 1950; 1946-present; copies at Univ. of Wash-
ington Lib. and on file at newspaper office, 517 So. Main St., Seattle
Hokubei Jiji (No. American Times). Japanese daily; 1902-42; microfilm copies at Lib. of Congress
(1916-35)
Japanese American Courier. Weekly paper in English; 1928-42; on microfilm at Univ. of Wash-
ington Lib. (1928-42)
Taihoku Nippo (Great No. Daily News). Japanese daily; 1909-41; copies on microfilm at Univ.
of Washington Lib. (1917-41) and Lib. of Congress (1940-41)
TORONTO
Continental Times. Biweekly Japanese paper with English section; 1948-present; copies on file
at newspaper office
VANCOUVER
Continental Daily News. Japanese daily; 1907-1942; extent of preservation unknown
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Family History for

Chinese Americans
Jean B. Ohai
•)f Series 807
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 FAMILY HISTORY FOR CHINESE AMERICANS
Jean Ohai
Born i n Arizona. Resides i n Kailua, Hawaii. M.A. (applied l i n g u i s t i c s ) , University
of Hawaii. Author, editor.
Researching a Chinese-American family
history or genealogy w i l l require using a
combination of sources, public and p r i -
vate, oral and written, Chinese and non-
Chinese. It goes without saying that one
can find a great deal of information
simply by employing the same research
guides and sources that anyone else would
use for the same l o c a l i t y . (In this
paper the use of the term Chinese w i l l
r e f e r p r i m a r i l y to e t h n i c i t y and not
necessarily to citizenship).
Anyone planning to research a Chinese-
American genealogy w i l l find that knowing
as much as possible about Chinese lan-
guage, customs, and history w i l l help to
locate and interpret information. F i r s t
of a l l , a researcher should have some
knowledge of a Chinese language; minimum
competency would be an a b i l i t y to write
characters and use a Chinese dictionary.
Genealogical research i s a specialized
use of what most people consider his-
t o r i c a l records; there are few gene-
alogical records per se. A second step
in preparation would be to join a his-
t o r i c a l society and to donate as much
time and money as personal circumstances
permit. Not only do h i s t o r i c a l societies
play a significant part i n identifying,
c o l l e c t i n g , and preserving source
materials, but they keep their member-
ships informed. H i s t o r i c a l s o c i e t i e s
also help make available many records
presently unknown or i n a c c e s s i b l e to
researchers. They deserve support.
Third, one should be informed about the
history of the Chinese i n America. Many
C a l i f o r n i a u n i v e r s i t i e s have Asian
American Studies Departments; check for
courses and lectures. The best book for
the genealogist i s probably Outlines:
History of the Chinese i n America by Him
Mark L a i and P.P. Choy (referred to
hereafter as Outlines); i t should be read
and reread. The information i s organized
and c o n c e n t r a t e d — t h e gold has been
mined! In addition to this, some or
preferably a l l of the other book-length
studies l i s t e d at the conclusion of this
paper should be read. The researcher
should then study whatever i s available
on the Chinese communities of interest
beginning with the summary of U.S.
Chinese communities by region i n
Outlines. A preliminary and incomplete
l i s t of book length studies follows:
A H i s t o r y of the Chinese i n America: A
Syllabus not only covers the California
Chinese but serves as an introduction to
the history of the Chinese i n the U.S. I
Hsuan J u l i a Chen's dissertation on The
Chinese Community i n New York, 1920-1940,
published by R & E Research Asociates,
covers one of the largest Chinatowns.
Clarence E. G l i c k ' s Sojourners and
Settlers: Chinese Migrants i n Hawaii w i l l
be a v a i l a b l e from the U n i v e r s i t y of
Hawaii Press i n October of 1980.
The section on "Chinese Americans" i n A
Comprehensive Bibliography for the Study
of American Minorities l i s t s publications
on the Chinese i n the states of Washing-
ton, Nevada, Mississippi, and i n the com-
munities of Los Angeles, E l Paso, Butte,
Philadelphia, and the Sacramento - San
Joaquin Valley area. Some of these are
published by the previously mentioned R &
E Research Associates, s p e c i a l i s t s i n
807/Ohai
ethnic studies; they o f f e r monographs on
C h i n e s e communities i n San F r a n c i s c o ;
E a s t Bay; B u t t e County, C a l i f o r n i a ;
C h i c a g o ; E a s t e r n Oregon; Los A n g e l e s ;
Canada; and the C a l i f o r n i a counties of
the Mother Lode. The B u l l e t i n of the
C h i n e s e H i s t o r i c a l S o c i e t y o f America
( r e f e r r e d to h e r e a f t e r as B u l l e t i n ) has
c a r r i e d a r t i c l e s on the Chinese com-
munities i n Los Angeles (March 1969); San
Joaquin County, C a l i f o r n i a (March 1970);
Tehama, C o l u s a , and G l e n n C o u n t i e s ,
California (April and May 1972);
C a l a v e r a s County, C a l i f o r n i a (April
1973); Washington, D . C . area (February
1976) ; Unita County, Wyoming (November
1977) ; Augusta, Georgia (February 1978);
and P o r t l a n d , Oregon ( A p r i l and May
1979). In the upcoming 1980 N a t i o n a l
Conference on Chinese-American Studies,
papers are scheduled on the Chinese
experience i n Colorado, Nevada, Texas,
A r i z o n a , M i s s i s s i p p i , Los Angeles, and
Fiddletown, C a l i f o r n i a . In a d d i t i o n to
Tin-Yuke Char's Sandalwood Mountains, the
Hawaii Chinese H i s t o r y Center (HCHC) has
h i s and Wai Jane C h a r ' s new C h i n e s e
H i s t o r i c S i t e s and P i o n e e r F a m i l i e s of
Kauai. Both o f these s t u d i e s have
excellent character g l o s s a r i e s . HCHC
also has a study on K u l a , Maui and some
m a t e r i a l on o t h e r a r e a s . Checking
b i b l i o g r a p h i e s and suggested r e a d i n g s
p l u s f o l l o w i n g the c o n f e r e n c e s , pub-
l i s h e r s , p e r i o d i c a l s , and h i s t o r i c a l
s o c i e t i e s l i s t e d at the conclusion of
t h i s paper w i l l help i n l o c a t i n g other
items. How and Where to Research Your
Ethnic-American C u l t u r a l Heritage,
a l t h o u g h not a g e n e a l o g i c a l r e s e a r c h
guide, has a u s e f u l l i s t of addresses and
finding aids.
Background reading w i l l help i n preparing
more f r u i t f u l q u e s t i o n s for older
r e l a t i v e s and f r i e n d s . In compiling a
f a m i l y h i s t o r y , a r e s e a r c h e r w i l l be
looking f o r i n f o r m a t i o n , d i r e c t or i n the
form of c l u e s , bearing on names, dates,
places, and f a m i l y r e l a t i o n s h i p s — p r e -
c i s e l y those areas of personal i d e n t i t y
that have been such s e n s i t i v e topics i n
Chinese communities i n America. Try to
be informed i n advance about any d e l i c a t e
matters, such as anything that might seem
to conform to anti-Chinese stereotypes,
so that the approach may be s e n s i t i v e ,
d i p l o m a t i c , and compassionate.
I f the informant can write i n Chinese, he
should always be asked to w r i t e the f u l l
names of people and places i n characters.
Inquire about any family papers, photo-
graphs, newspaper c l i p p i n g s , i d e n t i f i -
c a t i o n papers or residence c e r t i f i c a t e s ,
old j o u r n a l s , r e c e i p t s , account books, or
l e t t e r s t h a t might be c o n s u l t e d o r
copied. Never f a i l to ask i f there i s a
f a m i l y book or clan genealogy and i f so
who might have a copy.
Names
Traditionally Chinese names consist of a
family name or surname and a given name
made up of a generation name and a
personal name. One of the genealogist's
key tasks i s to discover the Chinese
written form for complete names. Because
of many f a c t o r s — d i a l e c t s , dialects of
dialects, the great number of homonyms,
the tone system, and various romanization
s y s t e m s — a Chinese name i s not known
unless the characters are known, too.
Although a romanization can be determined
from the characters, the reverse i s not
true. For example, DARE, DEA, DEAR, DER,
DERE, DAIR, JA, JAIR, JAY, CHE, CHAR, CHA
are romanized Sze Yup, Sam Yup, and Hakka
readings for the same character ( §{{ ).
Names have not only been romanized, but
i n some cases, anglicized as well: LAMB
(Lam), THOM (Tam), and even 0'YOUNG
(Auyong).
Characters are naturally most l i k e l y to
be obtained from Chinese sources, but
even here i t i s not uncommon to find the
original characters replaced with
homonyms. Discovering the romanized form
and the w r i t t e n form t o g e t h e r — a s on
grave markers—is especially valuable.
In contrast to Western custom, Chinese
surnames t r a d i t i o n a l l y precede given
names. This reverse order has resulted
i n Chinese given names and generation
names being recorded or accepted as
surnames. For example, CHUNG Kun A i , the
school friend and early supporter of Dr.
807/Ohai
Sun Yat-sen, was known as C . K . A Í . To
a v o i d c o n f u s i o n , Americans o f Chinese
ancestry are now more l i k e l y to f o l l o w
the Western order.
Chinese names found i n non-Chinese
records frequently consist only of Ah or
A ( pgr ) plus the personal given name,
making i t rather d i f f i c u l t to be c e r t a i n
of the i d e n t i t y . Ah combined with the
g i v e n name can be c o n s i d e r e d as a
d i m i n u t i v e . These combinations have even
been adopted as surnames, e s p e c i a l l y by
part-Chinese f a m i l i e s i n Hawaii, and i n
that case even Hawaiianized. They should
not, however, be mistaken f o r the surname
of the o r i g i n a l bearer. The descendants
of the Hoklo LEE Shak bear the surname
Akaka, the Hawaiianized v e r s i o n of Ah
Shak. Some other Hawaii Chinese surnames
consist of the surname plus personal name
(Hew Len, Lee Loy, Chun-Hoon, and Hapai
from Lau Fai—note that these are not
examples of t r a d i t i o n a l t w o - s y l l a b l e
Chinese surnames), or the generation name
and p e r s o n a l name preceded by Ah
( A l o i a u ) , and even a surname based on the
term f o r "elder brother" (Ako).
When c h e c k i n g indexes or w r i t i n g f o r
records, a l l possible combinations,
romanizations, and s p e l l i n g v a r i a t i o n s
f o r each name should be considered. For
example, SUN M i , the brother of Dr. Sun
Yat-sen, i s found i n the indexes of the
Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances not under
SUN or SOON, but under Ah M i , S. (Ami).
The Rev. Mr. CHONG How Fo has also been
located i n an index under FO. Another
family f i n a l l y found a death c e r t i f i c a t e
w i t h the name romanized i n Standard
Cantonese r a t h e r than the a n t i c i p a t e d
Chungshan d i a l e c t .
The researcher should also be aware that
Shee or See ( j£ ) as the l a s t element of
a women's name i s not part of her name;
i t i s a t i t l e i n d i c a t i n g a female person
of that p a r t i c u l a r surname. The name
Chun Shee would indicate that the woman,
even though m a r r i e d , was born " M i s s "
Chun. TAM CHUN Shee would be "Mrs." Tan
born "Miss" Chun.
Many people, p a r t i c u l a r l y of the educated
3
or merchant c l a s s e s , received a d d i t i o n a l
names to commemorate s i g n i f i c a n t events
in their lives; f o r example, SUN
Tai-cheong, who had been known as SUN Wen
as a c h i l d , took the name Yat-sen upon
h i s baptism. A researcher should t r y to
determine i f the progenitor had any other
names.
This leads to what may be a s e n s i t i v e
matter. Because of the Chinese Exclusion
Laws, i n e l i g i b l e Chinese wishing to come
to the U . S . to j o i n t h e i r f a m i l i e s had to
be smuggled i n over the Mexican or
Canadian borders or else they had to come
i n with f a l s e papers representing them-
selves as American-born, the c h i l d of
someone American-born, o r — e s p e c i a l l y i n
the e a r l i e r p e r i o d — a member o f the
exempt c l a s s e s : students, teachers,
merchants, t r a v e l e r s . Chinatown b u s i -
nesses might have as many as two dozen
partners, each w i t h an e q u i t y o f a
hundred d o l l a r s , just enough to e s t a b l i s h
merchant s t a t u s .
The " s l o t r a c k e t " i n v o l v e d " s e l l i n g
places i n one's family tree to f e l l o w
Chinese who could not l a w f u l l y bring over
members of t h e i r own f a m i l y . The 'paper'
sons, daughters, and wives entered as
r e l a t i v e s of the s e l l e r and o f t e n had to
provide labor or services to t h e m . . . .
Names were changed, personal and c l a n
i d e n t i t i e s were o b s c u r e d , and i l l e g a l
immigrants were frequently subjected to
merciless exploitation." (Lyman, P .
110.) See David R. Chan, "The Tragedy
and Trauma of the Chinese Exclusion Laws"
in the L i f e , Influence and the Role of
the Chinese i n the U n i t e d S t a t e s , 1776-
1960.
The U . S . Immigration and N a t u r a l i z a t i o n
S e r v i c e i n i t i a t e d a program i n 1956,
known i n the Chinese community as Hon Pak
(to confess), whereby an a l i e n i l l e g a l l y
i n the U . S . could come forward, confess
the t r u e f a c t s , and have h i s s t a t u s
adjusted. The habits of a l i f e t i m e of
guarding against inadvertent d i s c l o s u r e
do not disappear q u i c k l y , and the i n i t i a l
response was slow. Thousands have since
come f o r w a r d w i t h a P e r s o n a l H i s t o r y
Statement. See "Hon P a k , " a paper
807/Ohai
submitted for Publication to the Hawaii
Chinese History Center by Donald K.F.
Ching.
For more detailed discussion of Chinese
names, read Wolfram Eberhard's "Chinese
Genealogies as a Source for the Study of
Chinese Society" and Thomas W. Chinn's
"Genealogical Sources of Chinese Immi-
grants to the United States" i n Spencer
J. Palmer's Studies i n Asian Genealogy,
the latter paper i s reprinted i n the
Bulletin (November 1969). Both are also
available on microfilm with other papers
of the 1969 World Conference on Records
through the branch library system of the
Genealogical Society.
Dates
Other key tasks for a researcher are to
establish a chronology and to document
the dating of events. The Chinese i n
America and Hawaii had two possible
calendar systems to use: The Chinese
lunar calendar (in o f f i c i a l use i n China
u n t i l 1912) and the Western solar c a l -
endar. Many birth dates, marriage dates,
and cemetery inscriptions even after 1912
may well be given according to the lunar
calendar.
There are also differences i n calculating
age i n the Chinese and Western systems.
When a child i s born i n China, he i s said
to be i n his f i r s t year. At the next New
Year, he enters his second year. How-
ever, Chinese age i n f u l l (as given on
grave markers) i s equivalent to Western,
but the age given i n a Chinese obituary
i n Chinese newspapers w i l l have up to
three years added on to what would have
been the Western-style age. The person
being interviewed should be asked i f the
ages given are Chinese or Western.
Otherwise chronology w i l l be misleading
and calculated dates w i l l be unreliable.
Places
Determining the v i l l a g e of o r i g i n i s
important for the genealogist who wishes
to extend a pedigree. Always ask for the
village (heung , chin , or bo
4g ), s u b d i s t r i c t (doo gj? ),
district ( m ), and province.
If an interviewer merely asks "Where?" he
w i l l l i k e l y get only the d i s t r i c t . One
should not accept a place name as the
o r i g i n of the progenitor unless i t
represents a village or a town; even a
sub-district can be a very big haystack.
Maps and gazetteers should be consulted
so that the levels of jurisdiction are
clearly understood. What may seem to be
two different places entirely may be two
l e v e l s of j u r i s d i c t i o n , one contained
within the other. Just- as Cantonese
means a native of Kwangtung, so Canton,
in the absence of additional evidence,
usually means Kwangtung province.
Place names change; for example, Toishan
d i s t r i c t was formerly known as Sunning (
ff ^ ) and Heungshan ( § jij ) d i s t r i c t
was renamed Chungshan ( Ul ) i n 1925 i n
honor of i t s native son Dr. Sun Yatsen.
There i s even an additional variation,
Heung Yup. The doo no longer exists as
an administrative unit. A good gazetteer
or a series of local histories should be
consulted i f there i s some question about
internal or external boundaries contem-
porary with emigration.
There i s a close relationship, almost an
i d e n t i t y , between family names and
Chinese villages. Many villages were
t r a d i t i o n a l l y inhabited by a single
lineage or clan; others, particularly i n
Chungshan, may have had several. In
order to combat immigration fraud, the
Control Unit of the U.S. Consulate i n
Hong Kong drew up a s e r i e s of four
reference volumes i n the form of indexes
of clan names by village for Toishan,
Sunwui, Hoiping, and Chungshan d i s t r i c t s .
The subdivisions of each d i s t r i c t are
keyed to another valuable source, the
U.S. Army Map Series (scale: 1:50,000)
covering Kwangtung province; this series
is available i n good research libraries.
Relationships
Although relatives outside the nuclear
family have much more significance for
the Chinese than for other Americans, one
should not assume a relationship between
people of the same surname, even when the
807/Ohai
character i s the same. Ask for an
explicit statement of relationship when
interviewing. Many people belonging to
the same clan w i l l be addressed by t i t l e s
that would indicate a much closer
relationship i n a Western kinship system.
Kinship terms may also have extended
meanings. These usages for non-kin are
usually informal, but a secret society
"sworn brother" or a "dry father" (the
non-religious equivalent of a godparent)
involve formal relationships.
The Chinese i n America, although p r i -
marily Cantonese, are not a homogeneous
group. There are four main waves of
immigration, each composed of different
groups i n varying proportions.
1. Old Chinatown-centered group. These
immigrated to the U.S. Mainland before
World War I I or were American-born.
Their origin i s southeastern China, more
specifically the d i s t r i c t s of Kwangtung
provice near Hong Kong, Canton, and
Macao. About 70 per cent originated i n
the four d i s t r i c t s known collectively as
Sze Yup ( ø g ): Toishan ( m ),
Sunwui ( £f # )> Hoiping ( f$ ), and
Yanping ( Jg ^ ), with the Toishanese
the most numerous. People from Chungshan
d i s t r i c t constituted about one-third of
U.S. Chinese immigrants i n the 1850s, but
only about 15 per cent today. Namhoi (
ffiïS ), Punyu ( ), and Shuntak (
jg få ), known collectively as the San
Yup ( 5 Q ) d i s t r i c t s , contributed
about 17 per cent i n the 1850s but now
constitute less than 10 per cent. The
l i n g u i s t i c a l l y distinct Hakkas ( % % )
represent only about 2 per cent of the
total.
Within these d i s t r i c t s , one would have
found the predominant Puntis ( if ifø ) Mainland since well over 60 per cent of
who spoke Cantonese dialects ranging from
the standard Cantonese spoken i n the
Canton metropolitan area to the Sze Yup
and Chungshan local dialects. One would
also find Hakkas from Meihsien ( ^ g j ^ ),
Chikkai ( zfc g| ), and Pao-on (
H ^ ). They were farmers and
fishermen, for the most part, with close
ties to family and l o c a l i t y , and when
they emigrated they tended to settle with
5
people from the same locality and to work
together i n the same occupations, a fact
of some s i g n i f i c a n c e for genealogical
research. Examples of surname-locality-
occupation correspondences are found i n
the chapter on "Chinese Associations i n
America" i n Outlines. A detailed summary
of the geographical origin and linguistic
and social background of the immigrants
may be found i n this work and i n A
History of the Chinese i n C a l i f o r n i a : A
Syllabus.
2. New Chinatown-centered group. These
immigrated after World War I I and were
i n large part the separated families and
relatives of the f i r s t group. Although
they have a common origin, this group has
a somewhat more urban background than the
first.
3. Stranded students. These were stu-
dents, scholars and professionals stran-
ded in the U.S. by World War I I , the
c i v i l war i n China, and the change i n
government there. Well-educated and of
higher socio-economic o r i g i n than the
predominantly peasant Chinatown group,
they come from a l l provinces of China,
speak Mandarin, and usually have l i t t l e
contact with Chinatown people. They are
frequently the people cited i n articles
e x t o l l i n g the success of the Chinese
minority i n the U.S. This group i s
closer to i t s Chinese origin; their gene-
alogies may be researched from post-war
U.S. and t r a d i t i o n a l Chinese record
sources.
4. Hawaii Chinese. (Hawaiian Chinese i s
generally understood to mean someone of
mixed Hawaiian and Chinese descent). The
proportionate mixture of Chinese groups
i n Hawaii differs from that of the U.S.
those i n Hawaii emigrated from Chungshan
d i s t r i c t and i n contrast only about 11
per cent from the Sze Yup d i s t r i c t s .
Approximately one-quarter were Hakkas
with an additional small percentage from
the Sam Yup and other d i s t r i c t s . Hawaii
sometimes served as a staging area for
reimmigration to C a l i f o r n i a , and many
Chinese who started out i n California
found Hawaii a more congenial home.
807/Ohai
The experience of the Chinese i n Hawaii
differed significantly from that of the
Chinese on the U.S. Mainland. Hawaii was
an independent Polynesian kingdom under
American influence (specifically that of
missionary descendants) at the time that
large-scale Chinese immigration began i n
1852. In 1893 Hawaii b r i e f l y became an
American-oriented Republic. In 1898 i t
was annexed as a Territory of the United
States and became subject to the more
restrictive U.S. Chinese Exclusion Laws.
It i s safe to say that i n almost every
respect the Chinese i n Hawaii fared
better than their counterparts on the
U.S. Mainland. A significant difference
in t h e i r experience was the Hawaiian
people; there really i s such a thing as
aloha.
Sojourners and S e t t l e r s . In the mid-
nineteenth century, the beginning of the
Chinese diaspora, the f e r t i l e agricul-
tural d i s t r i c t s surrounding Hong Kong,
Macao, and Canton—the area of the Pearl
River Delta—were rocked by one disaster
after another: the Opium War, i n f l a t i o n ,
floods, droughts, famine, banditry, the
T'ai-p'ing R e b e l l i o n , Triad (secret
Society) uprisings, and the Punti-Hakka
wars. When news of C a l i f o r n i a gold
arrived i n the ports, and r e c r u i t e r s
l a t e r advertised f o r Hawaiian sugar
workers, Cantonese were w i l l i n g to leave
their families to save them. Outlines
and A H i s t o r y of the Chinese i n C a l i -
f o r n i a : A Syllabus have more d e t a i l e d
discussions of events and conditions at
the beginning of emigration.
The typical emigrant or gum san hok
( A jij # guest of the Gold Mountain)
was a young married man being contracted
almost universally i n the teens) who l e f t
his wife behind to assume his responsi-
b i l i t y to his parents. He hoped to make
his fortune and return to h i s home
village to pay off family debts, acquire
a parcel of land, endow the clan temple,
and build a home for his parents. These
short-term immigrants are u s u a l l y
referred to as sojourners.
Although much has been written about the
sojourners and the predominantly bachelor
6
society of the Chinese i n America, most
men were married but separated from their
families. There was such a custom as
short-term immigration, but the primary
reason for the bachelor society was the
passage of i n c r e a s i n g l y harsh and
restrictive exclusion laws. We may never
know how many Chinese would have pre-
ferred to be settlers and to raise their
families here. It i s instructive to note
that even with discriminatory legisla-
tion, mobbings, anti-Chinese propagandga,
the d e n i a l of c i t i z e n s h i p , and the
Exclusion Laws, the Chinese were more
than w i l l i n g to come and to do everything
in their power to get their families i n .
Extreme sexual imbalance was charac-
t e r i s t i c of overseas Chinese communities.
The few women who came were usually wives
of merchants who might also bring mui
tzai ( ff bondservants). Some even
adopted foundlings from Christian
orphanages prior to departure. There
were also women brought i n bondage for
p r o s t i t u t i o n ; of those rescued by
C h r i s t i a n missionaries, about half
preferred to stay i n this country and
marry. For a better understanding of
Chinese-American women consult A i - l i S.
Chin's "Adaptive Roles of Chinese Women
in the U.S." i n Bulletin (January 1979).
The typical emigrant was quite l i k e l y to
have paid his own way through borrowing
on family security or being supported by
a family member already i n the U.S. or
Hawaii. Or perhaps his way was paid with
money advanced from a potential employer
or labor contractor, a form of assisted
passage known as the c r e d i t - t i c k e t
system. Although the notorious coolie
trade seems to have been conducted from
other ports to other destinations, the
Chinese i n America were never really able
to shake the slave labor image.
Some saved their small fortunes and re-
turned to China while others, involuntary
exiles, were neither able to return nor
to bring their families. There were
those who were able to go back to China
every few years to v i s i t family and to
sire other sons—real or "paper." The
settlers were fortunate i f they were able
807/Ohai
to bring i n their wives and children
before the gates closed in 1882 and were
locked i n 1924. Others were forced to
smuggle their families i n i f they hoped
to have any kind of normal family l i f e .
SOME SOURCES OF GENEALOGICAL INTEREST
V i t a l Records
One should check c i v i l records of births,
deaths, and marriages for the periods and
areas f o r which they are a v a i l a b l e .
Access to microfilmed indexes i s especi-
a l l y valuable. The San Francisco earth-
quake of 1906 destroyed records of mar-
riages and births, enabling many to claim
to be native-born citizens, but death
records survive. In some cases Chinese
births i n Alameda county, for example,
Chinese records were kept separately. In
the Chew Kee store i n Fiddletown, C a l i -
fornia, a record of deaths i n the Chinese
community was found for 1883-1892.
Where progenitors were C h r i s t i a n (and
many Hakkas were Christians even before
they emigrated), ecclesiastical records
for birth, christening, baptism,
marriage, and death should be sought.
St. Peter's Church (Episcopal) of
Honolulu has well-kept records, and most
early names are i n characters. On the
U.S. Mainland, the Presbyterians, and
other denominations had mission churches
to the Chinese. A 1942 WPA Records
Survey for Northern California indicated
that the Chinese Presbyterian Church at
925 Stockton Street, San Francisco, had
two volumes kept i n Chinese of Baptisms
and marriages commencing i n 1876. The
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 855
Jackson Street, San Francisco, had a
volume of baptisms going back to 1921.
Newspapers
Obituaries, v i t a l n o t i c e s , business
advertisements, or notices of membership
(or non-membership) i n societies can be
found i n Chinese newspapers i n Chinese or
English. The great value of collected
clippings should be immediately obvious
since indexes are practically nonexis-
tent . See Chinese Newspapers Published
in North America, 1854-1975 for a bib-
liography of Chinese newspapers i n the
U.S. and Canada and the l o c a t i o n of
existing f i l e s . Approximately one-third
of 254 serials were published i n San
Francisco, while some 65 were published
i n New York. The Chinese Historical
Society of Southern California has been
indexing Chinese items from early issues
of non-Chinese Los Angeles newspapers.
Directories
A good s u b s t i t u t e f o r census records i s a
s e r i e s of d i r e c t o r e s , e s p e c i a l l y o l d
business directories. Check both
P o l k ' s - t y p e d i r e c t o r i e s and Chinese
d i r e c t o r i e s where a v a i l a b l e . Where
progenitors have been i n business, t h e i r
advertisements should be sought. For
example, the Main L i b r a r y of the San
Francisco P u b l i c L i b r a r y has the Chinese
Business Directory for California
(1890-1891) and the Archives of Hawaii
has a Chinese Merchant Business Directory
of t h e C i t y and C o u n t y o f H o n o l u l u
(1938-1939).
Biographical Sketches and Oral Histories
Biographical sketches are found with
other material i n the 1913 Chinese i n
Hawaii found at the Archives of Hawaii
and also i n the Chinese of Hawaii pub-
lished i n 1929, 1936, and 1957. There i s
also a Who's Who of the Chinese i n New
York, compiled by Warner M. Van Norden
and published there i n 1918. The
Southern Alameda County Chapter of the
Organization of Chinese Americans (466
South 5th Street #2, San Jose, CA 95112)
presently has a biographical project i n
progress under the research direction of
Dr. Nancy Wey.
Oral history i s very much i n vogue now,
but i t i s hard to do well without a firm
documentary underpinning. Chinese
h i s t o r i c a l societies and unversity-level
Asian American Studies departments have
been involved i n oral history projects.
These are p a r t i c u l a r l y valuable where
interviewers have been able to talk to
someone now deceased, but keep i n mind
807/Ohai
that memories f a i l , and there i s no
p o s s i b i l i t y of clarifying their state-
ments .
Chinese Organizations
Inquiring at surname, v i l l a g e , sub-dis-
t r i c t , or d i s t r i c t societies i s worth a
try i f a researcher knows someone i n
a u t h o r i t y sympathetic to h i s family
history project. Some organizations do
have records dating back i n t o the
nineteenth century. The records of
Chinese associations are private records,
and that privacy had to be defended
during the anti-Communist hysteria of the
m i d - f i f t i e s . When one considers the
reasons for the fear that surrounded any
inquiries into name and backgrounds i n
Chinatowns, reticence w i l l not be
surprising. The p o t e n t i a l of these
records for genealogical research can be
seen i n a glossary of names extracted as
a genealogical a i d from the meeting
records of the Ket Hing Society of Kula,
Maui, i n a 1979 study done for the Hawaii
Chinese History Center by Irma Tam Soong.
The Oregon Historical Society also has
the meeting records of the Sing Shar Club
and the correspondence and documents of
the Kuomintang, both of which have been
microfilmed and are available through the
Genealogical Society (GS# 1,084,995).
D i s t r i c t associations often sponsored
Chinese cemeteries and kept records i n
connection with the exhumation and
shipment of bones back to home villages.
Most large cemeteries, both Chinese and
non-Chinese, generally have records of
burials and plots of graves. In Butte
County, California, where most Chinese
cemeteries are empty, a Chinese mortician
brought the bones to Chico, prepared them
for shipping, and threw the tombstones
into a slough. But i f markers are
intact, clean them with an old toothbrush
and chalk the surfaces so the characters
may be copied or photographed. The
Hawaii Chinese History Center has trans-
cribed most of the Chinese cemeteries on
the Neighbor Islands, and has a
collection of grave marker transcriptions
from large Oahu cemeteries. The Lin Yee
Chung, a Honolulu cemetery association,
8
i s p a r t i c u l a r l y gracious i n checking
their records for family historians.
Chinese societies often kept records of
contribution and disbursements ( |gt {§ )
for various causes. One such Record of
Disbursement and Contributions f o r
Building of a temple for the Young Wo
Association, 1900, available on microfilm
through the Asian American Studies
Department, University of California at
Berkeley, l i s t s individual donors by name
and village origin.
Not only Chinese societies, but trading
companies and even i n d i v i d u a l Chinese
stores functioned as banks i n remitting
funds to families i n China. The Gene-
alogical Society has on microfilm through
the Oregon Historical Society the re-
ceipts issued by the Min San Trading
Company i n San Francisco for money sent
to China from the Portland, Oregon,
Chinese community i n 1950-1951 and also
the duplicated checks of the United
States Bank i n Portland for money sent to
Hong Kong from 1929 to 1958.
Many s o c i e t i e s and organizations pub-
lished anniversary volumes or yearbooks.
Those printed by v i l l a g e or d i s t r i c t
s o c i e t i e s often include d e t a i l e d des-
criptions of the l o c a l i t i e s . An example
from the library of the Hawaii Chinese
History center i s the 1966 Lung Doo
Benevolent S o c i e t y Diamond J u b i l e e
Edition which contains a history of the
society, a l i s t of the officers from 1900
on, and a detailed map of the Lung Doo
(subdistrict). See Him Mark Lai's "The
Chinese Language Sources Bibliography
Project" P r e l i m i n a r y Findings: i n
Amerasia (1978) v o l . 5, no. 2, f o r
examples of commemorative volumes pub-
lished by clubs churches, and schools.
Other publications of d i s t r i c t or clan
associations might include histories (the
1975 A History of the Sam Yup Benevolent
Association), convention proceedings J^a
1933 convention of the Ning Yung Associa-
t i o n ) , and r e c e n t l y , even monthly or
quarterly journals.
Outlines has a valuable chapter on
807/Ohai
"Chinese Associations i n America." See
also Him Mark Lai's "A Historical Survey
of Organizations of the Left among the
Chinese i n America" i n the special issue
on Asian America of the B u l l e t i n of
Concerned Asian Scholars ( F a l l 1972) v o l .
4, no. 3.
School Records
The records of any e x i s t i n g Chinese
language school should be checked for
surviving pupil records of the period.
Ethel Lum's 1936 Chinese Digest a r t i c l e
"Chinese Language Schools i n Chinatown"
has been reprinted in the Bulletin (June
1972). Also see Lehn Huff's short report
on "Chinese Language Schools i n Hawaii
Today" a v a i l a b l e from HCHC. School
annual s and anniversary volumes are also
valuable; f o r example, the Yearbook of
the Morning B e l l School, 1922, the f i r s t
coeducational school i n San Francisco's
Chinatown, has been microfilmed and i s
also available through the Asian American
Studies Department at the University of
California at Berkeley.
Taxes
Revenue and harrassment were carefully
balanced i n the l e g i s l a t i o n of a n t i -
Chinese laws; the Chinese paid a l l but a
tiny percentage of the Foreign Miner's
Tax that provided h a l f of C a l i f o r n i a
state income u n t i l the tax was declared
unconstitutional i n 1870. Other western
states Imitated the miner's tax, and a l l
had cleverly-constructed taxes and nuis-
ance laws that discriminated against the
Chinese. Check for surviving receipts,
records of licenses, or court records for
prosecution for failure to pay.
A WPA Inventory of the County Archives of
California l i s t s an 1892 Assessment Roll
of personal property of Chinese; i t shows
name and address of taxpayer, description
and value of property, rate and amount of
tax, and date paid. HCHC s "Chinese
Genealogy and Family Book Guide: Hawaiian
and Chinese Sources," details the very
useful tax records i n the Archives of
Hawaii. JoAnn Williamson's paper,
"Chinese Studies i n Federal Records," i n
9
The L i f e , Influence and the Role of the
Chinese i n the United States, 1776-1960
(also available from the Sari Francisco
Federal Archives and Records Center)
l i s t s the Income Tax Assessment L i s t s ,
1909-1917, San Francisco D i s t r i c t , and
the Internal Revenue Assessment Lists for
California, 1862-1866, the latter avail-
able on microfilm through inter-institu-
tional loan.
California State Archives
March Fong Eu's "The Chinese Experience
i n California" i n The L i f e , Influence and
the r o l e of the Chinese i n the United
States, 1776-1960 gives suggestions i n
using certain records i n the California
State Archives.
Federal Records
See the previously cited paper by JoAnn
Williamson f o r a discussion of the
p o t e n t i a l i t i e s of a v a i l a b l e federal
records, including those concerned with
the subject of immigration which w i l l be
discussed below.
Immigration Records
The A r c h i v e s o f H a w a i i has passenger
manifests f o r 1843-1900 with a separate
card index f o r the Chinese. Names are
romanized personal names with A h . There
are also records of Chinese departures
from Hawaii, 1852-1900. They also have
the records of the Bureau of Immigration
and the Chinese Bureau of the Hawaiian
Kingdom and Republic, dating p r i n c i p a l l y
from 1890 to 1900, which seem to have
been c r e a t e d i n the r e s t r i c t i o n of
Chinese i m m i g r a t i o n . These i n c l u d e
C h i n e s e e n t r y p e r m i t s , Chinese work
permits, death c e r t i f i c a t e s of Chinese
immigrants, c e r t i f i c a t e s of i d e n t i f i c a -
tions, special residence permits,
immigration a p p l i c a t i o n s , immigration
permits, Chinese passports, r e g i s t e r s of
Chinese women and Hawaiian-born c h i l d r e n
of Chinese parentage. These are b r i e f l y
described i n The Chinese i n Hawaii: An
A n n o t a t e d B i b l i o g r a p h y , items 263 and
807/Ohai
265. The Genealogical Society has
microfilmed many of these records.
It i s very d i f f i c u l t to ascertain the
existence or a v a i l a b i l i t y of the federal
counterparts of these records for the
U.S. Mainland and for Hawaii after 1900.
Most records are retained by the Immigra-
tion and Naturalization Service. Some
which have been accessioned by the
National Archives remain under the
control of the INS or are restricted.
Only Congress can change the specific
r e s t r i c t i o n s , but i n the absence of
specific restrictions, the records are
s t i l l subject to general restrictions.
The Executive Branch s e c t i o n of the
National Archives of the United States
l i s t s records p e r t a i n i n g to Chinese
immigration under Bureau of customs
(Record Group 36) and Bureau of
Immigration and Naturalization (Record
Group 85).
C e r t i f i c a t e s of residence or gee chak
chee ( g JJft g£ ), required under the
Geary Act of 1892, may s t i l l be i n the
possession of families.
There are other records. JoAnn
Williamson's previously c i t e d study
ind icates that tti6 bulk, of cases i n
Admiralty Court between 1882 and 1902
consisted of Chinese cases involving the
proceedings of a writ of habeas corpus.
The Chinese had to prove they were
merchants by means of a c e r t i f i c a t e
issued either i n the United States or
China. These c e r t i f i c a t e s , Chinese
passports, and photographs appear i n the
case f i l e s . Many identical cases were
also heard by U.S. Commissioners because
the person tried to enter the United
States over land borders.
Even i f a l l imigration records, including
what must be voluminous transcripts of
interrogations at Angel I s l a n d , were
freely available, the percentage of fact
or f i c t i o n might be impossible to deter-
mine. There i s a possible way out of the
dilemma: i f any relatives or progenitors
have adjusted their status through the
confession or Hon Pak program which began
i n 1956, they would have been required to
10
present a Personal History Statement giv-
ing the true identity and a l l the rele-
vant genealogical facts about spouses,
parents, and children. The whole "paper"
family i s separated into the true and the
false. Before this i s accepted by the
INS, i t i s compared with a l l information
on f i l e for everybody named, and a l l
discrepancies are resolved. A copy of
t h i s f i n a l Personal H i s t o r y Statement
would provide most of what a researcher
could hope to discover i n the case f i l e s .
See the previously cited "Hon Pak" paper
by Donald K.F. Ching i n the f i l e s of the
Hawaii Chinese History Center.
Local Histories and Clan Genealogies
The local histories (fang chih )
have a long t r a d i t i o n i n China; the
Genealogical Society has an e x c e l l e n t
collection as do other research libraries
with strong China collections. "Chinese
Local H i s t o r i e s as a Source for the
Genealogist" (Genealogical Society
Research Papers, Series J , No. 3) should
be studied along with Tsun Leng's "The
Content and Use of Chinese Local His-
tories (Fang-Chlh)" i n Palmer's Studies
i n Asian Genealogy. Since wives usually
remained i n the villages, the sections
containing biographies of women might
offer p o s s i b i l i t i e s of extending maternal
lines, particularly i f they f i t Confucian
ideal types.
Older relatives should be asked about the
existence of a family book or clan
genealogy ( M M ) • Some manuscript
genealogies have actually been continued
i n English and Chinese i n this country.
When they are located, permission should
be sought to have them copied by xerox or
m i c r o f i l m unless printed copies are
a v a i l a b l e . The Genealogical Society,
through the medium of microfilm and the
cooperation of other repositories, prob-
ably has the world's most extensive
collection of clan genealogies often with
more than one version of the same family
l i n e . Their holdings may be checked for
the purposes of comparison even i f a copy
of the family genealogy i s located.
There are three excellent papers i n the
807/Ohai 11

book Studies i n Asian Genealogy by
Wolfram Eberhard and Professor Lo
H s i a n g l i n on the subject of clan
genealogies.
Notes: Most of the Chinese place names
and terms used are Cantonese, but charac-
ters have been provided for c l a r i t y . The
bibliography of reference materials and
background reading has been kept as small
as possible. An attempt was made to i n -
dicate publication data or a v a i l a b i l i t y
in the body of the text where other works
were cited.

SELECTED REFERENCES AND SOURCES

Bibliographies

"Chinese Americans." A Comprehensive Bibliography f o r the Study of American

Minorities, Vol. 2, pp. 693-716. New York: New York University Press, 1976.

L i s t other bibliographies.

Lo, Karl and L a i , Him Mark, comps. Chinese Newspapers Published i n North America,
1854-1975. Washington, D.C.; Center for Chinese Research Materials, ARL,
1977.

Young, Nancy Foon. The Chinese i n Hawaii: An Annotated Bibliography. Social Science
Research Institute, University of Hawaii Press, 1973.

An updating i s available from the Hawaii Chinese History Center.

Forthcoming bibliography on Chinese Language Sources of Chinese-American History,

Asian American Studies Center, U.C.L.A., early 1981.

Research Guides

Ohai, Jean Bergen. "Chinese Genealgoy and Family Book guide: Hawaiian and Chinese
Sources." Honolulu, Hawaii: Hawaii Chinese History Center, 1975.

A detailed guide for researching a genealogy or compiling a family history

from Hawaiian and Chinese sources.

Reed, Robert D. How and Where to Research Your Ethnic-American Cultural Heritage:
Chinese Americans. Saratoga, California (18581 McFarland Ave.): By the
author, 1979.

Some information i n this guide to ethnic studies research i s out of date or

inapplicable but the suggestions for locating other sources are useful.

Periodicals

Bulletin of the Chinese Historical Society of America, 17 Adler Place, San Francisco,
CA 94122
807/Ohai 12

Published monthly (except July and August) for members since 1966. Contains
original a r t i c l e s , reprints, news and notes. Vol. 12, no. 1 (Janurary 1977)
has decennial index.

Amerasia Journal, Asian American Studies Center, 3232 Campbell H a l l , University of

California, Los Angeles, CA 90024, 1971.

Conference Proceedings

Chinese Historical Society of America. The L i f e , Influence and the Role of the
Chinese i n the United States, 1776-1980. Proceedings Papers of the National
Conference held at the University of San Francisco, July 10-12, 1975.

1980 National Conference on Chinese American Studies (forthcoming). October 9-11 1980
Chinese Culture Center, 750 Kearny Street, San Francisco, CA 94108.

Cosponsored by the Chinese Historical Society of America i n cooperation with

the Asian American Studies Department, University of California at Berkeley.
A l l accepted papers w i l l be considered for publication i n Amerasia, California
History, Chinese Historical Society of America Bulletin, or a projected
conference report. A paper on Chinese-American historiography i s scheduled.

Palmer, Spencer J . , ed. Studies i n Asian Genealogy. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young
University Press, 1972.

A compilation of papers delivered at the Asian sub-seminar (Area H) of the

1969 World Conference on Records sponsored by the Genealogical Society of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. The same
papers are also available on microfilm:

World Conference on Records Lecture Papers. Area H. The Genealogical Society of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Microfilm GS # 897,216.

The Genealogical Society of Utah, 50 East North Temple Street, Salt Lake City,
Utah 84150 w i l l furnish a l i s t of branch libraries on written request.

Chinese-American History

Chinn, Thomas W., et a l . A History of the Chinese i n California: A Syllabus. San

Francisco: Chinese Historical Society of America, 1969.

Lai, Him Mark and Choy, P.P. Outlines: History of the Chinese i n America. San
Francisco: Chinese-American Studies Planning Group, 1971. Distributed by
Everybody's Bookstore.

Lee, Rose Hum. The Chinese i n the United States of America. Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press, 1960. Distributed i n the U.S. by Oxford University Press.

Lyman, Stanford M. Chinese Americans. Random House: New York, 1974.

Sung, Betty Lee. Mountains of Gold: the Story of the Chinese i n America. New York:
Macmillan, 1967.
807/Ohai 13
0
Historical Societies

Chinese Historical Society of America, 17 Adler Place, San Francisco CA 94133. Publi-
cations Office, 1050 Sansome Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111.
Founded 1963. Published Bulletin Monthly (except July and August) for
members. Maintains museum. Library i s housed at the Main Branch, San
Francisco Public Library. Oral history program. Microfilm projects i n
cooperation with the Asian American Studies Department, U n i v e r s i t y of
California at Berkely.

Chinese American Historical Society of Southern California, 993 Isabella Avenue,

Monterey Park, CA 91754. Founded 1975. Published Gum Saan for members. Oral
history i n Cooperation with U.C.L.A. Asian American Studies Center. Index of
Chinese items from early issues of Los Angeles newspapers.

Hawaii Chinese History Center, 111 N. King Street, Room 410, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817.
Founded 1970. Publishes Newsletter quarterly for members. Oral history and
b i o g r a p h i c a l f i l e s . L i b r a r y . D i s t r i b u t e s own p u b l i c a t i o n s and those
cosponsored with the University of Hawaii Press.

Bookstores

Everybody's Bookstore, 17 Brenham Place, San Francisco, CA 94108.

Publishers

R & E Research Associates, Inc., 936 Industrial Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94303.
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Genealogy and
Family History in
Mongolia
Paul V. Hyer,
Sechin Jagchid
Series 809
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 GENEALOGY AND FAMILY HISTORY IN MONGOLIA

Sechin Jagchid and Paul V . Hyer

Sechin J a g c h i d . Born i n M o n g i l i a . Resides i n Provo, Utah. Professor of h i s t o r y ,

Brigham Young U n i v e r s i t y . Ph.D. Waseda U n i v e r s i t y , Tokyo, Japan. Aughor, l e c t u r e r .

Paul V . Hyer. Born i n Utah. Resides i n Provo, Utah. Professor of h i s t o r y , Brigham

Young U n i v e r s i t y . Ph.D. (Asian h i s t o r y and s o c i a l i n s t i t u t i o n s ) , U n i v e r s i t y of
C a l i f o r n i a , Berkeley. E d i t o r , author, l e c t u r e r .

In Asia probably no nation or people can
match the Chinese i n the f i e l d o f
genealogy and family h i s t o r i e s , which are
broadly known as t s u - p ' u , genealogy of
the clan or c l a n - l i n e a g e , and c h i a - p ' u ,
genealogy of the f a m i l y . In contrast,
the M o n g o l s , whose way o f l i f e was
pastoral-nomadic and whose w r i t i n g system
did not develop u n t i l 1204, could not
maintain such e x c e l l e n t records as t h e i r
neighbors, the a g r i c u l t u r a l , sedentary
Chinese. However, because of the basic
dynamics of Mongolian society and t h e i r
s t r i c t exogamous marriage system, they
kept a p u r i t y of blood l i n e s i n t h e i r
clan-lineages and preserved their
genealogy w i t h g r e a t c a r e . I t was
memorized and transmitted o r a l l y by the
elders to t h e i r youth from generation to
generation. The f i r s t dependable
recorded source of t h i s type of o r a l
genealogy i s the w e l l - k n o w n S e c r e t
H i s t o r y o f t h e M o n g o l s (Mongghol-un
n i ' u c h a t o b c h i y a n ) , t h a t was p r o b a b l y
w r i t t e n i n the 1240s i n the Mongolian
language.
descended from Alan-gho'a and ^ her son
Botonchar by a miraculous b i r t h . Never-
t h e l e s s , the S e c r e t H i s t o r y r e c o r d e d
B o r t e - c h i n u ' a as the f i r s t male ancestor
of the B o r j i g i d clan and the Mongolian
ethnic^ group i n a more s t r i c t or narrow
sense.
According to the Secret H i s t o r y ,
B o r t e - c h i n u ' a , "he born with the mandate
of Heaven [ t e n g g e r i eche jayaghatu
t ö r ö g s e n ] , " and h i s w i f e G h o ' a - m a r a l ,
gave b i r t h to a son Bodi-chaghan. The
meanings of the names Borte-chinu'a and
Gho'a-maral are "spotted wolf" and the
"yellowish-white doe" r e s p e c t i v e l y . The
legend of Mongolian o r i g i n s may suggest
an e a r l y pattern of exogamous marriage
between men of a clan with a wolf totem
and women of a c l a n with a doe or deer
totem.
Following i s a summary from the Secret
History. I t serves as an example of an
o r a l genealogy recorded a f t e r a w r i t i n g
system was developed:

The b a s i c s t r u c t u r e o f the M o n g o l i a n
clan-lineage system was transformed i n Bata-chaghan's son was Tamchg.
the p r e h i s t o r i c a l period from a maternal Tamcha's son was Khorichar mergen .
to a p a t e r n a l type f a m i l y , and then Khorichar mergen's son was A'ujam-
centered i n a common male ancestor f o r boroghul. A'ujam-boroghul's son was
a l l members of the main c l a n , the obogh, Sali-khacha'u. S a l i - k h a c h a ' u ' s son
or i t s s u b d i v i s i o n , the yasun. Even when was Yeke-nidün. Yekenidün's son was
the f i r s t known ancestor was a c t u a l l y a Sem-sochi. S e m - s o c h i ' s son was
female, the Mongols were constrained to Kharchu. Karchu's son B o r j i g i d a i
include a legendary male f o r e f a t h e r to mergen took Monggholjin-gho'a as h i s
f i l l a vacancy. F o r i n s t a n c e , the w i f e and t h e i r son Torkholjin-bayan
B o r j i g i d clan of Chinggis Khan ( r . 1206- and h i s w i f e Boroghchin-gho'a had twg
1227), according to the legendary record, sons, Du'a-sokhor and Dobon mergen.

m. é
809/Jagchid/Hyer

Du'a-sokhor had four (dó'rhen) sons Baishongkhor-doghshin, Charkhai-lingkhu,

and founded the Dorben c l a n .
Dobon mergen's w i f e was Alang-gho'a.
Her father was K h o r i l a r t a i mergen of
the K h o r i l a r lineage of the K h o r i -
tümed c l a n , and her mother was
Barghujin-gho'a, the daughter o f
Barghudai mergen o f the B a r g h u j i n
tribe. While Dobon mergen was a l i v e
Alan-gho'a gave b i r t h to ^two sons,
BUgünüte and B e l g f l n U t e i . After
Dobon mergen's d e a t h , A l a n - g h o ' a ,
impregnated miraculously by a l i g h t
f r o m heaven (according to the
legend), gave b i r t h to three sons,
B u k h u - k h a j a g i , B u k h u t u - s a l j i , and
Botonchar.
Later Botonchar took a captive pregnant
woman as one of his wives and she gave
b i r t h to a son, J a j i r a d a i , who became the
f o r e f a t h e r of the Jadaran c l a n . She then
bore a son by Botonchar and because she
was a c a p t i v e , t h i s son was named
B a ' a r i d a i , whitø became the founder of the
Ba'arin clan.
The o f f s p r i n g of the f i v e brothers men-
tioned above developed into f i v e c l a n s .
Bíigúhú'te's descendants became the Bügünü'd
c l a n , B e l g ü n ü t e i ' s descendants became the
Belgünüd c l a n , Bukhu-khatagi's descen-
dants became the Khatagin c l a n . Bukhu-
s a l i j i ' s descendants became the S a l j i ' u d
c l a n , and Botonchar's descendants became
the B o r j i g i d c l a n , o r i g i n of the i l l u s -
t r i o u s Chinggis Khan.
A son of Botonchar, K h a b i c h i , had seven
sons: K h a c h i - k ü l ü g , Khachin, K h a c h i ' u ,
Khachula, K h a c h i ^ m , Kharandai, and
Nachin ba'atur. Khachin's son
N a y a g i d a i founded the Nayagin c l a n .
K h a c h i ' u ' i s son Baruladai and the sons of
K h a c h u l a founded the major and minor
Barulas c l a n s . Kharandai's sons founded
the Bada'ad clan; Khachi'un's son
Adargidai founded the Adargin c l a n ; and
N a c h i n b a ' a t u r ' s s o n s , U l u ' u d a i and
Mangghudai, fgiinded the U l u ' u d and
Mangghud c l a n s .
K h a c h i - k ü l ü g ' s son Khaidu had three sons,
and Choj i n - ó ' r t e g e i . Charkhai-lingkhu' s
sons founded the T a i c h i ' u d clan and the
Besüd c l a n . C h o j i n - ö r t e g e i had s i x sons
who gave r i s e to the s i x clans of Olonar,
Khokhotan, Ar^ilas, Súnid, Khabturkhas,
and Geniges.
BaishOjtigkhor-doghshin's son Tumbinai
sechen had two sons, Khabul Khan and
Sem-sechüle. Khabul Khan had seven sons:
Okinbarkhagh, Bartum b a ' a t u r , Khutughtu-
mönggür, Khutula Khan Kb^ilan, Khada'an,
and Tödögen o d c h i g i n . The e l d e s t ,
Okin-barkhagh's son, was Shorkhatu-jurkje
and h i s sons founded the J u r k i n c l a n .
The second son, Bartam b a ' a t u r , had four
sons, M ö n g k e t a - k i y a n , Nekün t a y i s h i ,
Yes'ügei b a ' a t u r ( f a t h e r of T e m u j i n ,
Chinggis Khan), and D a ' a r t a i odchigin.
The above then i s an example of an e a r l y
o r a l h i s t o r y record of c l a n - l i n e a g e s .
The Secret H i s t o r y not only provides such
c r u c i a l records r e l a t i n g to the important
B o r j i g i d clan of Chinggis Khan but i t
also provides a record of many c l a n -
lineages of other Mongol t r i b e s .
The Secret H i s t o r y records the b i r t h of
T e m ü j i n , C h i n g g i s K h a n , h i s mother,
O'elun of the Olkhunud c l a n , his three
younger b r o t h e r s , K h a s a r , K h a c h i ' u n ,
Temuge odchigin, and h i s younger s i s t e r
Temürü who l a t e r married Bütü of the
Igiris clan. This h i s t o r y records data
f o r two other sons of Chinggis's father
Yesügei by another w i f e , namely Bigder
and B e l g ü t e i . Also given i s the marriage
of Chinggis Khan and h i s lady/khatun,
Bo'rte of the Onggirad c l a n , and t h e i r
c h i l d r e n , h i s other wives, and the names
o f the o f f s p r ^ i g of the b r o t h e r s of
Chinggis Khan. Some biographies of
these people and t h e i r genealogies are
also recorded i n d e t a i l i n the Yuan s h i h ,
o f f i c i a l dynastic h i s t o r y of the Yuan
Empire that was established i n China by
the Mongols ( 1 2 6 0 - 1 3 6 8 ) . The Jam!
a l - T a w a r i k h (complete c o l l e c t i o n o f
h i s t o r i e s ) , famous work of the Persian
h i s t o r i a n , R a s h i d a l - D i n (1247-1318)
809/Jagchid/Hyer 3

includes valuable biographical and f a m i l y the persons or family concerned.

h i s t o r y information f o r the Mongol e l i t e . Following i s one example taken from the
"Tables of the Imperial Descendants:"

In the Yuan shih are found tables of the The Shen-yiian Emperor Lieh-tsu
empresses ( h u o - f u p i a o ) , t a b l e s of [Yesügei b a ' a t u r ] had f i v e sons, the
i m p e r i a l descendants (tsung-shih s h i h - h s i eldest was Emperor T ' a i - t s u [Chinggis
piao) and tables of princesses (kung-chu Khan], the second was Prince
piao) g i v i n g such information as names, Jochi-Khasar, the t h i r d was Prince
g e n e a l o g i e s , r a n k s , and t i t l e s . In K h a c h i ' u n , the f o u r t h was P r i n c e
a d d i t i o n , there are recorded two b r i e f Odchigin . . . and the f i f t h was
tables of princes and prime m i n i s t e r s , Prince B e l g u t e i .
also a c o l l e c t i o n of biographies of the
eminent persons of the dynasty. Each [The l i n e of] Prince Jochi-Khasar
biography contains a b r i e f genealogy of [follows]:

Jochi-Khasar

Great Prince Great Prince

~ 1
Tokhu Yesunge Yegu,Prince
of Tzu-chuan

Prince Shidur
I
Prince Aghu-ebtigen
Babusha
Prince of C h ' i Great Prince Bilegu ~l
Prince Khongkhor
(
I —j H
Prince
Ulung-temur Prince
Bemur
Prince of Ch'i Berke-temur

I ..
Ulug-temür
Prince of Ch'i

I n R a s h i d a l - D i n ' s work t h e r e i s a very detailed account of the wives and

d e t a i l e d genealogy of Chinggis Khan and
his ancestors. The second part of t h i s
work was translated into E n g l i s h from an
o r i g i n a l Persian text by Professor John
Andrew Boyle and published i n 1971 under
the t i t l e , The S u c c e s s o r s o f Genghis
[Chingiss] Khan. This book provides a
descendants of Chinggis Khan.
A f t e r the downfall of the Mongolian
Empire and the c o l l a p s e of the Yuan
dynasty i n China (1368) there occurred a
long period of c i v i l war and turmoil i n
809/Jagchid/Hyer 4

Mongolia during which genealogy records were discussing the formation of these
were neglected and many even destroyed or various t r i b e s , authors u s u a l l y gave a
lost. However, a f t e r M o n g o l i a was comparatively d e t a i l e d record of t h e i r
r e u n i f i e d by Dayan Khan (1464-1543 c ) , own tribes. For instance, Sagang
f a m i l y records were again kept by the Sechen's book provides more information
Mongolian e l i t e . Among these records the about the Ordos w h i l e Mergen Gegegen
best known i n c l u d e ^ 1) Sagang Sechen's records more on the genealogy of Khasar's
E r d e n i - y i n Tobchi (the Chinese line. L o m i ' s work Mongghol B o r j i g i d
translation,, is known as Meng-ku obogh-un teuke i s a s p e c i a l family record
yiian-liu), ?6^ Lobtsang-danjin's of the B o r j i g i d c l a n , and i s also known
Altan-tobchi, 3) S h i r a t u h i ( a u t h o r by the Chinese t i t l e Meng-ku s h i h - h s i pu
u n k n o w n ) 4 ) Gombojab's Ghanggha-yin (Record of the Mongolian c l a n - l i n e a g e s ) .
Uraskhal, 5) Shiregetíi Guúshi Dh^rma's
A l t a n k u r d u n mingghan k e g e s u t ü , 6) Following i s one section from the work of
Lomi'S^Q Mongghol B o r j i g i d obogh-un S h i r e g e t ü G ü ü s h i Dharma, A l t a n k ü r d ü n
teüke, and^ 7) Mergen Gegen's mingghan k e g e s ü t ü , about the o r i g i n of
AÍtan-tobchi. the Ujümüchin t r i b e and i t s genealogy.
I t i s given here as an example of the
In the 1570s, when the Mongols were type of records that have been preserved.
g e n e r a l l y c o n v e r t e d to Buddhism, many
a u t h o r s o f h i s t o r i e s or g e n e a l o g i e s Ongghon-dural noyan, the t h i r d son of
u s u a l l y put i n a long legendary account Bodi-alagh Kahn [who was the second
l i n k i n g the ancestors of the Mongols to son of Törü-bolod, the eldest son of
the genealogies of the kings of India and Dayan Khan] occupied the t e r r i t o r i e s
Tibet and even with the Buddha. These of the Erkegud and Lausachin, the two
r e c o r d s g e n e r a l l y o r i g i n a t e d i n the t r i b e s of Ujümüchin. Ohgghon-dural
seventeenth century. noyan had s i x sons: I r e k ü bator,
B a i s a i - b i n g t u . B a i s a l - e r d e n i who had
From the r e u n i f i c a t i o n of the Mongols i n no descendants, Nayatai-ildeng,
the l a t t e r h a l f of the f i f t e e n t h century Janggi-darkhan, and Dorji
1
t o the f o u n d i n g of the Manchu-Ch i n g sechen-j inong.
dynasty i n China i n 1644, there was a
period of the formation of the modern I r e k ü bator had s i x [sons]: Sereng
M o n g o l i a n t r i b e s or g r o u p i n g s . For erdeni b e i l e , O l j e i t u mergen d a i c h i n ,
instance, Dayan Khan (1464-1530) himself Enketei bator, E r k e t e i l u n g - t a i j i ,
was a f i f t e e n t h - g e n e r a t i o n descendant of Suling noyan, and Sebun noyan.
Chinggis Khan. His sons became noyan
( r u l e r s ) o f v a r i o u s t r i b e s such as Sereng erdeni-beile's son was
Ü j u m ü c h i n , Sü'nid, C h a k h a r , O r d o s , and Erke-kitad b e i l e , who f a t h e r e d
Khalkha. The descendants of Chinggis Muulwani b e i l e and eight brothers.
Khan's younger brother, Khasar, founded From M u u l w a n i ' s son Bomba b e i l e ,
the t r i b e s o f K h o r c h i n , U r a d , and t h e r e were Chebten b e i l e and two
Khoshod. The descendants of Chinggis other [sons]. From O l j e i t u mergen
K h a n ' s o t h e r b r o t h e r s , K h a c h i ' u n and [daichin] there was Gwanchugh [and]
B e l g ü t e i , founded the Ongni'ud, Abagha, from him Diwa, and from [Diwa was
and Abkhanar t r i b e s . Chinggis Khan's born] U b a s h i and L o b s a n g . From
g e n e r a l , J e l e m e , had descendants who Engketei [bator] there were [born]
founded the Kharachin. The descendants Iskeb-mergen, Düsger-dondong,
of T o ' o r i l Ong Khan, a defeated opponent
Karma j a b , and Kerme. From I s k e b
of Chinggis, founded the Torghud t r i b e ,
t h e r e were [born] e i g h t [sons]:
while the descendants of the e a r l y Oirad
Intsana, Delü'-Buchang, Boro,
leader, Bukhan, founded the Dörbed and
Yeke-khaghana, Bagha-sana, Barang,
Jun-ghar t r i b e s . These genealogies and
Sartaghu. From Intsana there was
r e l a t e d information are a l l recorded i n
[born] Burnai [and] from Delü there
the above-mentioned sources. When they
were [born] Budgeli and Maghran.
809/Jagchid/Hyer
The offspring of Irekü bator were the
lords who ruled the Minor Ujümüchin
of the Left [Flank]. The offspring
of Baisai-bingtu were the lords of
Lausachin of [the Great] Ujümüchin of
the Right [Flank]. The offspring of
Nanyanta^ildeng were the lords of
Sarghud. The offspring of Jang^
darkhan were the lords of Töbed.
From D o r j i sechen jinong khosai
ch'in-wang there were [born] f i v e
[sons]: Sabtan Khan Mergen-chugugUr,
Chiü'shingee, Achitu khong t a i j i ,
Chungkhu t a i j i , and Chikin t a i j i .
From Achitu k h o n g - t a i j i there was
[born] Chaghan-babai sechen chin-wang
. . . 34
From the middle of the 1600s the Mongols
came under the domination of the
Manchu-Ch'ing dynasty and the Manchu
court, who, i n order to carry out a
policy of "divide and rule," instituted a
kind of q u a s i - f e u d a l i s t i c system i n
Mongolia. Consequently, the genealogy of
the noble households became very
important and was reported and recorded
carefully in the k^cal Mongolian o f f i c e
and the L i - f a n yüan ministry i n Peking.
This was not only important in the matter
of succession but was also important i n
decisions regarding ranks, t i t l e s , and
various disputes that arose.
In the Ch'ing period (1644-1911), a l l the
descendants of Ching-gisids were entitled
as t a i j i , and imperial sons-in-law of the
Khans were e n t i t l e d tabunang. The
descendants of other early leaders of
clan-lineages who founded d i f f e r e n t
tribes i n Mongolia were also given the
rank of t a i j i by the Ch'ing court and the
genealogies of these nobles were a l l
recorded in d e t a i l . Following i s an
example of a genealogical record f o r
succession in the princely household of
Ujumuchin Right Flank Banner that was
preserved in the o f f i c i a l record of the
L i - f a n yuan:
Ujümüchin Right Flank jasagh khosai
sechen chin-wang: The present rank
was conferred on D o r j i , the
great-grandson of Torü-bolod, i n the
sixth year of Ch'ung-te [1641], and
5
i t was decreed that i t be inherited
from generation to generation without
change. In the t h i r d year of
Shun-chi [1646] his grandson,
Chaghan-babai, inherited the t i t l e .
In the fifteenth year [1659], the
second son [of Chaghan-babai],
Sudani, inherited the t i t l e . In the
thirteenth year of K'ang-hsi [1674]
the eldest son [of Sudani], the
Sedengdondub, inherited the t i t l e .
In the twelfth year of Yung-cheng
[1734], the eldest son [of
Sedengdondub], Arbatan-namjil,
i n h e r i t e d the t i t l e . In the
t h i r t i e t h year of Ch'ien-lung [1758],
the eldest son [of Arbatan-namjil],
Pongsugh-rabtan, inherited the t i t l e .
In the forty-fourth year [1779], the
eldest son [of Pongsugh-rabtan],
Makhasugh, inherited the t i t l e . In
the f i f t y - f i f t y year [1790], the
eldest son [of Makhasugh], Baljur-
r a b j a i , inherited the t i t l e . In the
nineteenth year of C h i a - c h ' i n g
[1814], the son [of Baljur-rabjai],
Dorji-jigmed-namjil, inherited the
title. In the fourteenth year of
Tao-kuang [1834], the son [of D o r j i -
j igmed-namj i l ] , Pong sugh-namj i l ,
inherited the t i t l e . In the tenth
year of Kuang-hs'ü [ 1884 ] , the
grandson [of Pongsugh-namjil],
Altan-Jchuyaghtu, inherited the
0
title.
In this manner the genealogies and lines
of succession for a l l the banners of
Mongolia were c a r e f u l l y kept i n the
o f f i c e of the L i - f a n yuan i n the capital
at Peking. The names and genealogies of
other nobles, i . e . , t a i j i and tabunang,
were also kept i n i t s f i l e s .
The most important genealogical and
family history record of the Mongolian
nobility of the Ch'ing period i s the
Meng-ku wang-kung piao-chuan, the Tables
and Biographies of the Mongolian Princes
and Dukes. This record was compiled by
the Ch'ing government i n three languages^
Manchu, Mongolian, and Chinese.
However, this compilation work did not
continue i n the l a t t e r part of the
dynasty.
809/Jagchid/Hyer
The next most important source of
information after the Meng-ku wang-kung
piao-chuan i s the Ch'ing shih kao
(Manuscript H i s t o r y of the Ch'ing
Dynasty),J>r the Ch'ing shih (Ch'ing
History). Both contain brief records
or genealogies of Mongolian leaders and
some biographies of eminent Mongols of
this period.
In Ch'ing times there was intermarriage
between Mongolian nobles and the Manchu
imperial household. The offspring of
Manchu princesses and the daughters of
the Manchu princes were a l l carefully
recorded i n the L i - f a n yuan f i l e s . In
the o f f i c e of each Mongolian banner were
f i l e s of the tai j is and tabungangs, and
these genealogical records were revised
every several years to record births and
deaths. In a d d i t i o n , the Mongolian
quasi-feudalistic local political
structure consisted of a system of lord
and subject or man-to-man relationships,
not person-to-land relationships.
Therefore, f i l e s on the households of the
common people were kept attentively i n
o f f i c i a l f i l e s of the banner o f f i c e , the
dangsa. Also, i n the Ch'ing period a l l
the able-bodied men of the banners of
Mongolia had to be reported to the league
governors for military duty or reserves.
And the governors carried out a review of
the men organized as m i l i t a r y forces
every three years. Therefore, a record
of these names was preserved i n a l l
league and banner o f f i c e s . This
institution also f e l l into neglect by the
latter part of the last century.
Northern or Outer Mongolia declared
independence from China i n 1911 and
became a Marxist Socialist state i n 1921.
In order to c l a r i f y the identify of each
household there was a government
regulation that each person had to put
their father's name i n front of their own
name as a patronymic. For instance,
Lobsangchoijuriin Sechin, Sechinii Bat,
and Batiin Amar. In addition, family
names were maintained and o f f i c i a l l y
recorded.
As for southern or Inner Mongolia under
the new Republic of China, there was no
great change. An o f f i c i a l record of
banner leaders was kept by the
Mongolian-Tibetan Ministry i n Peking and
later by the Mongolian-Tibetan Commission
i n Nanking. Local records were also
continually kept i n the banner o f f i c e s .
However, following the Soviet intrusion
into Inner Mongolia i n 1945 and the
ensuing Communist revolution, i t seems
that most of these records mentioned were
scattered or destroyed. Even many of the
records i n Outer Mongolia disappeared
following the revolution.
As for Mongolian family history, some of
the old e l i t e families had historical
records but these records were uncommon
among the i l l i t e r a t e common people.
Nevertheless, the old oral tradition of
the nomadic heritage continued, according
to which the elders f a i t h f u l l y remembered
by heart the stories and genealogy of
their own family for many generations.
Moreover, some persons were quite
familiar with the genealogies of more
d i s t a n t r e l a t i v e s and even neighbors.
Unfortunately, from the 1920s, because of
the Communist revolution, this precious
o r a l t r a d i t i o n with i t s associated
memories has d e c l i n e d . Recently, a
noteworthy study on the genealogy of the
Mongolian nobility was published by the
China Social Science Publishing
Association that deserves attention. It
is hoped that this may be followed by
other such useful studies on regional
histories, ^family histories, and
genealogies.
809/Jagchid/Hyer 7

NOTES

"Sfuan shih 124, chuan 11, "Biography of T'a-t'a-t'ung-a [Tatatunggha]," 6ab.

2
The Secret History of the Mongls (hereafter referred to as Secret History),
sects. 1 and 17.
3
Ibid., sects. 17 and 21.
Before the appearance of Chinggis Khan the name Mongghol only represented a
few tribes and clans. But after a great unification of various neighboring peoples
with the same language and culture, the word Mongghol came to refer to a new, emerging
nation.
t-

Secret History, sect. 1.

^Mergen was an honorific term or t i t l e for an expert i n archery. Now i t has
come to mean a wise person.
7 r
Secret History, sect. 2.
8
Ibid., sect. 3.
9 'íg.
Ibid., sect. 11.
10
Ibid., sect. 8.
1:L
I b i d . , sect. 10

"^Ibid., sect. 17
13
Ibid., sect. 41. The Ba'arin tribe s t i l l exists at the present time.
14
Ibid., sect. 42.
"^Ba'atur means hero and i n early history was an honorific t i t l e for the head
of a clan or clan-lineage. I t i s also traditionally a common given name for Mongolian
males.

^Secret History, sect. 46.

Ibid., sect. 47.

18
Sechen means wise. It was an honorific t i t l e of a clan head, and later even
became the t i t l e of a khan. Khubilai Khan, for instance, was o f f i c i a l l y entitled as
Sechen Khan.
I Q
Secret History, sect. 48. Odchigin means the youngest son. In early
Mongolian history the odchigin was privileged to inherit the family's property after
the father's death.
20
Secret History, sect. 49.
809/Jagchid/Hyer

2 1
I b i d . , sect. 48.
2 2
I b i d . , sects. 54, 59, 60, 66, and 94.
23
T u a n shih 107, piao 2, "Tsung-shih piao" (Tables of the imperial
descendants), 3b.
2Z
*The author of the Erdeni-yin tobchi was Sagang-sechen of the Ordos tribe.
The book has had several editions, one reprinted by the Mongolian Academy of Sciences,
Ulan Bator, 1961.

Meng-ku yuan-liu i s the o f f i c i a l Chinese translation of the Erdeni-yin

tobchi, 1789. In 1930 i t was annotated by Chang Erh-t'ien and published under the
t i t l e of "Meng-ku yüan-liu ch'ien-cheng."
26
The author or compiler of the Altan tobchi was a learned lama, Lobsang-
danjin. The book was reprinted by Harvard, 1952, with a c r i t i c a l introduction by Rev.
Antoine Mostaert and a foreword by Prof. Francis W. Cleaves.
27
The author of the Shira t u j i i s unknown. The book was republished i n Moscow
in 1957.
28
The Ghanggha-yin uraskhal was authored by one Gombojab and reprinted i n
Moscow, 1960, with an introduction and index by L. S. Puchkovsky.
29 •• •• ••
The author of the Altan kurdun mingghan kegesutu was a learned lama, Dharma,
with the high religious rank of Shiregetü güüshi. The work was completed i n 1739 and
reprinted i n Copenhagen, 1958, with an introduction by Prof. Walther Heissig.
30
Mongghol Borjigid obogh-un teüke was authored by Lomi. The original was i n
Manchu and i n Chinese with the t i t l e Meng-ku shih-hsi-p'u, and was finished i n the
1730s. The Mongolian edition was translated from the Chinese i n 1839 and reprinted i n
Wiesbaden, 1957, with introductions by Prof. Walther Heissig and Prof. C. R. Bawden.
31
This Altan tobchi was also the work of a high ranking, lama, the Mergen
Gege'en of Urad. It was reprinted in Kalgan, Inner Mongolia, 1942.
32
The Sarghud is now l o s t .
33
The Tffbed i s also now l o s t . Both Sarghud and To'bed might be organized into
subdivisions i n Ujümüchi, but this needs further study.
34
Shiregetu Guushi Dharma, v o l . IV, 3r-3v.
35
The Li-fan yuan was the special ministry of the Ch'ing court to manage the
affairs of Mongolian and Tibetan areas.
36
Ch'ing-tai pien-cheng t'ung-k'ao (General survey of the frontier administra-
tion of the Ch'ing Period), which i s one section taken from the Ta-Ch'ing hui-tien
(Collection of regulations and precedents of the Great Ch'ing), was published by the
Mongolian The ArchivesCommission
and Tibetan of the Genealogical Society i n Salt Lake City possess a
i n Nanking, 1934.
microfilm of the Manchu edition of this book.
 pig?
809/Jagchid/Hyer 9

Ch'ing shih kao, Manuscript of the Ch'ing History, was compiled by the Kuo
shih kuan (The National Historical Bureau) of the Peking Government i n the 1920s, and
printed by the Manchukuo government i n the 1930s. Finally, i t was formally printed
with some alterations under the t i t l e of Ch'ing Shih, the Ch'ing History, i n Taiwan,
1971.
3Q iUi fe4»
Kao Wen-te and T s ' a i Chih-ch'un, Meng-ku shih-hsi (Mongolian genealogy)
Peking, chung-kuo she-hui k'e hsueh ch'u-pan-she, 1979.
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Contracts and Other

Old Documents as
Sources tor
Family History and
Genealogy
in Taiwan
Shih-ch'ing Wang
^ Series 812
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
1
CONTRACTS AND OTHER OLD DOCUMENTS AS SOURCES FOR FAMILY HISTORY
AND GENEALOGY IN TAIWAN
Shih-Ching Wang
Born i n Taiwan. Resides i n Taipei, Taiwan.
Historical Studies, Association for Asian Studies.
I. PRIVATE OLD FAMILY DOCUMENTS COMMONLY
SEEN IN OLD TAIWANESE FAMILIES
Old family documents are important
materials for compiling family his-
tories and genealogies. They are
also primary sources for local and
national histories written by geneal-
ogists and historians. Approximately
fourteen types of old family docu-
ments can be commonly seen i n old
Taiwanese families. They include:
A. O f f i c i a l Announcements and Documents
These include i m p e r i a l e d i c t s ,
announcements, n o t i c e s , decrees,
documents concerning the colonizing
of a b o r i g i n a l or border lands,
directives, orders, bulletins,
o f f i c i a l announcements, medals for
gentry, joint contracts, and pass-
ports .
B. Land Contracts
These include the agreements,
contracts and receipts of farms, land
trading, presentation, description,
exchanges and cultivation; there are
generally eight types of contracts
and receipts:
a. Contracts of land trading and
presentation: This type of contract
includes trading of p l a i n lands,
farms, gardens, unused lands, fishing
ponds, "Feng Shui" (geomancy) lands,
and estates.
Researcher, Committee for Taiwan
Author, historian.
b. C u l t i v a t i o n l i c e n s e s : These
licenses were issued by the govern-
ment and allowed the license holder
to explore and cultivate v i r g i n plain
land.
c. Land leases and cultivation con-
tracts: These kinds of contracts
were established between the Chinese
or Ping Pu aborigines who had ob-
tained a cultivation license and the
tenant farmer. Under such contracts,
the land proprietor or landlord would
l e t the tenant farmer cultivate the
unused plain.
d. Farm land and land leases: Farm
land leases were established between
the landlord or small farm landowner
and the tenant farmer, while land
leases were established between the
land proprietor and leaseholder.
e. Estate appropriation and land
description agreements: An agreement
appropriating the estate to others
for management or d e f i n i n g the
unclear boundary of the land.
f. O f f i c i a l survey c e r t i f i c a t e s :
A f t e r the v i r g i n land had been
explored and cultivated, the land-
owner would request an o f f i c i a l
survey of the land from the govern-
ment for the levy of land taxes.
After the authorities had completed
the survey work, a land certificate
would be issued to the landowner.
Wang/812
g. Land ownership certificates, land
survey (measurement) r e c e i p t s and
land register copies: When Taiwan
was ruled by the Japanese, a provi-
sional land bureau was established i n
the t h i r t y - f i r s t year of the Meiji
reign (1899). In Meiji 36 (1903),
the bureau surveyed the ownership of
a l l pieces of land and put them into
the survey record. Receipts and
certificates of ownership were issued
to the landowners who would, when
necessary, apply for copies of the
land receipts. In 1950, the land
r e g i s t r a t i o n record replaced the
receipt but the owner could s t i l l
apply for a copy i f necessary.
h. Land ownership succession regis-
ters, ownership transfer registers:
During the Japanese reign and after
Taiwan was restored to China,
whenever the owner of a piece of land
died, his legatees had to apply for
the ownership succession register;
for land trading, the owner had to
apply for the ownership transfer
register because the owner had to
possess a copy of t h i s kind of
register.
C. Rental Taxes, Property Deed Receipts
and Certificates
a. Property deed r e c e i p t s and
certificates were issued to people
who had paid taxes to the government
after they had bought a piece of farm
land or real estate. The receipt or
certificate carried the names of the
traders, location, area, price, and
tax amount of the land.
b. The primary lessor receipt: A
kind of contract carrying details of
the purchase and sale of the rental-
ships or stating the rental relation-
ships between the primary and
secondary lessors.
c. Land lease receipts: A kind of
tax-levied contract carrying details
of the rental relations between the
secondary lessor or landlord and
tenant or land lessor. A certain
2
amount of deposit or r e n t a l was
stated.
d. Farm cultivation and border land
leases: A kind of tax-levied con-
tract carrying the rental relations
between a p l a i n aborigine and a
tenant farmer upon a piece of virgin
land which had been appropriated to
the plain aborigine by the Manchu
government. A c e r t a i n amount of
deposit or rental was stated.
e. Miscellaneous duty r e c e i p t s :
These included storage duty, port
duty, and transportation duty.
D. Documents of the D i s t r i b u t i o n and
Management of Properties
A kind of record known as a lotting
document or l o t t i n g subagreement,
receipt, or a w i l l carrying details
of the allotment of properties and
money among members of a family.
E. Mortgage and Loan Documents (I.O.U.)
These include mortgages, mortgage
transfers, pawns, loans, loan
mortgages, and credit documents. To
mortgage real estate (Tien) was to
mortgage the ownership of the real
estate to the creditor; the creditor
was entitled to cultivate or make use
of the land or to rent the land to
the tenant farmer for c u l t i v a t i o n
after a certain sum of tax had been
paid. To mortgage the receipts or
c e r t i f i c a t e s of r e a l estate (Tai
Chieh) was to pawn these receipts or
certificates to the creditor so that
the creditor was entitled to receive
the rentals from the real estate as a
kind of interest. Credit receipts
were documents carrying the amount of
cash being lent and borrowed without
a mortgage.
F. Personal Contracts and Agreements
a. Bond service contracts: There
were children selling agreements, son
selling agreements, adoption agree-
ments, women selling agreements, wife
Wang/812
s e l l i n g agreements, and bondsman
contracts. Son selling and adoption
contracts were a kind of agreement
specifying the trading of a non-
relative male.
b. Children adoption and their
succession agreements: Most such
documents specify the adoption of a
male of blood r e l a t i o n , mostly
nephews or sons of one's brother. In
China t h i s kind of r e l a t i o n was
described as ko fang. Adoption of a
male without relation was not popular
in China or in Taiwan in the past.
c. Marriage agreements, marriage-
into-the-wife's-family agreements,
remarriage agreements, and divorce
agreements: There were two kinds of
marriage agreements, chien and kun.
Chien was a document delivered by the
male's family to the female's family;
the kun was the reverse. These
documents told how proud the family
was of this marriage and were f u l l of
blessings, such as the hope that the
couple would be on good terms forever
and that they would bear lots of
c h i l d r e n . The marriage-into-the-
wife's-family agreement was used when
the family was without a son or when
a widow took a husband. This kind of
agreement had three types: a taking
i n , a taking out, and a taking i n and
then out. Almost a l l parties to the
marriage participated i n a marriage
contract, which stated the conditions
and terms of the marriage for both
the male and female parties. When-
ever a widow or divorcee remarried,
there was also a marriage contract.
Divorce agreements were also known as
yu-shu or yu-chi agreements; they
were also called li-yuan or tui-hun
agreements.
d. Chu ( w i l l ) , tuo-ku or guardian-
ship agreements, and tuo-chiao-chi
agreements: The chu and tuo-ku
agreements mostly related to family
property taken care of by an honest
relative or a friend when the heir
was s t i l l young and not yet able to
care for the property, or due to
3
other reasons for which he was unable
to care for his property.
The w i l l distributed the property of
forefathers, while the guardianship
agreement selected an honest person
or relative to manage the property i n
order to preserve the property. When
the minor grew up, the property would
be returned to him. The tuo-chiao-
chi agreement was used when one had
no offspring and requested someone
else to assume the responsibility of
making offerings to his ancestors.
G. Accusations
These included lawsuits and accusa-
tions brought when clan properties
and tombs were occupied or destroyed.
The division of property was included
in these sentences and verdicts.
H. Business Contracts and Accountings
a. Trade agreements and withdrawal
of shares: These included agreements
establishing and dissolving partner-
ships .
b. Business receipts and accounts:
These included accounts of revenues
and expenditures and annual financial
statements.
c. Chambers of Commerce documents:
These rose from the Chambers of
Commerce in the three chambers of
Taiwan. After some improvements they
became standardized.
d. "Acknowledging Teacher" cards:
These cards were used when requesting
a person to teach a vocation or
s k i l l ; they were also known as y i -
pang, kuan-tieh, and keui-tzu
agreements.
I. Irrigation Agreements and Permits
These were agreements to build and
repair drains, ditches, and gutters
and to decide shares of the i r r i g a -
tion water, fees, and t o l l s .
J. Aborigine Contracts
These included b i l i n g u a l documents
w r i t t e n i n Chinese and romanized
t r a n s c r i p t s of the Ping Pu t r i b a l
language. Their contents included
the c u l t i v a t i o n of lands, mortgages,
and loans and were common i n the
south of Taiwan during the time the
Dutch were i n c o n t r o l of the i s l a n d
(1624-1662) and were used as l a t e as
the Chiaching period (1796-1820).
K. Educational Archives
a . These were licenses to Confucian
schools, hung pang (candidate
papers), student papers, examination
p a p e r s , p e r m i t s to study i n the
county or p r e f e c t u r e Confucian
schools, hung pang n o t i c e s , student
papers, and examination papers from
the county and prefecture Confucian
schools.
b. S u c c e s s f u l c i v i l examination
essays: There were e n r o l l m e n t
records, successful village
examination essays ( f o r H s i u t s a i ) ,
s u c c e s s f u l j o i n t c i v i l examination
essays ( f o r chujen), s u c c e s s f u l r o y a l
court c i v i l examination essays ( f o r
chiensi).
c. Teacher appointment to charity
school.
d. L e t t e r s , c o r r e s p o n d e n c e , and
introduction of personal and o f f i c i a l
affairs.
e. W r i t i n g s , p o e t r y , and l y r i c a l
essays l e f t by l i t e r a t i and s c h o l a r s .
L. Horoscopes, M a r r i a g e H o r o s c o p e s ,
S e l e c t i o n o f Dates f o r M a r r i a g e ;
B i r t h and Death Records
2 R e p u b l i c ( a f t e r 1945^, household
Horoscopes recorded the year, month,
and day of a person's b i r t h ; they
were also c a l l e d ming-tan. Marriage
horoscopes based on the b i r t h dates
of the bride and groom were prepared
before the marriage to see that the
bride and groom were appropriately
matched. Auspicious dates were also
selected f o r marriages, birthday
p a r t i e s , f u n e r a l s , and the construc-
t i o n of houses and shrines. Some of
the horoscopes r e c o r d e d the b i r t h
dates of the whole clan and were also
known as sheng-keng records. Some
r e c o r d e d o n l y the death dates o f
ancestors and were c a l l e d chi-chen
records.
M. Merit Tablets, P r a i s i n g - A n c e s t o r
R e c o r d s , Ancestral O f f e r i n g Records,
Prayer Scriptures
When a family member passed away i n
northern Taiwan, many f a m i l i e s asked
a Taoist p r i e s t to perform meritor-
ious acts to help the deceased's soul
pass beyond. When t h i s was done
"prayer s c r i p t u r e s " would be w r i t t e n ;
these were c a l l e d m e r i t r e c o r d s .
Some were c a l l e d "praising-ancestor"
r e c o r d s and were then gathered
together i n a c o l l e c t i o n . Ancestral
offering records recorded the
ancestral properties and the schedule
when each clan member was to take
r e s p o n s i b i l i t y f o r the o f f e r i n g
ceremony; they were also known as
chang-huei agreements. Prayer
s c r i p t u r e s came from seeking divine
help i n obtaining good luck, avoiding
d i s a s t e r , and seeking blessings from
the Jade Emperor and other gods.
N. Records o f Conduct, Door I n s c r i p -
t i o n s , Household R e g i s t e r s , Copies of
the Household Census R e c o r d s , and
Others
Records of conduct recorded an
individual's brief history. Door
i n s c r i p t i o n s bore the Ching dynasty
house number. During the Japanese
occupation, household r e g i s t e r s were
kept. A f t e r r e s t o r a t i o n to the
records have been kept.
II. Introduction of the C o l l e c t i o n and
S u r v e y o f P r i v a t e Taiwanese Old
Family Documents
In most of the old Taiwanese fami-
Wang/812
l i e s , old family documents concern-
ing the history and record of the
clan were kept. However, due to the
change of dynasties and era as well
as the expiration of their legal
force, their owners or collectors
did not take proper care of them,
and they have become r e l a t i v e l y
rare. However, there are s t i l l some
who preserve these kinds of records.
It can be said that the relative
systematization of Taiwan's old
records began around the Japanese
occupation ( M e i j i 33 or 1900) .
During the early years of the
occupation, the director of c i v i l
a f f a i r s , Shinpei Goto, emphasized
what he c a l l e d a " s c i e n t i f i c
colonial policy." He thought that
the customs, h a b i t s , and s o c i a l
structure of Taiwan's people had to
be f u l l y understood so as to
properly carry out administrative
policy. Because of t h i s , land
r e g i s t r y and i n v e s t i g a t i o n s i n t o
traditional customs were fundamental
a c t i v i t i e s . The governor of Taiwan
entrusted Santaro Okamatsu of Kyoto
Imperial University to work out an
investigation program for Taiwan's
traditional culture. Professor
Okamatsu edited a report i n 1900 on
Taiwan's law and customs c a l l e d
Provisional Report on Investigations
of Laws and Customs i n the Island
Formosa. He also collected eighty-
nine Ching dynasty documents from
Taiwan, using English to explain old
Taiwan's laws and customs.
In M e i j i 34 (1901), the Japanese
Colonial government established a
P r o v i s i o n a l Commission f o r the
I n v e s t i g a t i o n of Old Customs.
Large-scale investigating a c t i v i t i e s
were carried out and old documents
and records concerning the old
customs were collected; government
announcements, private contracts and
agreements, and account books i n the
late Ching dynasty and the early
years of the Japanese occupation i n
Taiwan were also gathered.
As a result, i n Meiji 34-40 (1901-
1907), eight volumes of the First
Report on the I n v e s t i g a t i o n of
Taiwan's Old Customs, seventeen
volumes of Taiwan's Laws and two
volumes of the Second Report on the
I n v e s t i g a t i o n of Taiwan's Economy
were edited. Traditional documents,
old contracts, and agreements from
the late Ching dynasty and early
years of the Japanese occupation i n
Taiwan were quoted i n chapter three
of the F i r s t Report and i n the
bibliography of Taiwan's Laws. The
Provisional Commission also
collected a number of old agreements
and records and listed them i n the
bibliography of the Ta-Tsu Chu-Tiao
Shu (Primary Lessors' Registry)
edited i n Meiji 37 (1904). Various
documents concerning the primary
rental business and others used i n
the e a r l y years of the Japanese
occupation and the l a t e Ching
dynasty were^listed and explained i n
this report.
Also devoting themselves to the i n -
vestigation of Taiwan's customs were
Yoshinori Ino, Naojiro Murakami, and
Isao Hirayama. Murakami specially
collected and studied the aboriginal
documents of the Ping Pu tribe. He
wrote and edited two books: The
Bilingual Formosan Manuscripts and
Sinkan Manuscripts.
After 1945 when Taiwan was restored
to Chinese control, the Taipei City
Historical Research Commission was
established i n 1956. Some sixty old
documents from i n d i v i d u a l s i n
northern Taiwan were collected. In
1976, the Committee for Taiwan His-
t o r i c a l Studies of the Association
for Asian Studies of the U.S.A.
decided to systematically collect
the old Taiwanese documents. Aware
of the disappearance of the original
documents after they had been edited
into reports and records during the
late Ching dynasty and the early
years of the Japanese occupation
period, and learning that there
were, however, preserved i n many
 private individual families a number
of government notices and announce-
ments during the late Ching dynasty
and the Japanese occupation period,
the committee started to c o l l e c t
these materials from the private
families. In 1979, 2,712 public and
private documents were copied and
compiled into books. The original
documents were, mounted and returned
o In December, 1879, a Mr. Wu, a
to the owners.
III. USE (APPLICATION) OF THE OLD FAMILY
DOCUMENTS IN EDITING THE FAMILY
HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
A. I m p e r i a l E d i c t s , Announcements,
Superior Notices, Decrees, Docu-
ments, Directives
Chen Hsi-yu of Lukang Town has
collected an imperial edict from
Tungchih emperor, issued in 1873 to
praise the parents of Chen Chi-
chih, the administration commis-
sioner. The edict said: "Chen
Tsung-yuan, father of Chen Chi-
chih, administration commissioner,
is benevolent and charitable . . .
Chang Shih, mother of Chen Chi-chih
i s a paragon of feminine virtue . .
. . Huang Tien-chuan of Tianan City
has collected an o f f i c i a l announce-
ment issued in A p r i l 1867 by the
F i l i a l P i e t y & Virtuous Deeds
Bureau of Wu Huang Min-hsuan, f i l e d
by Imperior Student Huang Chao-
chang, recording how and when Wu
Huang was born and brought up has
shown how she behaved virtuously
during her marriage and after her
husband died."
Lin Ying of Tainan has collected
the merit tablet given to Chou
Ke-chang, chief of the Garrison
Command i n Taiwan and Penghu i n May
1885, which s a i d , Taiwan i s an
important coastal area; therefore,
i t i s significant to emphasize the
maritime patrol and pacification of
aborigines. Chou has assumed his
utmost responsibility to rule this
area; thus, he deserves to be
conferred with the t i t l e "Liu-Pien
Ting-Tai." A merit tablet w i l l be
presented to him as a receipt i n
addition to the submission of his
record to the imperial authority.
A l l these kinds of records can be
used as materials to edit the
family history and genealogy of the
Chen, Wu, and Chou families.
baturu of the chief Cheng Yung of
the Taiwan Area Kua Ying recorded
an order which said, "According to
the report of Cheng Yu-hua, head of
the Chenglang Farm . . . . Cheng
and his forefathers have resided
for a l i f e time i n Chuichien
V i l l a g e , Hulutun, Changhwa. In
January 1878 he was commissioned by
Chu Jih-sheng, chairman of the
Supervisory Committee of Cultiva-
t i o n , to organize a group of
farmers to c u l t i v a t e the v i r g i n
land at Chinlang Villa in
Pushihkuo. The cultivation ended
successfully." This record can be
used in editing and revising the
family history and genealogy of the
Cheng family since Cheng Yu-hua,
who originally lived in Hulutun,
l a t e r moved to Pushihkuo i n
northern Taiwan and set up^a branch
family history of his own.
In the dispatched order collected
in Taiwan Tunfan Cases, a section
recorded by a Mr. Sun of the Lukang
Maritime Defense Sub-Headquarters
of the Borderland Administration of
Taiwan Central i n November 1881
said, "According to the reports of
Hsiao Lien-fang, general director
of Wulaowan, J i h p e i , and Chukan
Farms i n northern Taiwan, and Pang
Jung-chun of the outskirt of Machu
. . . ." Hsiao Po-chou of Lungtan
V i l l a g e has c o l l e c t e d an order
dispatch w r i t t e n by Hsiao Lien-
fang, Commander of Liutun of
northern Taiwan, on the eighth day
of the f i r s t lunar month of 1882.
The order said, " I , the commander,
have been appointed to send more
servicemen to f u l f i l l the duties; I
Wang/812
have then decided to appoint Hsaio
Jui-yun as the general tun
[ m i l i t a r y c u l t i v a t i o n ] leader; f i v e
hundred tun servicemen are to be
led by him from now o n . " Hsiao
Po-chou has also c o l l e c t e d a d i r e c -
t i v e from the acting magistrate of
Tamsui County i n F e b r u a r y 1893,
which s a i d , " H s i a o l i V i l l a g e . . .
i n v i t e d the v i l l a g e r s and c o l o n i s t s
to a meeting and e l e c t e d H s i a o
J u i - y u n , an honest and r i c h man, as
the c h i e f of A s i a o l i V i l l a g e . "
These materials can be used to edit
and revise the family h i s t o r y and
genealogy of Hsiao L i n e - f a n g , who
was the descendant of H s i a o
La-ying. The m a t e r i a l s c l e a r l y
record that Hsiao had been
appointed the general chief of the
Wupangwan, J i h p e i , Chukan Farms i n
northern Taiwan i n November 1881
and was l a t e r promoted to the
commander of L u i tun ( s i x farms) of
northern Taiwan i n the f i r s t lunar
month i n 1882. They also note that
Hsiao Jui-yun had been commissioned
as the general chief of the Remote
Land C u l t i v a t i o n Committee i n 1882
and the head of the H s i a o l i V i l l a g e
i n 1893.
Ho Y i n g of Yangmei town has
c o l l e c t e d a Taiwan Medal presented
to Ho P e n g - l u n g of Tapuchuang,
Taipei County, by Taiwan Governor
Maresuke Nogi i n 1897. This can be
recorded i n the family h i s t o r y and
genealogy of the Ho c l a n .
Another example of using o f f i c i a l
records to revise and edit one's
family h i s t o r y and genealogy can be
seen i n the d i r e c t i v e n o . 1222
issued to Wang Wang-chih by Nami
Nishibi, director of Taoyuan
A f f a i r s Department, i n 1909 apply-
ing f o r a permit to remanufacture
distilled liquor. This can be
used to edit and revise the family
h i s t o r y of the Wang clan of S h u l i n ,
whose members earned a fortune by
making the famed Hunglu Wine i n
Taiwan, and the genealogy of Wang
Wang-chih.
7
B. Land Contracts
a . Land and r e a l estate trading
contracts can be used as the
materials to edit and revise one's
family h i s t o r y and genealogy. For
example, L a i Chun-liang of Shulin
c o l l e c t e d a t r a d i n g agreement
s i g n e d by Hisao T i n g - k u e i of
T a n t i c h u a n g , H a i s h a n , i n 1760,
which s a i d , " I , Hsiao Ting-kuei,
possess a piece of farm land which
I bought e a r l i e r . The land, o f f i -
c i a l l y measuring 1.5 a c r e s , i s
located at the back of a land god
shrine i n Tantichuang. Because I
want to e s t a b l i s h another kind of
business, I now s e l l t h i s piece of
farm land to Wei Shih of the L a i
f a m i l y and Shen Chuang f o r 300
dollars." On the agreement were
witnesses from three generations of
the Hsiao family and a seal bearing
the name Hung Ke-tu and h i s t i t l e ,
"chief c l e r k under Chang Wu-wen of
Haishanchuang."
This agreement can be used to edit
and r e v i s e the family h i s t o r y and
genealogy of Mr. L a i , who moved to
Taiwan from Nanching province i n
the f i r s t year of Chienlung r e i g n ,
and l a t e r r e s i d e d i n P e n g c h a i -
chuang, H a i s h a n . T h i s document
r e c o r d e d t h a t L a i - W e i S h i h and
Sheng Chuan j o i n t l y bought 1.5
acres f i l e d at Tantichuang. From
the seal on the agreement, we can
a l s o l e a r n t h a t the Hung c l a n ,
which then r e s i d e d at H a i s h a n -
chuang, were descendants of Hung
Ketu, who had worked as the chief
c l e r k under Chang Wu-wen during the
t w e n t y - f i f t h year of the Chienlung
reign (1760). The signatures of
the witnesses can be used to show
that the family of Hsiao Ting-kuei
had resided i n Tantichuang since
the twentieth year of the Chienlung
r e i g n . A family tree of the Hsiaos
can thus be drawn: Tzu-chiang,
uncle; T i n g - j u n , younger brother;
S h e n g - l i e h , Ke-kung and H s i a o -
chung, nephews; and Tou and Pao,
sons.
Wang/812
b . C u l t i v a t i o n l i c e n s e s as r e -
search m a t e r i a l s : On 21 J u l y 1709
(Kanghsi 48), a Mr. Sung, d i r e c t o r
of Chulo County, issued a c u l t i v a -
t i o n license to a tenant farmer,
Chen Lai-chang, which said,
"According to Chen Lai-chang, there
i s a piece of unused farm land at
T a c h i a of Upper Tamsui w h i c h
stretches from Hsuilang, L e i l i , i n
the east to Kantou, P a l i f e n g , i n
the w e s t , from the bottom of
Hsinchih Mountain i n the south to
the Lukou, Talang i n the n o r t h .
Farmers are needed to c u l t i v a t e
t h i s land. Thus, a c u l t i v a t i o n
license i s issued to him f o r tax
purposes since the a p p l i c a t i o n f o r
the c u l t i v a t i o n i s i n conformity
with the regulations."
A l l these have been approved and
c a r r i e d out . . . . According to
the report of Yang Yung-cho, he had
surveyed the farm land applied by
Chen Lai-chang f o r c u l t i v a t i o n and
found that the f e r t i l i t y of the
land was not properly d i s t r i b u t e d
and t h a t some f i f t y a c r e s had
already been c u l t i v a t e d . " This i s
the e a r l i e s t known of the o l d
documents concerning the develop-
ment of Taipei C i t y and can be used
to e d i t and r e v i s e the f a m i l y
h i s t o r y and genealogy of Chen
Lai-chang, or h i s family record.
But what needs to be known i s
whether Chen's descendants are
s t i l l residing i n Taiwan.
c . Land l e a s e s and c u l t i v a t i o n
contracts as the materials: Chin
Ho-wang of Yingko c o l l e c t e d a
c u l t i v a t i o n contract established by
Hsiao Chao-hsuan, a landlord
r e s i d i n g at the bottom of the
Chienshanchi mountain of Haishanpao
i n 1743 (Chienlung 8 ) , which s a i d ,
"Owner Hsiao Chao-hsuan possesses a
piece of farm land located at the
bottom of Chienshanchi Mountain,
Yunganchuang, Haishanpao stretching
from the border of the L i farm i n
the south to Chung Hua-hui's f i e l d
border i n the north. Because of
8
the lack of labor to c u l t i v a t e the
land, t h i s farm i s leased to Tsai
Che-hsing f o r c u l t i v a t i o n at the
bottom price of twenty t a e l s of
s i l v e r . " A seal of the landlord of
Chienshanchuang, Tung Tsai-hsing
was marked. This document can be
used i n e d i t i n g and r e v i s i n g the
f a m i l y h i s t o r y and genealogy of the
Yingko's Hsiao, T s a i , Chung, and
Tung f a m i l i e s .
d . Farmland leases and land
leases: A lease entered between
farm owner L i Shih-hsieh and his
tenant farmer Wu Sheng i n A p r i l ,
1751 (Chienlung 16) s a i d , " I , L i
S h i h - h s i e h , possess the K u o t a i
sugarcane farm located at Kokokao.
Wu Sheng and his party w i l l use ten
oxen to c u l t i v a t e the farm and grow
s u g a r c a n e , which a f t e r r e f i n i n g
w i l l be powdered into cane sugar.
The tools i n the m i l l , i f damaged,
s h a l l be r e p a i r e d by the farm
owner." This document can be used
to e d i t and r e v i s e the f a m i l y
h i s t o r y and genealogy of the L i and
Wu f a m i l i e s . I t recorded L i ' s
possession of a sugar m i l l and a
sugarcane f a r m , which had been
leased to the Wus f o r sugar
production.
e. Estate appropriation and land
description agreements: Chin
Ho-wang has preserved a contract
between L i n Yu-hung and his party
i n 1651, which s a i d , " I , L i n
Yu-hung and my party, appropriate a
b e l t of land near the Yen mountain
coverning Tachian, upper and lower
Tsai Ku L i n , l e f t to us by our
a n c e s t o r s , to C h i n Yu (or C h i n
Teh-yu) of Cheng Chuan f o r business
operations." This document can be
used to e d i t and r e v i s e the
genealogy of Chin Teh-yu, ancestor
of the Chins ( r e s i d i n g then i n Ying
Ko, Tainan) of Anhsi, Tanshan. The
Taiwan Provincial Historical
Research Commission has preserved a
c e r t i f i c a t e carrying the mountain
border d e s c r i p t i o n f o r Yu M i n g ,
chief of the Kuei Lun She i n 1783
Wang/812
(Chienlung 48), which s a i d , "The
h i l l s of Haishanchuang o r i g i n a l l y
belonged to owner Chang P i - j u n g .
A f t e r negotiation with Chang, Chang
w i l l contribute 150 d o l l a r s as the
operational fund of Kueilunshe and
will then take charge o f the
southeastern side of the h i l l area
counting from the watershed from
the Chienshantsai of Taliukeng."
This document can be used to r e v i s e
and edit the f a m i l y h i s t o r y and
genealogy o f Chang P i - j u n g o f
Shulin.
f . O f f i c i a l survey c e r t i f i c a t e s :
Michael H . Fieugan has c o l l e c t e d a
land survey c e r t i f i c a t e issued by a
Mr. Cha, who was i n charge of the
maritime c u l t i v a t o n and food
a f f a i r s i n Kumalan, to a farmer
Chiu Sheng i n 1815 (Chiaching 20),
which s a i d , "The unused l a n d
outside the boundary of Komalan had
been e a r l i e r c u l t i v a t e d by the
immigrants from Changchou,
Chuanchou, and Kwanghsi and l a t e r
become productive farm land and i n
1810 i t was r e c o r d e d i n the
o f f i c i a l record. In order to add
i t i n the o f f i c i a l map survey, the
land was measured one Fan s i x L i
eight Hao (one Fan equals 293.4
pings, one L i equals 29.34 pings,
one Hao equals 2.934 pings, one
ping equals 36 square f e e t ) and the
owner had to pay s i x S h i h o f
c e r e a l s as t a x . T h i s survey
receipt was thus issued to Chiu
Sheng of Nanhsing Farm." This can
be used to edit and r e v i s e the
f a m i l y h i s t o r y and genealogy of
Chiu Sheng who had moved to
Nanhsing Farm i n I l a n f o r c u l t i v a -
tion.
g. Land ownership c e r t i f i c a t e s ,
land survey r e g i s t e r s and copies:
The ownership, l o c a t i o n , area, and
succession of land were recorded i n
these documents. Notwithstanding
the f a c t t h a t these documents
recorded both private i n d i v i d u a l
p o s s e s s i o n and p u b l i c p r o p e r t y ,
they can be used to edit and revise
9
one's family or c l a n h i s t o r y . For
instance, the e d i t i o n of the clan
h i s t o r y of Chen Ho-ho, who moved to
Taiwan from Hoshan, made use of the
land survey and registration
records i n Taipei County.
h . Land ownership succession
registers: When an owner of a
p i e c e of l a n d d i e d , w h i l e the
ownership needed to be transferred
to h i s l e g a t e e s , a f a m i l y t r e e
c h a r t of the h e i r s was made,
s t a t i n g both the relationship
between the owner and h i s h e i r s ,
and the death date of the owner.
D e t a i l s of other p r o p e r t y t h a t
c o u l d be passed on were a l s o
recorded. A l l these can be used to
edit and revise one's f a m i l y , c l a n
h i s t o r y , genealogy, and family tree
chart.
C. R e n t a l T a x e s , P r o p e r t y Deed R e -
c e i p t s and C e r t i f i c a t e s
a. Property deed receipts and cer-
tificates: Chin Ho-wang has c o l -
l e c t e d a property deed agreement
issued by the Fukien Administration
Commissioner to Chin Teh-yu, a land
proprietor from Hsinkagto, Anhsi
County, i n February, 1647, which
s a i d , "Land proprietor Chin Teh-yu
has bought the h i l l areas of
Shuangken Rock at Lintengohsiao,
Hsinkangto, at the price of eight
t a e l s of s i l v e r . " This document,
together with the contract
c o l l e c t e d by C h i n Ho-wang and
entered between L i n Tang-chiao and
his party i n 1644 (Tsungcheng 17),
which s a i d , "Receiving Chin Teh-
yu' s l i v e s t o c k allowances and "Tieh
F e i " charge i n e i g h t t a e l s of
s i l v e r t o g e t h e r and thus a p p r o -
priate f o u r "Sheng" ( u n i t to
measure grains) of r i c e produced at
the h i l l areas of Shuangken Rock to
him," can be used to e d i t and
r e v i s e the genealogy of Chin Teh-yu
and h i s family h i s t o r y at Anhsi,
Tangshan, before h i s descendants
moved to Yingko, Taiwan.
L a i Chiri-liang has c o l l e c t e d the
Pu-Tzu-No. 2897 attachment to the
deed c e r t i f i c a t e issued by the
Fukien Administration Commissioner
to L a i Meng-lang, a land proprietor
of "Tanfangtin" i n January, 1765
( C h i e n l u n g 3 0 ) , which s a i d " L a i
Mang-lang and his party have bought
eleven ' c h i a s ' [measure unit f o r
l a n d ] of farmland [one c h i a i s
equivalent to 105,624 square f e e t ]
at the price of 1,245 t a e l s of
s i l v e r from L i u Hsiu-mei and her
p a r t y of Pengchochuang." This
document together with the agree-
ment mentioned before concerning
Mrs. L a i Wei Shih purchasing the
f a r m l a n d of Hsiao T i n g - k u e i at
Tantichuang, Haishan, can be used
to e d i t and r e v i s e the f a m i l y
h i s t o r y of the L a i f a m i l y of
Pengcho, S h u l i n . They recorded
that the L a i s had become r i c h since
residing i n Pengcho, and had
purchased eleven chias of farmland.
They can also be used as materials
to e d i t and revise the genealogy of
L a i Fu-lang.
b . The p r i m a r y l e a s e r r e c e i p t :
Chin Ho-wang has c o l l e c t e d a tax
payment r e c e i p t g i v e n to tenant
farmer Tsai Che-hsing by landlord
Tung Chen-hsing of Chienshan i n
1797, which s a i d , "Tenant farmer
Tsai Che-hsing of Chienshanchuang
has p a i d two p i c u l s [1 p i c u l
roughly equivalent to 120-160
pounds] and seven pecks of grains
as payment for the tax for
Chiaching 2 [1797]." This docu-
ment, together with the c u l t i v a t i o n
contract established by H s i a o
Chao-hsuan of Chienshanchi i n 1743
(Chienlung 8) can be used to e d i t
and revise the f a m i l y h i s t o r y of
the Tsai and Tung f a m i l i e s .
L a i M i n - h s u n of Panchiao has
c o l l e c t e d a primary leaser contract
established by Chang Chun-shih, the
e l d e s t - s o n branch of l a n d owner
Chang C h i - f a of Haishanchuang i n
1863 (Tungchih 2 ) , which s a i d ,
"Chang Chu-shih has sold 46 p i c u l s
and 8 'sheng' of g r a i n s , paid by
h i s tenant farmer Chen Shang-yung
of Tachuwei V i l l a g e as r e n t a l s to
Chang Teh Chun Store at the price
560 d o l l a r s . Ah Hou and Chang Fa,
the younger brothers, have recorded
the trading and Shan-ching signed
as a witness." This document, to-
gether with the c e r t i f i c a t e issued
to Yu-ming, chief of Kueilunshe i n
1783 (Chienlung 48) carrying the
d e s c r i p t i o n of the h i l l areas, can
be used to revise and edit the
f a m i l y h i s t o r y , clan h i s t o r y , and
genealogy of Chang P i - j u n g of
S h u l i n , and the f a m i l y and clan
h i s t o r i e s and genealogy of the
owner Chang Teh Chun Store.
Lin L i e n - c h i h of T a i p e i has
collected several land lease
r e c e i p t s that were given by L i n
Pen-yuan ( r e c o r d e d by L i n Hsun-
mei), owner of Keelung Street, to
L i e n Fang, the tenant, from 1890 to
1899, which s a i d , " T h i s i s to
c e r t i f y that the tenant L i e n Fang
of Keelung Street has paid the land
rental—four d o l l a r s per year f o r
1890, 1892, 1898. Seal a f f i x e d by
owner L i n Pen-yuan." Such a record
can be used to revise and edit the
f a m i l y h i s t o r y of the L i n family i n
Panchiao and the L i e n f a m i l y i n
Keelung S t r e e t .
d . Farm c u l t i v a t i o n and aboriginal
land lease r e c e i p t s : Chen P i n g -
hsun of Sanhsia has c o l l e c t e d a
g r a i n - r e c e i v i n g receipt made by Nan
Hsieh-hsing, leader of Wulaowan and
Kangtsaishe V i l l a g e i n 1854 (Hsien-
feng 4 ) , which recorded, "Receiving
30 p i c u l s and seven shengs of grain
from tenant farmer Wen K a i as the
seasonal r e n t a l f o r the use of 57
c h i a s of land at Shihsantien,
Sanchiaoyung of Sanshe." Fifteen
tenants' signatures are found.
Wu K e u i of T a i p e i C i t y has
collected some r e n t a l payment
r e c e i p t s issued to Wu Lang-yuan, a
tenant farmer, from 1865 to 1873 by
aborigine Yang Chin-ying of
Wang/812
Talangshe and a f f i x e d w i t h Yang's
seal as w e l l as that of Ma Y i -
sheng, c h i e f of the K u e i l e s h e ;
receipts issued to tenant farmer Wu
Yuan-chi f o r the same purpose from
1889-1904. These receipts (from
a b o r i g i n a l primary l e s s o r s ) a l l
recorded the "signatures and seals
of Ma Y i - sheng and Ma Fu-cheng,
c h i e f s of K u e i l e s h e . " These
materials can be used to e d i t and
r e v i s e the name h i s t o r y , t r i b a l
h i s t o r y , and family h i s t o r y of the
Ping Pu t r i b e .
e. M i s c e l l a n e o u s tax and duty
receipts: Wu Wang by Wu C h i a -
h s i n g , c h i e f c l e r k of Shuaokuan
V i l l a at the side of Kuanyingshan
i n 1832, s t a t i n g that the chief
c l e r k had already paid the sugar
duty i n an amount of two "chiens"
nine "fengs" and f i v e " l i s "
( C h i n e s e monetary u n i t ) . Huang
Tien-heng of T a i n a n C i t y has
c o l l e c t e d a receipt given to L i n
Chin-ching by a Mr. Yen, department
head of Fengshan County i n 1869
(Tungchih 8 ) , s t a t i n g that L i n had
paid the sugar duty i n the amount
of e i g h t c h i e n s f i v e f e n g s ; a
receipt given to Su Chin-feng by a
Mr. Ting, a department president of
the Fengshan County i n 1851,
s t a t i n g the transportation duty f o r
the Hsienfeng 1 (1851) had been
paid by Su i n the amount of one
t a e l of s i l v e r ; a receipt given to
Huang Chu-sheng by a Mr. Wang of
the department head of C h i a y i
County i n 1845, s t a t i n g that Hung
had paid the port duty at seven
"chiens". A l l these can be used to
revise and edit the family h i s t o r y
of the Wu, L i n , Su and Huang
f a m i l i e s f o r they recorded that Wu
and L i n had engaged i n the sugar
business during the Ching dynasty,
while the Su had engaged i n trans-
portation and the Huang i n port and
maritime business.
11
. Documents of the D i s t r i b u t i o n and
Management of Properties
In Taiwan, documents concerning the
d i s t r i b u t i o n of properties u s u a l l y
recorded the names of the f a m i l i e s
of the divided brothers and the
leader of the c l a n , the d e t a i l s of
ancestors' properties, family
p r o p e r t i e s , and ancestral o f f e r i n g
a f f a i r s . For instance, L i n Pei-wen
of Taipei C i t y has c o l l e c t e d an
allotment document w r i t t e n by the
s i x t h branch of the L i n family of
An T a i Tang i n 1850 (Taokuang 30)
and an agreement about the L i a n g ' s
S t o r e of An T a i Tang. These
documents recorded i n d e t a i l the
names of the b r o t h e r ' s f a m i l i e s
i n c l u d i n g those of the brothers,
nephews, g r a n d c h i l d r e n , g r a n d -
p a r e n t s and p a r e n t s , how they
established t h e i r own business or
purchased properties, and how each
branch family divided the proper-
t i e s , the ancestor o f f e r i n g of An
Tai Tang, and how much property,
l a n d , or r e s i d e n c e s each f a m i l y
would get. A l l these can be used
to e d i t and r e v i s e the f a m i l y
h i s t o r y , c l a n h i s t o r y , and geneal-
ogy of the L i n of An T a i Tang.
E. Mortgages and Loan ( I . O . U . ) Docu-
ments
Chen P i n g - h s u n of Sanhsia has
c o l l e c t e d a farm l a n d s e l l i n g
contract established by Chen
Chin-sheng (or Chen Kuang-pang) and
h i s four brothers i n Taokuang 22
( 1 8 4 2 ) , which s a i d , "Chen C h i n -
sheng or Chen Kuang-pang and h i s
f o u r b r o t h e r s who had e a r l i e r
j o i n t l y succeeded 15 chias of farm
land which had been purchased by
t h e i r f a t h e r Chu-ming from Chen
Si-hsiang of Sanchiaoyung V i l l a g e .
Because of the l a c k of money to
e s t a b l i s h business, the land men-
tioned above i s thus mortgaged to

the L i n Cheng S t o r e at 1,570
(aboriginal) dollars."
Chen Ping-hsun has also c o l l e c t e d a
loan ( I . O . U . ) document w r i t t e n by a
tenant farmer Ting Wen-kai i n 1816,
which s a i d , "Due to the lack of
money to c u l t i v a t e the 57 chias of
farm l a n d at Sanshe, Nankan,
K u e i l u n , I , Ting Wen-kai, a tenant
f a r m e r of P a n g f u V i l l a g e , here
borrow $3,000 "Fu Yen" (Chinese
monetary unit) from Chen Hsiang at
an i n t e r e s t rate of 50 p i c u l s of
t r a i n s per year." These materials
can be used to revise the f a m i l y
history, clan history, and
genealogy of the L i n , Chen, and
Ting f a m i l i e s of Sanhsia.
F. C o n t r a c t s and Agreements of Per-
sonnel A f f a i r s
a . Bond service contracts: The
Taiwan Branch L i b r a r y preserves a
son s e l l i n g agreement (or Ming Ling
Shu) of Pan Tung and h i s w i f e Ho
Shih i n 1826 to s e l l t h e i r son;
"Because of worsening f i n a n c i a l
c o n d i t i o n s , we Pan Tung and w i f e Ho
Shih, agree to s e l l Pan C h i n - t u ,
three-years o l d , 3rd son, born at
Mou hour on the 2nd day of the
f i r s t moon, 1824, to Chang Lung as
his adopted son f o r t h i r t y d o l l a r s ;
and we agree with no objections to
l e t Chin-tu change h i s name and be
the son of Chan Lung whatever Chang
Lung wants." L i u Shih-chin of San
Hsia has kept a son s e l l i n g agree-
ment of Chang Fan-po, which s t a t e s ,
"Owing to the poor f i n a n c i a l
c o n d i t i o n of the f a m i l y , I , Chang
Fan-po and w i f e Cheng S h i h , agreed
to s e l l Chang Chin-sheng, one year
o l d , 3rd son, born at Wei hour on
the 7th day of the second moon,
1864, to L i u C h i e n - n i n g f o r 18
d o l l a r s as his adopted son." These
bond service contracts can be used
to revise the genealogy and f a m i l y
h i s t o r y of the Chan and L i u
families.
b. Son-adopting agreements and
12
adoption agreements: Ta Hsi Wu
Chiu-chao has preserved an adoption
agreement made by Wu Huan-chang and
h i s w i f e Yang Shih " . . . to adopt Wu
C h i u - t s o , our second son, one year
o l d , born at Ho hour, on the 9th
day of the twelve moon, 1910, as
t h e i r son. We also agree to pay
them 12 d o l l a r s f o r the l i v i n g
costs of C h i u - t s o . " This agreement
can be used r e v i s i n g the c l a n
h i s t o r y and the genealogy of the Wu
family.
c . Marriage breaking or breaching
agreements, d i v o r c e agreements:
For i n s t a n c e , L i n Wan-chuan of
H s i n t i e n Town has a m a r r i a g e
agreement j o i n t l y made by L i n Huan,
Teng H u i and Wang F e n g - l i a n g ,
s t a t i n g that, " L i n Huan, Teng Hai
and L i n ' s brother and s i s t e r - i n - l a w
and Wang Feng-liang agree that Wang
F e n g - l i a n g w i l l marry Teng F a ,
nephew of Teng H a i . I t i s because
Wang F e n g - L i a n g ' s husband L i n
S h i h - s h e n g , e l d e s t son of L i n ' s
b r o t h e r and s i s t e r - i n - l a w , d i e d
suddenly, and i s survived by his
f o u r - y e a r - o l d son L i n Tien-sung and
h i s widow Wang Feng-liang. whereas
Feng-liang as only 32 years of age,
we a l l agree to t h i s marriage with
the f o l l o w i n g c o n d i t i o n s . Lin
Tien-sheng w i l l be cared f o r and
adopted as the son of L i n Huan when
16 years o l d . A f t e r marrying Feng
Fa, the f i r s t son of Feng-liang
w i l l belong to the Teng f a m i l y ,
while the second son w i l l belong to
the L i n f a m i l y . I f there are many
c h i l d r e n , the Teng and L i n f a m i l i e s
w i l l share them between themselves.
I f no c h i l d i s b o r n , then L i n
Tien-sheng w i l l be cared f o r by
both f a m i l i e s . "
L i n Wan-chuan a l s o p r e s e r v e s a
divorce agreement which was made by
Chen Shih of the Hsieh f a m i l y f o r
her son Hsieh Wu-tou, stating that,
"Chen Shih of the Hsieh f a m i l y ,
mother of Hsieh Wu-tou, agrees to
the divorce of her daughter-in-law
Chu H u a n - l a i n g , 30, and adopted
Wang/812
bride of the Hsieh family when she
was a c h i l d , who married Hsieh i n
1835, because her son died i n June,
1863, and the f a m i l y ' s f i n a n c i a l
condition i s poor. She also agrees
to marry H u a n - l i a n g to me—Lin
Tung. I w i l l pay Chen Shih 12 d o l -
l a r s v i a the matchmaker to arrange
t h i s marriage." This agreement can
a l s o be used i n p r e p a r i n g the
genealogy of the L i n , Teng, Hsieh,
and L i u f a m i l i e s .
d. W i l l s and adoption agreements:
Wu Hei of Taipei has c o l l e c t e d a
w i l l signed by Wu Shih-hai i n 1898
on which was recorded, "Whereas I
have s i x sons who have a l l been
adopted by my brothers as t h e i r
sons, my f i r s t son Wu Jui-hua was
adopted by Wu Kuan-yin, my f o u r t h
brother; third son J u i - h s i n g
u n f o r t u n a t e l y died a f t e r being
adopted by my t h i r d b r o t h e r Wu
San-ho; f o u r t h son Wu Han-tso was
adopted by my f i f t h b r o t h e r Wu
Ma-cheng; f i f t h son Wu L a i - h u n g
also died a f t e r being adopted by my
s i x t h brother Wu Wen-liang. These
four adopted sons have shared t h e i r
u n c l e s ' p r o p e r t i e s and are now
r e u n i t i n g and l i v i n g together.
However, my s i x t h son Wu Yao-hsiang
also died a f t e r being adopted by my
second brother Wu Lung-hsi. The
property that was o r i g i n a l l y given
to Yao-hsiang has been passed to
another adopted son Hai Ssu of my
second brother Wu Lung-hsi. Though
Hai Ssu has been l i v i n g together
with us, he i s s t i l l not of our
blood. Therefore, except f o r a
c e r t a i n amount going to my w i f e as
pension, my grandson as l i v i n g and
given to some other family expendi-
t u r e , a l l of my property i s to be
evenly d i s t r i b u t e d among my bro-
thers' f a m i l i e s . Detailed d i s t r i -
bution should be made openly among
themselves." This material can be
used as r e v i s i o n information f o r
the Wu f a m i l y history and
genealogy.
13
G. Appeals, Court Cases, Accusations
For i n s t a n c e , Feng-Hsi-Nan-Yuan
Chen Shih, who moved to T a i p e i ,
sued i n court because the land of
her ancestral graveyard temple had
been i l l e g a l l y occupied by other
people. Her representative, Chen
Hsien-shen, appealed to high
officials of government—from
county government to p r o v i n c i a l
government, from provincial
government to d i s t r i c t government,
f r o m d i s t r i c t government to T a i
Chih M i n i s t e r Chief commissioner
L i u Ming-shuan of the Emperor
Representative M i n i s t r y — t o accuse
a man named L i n and eleven govern-
ment o f f i c i a l s of the above i l l e g a l
a c t s . This court s u i t was used by
Chen Hsin-shen i n the r e v i s i o n of
Chen's genealogy.
H. Business Contracts and Accountings
a . Trade agreements and withdrawal
of shares: Ma Chang-fa and h i s
partners i n 1882 entered into a
s t o c k agreement, which r e c o r d s ,
" L i n H s i n - f a and Ma Chang-fa of
Feng I , Huang Y o - c h i , Shih Mo-chi
and Wang T s a i - c h i of Chungcheng
enter into business r e l a t i o n s h i p .
In order to enlarge the business,
we agree to set up a corporation
company, namely " C h i n Jung F a , "
located at Hou Street, Neikung, to
run a c l o t h business. There are a
t o t a l of f i v e shares of t h i s
company. L i n H s i n - f a invested one
share o f 500 s i l v e r c o i n s , Ma
Chang-fa invested one share of 300
silver coins, Huang Yao-chi
invested one share of 400 s i l v e r
coins, t o t a l l i n g 2,400 s i l v e r
c o i n s . Whenever p r o f i t s are made,
Wang T s a i - c h i and Shih Mo-chi are
allowed to share each an extra 10
percent bonus i n a d d i t i o n to the
evenly d i s t r i b u t e d bonus according
to the amount^^of investment by
shareholder." This stock
cooperation contract can be used i n
the r e v i s i o n of family h i s t o r y and
genealogies of the Ma, L i n , Wang,
Shih, and Huang f a m i l i e s .
b. Business receipts and accounts:
L i Chao-jan of Taipei preserved the
annual accounts i n 1912 of Chun Chi
company's b r a n c h , i n which were
r e c o r d e d the sum L i Chun-sheng
saved i n the Hong Kong K e i Fu
Company, T a i n a n M i n i n g Company,
Bank of Taiwan, and Commercial and
I n d u s t r i a l Bank. I t also states
c l e a r l y that t h i s account belongs
to the Chun C h i Company of L i
Chun-sheng, and the property of L i
Chun-sheng at the end of 1912
amounted to 255, 044 d o l l a r s .
In the L i Chieh C h i Company
accounts o f 1912, the p r o p e r t y ,
r e a l e s t a t e , business, and debts
are c l e a r l y r e c o r d e d . It also
stated that t h i s was an account of
the L i Chieh Chi Company of L i
Chun-sheng and the property of L i
Chun-sheng at the end o f 1912
amounted to $ 8 2 7 , 3 1 0 . These
account r e c o r d s can be used to
r e v i s e the f a m i l y h i s t o r y and
genealogy of the L i f a m i l y .
c . Chambers of commerce ( g u i l d )
documents: Three noted g u i l d s i n
T a i n i n . In 1725, i n i t i a t o r s of the
t h r e e noted g u i l d s i n T a i n a n
included Su Wan-li as leader of the
north Tainan g u i l d , Chin Yung-hsun
as head of the south Tainan g u i l d ,
and L i Sheng^-hsing as the harbor
guild chief. This material can
be used i n the r e v i s i o n of c l a n
h i s t o r i e s and genealogies of the
Su, Chin, and L i f a m i l i e s .
d. A p p r e n t i c e s h i p letters or
placards or "acknowledging teacher"
cards: Yeh M i n g - t r a n sent an
apprenticeship recommendation on
March 5, 1906 to h i s master to
learn carving skills; "Yeh
M i n g - t r a n of Changhua S t r e e t i s
i n t e r e s t e d i n the o c c u p a t i o n o f
h a n d i c r a f t s , therefore, he would
l i k e to ask Lo Mu-chi of Tsung Yeh
Street to be h i s teacher to teach
him book p r i n t i n g s k i l l s f o r three
years. Yeh Mu, f a t h e r of Yeh
M i n g - t r a n , Guarantor [ s e a l e d ] . "
This record can be used to revise
the family h i s t o r y and genealogy of
the Yeh f a m i l y .
I. Irrigation Agreements and Permits
L i u Shih-chin has preserved a
waterwork contract with Tung Wang-
chi i n 1784 on which was recorded,
"Whereas Tung Wang-chi i s preparing
to construct a waterway to irrigate
cultivated lands from Nan River,
Hengshui, and my friend Cheng
Tsai-wu has a piece of cultivated
land at Fuchou, Hanghsikuo, which
needs water for irrigation,
therefore, Chen sent someone to
negotiate for the waterwork con-
struction for his land. Owing to
our friendship, I would not charge
him for the water supply rent, just
ask him for 200 silver coins for
the construction. After the
construction, Chen i s allowed to
use one-third of the water of the
waterway to i r r i g a t e h i s land."
And L i n Tiao-chang of Panchiao has
preserved an agreement made between
the owner Lin Teng-hsun, and ten-
ants including L i n Yun of Hsichou,
Wu-Shih-Liu-Feng, Wu Chang, in 1775
in which was recorded, "Since the
landowner and a l l tenants have been
working for the cultivation of land
i n Chih Tu Ling f o r years, we
agreed to construct a waterway from
Chinglungkou River, a river belong-
ing to L i n Ten-hsun, to induce
water to irrigate farmland which
lacks water i r r i g a t i o n . Chang
Chung-i was chosen as the head to
be responsible for the construction
p r o j e c t . The construction cost
amounted to 700 s i l v e r coins.
Sealed with the stamps of Teng-
hsun, grandson of Lin Cheng-tsu,
land owner." This contract can be
used i n the revision of the geneal-
ogies and family histories of the
Tung and Chen families of Henghsi,
Sanhsia, and L i n Cheng-tsu, land-
Wang/812
owner of Chih Tu Ling, Panchiao,
and L i n Yun, tenant of Shenkang.
J. Aborigine Contracts
As mentioned above, the Plain
Aborigine T r i b e ' s Fan-Tzu-Chih
(contracts written in aborigine
language) included contracts
w r i t t e n i n romanized s c r i p t of the
a b o r i g i n e language and both the
aborigine and Chinese languages.
Content of the contracts covered
c u l t i v a t i o n permits, ownership
l e a s e agreements, n o n r e t u r n a b l e
sales contracts. For instance, i n
1790, a Hsinkang aborigine, Tapbari
Saram, and Takalang entered into a
mortgage contract in which
"Hsinkang-She a b o r i g i n e T a p b a r i
Saram and others, e t c . , i n h e r i t e d
from parents f i v e pieces of land
with houses and garden." In t h i s
document, the name was w r i t t e n i n a
romanization of the Han language as
Tapbari. In 1813, i n an ownership
lease agreement made by Hsinkang-
She aborogine L i Tung-yuan and
others was sealed w i t h Hsinkang-She
owner a b o r i g i n e T a k a l a n g . All
people of Tapbari f a m i l i e s of the
Hsinkang She P l a i n Aborigine Tribe
kept t h e i r surnames i n the Chien-
lung period and changed them to L i
i n the Chiaching p e r i o d . These
contracts of the p l a i n aborigine
t r i b e s can be used to revise the
family h i s t o r y and genealogy f o r
the L i s .
K. Educational Archives
a. Confucian school l i c e n s e s , hung
pang (name l i s t of s u c c e s s f u l
examination candidates i n r e d ) ,
books, examination papers: For ex-
ample, the Tainan C i t y E t h n o l o g i c a l
Culture Products Museum c o l l e c t e d a
license which was given by a Tainan
Confucian prefecture president Su
to student Su Hsiao-ming, i n which
i t i s w r i t t e n , " I , student Su
Hsiao-ming, from a f a m i l y w i t h good
heritage, am w i l l i n g to learn under
the guidance of t e a c h e r of the
15
school and also w i l l i n g to j o i n the
Confucius worship dance and cere-
monies held each year . . . The
l i c e n s e i s j o i n t l y granted by t h i s
school and the Tainan government
. . . co-witnessed by great grand-
f a t h e r Su Cheng-lai, grandfather Su
C h i a - c h u n and f a t h e r Su Feng-
hsiang." A manuscript which copied
the names of candidates passing the
Taiwan P r o v i n c i a l C i v i l S e r v i c e
Examination of the Tainan P r e f e c -
ture stored by Huang Tien-hung i n
1894, included a t o t a l of twenty-
seven newly passed candidates
i n c l u d i n g Chen M i n g - t i e n . Others
l i k e the Tainan C i t y Ethnological
C u l t u r a l Products Museum i n 1882
c o l l e c t e d books of Chu-Jen (1882)
Tsai K u o - l i n and Chin-Shin (1890)
Hsu Nan-ying, which they studied at
the Hai Tung School i n t h e i r c h i l d -
hood. These books were printed
with Confucius' sayings. This i n -
formation can be used i n r e v i s i n g
the genealogy of the Hsu, T s a i ,
Chen, and Su f a m i l i e s .
b. C i v i l e x a m i n a t i o n c o r r e c t e d
t e s t papers and e s s a y s : Chen
Tun-hou of Mucha, T a i p e i , has
c o l l e c t e d c o p i e s of e n r o l l m e n t
c a r d s of c i v i l e x a m i n a t i o n c o r -
rected papers (1852) done by Wang
Ming-mo of the Tainan P r e f e c t u r e .
These cards included the names of
Wang's ancestors f o r nine genera-
t i o n s , names of his teachers, and
names of h i s examination papers.
W r i t t e n i n Changhua H s i e n S h i h
Pao-hsiu's biographic sketch and
h i s c i v i l examination corrected
papers (1874) were h i s p e r s o n a l
experiences, names of his ancestors
f o r twenty-two generations, names
of his teachers, and test r e s u l t s .
In 1862, a Tsinchiang Chu Jen Huang
Mou-hsi's examination results
recorded the names of his ancestors
for t h r e e g e n e r a t i o n s and h i s
examination r e s u l t s . These t e s t i -
monies are the best information to
use i n r e v i s i n g the family h i s t o r y
and genealogy of the Wang, Shih,
and Huang f a m i l i e s .
Wang/812
c. C h a r i t y school teachers ap-
pointment decrees: A government
decree appointed Ho Tang-lung as
t e a c h e r of a c h a r i t y s c h o o l i n
Tamsui ( f o r m a l l y c a l l e d Hung Mao)
Harbor by the Hsinchu Hsien
government. I t read, "Decree of
appointing a teacher: Whereas Hsu
H s i - k u n g , a noted merchant i n
Tamsui [Hung Mao Harbor] , who
o f f e r s 88 shihs [ p i c u l s ] annually
to e s t a b l i s h a c h a r i t y school . . .
We have appointed Ho Tang-lung to
teach over there a f t e r he passed an
examination." This decree can also
be used i n r e v i s i n g the genealogy
of the Ho and Hsu f a m i l i e s .
d. L e t t e r s , correspondence,
appeals, and p e t i t i o n s : For
instance, an appeal made by Tainan
Chin Shih (1846) Shih Tsung-fang to
the magistrate of Tainan, c o l l e c t e d
by Huang Tien-chuan, recorded: "In
r e g a r d s to the i n v e s t i g a t i o n of
stone c u t t i n g of ancestral tombs
f o r house c o n s t r u c t i o n , I , Tainan
C h i n Shih S h i h T s u n g - f a n g , o r i -
g i n a l l y a n a t i v e of T s i n g c h i a n g
Hsien, Fukien, bought a piece of
graveyard at Ssu Ta-shan, Pu Tou
Hsiang, Ku Chiang Pu, Hui An Hsien,
during the Kanghsi Emperor period,
to bury our ancestors of the past
nine generations . . . I t was l a s t
year when Wang Tien and h i s gangs
who i n view of the economic value
of the stone w i t h i n the graveyard,
cut stones at the l e f t hand side of
the tomb to construct houses . . .
I beg your excellency to make an
i n v e s t i g a t i o n and arrest them f o r
t h e i r g u i l t . " This appeal can be
used i n the r e v i s i o n of the Shih
f a m i l y ' s genealogy.
Chen Hui-sheng, who moved from Chao
Fu V i l l a g e , Cheng P i n g County,
Kwangtung Town, resided at Toufen
and said i n a l e t t e r of 1 March
1868 to h i s r e l a t i v e of h i s native
place, " A f t e r r e s e t t l i n g i n Taiwan
f o r the past eighty years, we want
to know how our family members i n
Kwangtung Town are? As I know
16
grandfather had four sons including
Tuan-piao and J u i - p i a o , I wish to
know i f they are s t i l l at home; and
Kuei-piao who moved w i t h us to here
had two sons, Feng-chiu and Feng-
t a i , both of whom have no c h i l d .
W h i l e Hua-piao had f o u r sons,
namely Feng-chi, Feng-chao, Feng-
chiu and Feng-lu, a l l reside i n
Taiwan and have many c h i l d r e n . "
And then, Chen Tien-shu, a nephew
of Chen H u i - s h e n g , r e p l i e d f r o m
Kwangtung Town, M a i n l a n d , "We
received your l e t t e r i n A p r i l . . .
Our v i l l a g e has suffered from great
disaster. O r i g i n a l l y , Kuei-piao,
our uncle, had more than several
hundred grandsons and male servants
before the d i s a s t e r , now there are
l e f t o n l y not more than twenty
people i n his f a m i l y . Kuei-piao,
granduncle, has f i v e c h i l d r e n while
my grandfather Chen Chu-ju has a
son, Chen Hsin-hsien; and he has a
son, Che-san; Che-san has two sons
S h i h - i and Shih-wan; they have
reunited after a period of
separation. At present only my son
and I have s u r v i v e d a f t e r t h i s
d i s a s t e r . Such changes have caused
us to be unable to obey our
ancestors' desire to create more
descendants. So please return to
e i i e v e r u
our v i l l a g e w ^ y ° have any
achievement." Since then, they
had contacted each other w i t h i n the
Kwanghsu i m p e r i a l r e i g n . From
these letters, we can get
information to revise the Chen's
genealogy.
e. W r i t i n g s , poems, and l y r i c a l
essay: Huang Tien-chuan has stored
a t o t a l of eight poems w r i t t e n to
r e c o r d h i s own f e e l i n g s i n h i s
s i x t i e s and can also be used to
revise the genealogy of the Shih
family.
L. Horoscopes, M a r r i a g e Horoscopes,
Lucky Day Choosing S c r i p t s , Death
Day S c r i p t s
Since many Taiwanese people believe
i n destiny, they u s u a l l y have t h e i r
children's (Pa Tzu) horoscope
f o r e t o l d a f t e r they are born. Pa
Tzu was c a l c u l a t e d i n accordance
w i t h "Kan Chih Shu" ( C h i n e s e
c e l e s t i a l stems and t e r r e s t r i a l
branches system codes). However,
modern men do not t o t a l l y count
t h e i r Pa Tzu by Kan Chih code. For
instance, they have the month and
date w r i t t e n i n numbers and the
hour w r i t t e n by Chih code. L i k e a
g i r l who was born on the horoscope
of r i g h t , Mou hour, tenth day of
the tenth month of Ting Mou year.
(Equivalent to 7:00-9:00, 10 Octo-
ber 1927.) Right means female,
l e f t means male. Marriage Pa Tzu
are used by f o r t u n e t e l l e r s to
c a l c u l a t e whether the man and woman
are suited f o r marriage. For i n -
stance, i f the man's Pa Tzu i s Wu
hour, t w e n t y - f i r s t day of the n i n t h
moon, Hsin Yu year (1921), of Chien
(male), and the woman's Pa Tzu i s
Cheng hour, twenty-ninth day of the
second moon, Tingmou year (1927),
of Kun (female), then the fortune
t e l l e r would probably decide that
the man and the woman were not
s u i t a b l e f o r marriage because the
male i s on the four d i r e c t i o n s and
the female on e i g h t d i r e c t i o n s ,
which are not c o m p a t i b l e codes
according to Ching. Date-choosing
s c r i p t s i n c l u d e m a r r i a g e date
c h o o s i n g s c r i p t s , new b u i l d i n g
landbreaking date choosing s c r i p t s ,
f u n e r a l holding, bone packing, and
r e f i n i n g s c r i p t s . The marriage and
construction s c r i p t s were always
w r i t t e n w i t h lucky dates s u i t a b l e
to do things and the Pa Tzu of
people. B i r t h d a y s , death dates and
f u n e r a l dates were r e c o r d e d i n
other s c r i p t s .
Some have b i r t h d a y s c r i p t s and
death s c r i p t s . For instance, Chen
C h i n g - l i e n of Hohsiang V i l l a g e ,
Chiangchun Hsiang, Tainan County,
stored birthday scripts that
r e c o r d e d the b i r t h d a y s o f h i s
ancestors from the f i r s t to the
eleventh generations who came to
Taiwan. Tseng Jen-hsien of Hsia
S h e n - c h i u , Panchiao C i t y , has
collected his ancestors' death
memorial date r e c o r d s , which
include the f i r s t s i x elder sons of
Tseng f a m i l y . T h i s i s good
information f o r use i n the r e v i s i o n
of genealogy.
M. Merit and Achievement Rolls, Ances-
tors Praising Pamphlets, Records of
Public Ancestral Offering
For i n s t a n c e , Wang S h i h - t i n g of
H s i a Chou, Panchiao C i t y , has
collected f i f t e e n volumes o f
achievement records from 1872 to
1957 i n which were recorded f o r h i s
native place and resettlement area
i n Taiwan the names, birthdays, and
death days of h i s ancestors during
t h i s p e r i o d . And Chen Liang-sheng
of P e i t o u , T a i p e i , has preserved a
copy of Chen's achievement record
i n P e i t o u , F e n t o u , and Hsiang
Kung-tsu, i n which were recorded
the b i r t h d a y s , death d a y s , and
names of h i s ancestors f o r twenty
generations. Chen Tze-chen of
Peitou has preserved an ancestral
recommendation pamphlet, and a
Chen's achievement record of
Manlung Hao, P e i t o u , recording the
b i r t h d a y s , death d a y s , names,
original native places, and
w r i t i n g s of h i s ancestors f o r
forty-three generations. These
achievement records and ancestor
recommendation pamphlets can be
used f o r the r e v i s i o n of the Wang
and Chen genealogies.
Wang T s e n g - c h i e h of Hsichou,
Panchiao C i t y , has kept twelve Wang
ancestral p u b l i c worship records,
t h a t r e c o r d the arrangement of
holding worship ceremonies, expen-
d i t u r e s , loans, i n t e r e s t s , c u l t i v a -
t i o n taxes f o r worshiping, p u b l i c
w o r s h i p ceremonies f r o m 1901 to
1976, and ancestral record w r i t i n g
charges, ancestral record r e v i s i o n
expenditures f o r 15 December 1910,
public worship property representa-
t i v e i n h e r i t a n t charges, ancestral
gravestone r e - e r e c t i o n f a r e s i n
Wang/812
1913. These records can be used i n
the r e v i s i o n of Wang's genealogy.
Others, l i k e Chou Kung of Shen Rang
Hsiang, Changhua Hsien, preserved a
worship w r i t i n g of Chou Tu-ching, a
Taoist d i s c i p l e of the Ting Chuan
Chou gravestone temple, Panhsinpao,
Changhua County, i n which the
w r i t i n g showed worship of Hsiang En
Chu Emperor, Chu Fu Huang Ye, Huan
Tien Emperor, and T a i Tze Ye god
statues. These s a c r i f i c i a l worship
writings i n c l u d e d the names,
birthdays, Pa Tzu of h i s wife and
h i m s e l f and of h i s e l d e s t s o n ,
second son, and eldest son-in-law.
This can be adopted as Chou family
genealogical i n f o r m a t i o n .
N. Record o f Conduct or B i o g r a p h i c a l
S k e t c h e s , Door I n s c r i p t i o n s o r
Address T a b l e t s , Household Regis-
t e r s , Domicile Copies and Others
B i o g r a p h i c a l s k e t c h e s have been
r e q u i r e d by the government f o r
candidates applying f o r the c i v i l
examination i n the Ching dynasty.
D u r i n g the Japanese o c c u p a t i o n
period, those who applied f o r a job
had to hand i n a b i o g r a p h i c a l
sketch which recorded t h e i r name,
birthday, native place, address,
education, and experience. There-
f o r e , those who worked have t h e i r
own b i o g r a p h i c a l s k e t c h e s . For
i n s t a n c e , L i C h a o - j e n of T a i p e i
C i t y has c o l l e c t e d the biographical
sketches of h i s great-grandfather,
L i Chun-sheng, a noted personality
d u r i n g the Japanese o c c u p a t i o n
period and the l a t e Ching dynasty,
which r e c o r d e d h i s b i r t h d a y and
p o s i t i o n s i n the l o c a l government
during that p e r i o d . These sketches
can be used as the revision
i n f o r m a t i o n f o r the L i f a m i l y
genealogy.
Door inscriptions or address
t a b l e t s were required during the
Ching dynasty. For instance, L i u
S h i h - c h i n c o l l e c t e d an address
tablet issued by the Tamsui Hsien
d i r e c t o r L i and given to Chiang
Tsai of the f i f t h household, 1st
P a i , 17th Chia, Hang H s i Nan, Hai
Pao Shan, on which was recorded the
name of Chiang T s a i , f o r t y - s i x ,
native place at Anhsi County, a
worker, w i f e L i n Shih, seven sons,
two d a u g h t e r s , t o t a l l i n g eight
males and three females; d i s t r i c t
a d m i n i s t r a t o r of h i s f a m i l y L i n
Chin-yuan; names of grandparents,
parents, uncles and aunts, brothers
and s i s t e r s , e t c . In the Japanese
occupation period, each family had
a domicile tablet that recorded the
name of the head of h o u s e h o l d ,
names of the family members, b i r t h -
days, and addresses. After Tai-
wan's r e s t o r a t i o n , the government
set up the household r e g i s t r a t i o n
system to r e c o r d the names o f
the head of household, and members,
b l o o d t y p e s , I . D . Card numbers,
b i r t h order, date of b i r t h , native
place, names of parents, name of
spouse, address, and moving i n and
out r e g i s t r a t i o n dates.
Household r e g i s t r a t i o n was set up
d u r i n g the Japanese o c c u p a t i o n
period to record detailed remarks
about the head of the household and
i t s members. A l l people were re-
quired to apply f o r such r e g i s t r a -
tion. This domicile information
can be used i n the r e v i s i o n of
genealogies.
There are s t i l l many old family
document sources and books
recording these documents in
c o l l e g e s , l i b r a r i e s , and public and
private c u l t u r a l organizations i n
Taiwan. We also can f i n d examples
of using old family documents as
sources to r e v i s e g e n e a l o g i e s .
Recently, however, there are not
too many people using o l d family
documents f o r genealogy r e v i s i o n
information.
As mentioned above, o l d f a m i l y
documents are i d e a l d a t a f o r
r e v i s i n g genealogies. Therefore,
we have to c a l l the p u b l i c ' s
Wang/812 19

attention to the need to better

preserve a l l old family documents
and bring them to the attention of
a l l genealogy editors who can use
them to compile a better gen-
e a l o g y — p r e s e r v i n g the c u l t u r a l
heritage of the society.

NOTES

In the Ching dynasty, each piece of land was shared by two owners. One was
called the head of the land, or owner, or big owner. They just applied for the c u l t i -
vation license and were not responsible for cultivating. Another one was the tenant
or small owner. Under the tenants were hired farmers who worked for them. Land
owners asked for land revenues from tenants while tenants asked for land revenues from
hired farmers.
2
Most Chinese people record their children's horoscope Pa Tzu i n order to
predict their fortune. The Chinese c e l e s t i a l stems and terrestial branches are Kan
Chih, also known as Pa Tzu (horoscope); for instance, for a person born at 6:40-7:00
a.m., seventh day of the f i r s t moon, 1980, his Pa Tzu Kan Chih (horoscope) w i l l be
Kuei Mou hour, f i r s t day, Moujen month, Kang Yu year.
3
Reference to the old family documents i n Taiwan can be seen i n my writing,
f i r s t to third chapters of the Taiwan Private and Public Old Family Document (table of
contents), issued i n 1977 to 1979.
4
The Bank of Taiwan published a revised edition of old time contracts, private
laws, and primary lease instructions i n 1960; in the same year, the Bank of Taiwan
published two other books concerning the private laws and debt right in Taiwan; i n
March 1961, two volumes of Taiwan Private Laws and Commercial Affairs were published;
in J u l y 1961, f i v e volumes of Taiwan P r i v a t e Laws and Personnel A f f a i r s were
published; i n A p r i l 1963, six volumes of Taiwan Primary Lease Investigations were
published.
~*Formosan Manuscripts was published in 1930 by the writer. While Sinkan Manu-
scripts was published i n 1933 in the Memoirs of the Faculty of Literature and P o l i t i c s
Taihoku Imperial University, Vol. 11 No. 1, issued by the Taihoku Imperial University
(presently National Taiwan University), Taihoku, Formosa, A p r i l 1933.

^For reference to the investigation of old family document collections in

Taiwan, see the Taiwan Area Study of Old Family Document, A Thesis, jointly written by
William M. Speidel and Wang Shih-ching, published by the National Taiwan University,
based on the Ching Dynasty Historical Documents Symposium, sponsored by National
Taiwan University 26 July 1978.
7
See pp. 33-34, v o l . 1, Taiwan Private Laws and Ownership Rights, published by
the Bank of Taiwan i n January lyb3.
 Q

The case of "aborigine smuggling" i s recorded by Hsiao Jui-yun, an aborigine

land owner i n Tung Lo Chang, Hsiaolishe, November 1899, preserved by Hsiao Po-chou of
Lungtan Village.
9
See Taiwan Primary Lease Investigations i n the Ching Dynasty, pp. 2-3, v o l .
1, published by the Bank of Taiwan i n A p r i l 1963, and the "Old Family Document"
written by Yang Yun-ping, published i n the Taipei Cultural Product Magazine, pp. 6-27,
f i r s t edition, v o l . 5, by the Taipei Historical Documents Committee i n A p r i l 1956.
The origin of this document was preserved by a primary lessor, Hung Wen-kuang i n
Wanhua u n t i l 1902, according to an investigation made by Toshio Ikeda and Yang
Yun-ping.
10
See Taiwan Private Laws and Ownership Rights, pp. 93-694, vol. 4, published
by the Bank of Taiwan i n January 1963.

^See the Genealogy of Hushan Chen Ho-ho Descendants i n Taiwan, pp. 24-37,
published by Chen Heng-huan i n 1975.
12
See the Genealogy of Chens of Fenghsinanyuan, revised by Chen Kuang-ping i n
1930, published by the Chin Sheng Y i Watch and Clock Company i n 1933.
13
See the Taiwan Private Laws and Commercial A f f a i r s , 1st ed., pp. 99-100, vol.
1, published by the Bank of Taiwan in March 1861.
14,
Ibid, pp. 12-13.
15
Ibid, p. 93.
16
Refer to note 5, Sinkan Manuscripts, pp. 36, 37, 42, 43.
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

East Asian Family

Sources:
The Genealogical
Society of
Utah Collection
Panel
John W. Orton (Mod,),
Basil P. Yang,
Ted A. Telford,
Kenji Suzuki
It Series 814
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

PuPlished in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 EAST ASIAN FAMILY SOURCES:
THE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF UTAH COLLECTION: KOREA

Basil Yang

Bom in China. Resides i n Salt Lake City, Utah. Senior cataloger, Technical Ser-
vices, Genealogical Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
M.L.S., Brigham Young University. Coauthor, teacher.

INTRODUCTION out and f i l m i n g privately-owned gene-

What began with an donation of three-
books i n 1895 i s now considered the
largest genealogical collection i n the
world. The Library of the Genealogical
Society of Utah now has over 1.3 m i l l i o n
100-foot reels of microfilm and a book
c o l l e c t i o n of over 180,000 volumes.
Since the material on f i l m is equivalent
to an estimated 4.8 m i l l i o n 300-page
volumes, the collection i s approaching
the s i z e of a f i v e - m i l l i o n - v o l u m e
library. Presently, the equivalent of
about 200,000 300-page volumes are being
added each year through m i c r o f i l m i n g ,
purchases, and g i f t s , while the overall
collection of the Society is quite large,
the Korean collection i s r e l a t i v e l y small
by comparison. The Society has only been
involved i n the acquisition of Korean
materials for about a decade.
Korea was one of the earliest of the
s o c i e t y ' s East Asian ventures. The
investigation of records in Korea began
in 1968. In July 1971, the Society
filmed a major collection of Korean and
Chinese clan genealogical and other
materials at the Harvard-Yenching
Library. This project was followed the
next year with the filming of the c o l -
lection at the Central National Library
i n Seoul, where were filmed over 1,200
reels of Korean clan genealogies, local
histories, and other materials of gene-
alogical and h i s t o r i c a l significance over
a three-year period. We purchased a
collection of Y i dynasty hojok (household
registration) i n 1974 from the same l i -
brary and two years later began searching
alogies. We are using a mobile microfilm
camera to f i l m the family collections and
now have acquired close to 900 t i t l e s i n
this ongoing project. The Society has
also recently filmed more materials—this
time munjip (individual collected works)
that contain biographical sketches and
epitaphs of considerable genealogical
value—at the Harvard-Yenching Library.
There i s also a small but growing c o l -
l e c t i o n of printed genealogies, l o c a l
histories, biographies, dictionaires, and
other reference materials which were
acquire as needed or from book l i s t s and
inventories. We try to be f a i r l y selec-
t i v e , keepting i n mind that materials
must have genealogical or h i s t o r i c a l
significance before we add them to our
c o l l e c t i o n since we are a genealogy-
oriented l i b r a r y . Tables 1, 2, and 3 (at
the end of the paper) summarize the
holdings i n the Korean collection of the
Genealogical Society of Utah:
While the Genealogical Society of Utah
places a high priority on materials of
value to patrons doing genealogical
research, the collection is by no means
limited to family sources such as clan
genealogies. Other materials that
contain useful genealogical, h i s t o r i c a l ,
biographies, and geographical information
also are listed for acquistion i f they
are relevant to the purposes of family
history research. The following i s a
synopsis of the major record types we
have pursued and t h e i r value. This
information was gleaned frcm inventory
l i s t i n g of the Korean collection as of
June 1980.
CLAN GENEALOGIES
Clan genealogies, visually called chokpo
i n Korean, are an exceptional genealog-
i c a l source for researching the lines and
traditions of certain families i n Korea,
they are male-centered and branch from an
o r i g i n a l or clan ancestor, many some
twenty or more generations ago. This
type of source constitutes a major part
of our Korean collection and i s , i n many
respects, the strength of our collection.
We presently have a total of 3,668 t i t l e s
and 16,195 volumes; the majority, 3,458
t i t l e s , are on microfilm (2,050 reels)
while the remainder, 210 t i t l e s and 581
volumes, are i n our book collection.
This type of source is extremely valuable
to the family-oriented Koreans. It was a
common practice for each Korean clan (an
extended family) to record the gene-
alogies of the male line both to venerate
ancestors and to carry the memory of
illustrious family members. While these
types of genealogies are more common i n
the familes of the descendants of Yangban
(the a r i s t o c r a t i c c l a s s ) , some other
families also occasionally kept this type
of record. Chokpo show a heavy Confucian
influence, and they indeed show a close
relationship to Chinese clan genealogies
in terms of content and record format.
Most korean clan genealogies are even
written in classical Chinese, though the
characters are read in the Korean sound.
Because of this, one must have a know-
ledge of the Chinese characters i n order
to deal with this source. while many
Koreans are schooled i n the native
han'gul (Korean alphabet) phonetic,
knowledge of the characters i s not always
adequate to handle traditional sources
such as t h i s .
In the appendices (Appendix I ) , there i s
a complete l i s t of the present holdings
of Korean c l a n genealogies i n the
Society's vault. The genealogies are
divided according to c l a n name, geo-
graphic branches, and number of t i t l e s
and volumes. Therefore, those with a
surname and hometown found on this l i s t
can usually recognize a possible link
with a clan genealogy. This can,
however, only be ascertained by making
the appropriate connections through
research or personal knowledge.
Local histories or c h i j i have long been
recognized as a valuable source by those
doing research on Korean s o c i a l and
h i s t o r i c a l themes. Korean local his-
tories, l i k e their Chinese counterparts,
u s u a l l y contain a number of sections
dealing with the history and georgaphy of
the particular locale and with influen-
t i a l f a m i l i e s and i n d i v i d u a l s i n the
community. For example, from sections on
elites and personalities, one can learn
about the deeds and backgrounds of people
from a l l walks of life—farmers, mer-
chants, scholars, a r t i s t s , c i v i l service
o f f i c i a l s , retired m i l i t i a r y generals,
Buddhist monks, priests of other denom-
inations chaste women, and f i l i a l or
righteous individuals. There are many
categories included i n t h i s type of
source. Since some of this information
i s not included i n clan genealogies,
especially i n regards to women and some
lower-class individuals, local histories
can be very useful i n certain types of
genealogical research. For example, on
can consult various sections of them to
f i n d information about clan o r i g i n ,
family movements, birth or burial places,
etc. Local histories are also a valuable
help i n understanding the geographic
conditions and h i s t o r i c a l background of
the local area.
The Genealogical Society of Utah pre-
sently has a total of 326 local history
t i t l e s and 587 volumes. Of that t o t a l ,
189 t i t e l s are on microfilm (29 reels)
while the remainder (137 t i t l e s ) are i n
our book collection. Appendix I I l i s t s
the coverage of the l o c a l h i s t o r y
collection and geographic subdivisions.
EXAMINATION ROSTERS
The Korean c i v i l service examination
system was the way one got into o f f i c e
during the highly bueaucratic Y i dynasty
(1392-1910). Because of the status and
i n f l u e n c e Involved, passing the c i v i l
service examination was the goal of many
814a/Yang 3

who aspired to improve their station i n
l i f e . After the results of each exami-
nation were announced, a roster of the
successful candidates, called a pangmok,
was compiled. Individuals were l i s t e d
either by the order of placement i n the
examination or by c h r o n l o g i c a l order.
Pangmok contain information such as the
t i t l e or post earned, the f u l l name of
the candidate and alternative names, the
year of birth, clan origin, place of
residence, father's or adoptive father's
name, the names of the grandfather and
great-grandfather, maternal grandfather's
name, the name of the father-in-law, and
sometimes the facts on the publication of
the roster.
Figure 1 (at end of paper) was taken from
the Kukcho pangmok ( p ^ ^ g )* a
~c o m
prehensive roster of successful candi-
dates published i n 1971 by the National
Assembly L i b r a r y of the Republic of
Korea.
Chunggwang pangmok (roster for a exam on
special occasions)
Chongsi pangmok (roster for a kind of
irregular exam)
Pyolsi pangmok ( s i m i l a r to chongsi
type)
Rosters for government o f f i c i a l s such as
munbo (government o f f i c i a l s who passed
the c i v i l exam), umbo ( o f f i c i a l s who
passed the m i l i t a r y exam), and umbo
( o f f i c i a l s who passed neither exam and
had been appointed due to the meritorious
service of their ancestors) are also i n
our collection. The Library also has a
forty-eight volume index to Korean c i v i l
service examinations compiled by Mr.
June-ho Sung, the eminent authority i n
the f i e l d . This work contains 8,835
pages and i s indexed according to the
surnames of the candidates.
HOUSEHOLD REGISTRATION

Although examination rosters cover only a The Genealogical Society of Utah also has
limited portion of the population, they, a collection of Korean Hojok or household
nonetheless, have valuable genealogical r e g i s t r a t i o n records. These are of
Information on those successful candi- households from the early seventeenth
dates. They usually include up to four century to 1910 when the Japanese began
generations of ancestry and pertinent r e g i s t e r i n g f a m i l i e s under t h e i r own
v i t a l information on the candidate. The system. Most of the hojok were issued by
Genealogical Society of Utah presently the county government o f f i c e with the
has 110 t i t l e s of examination rosters on head of each household as the recipient.
11 reels of film. These rosters were This register includes the name of the
published between 1522 and 1971, a period household, the name of the master or head
of over 400 years. of house, t i t l e s and positions held, the
clan o r i g i n , the place of residence, the
Among the examination rosters i n our father's name, the grandfather's name,
Korean collection are the following: the great-grandfather's name, and the
names of the children. We have 1,951
Munmugwa pangmok (roster for c i v i l - m i l - t i t l e s of household registers on 9 reels
itary service exam) of microfilm i n our collection. The
Yongho pangmok ( s i m i l a r to above earliest entry i s 1615 while the last i s
1901. The majority of these records were
Sama pangmok (roster for purchased from the Central National
preparatory exam) Library i n Seoul.
Chapkwa pangmok (roster for technical
exam)
Yokkwa pangmok (roster for exam for INDIVIDUAL COLLECTED WORKS
interpreters)
Mun'gwa pangmok (roster for c i v i l We have 2,553 t i t l e s of munjip or the
service exam) Individual collected works or writings of
Mugwa pangmok (roster for m i l i t a r y prominent individuals on 555 reels of
service exam) microfilm. Most of these records were
814a/Yang
microfilmed r e c e n t l y at the Harvard-
Yenching Library. The types of entries
of genealogical value i n this source are
sections that include biographies,
epitaphs, ancestors, of the w r i t e r ,
genealogical prefaces, eulogies, obitu-
aries, deeds of the dead, rosters of
various kinds, and records of the career
of individuals.
CONCLUSION
The Korean collection of the Genealogical
Society of Utah i s s t i l l comparatively
small, but i t does have i t s strengths.
The clan genealogy collection i s f a i r l y
large and i s being added to gradually.
It i s also the largest collection in any
one place. Our collections of local his-
t o r i e s i s growing. We have a good
foundation with the f i l m i n g of the
c o l l e c t i o n at the Harvard-Yenching
4
Library and the Central National Library
in Seoul. Our collections of hojok and
munjip also are a good beginning. We
hope that our Korean c o l l e c t i o n w i l l
continue to grow and that we can find and
preserve those records that we may pro-
vide the best f a c i l i t e i s for genealogical
research.
A l l the materials are available to the
public. Copies can be requested from the
Granite Mountain Records, Vault where the
negatives are stored under optimum
conditions, both for research and per-
sonal study at either our main library i n
Salt Lake City or over 340 branch l i -
braries throughout the world. It i s my
hope that we w i l l be able to determine
and meet the needs of our Korean patrons
for genealogical materials and that
people w i l l become increasingly aware of
our collection and i t s value.
 814a/Yang 5
APPENDIX I. KOREAN GENEALOGIES BY SURNAME AND BRANCH SUBDIVISION

CLAN NAME BRANCH TITLES VOLUMES

An ( í ) Sunhttng ), Chuksan (*5 ** ) 39 213

3
Kwangju ft) )» T'amjin (í* f )
1 1
Cha ("&.) Yoyang )
Ch»a ( $ ) YÖnan (JL4T )» P a n g g a n g ) 22 102
Ch»ae ( & . ) Inchon ), P'yönggang ( ? 4 ) 10 tø

Chang ( f ) Köchtang (% % ) 2 10

Chang ( 3 l O mdong ( ^ » « 7 ), TSksu 79 36o

Tanyang ), Andong (4- )
Höngsöng ), Ulchin Q& *» )
KyöTsöng (*í )» KSyöngch»ön »/ )
Okku (ïfc*£ )» Mbkch*ön ( / M )
Pongsöng Cj^L*A* )» Chinch *8n ( # • • » )
Yongch'ön nj ) Oksan ( £ ^ )
t

;
Ch ( 4 )
? : Ch»ilw8n ( s j j f c ) . „5. M 14
1 6 8 9
Chi (5«J) Ch'ungju ( t - - ^ )

Chin ) P'unggi ( f £ ) 4 16

Chin (?& ) Yöyang ?! ), Naju ( f -W ) 18 72

' Samen*ök ( 1 ?f ), Singwang ( * f ^ )
Yangsan (,^/. ^ )

Cho ( - | ) Ch»angny«ng {% § ) 22 85

Cho ( j f t ) Ckch'bn ( i "I ), Paékeh'ön f fc "I ) 71 297

Sunch*ang U Hanyang ??? )
P»ungyang ( f 1% ), Haman ( $ )
Yang j u ), Hoengsöng tø* trf )
Chinbo ($ 'g ), T'aewön ( * /j> )
ptySngyangT^il ), Kümje & )
Imch»ön ( f ø n ) )
3 3
Ch*o ) P'aröng )
Ch'oe ( | ) Kyöngju ('1 AL ). Haeju ( * « ) 19^ 897
1 1
Kangnöng (*£?£ ), Tong j u f f c «
Susöng Cfíjtfl; ), Sangnyöng ( f « ? )
Wansan (£,vL ), Chönju ( £ -Hl )
Hwasun (jfa i | ), Ch»ungju ( & ;W )
T»ongch«Sn ( ), T'amjin U*> ^ )
Suwön (>k.^. ), Yonggung ( i f r t )
Hwang j u ( £ H ), YÖngch'ön ( jjc »I )
Yönp'ung (jff ^ ), Kansöng ( i ] ift )
Ch «öngsong ( ± 33 ), Ch'ogye ( )
 814a/Yang
APPENDIX I . Continued.
Yangju ) Kwangyang (~d,H )
#

Ch»öngju 0^*1 ), T ' a e i n ( 4 ^ )

Kanghwa ( i í % ), Kobu ( % $ )
Asan ( it * )» Yangch'ön í ..} )
Wönju (#->H )f YÖnghung ( )
Hitnghae (±ï? )

Chön ( ) Ch'önan f ^ ), Chöngsön (ík i )

Okch»ön ), Kyöngsan (y| * )
Söngju ( t «Hj ), Oksan ( 1 * )
Yonggung (^^ )t Naju ^ )
Sönsan ( | o, )
Chön (<$} ) Tamyang f|)

Ch»ön ( 'X ) Yöngyang ( & | ?f>)

Chöng ( J ) Yöngkeang ( f *J ), Naju ( j | W )

Ch*angwön ( % ft. ), Yöngsöng ('W )
Kümsöng (<§|*$ ), Aphae ( 4 ^ ^ )

Chöng (jg ) Hanam (£3 vf} )

Chöng ) Tongnae
Tongnae (I-
l/F fx
5£ ;» Kyöngju
^yongju (% / | iMn
Chinyang (.§ f^? ), Chinjutfu ( ^
Hadong ), YÖngil ( £ ø )
Onyang 0 * f$ )r Ch'ogye ( ^ ï | )
Ponghwa ( i )» Haeju ( s& *f J
Naju (Jt ^ ), Wönyang ( f|)
Kwangju (-& ^ ), Ktimsöng U i t & )
Hamp'yöng ( $ f ), Nüngsöng
Sösan (j4 )', Och'ön ( . | „) h
Ch'öngsan ( A Oi ), Ch»öngju ( >fl W )
P'algye ( ? « ), Chönju
/ v ^ )
Sinan ( tíj^T )
Chu ( )§ ) Sangju ( # *H ), Ch'ölwön ( $ E # )
Ch»ogye ( ^ ; | ), Antti ( j j . ^ )

Ch»u ($<J Ch'ugye ), Chönju ( 1 *H )

Ha ( = sf ) Chinyang ( f ?§ ), Chinju (-f 7fj )

Hara (jgtø ) Kangntíng ), Yanggun ( £§, # J

Han ( f t ) Ch'öngju ( ï | ), Koksan ( ^ ^ )

Ho C4J)
Ho (*/] ) P»arïing ( t j / I )

HÖ ( f f ) Kimhae % )» Punsöng )
Yangch'ön ( ), Hayang )
T'aein C^'',-)
814a/Yang 7

APPENDIX I . Continued.

Hong ) Namyang ( 3p ?$ ), P'ungsan ( j > ) 6l itø

Hwang ( f ; ) Ch'angwbn ), Chean ) 33 l68

P'ytfnghae (JjLs£ ), Töksan ( f|- ^ )
Changsu ( £ ?K ), Uju ( ytj )
Sangju ), Hoekök ( t j f|-)
Hwangbo ( f $ ) Ybngch'Sn ( ^.oj ) 2 2

Hyön (% ) Yönju ( ^ h ) ), Uich'ang ( | p 8 ) 8 29

Hyöng ) Chinju ( - f if) ) 2 3

Im 0 í £ ) P'ungch'ön ( f »| ) r Changhtíng ) 13 94

lm ( & P P»yongt'aek ( ? ^ ), Haju (j|lrt ) 46 191

P'aengsSng ( f)*&* ), Piin ( & ^ )
ChanghÜng (-£ i p ), Andong ( j L * )

Iksan ( j ^ ), Chönju ( £ ^ )
In (&p ) Kyodong ) 2 H
Ka ( ^ l ) Soju ( J ^ b i ) 1 1
U í - ? 7
Kam(-tí-) Hóesan ) '~ " 1 2
Kan (gjj ) Kap«yöng ( ^ f ) 1 3
l,
Kang (,J ) C Sinch'Ön (^t | )» Koksan ( £ d» ) 9 AO
Kang ( 1 ) Chinyang (-f ?| ), Chinsan (•§ ^ ) 50 298
^ Chinju ( i |frj)
Kang ) Asan ( ^ LZ-I ) 3 7
Ki (-^ ) Haengju ( ^ ^ ) 8 57
Kil ) Haepíybng (^. ^ ), Sönsan ( 1 ^ ) 4 8
Kim ( A ) Kyöngju ( È W )t ï«nan (J*-f ) 663 3069

^ „ v^;4 )
Uisbng Kwangsan )
Puan ( ^ 4 . ), Kangjin (/£ i f J
Taegu ( t íij ). Kümnyöng ('t: '4 )
Wansan ( ). Sunch'bn (»)| £ )
Kaesbng { f$ ), Puryöng ( )
Kanghwa ( J # ), Ch'öngju ( s | ^ )
Kyerdm Ybnggwang ^ )
Haeju (ifc w ), Ch'ungju ( )
Yanggün ( ^ J ^ ) r Ch'Öngp'ung )
814a/Yang
APPENDIX I . Continued.
Kong ju ( X H ), Chinch *8n (f% "I )
Kyoha ( t ^ )t Miryang ('& f | )
Anak ( 4 -Si )i Kümsan * )
Chinju (^[ hj ), Ch'öngdo ( ^ i j . )
Hamch'ang (/£$ ), Naju (jj^ -ty )
Ansan (j*- *H ), Samch'ök ( \ J )
Sangsan (i§) ^ ). Chönju ( £ -»tf )
Kwangsan (-£j^ ). Sönsan ( ^ * )
P'ap'yöng (a*.-f ), Söhttng )
KÜmhwa ('á>XO ). Sangju (& *»1 )
T'aewön (£ >fc ). Kosöng ()f) i# )
Sinch'ön. ( f | >>| ), Wölsöng ( 9 * $ )
Namyang Cf, ff, ), Yongdam (é| >* )
Ansöng (4%iV' ), Gnyang (4 )
Kimje ), Yonggung £ )
Suwön ), Sach'ön ( >Tiy It) )
Kwangju (j% h ), Togang ( ^ ft )
Nakan ), Sölsöng (*>*# )
Chöng ju ( | tH ), Koryöng ($, f )
Yang ju ( A - ^ ) , Yöngsan ( 4 * )
% v v
Paekch»ön O . " ^ *^
)

un'ongsong *£* Jt u « » * w v
S i l l a ( f f j g }f Bchwa (I.30 ) .
Ch»angwön ( $ )» ïönghae ( f % )
T»ongch'ön (.X 11} ), Sönsöng ( )
Hamryöng (j# | ) Yean (*f J£. )
?

Ko (%) ) Che j u ), Changhtíng (-£B£ ) 33 170

Kong ) Kimp'o ) 2 4

Kong ( $ ) Hyoryöng C f . A ) 1 2

Kong (|L ) Kokpu (<& I ) 29

Ku ( | ) Nöngsöng ( j f i ^ ), Ch'angwön ( $ / & ) 12 57

Kuk ($£}) 1 1

Küm (^ ) Pongsöng jj£ ) 1 14

7
T'osan ( ^ ^ ) 1 1
Kung ( ^ )
Ch'öngju ( i j ), P'osan ( £7 ^ ) 23 68
Kwak ( J js ) Sönsan ( £ di ), Hyönp'ung ( r )
Haemi ( ) *
Kwön ( £ | ) Andong (•£<£ ) 58

Kye t H ) Suan O j t ^ ) 4

Kyöng ( , § ) Ch'öngju ( j f ) 1
 814a/Yang 9
APPENDIX I . Continued.

Ma (.§ ) Changhung (-£ig? ), Mokch*bn ( £ »>| ) 4 20

Maeng ( j i . ) Sinch'ang ( S ) 5 18

Min (tø ) 13 43
Mo ( & ) Hamp'ybng ( M,-ĥ ) 1 1

tok (g£ ) Sach»ön (ittp ijj ) 2 9

Mun ( 1 ) Namp'yöng ( ^ ) 26 142

MyÖng ( 0)] ) Söch'ok ( f ø S ) 3 21

Ka CJ|) Naju (j&1i) ). Kümsbng fåtti ) 11 78

Kunwi (^,4"" ) ' A n j ^ ( ^ . ^ . )
Nam (^7 ) Uiryöng ( 4 f ), YÖngyang ( £ ?f> ) 10 30
Kosöng ()jf) ^ )

Naragung (|t) Haraybl ( $ få/ ) 2 4

Kyoha ( 1 ^ ), Kwangju ( & " N ) 29 122
No {)%.)
P»ungch'bn ( f , . ) ), Changyön £ £ 5 $ )
Sinch'ang (£2 4 ), Man'gyöng )
Koksan ( £ ÜL» J . Kwangsan (-& iu )
KySngju ( / | .^j ), Andong C £ ^ )

Nb (J&. ) Hamp»yöng ( i £ - f ), Kanghwa ( f ) 6 30

Miryang (% ), Hamjong ( $ (£. )

0 ( | ) Kaju ( j | ). Hungyang f ^ f | j 60 169

Haeju (i&j/tf ) , Tongbok (EJ tø )
Hamyang {Ê£ ). Ulsan ( | | ib )
Koch'ang ( * $ r ), P'yönghae (.££,§- )
Posöng ), Nakan

4 14
ö (fe) Hamjong )

Ok ( £ ) üiryöng ( ^ S ) 2 6
öm ( J j ïSngwba ( è ^ ) lé 45
Ong ( £ ) Okch»on ( Í 'l| ) 2 4
Pae ( £ > Kyöngju (yJ'H ), Söngsan ( f dj ) 22 111
Punsbng (^WV ), Talsöng ( 3 ^ )
t

Konsan ( " O » Hunghae (^/^i)

Kimhae ( ^ i ^ - ) » Söngju (<|^^

Paek ( & ) Suwön (A;J ), T»aein ( f a - ) 26 104

Taehüng (^«gg )t ^ (

Pak ( i ( . ) YÖnghae ( f Q ) Chinwbn ( J ft )

t
l 267 1209
Pian ( tt,-^ ), Miryang ( % ? | )
Hamyang ( / ^ ï f ? ), KorySng ( £ | )
 814a/Yang 10
APPENDIX I . Continued.
Mirsöng ( £ ), S i l l a ( 1 ^ 1
Söku ( £ ? & )), Sunch'ön (
Muan ( $ h $ r ) Pannam (iá ^ )
t

Ulsan ( ^ d) ), Chuksan {hj ú) )

Ch'ungjú (,+.*) ), Ch'uneh'ön ( 4 " ) )
ï o j u ( g j L v ), Myönch'ön (S£ „, )
Sach'ön (=® >i| ), Wölsöng ( ' | v ) t f i

ünbong ( f **• ), Kunwi ( f * ) y

Ch'angwön (% Á ), P ' y ö n g t W ( f * f )
Kyöngju ( i f . ^ ), Kosöng(,i}i# )
Sangju ( , . % » ) ) , Üms8ng ( j * _ v

Sangsan (,$» »ii ), Sunch'ang ( i± ^ )

^ ( / å å ), Kangnöng ( i i f | )
Yöngam 'si ) P'yöngju ( f ^ )
r
7
Sönsan ( \ T ), T'aein ( A ^ )
P'yöngsan (^ ^ ), Ubong^ /j. ^ )
Pan U % ) Namp'yöng ( ^ f ) Kwangju (
r *j ) 4 16
Pang ) Kunwi (<| ), Onyang ( «». ) 10 46
Pang ) Namyang ( ^ f | ) 3 11
ping (;*K) Kyöngju ( , | <H\ ) 1 1
Pok ( Js ) Myönyang 1 6
Pöm Kümsöng (<$fyt$) 1 2
Pong ( ^ ) Hatfm ( >jp^) 2 3
Pu(£) Cheju ) 1 3
P'ung (^) ^ (#tø) 1 1
Py»n (y ) x Ch'ogye ( ^ ; | ), Miryang ( j | f g ) 3 35
Pyön ( £ ) Wnju ( 4 #j )» Changyön ( ) 7 19
Sa(£) Ch'öngju ( - | f t ) ) 2 4
Sagong ( s) ) Kunwi ( ^ ) 1 2
Sim CSt/) Samch'ök (=. ffe ) P'ungsan (#,1,
t ) 18
Ch'öngsong 65
Sin (ý ) Koryöng ( «9 g ), P'yöngsan ( $ dj ) 53
277
Sin ( I ) ïöngwöl ( j ^ J g ) , ïöngsan ( j f ? ^ ) 19 58
Sin (t)| ) Köch'ang { g § ) 7 46
So ( J ^ ) Chinju ( ^ yVj ) 3 22
« < # ) Taegu ( ^f-j* ) Ich'ön (
r ") ) 36 159
Talsöng ( £ ± t ø ), Changsöng ( Á *iï )
Namyang ( ^ | ), Puyö ( ^ t ø J T
?
 814a/Yang
APPENDIX I . Continued.

Sök ( - f ) Wölsöng ( jj \ ), Kyöngju ( ) \ 'h) )

H

Sök ( T a ) Hongju ( i £ * J ), Ch'ungju ( Ý. to )

1
Haeju ( s f c * ) )

SÖ1 ( J I ) Sunch'ang ( ^ § ), Kyöngju ( ^ )

Son ( i l ) I l chik ( - t ) Miryang ( $ f $ )

F

P'yönghae ( f # ), MLrsöng { A tf )
Wölsöng f Jj l & ) , Ch'öngju ( z f ^ )
Kyöngju

Sön(|) Posöng(|^)

Song ( £ ) ï ö s a n ( s f t ü j ), ü n j i n ( % -± )
Yönan ( g _ £ ), Ch'öngju (*$*f )
Mun'gyöng ( f f l 4 ), Yaro ( ^ >té)
Yangju ( t í ^ )* Sinp'yöng ( f e ? )
Chinch»ön (j$.»/ ), Namyang ( i> ? | ) x

Yongsöng ( f ø - ^ )

Söng ( & ) Ch'angnyöng (% l | ), Yönil ( ^ )

Sönu ( & | - f ) T'aewön ( )

T'ae ( ^ ) Yöngsun ( faft ), Hyöpkye ( f ^ i | )

T'ak C'y ) Kwangsan ( 7u ^ )
To U f ) P'algö ( y \ | ), Söngju ( g to, )

Tokko G g ) $ \ ) Namwön ( ^ § N )

Tong ( ^ ) Kwangju ()% *j )

Tu ( £ i ) Turting U l ?^ )

U ( ^ ) Tanyang ( # )

Üm ( ? £ ) Chuksan ( i»j )

to (/15;) Haengju ( | - * j )

Wang ( l ) Kaesöng ( f § * % ), Chenara ( ^ ^ )

Wi ( ^ ) Changhüng ( - ^ i ^ )

Wön ( f u ) Wönju ( 4 . ^ )
Yang ( fT 's ) Cheju ( >|Mt) ). Namwön ( & #J v )
Chosön (|jj£j ) g
Yang ( i l ) Ch'öngju f;^ W ), Namwön ( v f ) ^ )
Chunghwa (Á. ^ ) 9
 814a/Yang 12
APPENDIX I . Continued.
Kyöngju ( | * J ), Pyökchin (£ i f ) 654 2840
Yi T ö k s u
Yönan 4- )» I

san A J ^ * '
ïöngju ( ), ïean (fø*. )
Wönju Cè-, ft) ), Hansan h
ptvöngcK'ang f $ . <M>
Tansöng ), Ch»ölsöng
Tanyang (-fr ), Hongch»ön ( g
Taehung ( ), Kimp'o $ J
Yongin U £ ), Ansöng ( A )
Chöntti ( % ), Kosöng (if) *A )

Chinan C H Í - )» Chinpo (
Changch'ön^C_£..| ), T0ksáh H »LÍ )
Kongju 1» T'aewön (£4?,
Haenam , ^ „ )» T*°
-'ongain ( Í ^ )
Naju (« *t '), Hwasan ({ a, i 0 á

Pup'yöng^l f ^»^angyf^ V \ * '

üoram v. »5? A], /i A-»o«-t> \Æ. < j

Yangsan dj ), Wansan ( ^
Kwangju ( M * \ ), Ansan (J£ 04
Suan )t Kwangsan ( Jh 0*
Haman Glf-&- )» S Cftp\*%
Kaes8n

Kansöng ( * f *Æ ), ^ s a n l t d . J f

Ch'önghae ( 4 ^ ), Changhüng ( i f )
Kyöngsan * ), Hongju (dj «I J
Ch'angnyöng (/ Q ' J ) f Namp'yöng (xf? f )

Söngsan ( f 4 ), Söngju ( f ft) ) 3 17

Hamyang ff> )

tTiryöng ( ± & ) 2 7

P»aju (*&'M ), Koksöng (\&*^) 18 68

Koksan ( ^ vb ) 3 27
1 1
Hongch'ön ( l£ t\\ )
814a/Yang

APPENDIX I . Continued.
Yu ( J f ) Musong ( # #5 ), P»yöngsan ( f 0., )
Yu ( ^ ) J
Ch'angwbn ( S #. ), Kigye ( )
" Muan (f>-£- ), Indong Q . ,sj )
Yu ( K ? ) Munhwa (£<ü ). Kohting ( % ^ )
' Chinju (-fTij ), Chönju ( & *t )
P»ungsan vl» ), Sönsan (4 JU )
Sbsan ( i % xn ) Wansan
f

Sbryöng ), Ybnggwang ( j ^
Yu ) Kangnung ( & ) Köch'ang (g i
i J
Paekch»ön „) )
Yuk (jr| ) Qkch«bn )
Yun ( f ) P»ap»ybng (*£ f ), Nanwon {J? & )
' Haman 0$"-&- ), Haenam (5$.v$> ) -
Ch»ilw»n ), Haep'yöng ( i £ T
Musong (ft X% ), Sinnybng ( i k % )
Yöngch'ön (^„| ) *'J
Miscellaneous

Total
814a/Yang

APPENDIX H . LOCAL HISTORY COLLECTION BY GEOGRAPHIC SUBDIVISIONS (1980)

PROVINCE OR TO ( ^ ) COUNTY OR KUN ( Z f ) TITLES VOLUMES

Chagang-do ( Kanggye-si ( >ï- ^ $, ) 1 1

Cheju-do ( > ^ ^ ) i S ) 6 6

Chblla-namdo ( ' I ' M vf/JL ) Changhtlng-gun 28 44

Changstfng-gun
Chindo-gun ( s $ & f t )
Haenam-gun ( i ^ x ^ j O
Hamp'ybng-gun ( j £ f )
Kangjin-gun i | )
Koksöng-gun ( £ fff )
Kwang j u - s i ( t o 3>
Kwangsan-gun ( ^ v l ^ f )
Muan-gun ( H i . * í J
Sttngju-gun ( Ï a) J
Sunch»8n-si ( h]^ £ £ )
Naju-gun ( j | H\ h )
Nüngju-myön, Hwasun-gun
( & )
Okkwa-mybn, Koksbng-gun
( á
Tamyang-gun (
)

Cnblla-pukto ( £ | ^ t j $ ) Changsu-gun ( > K )

Chinan-gun ( $fy$p£f )
Iksan-gun ( j k ú i M} )
Imp*a-my8n Okku-gun
r

Imsil-gun f *± 1 )
Kumje-gun ( £ )
Mujang-myön, Koch*ang-gun
)
P*odu-my8n Kohung-gun
f

Puan-gun ^ #1 )
Sanggwarwmybn, Wanju-gun

Unbong-myon, Namwon-gun

Yongdam-mySn, Chinan-gun
) s

Cböngup-kun ( # )
Chönju-si -h) f )
Muju-gun ( ft % f t )
Sunch»ang-gun ( | £^ )
 814a/Yang 15

APPENDIX I I . Continued.

Ch'ungch »bng-namdo HaentL-mybn, Sb san-gun 12

(ï&> )
Hongsbng-gun ( %} )
Ifosöng-myön, Nonsan-gun
( ^ N Í 7 )
Söch»ön-gun ( ^ ») )
Yön»gi-gun ( 3»
Cn'onan-si
Ktffiisan-gun (^4 JAJS?
PuyS-gun (iti%Mf )
Sösan ( 5^ o . ^ )

Ch »ungen »bng-pukto Chinch'bn-gun ( í k "I ^ ) 15 64

Ch»8ngju-si ( f> )
Ch»8ngwbn-gun ( s f )
Ch*ungju-si ( ^ - 1 ^ ^ )
Chungwbn-gun ( ý /J % )
Koesan-gun )
ümsöng-gun ( ^ J

Hamgybng-namdo ( ^ M j j ^ ) Hamju-gun |? ) 12 19
Hongw8n-gun )
Iw8n-gun ( j t y Æ J l ? )
Munch »8n-gun ( £ ") /f) )
Pukch'Öng-gun ( - J t l ^ )

f 5 13
Hamgybng-puktc ( ^ ^ - J t ^ ) My8ngch
Kyöngsbng-gun
«bn-gun ))

Hwanghae-namdo ( j ^ J f ^ ' S ) Haeju-si ( ^ - ^ ^ ) 6 6

Pyöksöng-gun ( f f
Sinch »bn-gun ( /jir n)
tttlyul-gun )

Hwanghae-pukto fê^~Jt}£p Pongsan-gun ( já. )

P«y8ngsan-gun )

Kaesbng-si ( *•& ^ ) 3 4

Kangwbn-do (>X>^v| ) Anbybn-gun (-tïSL^f ) 25 36

Kangnllng-si Í S i f | Í
My8ngju-gun f i f W ^ }
Kumgang-gun l5j ,
Panggang-gun ( 3 Å A J )
Samch'bk-kun ( = H £j> )
Y8ngw8l-gun ( £ ^ )
Hongch»bn-gun ( «t £ J )
Inje-gun ( & % t f $ f )
Wbnsan-si ( >Lai )
Wbnsbng-gun ( )
814a/Yang 16
APPENDIX I I . Continued.

Kyönggi-do ( Í ^ J L ) Hwasöng-gun ( ^ H\ %) ) 15
Inch«ön-si ( \~ ») ^ )
Kanghwa-gun ( ^ i ^ J S p )
P»aju-gun ( ± £ W 8 f )

Kyöngsang-namdo ( S ^ ^ j t ) Chinyang-gun ) 33 710

Chinju-si C - I ^ f L
Ch*angnyiJng-gun ( 5 :? )
Hadong-gun )
Haman-gun ( A £ )
Antli-rayiJn, Harayang-gun

Hamyang-gun ( g£ £p j
Kimhae-gun ( £ ï|> ^ )
Köje-gun ( g >^£j> )
Miryang-gun ? | &} )
T'onghySng-gun U % )
Tongnae-gun ( £ £f
Sach «ön-gun (-<D »\ %}
Uiryöng-gun^&g^
Ulsan-si ( & JA ^ )
Ulchu-gun f £ tø £ ? ) x

Masan-si ( t)
Namhae-gun ( ^ i ^ £ j > )

Kyöngsang-pukto (É"^.U 4 ) Andong-gun )

' A W - ' i - U . Chain-myön, Kyöngsan-gun
Kyöngsan-gun (/5 a» )
Ch»ilgok-kun ( £ )
Ch'öngsong-gun (JjfcfcJ? )
n
Ch *uksan~gun ( & ú* Jtf )
Yöngch«ön-gun (>%>n£f )
Ch»öngdo-gun )
1
Hwasan-myön, Yöngch ön-gun (5Jc»J^J )
Sönsan-gun t 4 ^ ^ )
Ulchin-gun ( M ^ ^ )
Ktlmch «ön-si (iL$<ýf- )
KÜmnyöng-gun (^J%%} )
Wölsöng-gun ( a t $ Z} )
YÖngil-gun ( s& 3 gf )
Kunwi-gun ( 4 p $ Z } )
Kyöng j u - s i ( y| •>») * )
Mun*gyöng-gun [ f f i f c & ï )
Sang ju-gun (&*>1,g? )
Söngju-gun ( f )
Taegu-si ( t M Í )
Talsöng-gun ( ^ )
üïsöng-gun ( 1 t $ z *
Yech«ön-gun Cv» J, h
Yöngdök-kun )
Yöngju-gun (
Yöngyang-gun
5 10
814a/Yang 17

APPENDIX I I . Continued.

f
P ybngan-namdo Kangdong-gun )
Kangsb^gun (sx & %y )
Samhwa-mybn, Yonggang-gun

Sunch»bn-gun (>ij|ii) £ ^ )
P »ybngan-pukto 12 16
Kusbng-gun C å 'tfSZ) )
Chöngju-gun C
Sintti j u - s i
T'aech'ön-gun'C^o^p )
Yöngbyön-gun ( á y é * ? )
Yongch*ön-gun )
P'ybngyang-si ( f t g * ) 2 3
Seoul (/j £ ) 8 4l
Miscellaneous 38 58

Total 326 587

 EAST ASIAN FAMILY SOURCES:
THE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF UTAH COLLECTION - CHINA

Ted A. Telford

Born i n Utah. Resides i n Salt Lake City, Utah. Acquisition specialist, Genealogical
Society of Utah. M.A. (Asian studies), Brigham Young University.

Only nine years of active acquisition of microfilmed as a g i f t from a member of

Chinese language materials has resulted
in a moderate through impressive micro-
film collection of Chinese materials at
the Genealogical Society Library. Even
though the collection of less than 10,000
r o l l s of Chinese microfilms i s only a
small proportion of the library's total
microfilm holdings, i t s t i l l represnts a
collection of nearly 100,000 volumes of
Chinese books located i n the f i n e s t
Chinese collections in the United States,
Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong, and
thousands of volumes of privately-owned
materials. This 100,000 volume
collection represents the most complete
collection of available clan genealogies,
local histories, and examination l i s t s to
be found anywhere. We are hopeful that
as relations continue to improve between
the United States and the People's
Republic of China, new a c q u i s i t i o n
projects can be started that w i l l add new
items to the Society's already impressive
collection. In addition, we are hopeful
that as our c o l l e c t i o n of l i b r a r y
materials becomes more complete, new
archival sources from China w i l l also
begin to be added to the m i c r o f i l m
collection.
Prior to 1971 when the f i r s t full-fledged
microfilm project to acquire Chinese and
Korean books began at the Harvard-Yench-
ing Library at Harvard University, few i f
any Chinese materials were part of the
Society's holdings. Gifts and purchases
of a few books had been made before 1971,
but the oldest microfilm of a Chinese
language book I have been able to find i n
the library was made in 1960. This item,
a clan genealogy published i n 1918 and
the Church, i s probably the f i r s t
Chinese Janguage book acquired by the
library. The l i b r a r y ' s holdings of
s i m i l a r materials now exceeds 32,000
volumes, and includes genealogies from
v i r t u a l l y a l l parts of China. Similar
g i f t s from library patrons largely here
in the United States have enriched the
collection with many rare, unique, and
valuable items.
Following an i n i t i a l project at Harvard,
a number of Chinese microfilm projects
have been undertaken i n well-known l i -
brary collections. To date, clan gene-
alogies, local histories, and c i v i l ser-
vice examination l i s t s have been micro-
filmed at the following institutions:
Harvard-Yenching Library
Central National Library (Seoul)
National Diet Library (Tokyo)
Toyo Bunko (Tokyo)
Naikaku Bunko (Now part of the National
Archives of Japan)
Fung Ping Shan Library, University of
Hong Kong
East Asian L i b r a r y , U n i v e r s i t y of
California (Berkeley)
East Asian Library, Columbia University
Far Eastern L i b r a r y , U n i v e r s i t y of
Chicago
East Asia L i b r a r y , U n i v e r s i t y of
Washington
East Asian Library, University of Hawaii
With the view toward completing the
collection, microfilms have been
purchased from the following l i b r a r i e s :
814b/Telford
National Central Library (Taiwan)
Library of Congress
B r i t i s h Library, Dept. of Oriental Books
and Manuscripts
Adademia Sinica (Taiwan)
Kyoto University Library
P r i v a t e l y owned genealogies have also
been sought, and seme 2,200 items have
been microfilmed in Taiwan and Hong Kong
with more to cane. In addition, a small
number of privately-owned Chinese gene-
alogies have been collected i n Southeast
Asia and the United States. In short,
the object has been to obtain a copy of
any unduplicated Chinese genealogy, local
history, and examination l i s t wherever
available.
LOCAL HISTORIES OR GAZETTEERS
The value of local gazetteers for re-
search into many facets of Chinese
history has long been recognized. Their
value as sources for biographical data on
m i l l i o n s of i n d i v i d u a l s and p r i c e l e s s
information on l o c a l place names and
h i s t o r i c a l events make them e s s e n t i a l
sources for family historians and gene-
alogists. The Society has prepared and
has available in both English and Chinese
a research paper describing the various
sections included i n the gazetteers that
are l i k e l y ^to prove useful to family
historians. Given the s i z e of the
Society's collection of these materials,
gazetteers are available for nearly every
part of China. Table 1 (at end of paper)
summarizes the total number of t i t l e s i n
the microfilm collection broken down by
province. Each t i t l e includes ten
volumes on the average and takes up one
or more r o l l s of microfilm.
The above table also r e f l e c t s the
S o c i e t y ' s plans to purchase from the
Library of Congress almost four-hundred
t i t l e s that have not been microfilmed
elsewhere. When the Library of Congress
t i t l e s have been completed, the microfilm
c o l l e c t i o n w i l l include v i r t u a l l y a l l
a v a i l a b l e Chinese l o c a l gazetteers
outside the People's Republic of China.
2
While clan or lineage genealogies consti-
tute the major source m a t e r i a l f o r
Chinese family historians and genealo-
gists, their research value i n other dis-
ciplines has only begun to be realized.
Scholars have shown that clan genealogies
can be a valuable source for research
into Chinese history, and anthropolo-
gists have begun to recognize £heir value
in certain types of research. Demogra-
phic historians have also recently dis-
covered the usefulness of clan genealo-
gies for information on historical popu-
lations. The size, generational depth,
and type of information included i n clan
genealogies vary a great deal. Some i n
the microfilm collection number less than
twenty pages, while others run into the
tens of volumes. The genealogy of the
descendants of Confucius i s the largest
i n the collection and contains some 150
volumes and includes families i n nearly
every province of China. Most of the
genealogies microfilmed i n the various
l i b r a r y c o l l e c t i o n s are printed books
averaging 10 volumes per t i t l e . On the
other hand, most of the genealogies col-
lected i n special projects from private
individuals i n Taiwan, Hong Kong, South-
east Asia, and the United States are sin-
gle volume manuscripts or recent publica-
tions. Table 2 shows the number of gene-
alogies currently available on microfilm
at the Society.
It should be noted that a large majority
of the multi-volume printed genealogies
come from the lower Yangtze River
provinces of Kiangsu, Chekiang, and
Anhwei, with a significant number also
coming from Kwangtung Province. The
large number of genealogies from Taiwan
and Hong Kong result from the collection
of large numbers of single volume manu-
scripts and recent publications i n those
two areas. However, i n terms of number
of pages and sheer volume of material,
the lower Yangtze provinces still
c o n s t i t u t e the bulk of the Society's
collection of clan genealogies.
814b/Telford
EXAMINATION LISTS
U n t i l the abolition of the traditional
examination system i n 1905, successful
candidates at each of the provincial and
metropolitan c i v i l service examinations
were included with up to three genera-
tions of their ancestory as part of an
o f f i c i a l l y published l i s t . Examination
l i s t s are source materials only for upper
class gentry families and o f f i c i a l s , but
nevertheless include a great deal of
information that may not be available
elsewhere. Available examiniation l i s t s
are mostly for examinations held during
the Ching period (1644-1912), but many
also exist f o r the Ming period
(1368-1644). The society has microfilmed
some 1,700 volumes of these lists,
constituting one of the most complete
collections anywhere.
MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS
As part of most of the m i c r o f i l m pro-
j e c t s , miscellaneous materials have also
been m i c r o f i l m e d . Collected biographies
such as the L i - t a i m i n g - h s i e n l i e h - n u
shih-hsing p ' u , have been filmed as w e l l
as works on personal names, h i s t o r i c a l
geography, p l a c e names, and m a t e r i a l s
d e a l i n g w i t h o f f i c i a l s such as the
Chin-shen ch'uan shu. Other m i s c e l -
laneous m a t e r i a l s such as e u l o g i e s ;
marriage, adoption, and land contracts;
and other scattered items have also been
c o l l e c t e d when they have become a v a i l -
able. A complete inventory of a l l such
i t e m s d e a l i n g w i t h a g i v e n area i s
a v a i l a b l e b y c o n s u l t i n g the l i b r a r y ' s
g
card c a t a l o g .
BOOK COLLECTION
In a d d i t i o n to the m i c r o f i l m c o l l e c t i o n ,
the l i b r a r y also maintains a small book
c o l l e c t i o n of some 2,700 volumes. Re-
c e n t l y p u b l i s h e d f a m i l y h i s t o r i e s and
genealogies and some r e p r i n t s of l o c a l
g a z e t t e e r s are i n c l u d e d as w e l l as
e n c y c l o p e d i a s , language d i c t i o n a r i e s ,
l i b r a r y catalogs, works on personal and
place names, c o l l e c t e d biographies and
3
some p e r i o d i c a l s and monographs on
Chinese h i s t o r y and s o c i e t y , a l l of which
tend to complement the m i c r o f i l m c o l l e c -
t i o n . A few rare printed and manuscript
genealogies have also been acquired from
old book stores i n Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The question of what s p e c i f i c t i t l e s are
a v a i l a b l e at the l i b r a r y i s a c r u c i a l
question, and the l i b r a r y ' s card catalog
can be consulted i n most cases. In
a d d i t i o n to the card catalog and i t s
microfilmed updates a v a i l a b l e by request
through the branch l i b r a r i e s of the main
l i b r a r y , the compilation of an annotated
bibliography of Chinese clan genealogies
on m i c r o f i l m at the Society i s currently
i n progress. This catalog i s funded by a
N a t i o n a l Endowment f o r the Humanities
research tools grant, and should be com-
pleted and i n p r i n t w i t h i n a year. This
l i s t w i l l include v i r t u a l l y a l l Chinese
c l a n genealogies c u r r e n t l y a v a i l a b l e i n
public c o l l e c t i o n s outside the People's
Republic of China. The majority of these
almost 3,000 clan genealogies have been
l i s t e d i n Akigoro Taga's pioneering work
and i n ^Lo H s i a n g - l i n ' s more r e c e n t
catalog. With the exception of the
c o l l e c t i o n at the U n i v e r s i t y of Tokyo,
I n s t i t u t e of O r i e n t a l C u l t u r e , v i r t u a l l y
a l l t i t l e s l i s t e d i n Taga and Lo are now
a v a i l a b l e at the Society on m i c r o f i l m .
In a d d i t i o n to these t i t l e s , almost en-
t i r e l y of mainland Chinese o r i g i n , there
is a c o l l e c t i o n of some 2,000 t i t l e s of
p r i v a t e l y owned genealogies from Taiwan.
Those interested i n the l a t t e r should
consult tlji(j! l i s t prepared by Wang
Shih-ching. A m a j o r i t y of the nearly
2,000 t i t l e s c u r r e n t l y a v a i l a b l e are
l i s t e d i n Wang's inventory.
There i s no complete l i s t of the Chinese
l o c a l h i s t o r y c o l l e c t i o n , and u n t i l one
i s a v a i l a b l e , the best course would^ie to
consult the Japanese Union Catalog and
Chu S h i h - c h i a ' s Catalog of Chinese L o c a l
H i s t o r i e s i n the L i b r a r y of Congress.
V i r t u a l l y a l l t i t l e s l i s t e d i n these two
catalogs are now a v a i l a b l e or w i l l soon
be a v a i l a b l e at the Society on m i c r o f i l m .
Nine years of m i c r o f i l m i n g has brought
814b/Telford
together i n a single l o c a t i o n the most
complete c o l l e c t i o n of clan genealogies
and l o c a l gazetteers outside the People's
Republic of China. The S o c i e t y ' s current
holdings of over 5,000 l o c a l gazetteers
are nearly double those of the L i b r a r y of
Congress and compares favorably wijiji
any of the large c o l l e c t i o n s i n China.
At the same time, the S o c i e t y ' s holdings
of over 4,900 genealogies are nearly four
times those at Columbia U n i v e r s i t y , and
ten times those o f ^ a n y known s i n g l e
c o l l e c t i o n i n China. A l l indications
4
are t h a t the Chinese c o l l e c t i o n w i l l
continue to grow with current projects i n
Taiwan and microfilming i n other impor-
tant l i b r a r y c o l l e c t i o n s i n the United
States and p o s s i b l y even China adding new
items. Even though the l i b r a r y already
b o a s t s an important c o l l e c t i o n of
valuable Chinese language m a t e r i a l s , we
are confident that the future w i l l see
growth i n the c o l l e c t i o n and that i t w i l l
become even more u s e f u l to s c h o l a r s ,
f a m i l y h i s t o r i a n s , and g e n e a l o g i s t s
alike.
814b/Telford 5

Table 1. Local Gazetteers i n the Genealogical Society Library, By Province.

Titles to be
Titles already Obtained from the
Province Microfilmed Library of Congress Total

General & Misc. 114 0 114

Anhwei 227 18 245
Chahar 44 1 45
Chekiang 415 31 446
Fukien 191 12 203
Heilungkiang 21 2 23
Honan 340 27 367
Hopeh 442 20 462
Hunan 211 15 226
Hupeh 187 18 205
Jehol 10 1 11
Kansu 113 10 123
Kiangsi 260 28 288
Kiangsu 504 43 547
Kirin 22 3 25
Kwangsi 113 5 118
Kwangtung 309 15 324
Kweichow 60 9 69
Liaoning 90 11 101
Manchuria (Northeast) 27 1 28
Mongolia 31 2 33
Ninghsia 17 1 18
Shansi 396 29 425
Shensi 246 24 270
Sikang 21 2 23
Sinkiang 43 3 46
Suiyuan 21 1 22
Szechwan 333 40 373
Taiwan 103 4 107
Tibet 27 0 27
Tsinghai 22 0 22
Yunnan 192 3 195
Mountains and Rivers 41 0 41

Totals 5193 379 5572

814b/Telford 6

Table 2. Chinese Genealogies on Microfilm by Major Geographic Subdivision.

Geographic Subdivision Total Number of Titles

Anhwei 266
Chahar 2
Chekiang 613
Fukien 93
Heilungkiang 1
Honan 39
Hopeh 69
Hunan 48
Hupeh 42
Kansu 1
Kiangsi 47
Kiangsu 858
Kirin 5
Kwangsi 11
Kwangtung 345
Kweichow 11
Liaoning 24
Mongolia 1
Shansi 57
Shantung 89
Shensi 9
Slnkiang 1
Szechwan 8
Taiwan 2041
Yunnan 6
Hong Kong 92
Other (Misc., Multiple Provinces, Unknown) 146
Total 4925
814b/Telford 7

NOTES

^ e n - p ' i n g T i a o , ed., ( ^ ^ s p ) 1918 Hsing-ning T i a o - s h i h t s u - p ' u . d^fT/fftMf) S M

7(1918) M i c r o f i l m r o l l number 207,306.
2
Genealogical Society, Chinese L o c a l H i s t o r i e s As a Source For the
Genealogist, revised 1975 (Research Papers, Series J , No. 3 ) .
3
Wolfram Eberhard, Social Mobility i n Traditional China, (Leiden, 1962).
4
Johanna Meskill, "The Chinese Genealogy as a Research Source", Family and
Kinship i n Chinese Society, ed. Maurice Freedman (Stanford, Ca., 1970).
^Ts'ui-jung Liu, "Chinese Genealogies as a Source for the Study of Historical
Demography," Studies and Essays i n Commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of Academia
Sinica, (Taipei, Taiwan, 1978), pp. 849-870.

Te-ch'eng K'ung, ed. ( JLÍÍfiSc ) K'ung-tzu shih-chia p'u. ( ji^^^m )g.g

i n
26(1937) grøkfc volumes.
i n
L i - t a i ming-hsien lieh-nu shih-hsing p'u. ( J5f^igg?!j;&"fí;í4it ) > 155 #
, published i n 1793. Microfilmed at the University of Hawaii. Chin-shen ch'uan-shu
( féh £ H ), published seasonally throughout the Ching period. Involves thousands
of volumes microfilmed at Columbia University,
g
Some of these items collected in the special projects i n Taiwan have been
listed by Wang Shih-ching i n the catalog cited below.
9 MåMåå M
Akigoro Taga, ( #MtJci;gp), Sofu no kenkyu ( g?if©#f3E) ( Analytic Study of
Chinese Genealogical Books). (Toyo Bunko, Tokyo, 1960).
1(
^Hsiang-lin Lo ( S § # ) . Chung-kuo tsu-p'u yen-chiu (^HS^fPf^ ) (A Study of
Chinese Genealogies). (Institute of Chinese Culture, Hong Kong, 1971).

UShih-ching Wang, and Chin-yun Wang ( l i f e It , ïEMWk )> "T'ai-wan kung-ssu

ts'ang tsu-p'u mu-lu ch'u-kao" ( M M & % M M B M )» T'ai-wan wen-hsien ( ^ M ^ M
i n

), (1978) vol. 29, no. 4.

12
National Diet Library, (pgygfftti) Chugoku Chihoshi sogo mokuroku (^Mk^Të
(A Union Catalog of Chinese Local Gazetteers i n 14 Major Libaries and Research
Institutes in Japan). (Tokyo, 1969).
13
Shih-chia Chu. ( ^ ± ) Kuo-hui t'u-shu-kuan ts'ang Chung-kuo fang-chih
mu-lu (HIIIBBill ) (A Catalog of Chinese Local Histories i n the Library of
Congress). (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1942).
14
Chu, 1942. Chu l i s t s a total of 2939 t i t l e s i n this catalog for the Library
of Congress.

Shih-chia, Chu, Chung-kuo ti-fang chih tsung-lu. ( 4 II ife ^ M U i i

15 1
)•
(Shanghai, Shang-wu Publishing Co., 1958). Chu l i s t s a total of 7,413 separate t i t l e s
in a l l the collections cataloged by this l i s t . With roughly 5,500 t i t l e s , the Society
has approximately 75 percent of a l l t i t l e s available i n Chinese libraries already on
microfilm.
 EAST ASIAN FAMILY SOURCES:
THE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF UTAH COLLECTION: JAPAN

K e n j i Suzuki

Born i n Japan. Resides i n Hunter, Utah. Group manager, F i e l d Operations Services,

Genealogical Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S a i n t s . M.A.
(applied l i n g u i s t i c s ) , Brigham Young U n i v e r s i t y .

INTRODUCTION heraldic organizations and lineage

The Japanese g e n e a l o g i c a l and f a m i l y
h i s t o r y c o l l e c t i o n of the Genealogical
Society of Utah (hereafter r e f e r r e d to as
GSU) i s a developing c o l l e c t i o n . Since
1967 when the Society f i r s t purchased
f i v e r o l l s of microfilmed genealogy of
the court nobles, "Kugyo Kaden" foilf ^),7
a v a r i e t y of records have been added to
the c o l l e c t i o n . Presently,the c o l l e c t i o n
exceeds 7,000 r o l l s of m i c r o f i l m , which
i s equivalent to 39,600 volumes of 300
pages each. We expect t h i s to increase
at a gradual pace as time progresses.
Japanese v i s i t o r s to the s o c i e t y ' s l i -
brary have f r e q u e n t l y been surprised by
the broad range of records gathered by
the GSU. Many of them would expect the
c o l l e c t i o n to consist mainly of elaborate
genealogical tables and pedigree charts
of a r i s t o c r a t s , c o u r t n o b l e s , f e u d a l
l o r d s , e t c . While a number of such com-
p i l e d genealogical records e x i s t i n the
c o l l e c t i o n , the society i s interested i n
and has acquired a much broader-based
c o l l e c t i o n of genealogical records. This
confusion i s p a r t i a l l y due to the use of
the name, Utah Keizu Kyökai &~f&)% t&4v* )
(The Genealogical Society of Utah). The
word, keizu ( £ få ) or kakeizu
) or K e i f u ( & | # ) , has
t r a d i t i o n a l l y been used as an English
equivalent of the word genealogy. The
k ö j i e n ( MytftfL ) defines the generic
term keizu as a chart or table that
records the lineage from ancestors to
suceeding g e n e r a t i o n s . Thus many
Japanese patrons a s s o c i a t e the Gene-
a l o g i c a l S o c i e t y o f Utah w i t h o t h e r
societies.
Those who have v i s i t e d the Genealogical
Society of Utah's l i b r a r y , discover that
i t s h o l d i n g s i n c l u d e broader source
materials that i d e n t i f y i n d i v i d u a l s i n
h i s t o r i c a l populations. Examples of
these holdings i n c l u d e : c i v i l regis-
trations, census schedules, parish
r e g i s t e r s , bishops' t r a n s c r i p t s , land
records, probate records, tax records,
n o t a r i a l r e c o r d s , f a m i l y and l o c a l
h i s t o r i e s , and even t r a n s c r i p t s and
pedigrees constructed from orally
transmitted genealogical information.
I t may be appropriate to define "gene-
a l o g i c a l s o u r c e " i n broader terms to
provide a more s u i t a b l e framework f o r
understanding our holdings and a c q u i s i -
tion strategies. To us, a genealogical
source i s a r e c o r d which p r o v i d e s
s u b s t a n t i a l evidence ( i . e . , names dates,
p l a c e s , r e l a t i o n s h i p s , e t c . ) f o r the
reconstruction of f a m i l i e s and the unique
i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of h i s t o r i c a l populations.
Although we have i d e n t i f i e d twenty-eight
sources of g e n e a l o g i c a l v a l u e i n our
major source paper on Japan, many of
these do not adequately cover a large
segment of the h i s t o r i c a l population, are
o n l y m a r g i n a l at best i n terms of
e v i d e n c e , and are not a v a i l a b l e i n
s u f f i c i e n t quantities to be s i g n i f i c a n t .
Four basic records types do, however,
meet these c r i t e r i a . These i n c l u d e :
household r e g i s t e r s ( k o s e k i ) , Buddhist
death registers (kakocho), Census
surveillance records (Shümonchö,
 nlnbetuchö", gonlngumichö) and compiled
f a m i l y sources ( k a f u , k e i z u , etc.)
Before discussing our holdings, a b r i e f
i n t r o d u c t i o n to these records i n terms of
coverage, format, reliability, and
a v a i l a b i l i t y i s appropriate.
1 HOUSEHOLD REGISTRATIONS (KOSEKI) f | |
The modern household r e g i s t r a t i o n system
of c i v i l r e g i s t r a t i o n began i n 1872. The
s o - c a l l e d J i n s h i n Koseki system (1872-
1886 s t y l e ) was established by the M e i j i
government as part of i t s r e s t o r a t i o n
p o l i c y to promote the s o c i a l order, to
smooth the a d m i n i s t r a t i o n of v a r i o u s
d u t i e s , and to a c c u r a t e l y grasp the
n a t u r e of the c o n s i t i t u e n c y . The
Japanese household r e g i s t e r s are c o n -
sidered to be one of the most unique and
comprehensive v i t a l records i n the world
i n terms of the amount of information
contained. I n a d d i t i o n to r e q u i r i n g
v i t a l information such as the permanent
domicile, name, age, marriage, adoption,
e t c . , informational items such as occupa-
t i o n , seal impression, r e l i g i o u s a f f i l i -
a t i o n , c r i m i n a l record, and s o c i a l status
were a l s o r e q u i r e d f o r a d m i n i s t r a t i v e
purposes. During the years 1898, 1914,
and 1948 major revisions were made i n the
system.
By law, a l l Japanese c i t i z e n s l i v i n g i n
Japan and abroad are required to submit a
n o t i f i c a t i o n report to the l o c a l c i v i l
j u r i s d i c t i o n w i t h i n a prescribed period
a f t e r a v i t a l event or change or status
has occurred. The contents vary some-
what, depending on when the records were
created, but can include information on
the f o l l o w i n g : the p a t r i a r c h of the
f a m i l y , status of the f a m i l y , permanent
d o m i c i l e , head of h o u s e h o l d , spouse,
c h i l d r e n , date and p l a c e of b i r t h ,
marriage and death, date of d i v o r c e , name
of natural parents or adoption, disap-
pearance, date and reason f o r entry or
removal from the r e g i s t e r , r e l a t i o n s h i p ,
sex, and creation of a branch f a m i l y .
While the 1898- and 1914-type k o s e k i
contain extensive references to house-
holds or extended f a m i l i e s , the present
1948 version i s l i m i t e d to the nuclear
family or to a couple and t h e i r minor
children.
On 15 June 1976 the National Diet of
Japan passed legislation revising
portions of the c i v i l law dealing with
koseki. The more s a l i e n t points of the
law are as f o l l o w s :
1. Any person applying f o r a copy of
abstract of h i s koseki must explain or
o t h e r w i s e c l a r i f y the purpose and
intent of h i s request unless he i s
specifically exempt under the
d i r e c t i v e s of the M i n i s t r y of J u s t i c e .
Any request deemed inappropriate or
unnecessary could be r e j e c t e d .
2 . The p e r u s a l of a copy of e x p i r e d
koseki ( j o s e k i ) ( % jfjj ) i s
expressly
prohibited. The i s s u i n g of an
a f f i d a v i t r e l a t i v e to the contents of
an expired koseki can be made only
upon request of those who are included
i n the document i t s e l f or by an
i n d i v i d u a l who i s a d i r e c t - l i n e
descendant.
In essence, the aforementioned enactment
would make access to the records exceed-
ingly d i f f i c u l t . Needless to say, i t
closes the door to the microfilming of
e x i s t i n g records by organizational groups
such as the Genealogical Society of Utah.
A l t h o u g h we do not have the r e c o r d s
themselves, we do have a small c o l l e c t i o n
of archive sheets containing f o r t y to
f i f t y thousand names reconstructed mainly
from t h i s source. These sheets contain
genealogical information on i n d i v i d u a l s
and reconstructed f a m i l i e s of IDS Church
members.
BUDDHIST DEATH REGISTER (KAKOCHO) j f t f c f k
The kakocho" i s a death r e g i s t e r kept by
the Buddhists f o r the purpose of ances-
t r a l veneration. The deceased are
m e m o r i a l i z e d through e n t r y i n t o the
kakocho, which means l i t e r a l l y "book of
the past," and through periodic o b l a -
tions. The e a r l i e s t known kakocho dates
814c/Suzuki
from as early as the thirteenth century
though the practice was limited and i s
apparently quite different from the way
i t later evolved. Relatively few kakocho
survived the c i v i l war period of 1467-
1569, so i t is d i f f i c u l t to determine the
extent of the practice of venerating the
dead through recording their death date
and assigning a posthumous name. By the
latter half of the seventeenth century,
when the general population was forced to
a f f i l i a t e with local Buddhist temples and
in seme cases with Shinto Shrines to
demonstrate they were not Christians, the
kakocho became strongly established
throughout Japan i n conjunction with
practices of ancestor veneration.
Although the contents and format of the
kakocho may vary somewhat depending on
the sect and the priest who recorded the
death, the information given i s generally
limted. The two basic facts included are
the posthumous names (ýtjb < i£ ) of the
deceased and the death date. The post-
humous or Buddhist vow name is a r e l i -
gious name given to the deceased by a
priest. It contains a suffix or marker
that identifies the sex and which may
help in determining whether the deceased
was an adult, child, or infant. Death
dates are not always complete. Some l i s t
only the day of the month or the day and
month but not the year, etc. In more
complete kakocho records, further infor-
mation is given such as: common name of
the deceased, age at death, family
r e l a t i o n s h i p , and sometimes cause of
death and other pertinent biographical
information.
The size of the kakocho seems to vary
greatly depending on the locality and the
age of the temple. According to a survey
of 251 temples in the G£fu Prefecture by
Dr. K i n ' i t s u H i r a t e , there are an
average of 1,000 to 2,000 death entries
per temple. Larger temples may exceed
20,000 entries.
There are e s s e n t i a l l y three d i f f e r e n t
formats in the kakocho. The f i r s t type
of kakocho" l i s t s the deaths chronologi-
cally^ The second type, called higuri
arranges the deceased by the day of the
3
month for convenience i n r i t u a l obser-
vations. The third type i s arranged i n
such a way that the pertinent information
is pulled together to represent household
units. These are not as common but pro-
vide additional family information useful
for reconstructing the family pedigree.
One of the major drawbacks of the kakocho
as a genealogical research source i s the
briefness of the information. Unlike the
koseki, the relationship has to be care-
f u l l y drawn, and other pertinent events
and biographical information have to be
supplemented from other sources to build
an indepth family history.
On the other hand, the kakocho i s
believed to be more reliable than other
secondary sources of the same period.
One reason for this i s that the kakocho
is recorded for r i t u a l purposes immed-
iately after the death of an individual
by a priest who i s often familiar with
patrons of the temple and circumstances
of his death. The other reason i s that
the kakocho" was recorded and maintained
for religious purposes to venerate the
dead, and there was no need to alter or
f a l s i f y the information.
In spite of i t s r e l i a b i l i t y , continuous
coverage over an extended period of time,
i t s inclusion of a broad spectrum of the
population, and the r e l a t i v e l y large
amounts of records s t i l l i n existence,
the kakocho" has been largely ignored by
serious scholars u n t i l quite recently.
The Japan R a c i a l Hygiene Association
(Nihon Minzoku E i s e i Gakkaiöf ,
is probably the single largest organiza-
tion that has started to examine this
source i n a systematic method. In 1965
they organized the Kokocho Research
Committe to organize and improve research
methodology and to promote the preserva-
tion of kakocho" records. The committee,
founded by the late Dr. Koki Abe
appointed a group of medical doctors to
be the focal point of their activites i n
specific regions of Japan.
From our own research, the Genealogical
Society has become cognizant of the
 814c/Suzuki
i n v a l u a b l e h e r i t a g e and i n f o r m a t i o n
represented i n the kakocho and i s anxious
to do i t s part i n preserving t h i s source.
We have started to organize p i l o t pro-
j e c t s i n parts of Japan.
S i n c e t h e r e are an e s t i m a t e d 8 0 , 0 0 0 -
86,000 Buddhist temples i n Japan, a c -
cording to recent shükyö nenkan (^ÍM-'tSz-)
and other sources, there i s much to be
done i n i d e n t i f y i n g the respective
temples and t h e i r records. This w i l l , of
course, take many years and require the
cooperation of the various s e c t s , the
r e s p e c t i v e temple p r i e s t s , and many
concerned i n d i v i d u a l s . Since our present
procedure i s to i d e n t i f y , negotiate, and
f i l m one temple at a time, i t i s both
c o s t l y and time-consuming. I t i s hoped
t h a t we may be a b l e to e n l i s t the
cooperation of concerned i n d i v i d u a l s and
institutions to embark on a more
ambitious project to f i l m and preserve
these v a l u a b l e records for future
generations.
CENSUS-SURVEILLANCE RECORDS ^tøtfc.,A9J1fc
The E x a m i n a t i o n o f R e l i g i o n R e g i s t e r
(shumon aratame cho or shumon cho f o r
short), the I n d i v i d u a l Examination
Register (ninbetsu chö) and the Register
of Five-Man U n i t s (goningumi cho) could
all be c l a s s i f i e d i n t o one g e n e r i c
category c a l l l e d census-surveillance
records. They came i n t o existence
because of a Tokugawa government p o l i c y
exluding Christian and foreign
influences. The r e g i s t r a t i o n o f the
masses began i n the m i d d l e of the
seventeenth century and continued u n t i l
the M e i j i r e s t o r a t i o n w i t h v a r y i n g
degrees of completeness.
As stated e a r l i e r , the general p u b l i c was
r e q u i r e d to r e g i s t e r t h e i r r e l i g i o u s
a f f i l i a t i o n w i t h the l o c a l Buddhist
temple or i n some cases with the Shinto
shrine. The c e r t i f i c a t e of t h i s parish
a f f i l i a t i o n (shumon aratame chö") was made
by the p r i e s t and c e r t i f i e d by the l o c a l
c i v i l a u t h o r i t y . The ban on C h r i s t i a n i t y
was vigourously enforced and those who
were found g u i l t y were put to death,
4
e s p e c i a l l y a f t e r the r e b e l l i o n of the
C h r i s t i a n s at Shimabara ( J l & r t í L ) in
1638. Ninbetsu chö and goningumi cho are
v a r i a t i o n s of the shumon chö and were
used as a combination census and police
or s u r v e i l l a n c e record r e s p e c t i v e l y . The
l a t t e r was compiled to set up control of
the population and to deter misconduct
w i t h i n the neighborhood g r o u p s , which
consisted of the f i v e - f a m i l y unit and
which shared r e s p o n s i b l i t y and account-
a b i l i t y f o r each other's conduct.
The Census-surveillance records c o l l e c -
t i v e l y describe the state of the l o c a l
community and include various
information. The shumon chö" gives the
names of f a m i l y members, the age, sex,
r e l a t i o n s h i p , l o c a t i o n of the f a m i l y
temple, number of residents, and
confirmation of parishioner a f f i l i a t i o n .
The ninbetsu chö give the l o c a l i t y and
date of the document created, name, age,
sex, r e l a t i o n s h i p , status of household
members, e t c . The goningumi chö gives
the l o c a l i t y , date, chief of group, name,
s e a l , and amount of tax, e t c .
Unlike the kakocho, which reference to
s p e c i f i c v i t a l events but shows sketchy
f a m i l y r e l a t i o n s h i p s , census-surveillance
r e c o r d s do i d e n t i f y household u n i t s .
This d i f f e r e n c e i s quite s i g n i f i c a n t when
we c o n s i d e r t h a t d u r i n g the Tokugawa
period commoners were not allowed to use
t h e i r surname, the key i d e n t i f i e r o f
lineage i n most genealogical research.
The C e n s u s - S u r v e i l l a n c e r e c o r d s are
considered to be very r e l i a b l e and have
been used extensively by historians and
demographers.
Unfortunately, only a r e l a t i v e l y small
percentage (much smaller than f o r the
kakocho) of these records have survived,
most o f which are now m a i n t a i n e d by
various p u b l i c and private r e p o s i t o r i e s .
I t i s indeed r a r e to f i n d complete
census-surveillance records covering a
v i l l a g e or v i l l a g e s over the e n t i r e
Tokugawa p e r i o d , or at least from t h e i r
inception. There are s t i l l records that
have yet to be discovered.
The Genealogical Society of Utah has been
814c/Suzuki
greatly interested i n t h i s f i r s t - c l a s s
genealogical record and has microfilmed a
s i g n i f i c a n t number of them. They plan to
c o n t i n u e a c q u i r i n g them wherever pos-
sible. Column 3 o f the appendix
i l l u s t r a t e s the geographical d i s t r i b u t i o n
of the census-surveillance records
c o l l e c t e d by the GSU thus f a r .
COMPILED GENEALOGY (KAFU) % Jf"
4 gunsho r u i j ü
There are a number of f a m i l y genealogies
and pedigree charts i n private and p u b l i c
collections. They vary considerably i n
terms of a c c u r a c y , c o v e r a g e , size,
format, and the time period covered. As
with other secondary sources, the users
of t h i s source must be aware of i t s
limitations. In countries l i k e Japan,
where the " l i n e a g e " has played a
s i g n i f i c a n t r o l e f o r many centuries i n
d e t e r m i n i n g the p o l i t i c a l and s o c i o -
economic status of i n d i v i d u a l s , pedigrees
and genealogies were f r e q u e n t l y expolited
and ^n many cases f a b r i c a t i o n s were
made.
V e r i f i c a t i o n of evidence i s a must when
using secondary sources, but v e r i f y i n g
i n f o r m a t i o n from these r e c o r d s is
d i f f i c u l t and sometimes impossible due to
the lack of primary source documents.
The patrons of the l i b r a r y are cautioned
to use d i s c r e t i o n and proper research
methodology i n using these records to
extend pedigrees.
The Genealogical Society of Utah acquires
compiled genealogies, f a m i l y h i s t o r i e s ,
and c o l l e c t e d biographies as supplemental
sources along with some primary source
documents. They have acquired a m a j o r i t y
of the standard genealogical works such
as: shinsen s h ö j i r o k u Jjf - f & é t ^ gene-
alogies of 1182 noble f a m i l i e s compiled
i n the year 815; sonpi bunmayku jj^ jg-frnjfc
(Genealogies of main and branch
f a m i l i e s ) ; compiled genealogies of the
imperial f a m i l y , and other court nobles
to the fourteenth century; kugyo bunin
(records of appointment of court nobles)
which l i s t s the i n d i v i d u a l s who were
appointed to posts of i m p e r i a l advisors
(sangi or above), and those conferred of
5
ranks from j u n i o r t h i r d ; Han kan f u
( g e n e a l o g i e s of the f a m i l i e s of 337
feudel lords between 1600 and 1680 with a
f i e f of over 10,000 koku); kansei chöshü
s h o k a f u % i < j . t ø N & ( g e n e a l o g i e s of feudal
l o r d s , s a m u r a i , p h y s i c i a n s , and o t h e r
prominent i n d i v i d u a l s to 1798; j i g e kaden
(genealogies of low r a n k i n g court
o f f i c i a l s ) ; shokeden | $ & t ø \ (family
h i s t o r i e s of various court nobles to the
1760s; gunsho r u i j u 1
» a**z o k u
% ||.$£. ( c o l l e c t i v e work
compiled by H o k i i c h i Hanawa i n c l u d i n g
genealogies of prominent f a m i l i e s ) .
OTHER RECORD SOURCES
In a d d i t i o n to these major types, the GSU
has a wide v a r i e t y of reference materials
i n c l u d i n g books on genealogical research
and methodology, gazetteers, b i o g r a p h i c a l
and place name d i c t i o n a r i e s , and volumes
on f a m i l y c r e s t s , naming p r a c t i c e s , and
surnames. P a t r o n s who w i s h to g a i n
background i n f o r m a t i o n about c e r t a i n
l o c a l i t i e s can also consult the GSU's
extensive l o c a l h i s t o r y c o l l e c t i o n .
In the previous section we examined a
broader d e f i n i t i o n of the term "gene-
a l o g i c a l r e c o r d s , " which the GSU i s
pursuing, and also reviewed the nature of
the major g e n e a l o g i c a l r e c o r d sources
a v a i l a b l e i n Japan. A b r i e f d e s c r i p t i o n
of GSU holdings was o u t l i n e d , based on
four record types.
In t h i s section we w i l l b r i e f l y review
the h i s t o r y o f the GSU's a c q u i s i t i o n
p o l i c i e s regarding Japan and show the
c u r r e n t s t a t u s o f f i l m i n g and r e c o r d
a c q u i s i t i o n as i t r e l a t e s to each
prefecture.
I t must be pointed out that we have
turned our a t t e n t i o n t o Japan o n l y
r e c e n t l y and that our c o l l e c t i o n i s s t i l l
comparatively s m a l l . The f i r s t phase of
our a c q u i s i t i o n program, from 1967 to
1973, was mainly exploratory. The s t a f f
( c o n s i s t i n g of one or two i n d i v i d u a l s
a s s i g n e d to the g e n e r a l A s i a n a r e a ) ,
spent the m a j o r i t y of t h e i r e f f o r t s i n
i d e n t i f y i n g and i n v e s t i g a t i n g the major
814c/Suzuki 6

sources. In 1973 we entered a new phase Hokkaido i L >3-j£.

by starting to actively negotiate to film
records i n Japan proper; filming took
place as soon as permissions were ob-
tained and usually where a wide spectrum
of records of enough volume could justify
setting up the equipment and moving the
camera operator. The reference collec-
t i o n was also expanded through the
purchase of printed materials and the
filming of certain materials. In 1978
the society entered a new phase i n Japan.
A micrographics lab was set up and the
operation then achieved greater indepen-
dence. There was a new emphasis on being
more selective and on obtaining sources
of direct rather than peripheral value to
our stated purpose of uniquely identi-
fying historical populations and family
reconstruction. As a result, the society
has focused on record sources such as:
census-surveillance records M l 7^4
M'Hffe., J-Atørø, Buddhist death registers'
aIU
(iSl&ffe. ) * certain compiled gene-
alogy sources.
Hokkaido i s s t i l l an untapped territory.
Holdings are limited mainly to reference
materials including sixty-one t i t l e s of
local histories.
Aomori-Ken | &<!f;
Our f i f t y - f o u r r o l l s of Hachinohe Muni-
c i p a l L i b r a r y c o l l e c t i o n ( / Y ^ j t f å :f )
i n c l u d e s compiled g e n e a l o g i e s , buk an
(book of heraldry) of the Hachinohe and a
c o l l e c t i o n of t h i r t y - s i x volumes of
kinkóchö (status records of the
retainers) of the Hachinohe-han (/V? %• ) .
They a l s o i n c l u d e v a r i e t y of f a m i l y
records of the following f a m i l i e s :
c*r-ia*c^tø*****,jfe^suf,
*.T% VoJLtVi V l ^ i

The following i s a summary of the GSU's

acquisition projects as of June 1980. I t Iwate-Ken £ ^ ;f
identifies, by prefecture, the reposi-
tories where we have filmed, the type and Buddhist death r e g i s t e r s and census sur-
amount of the records filmed, and other v e i l l a n c e records from Iwai-gun )
pertinent information. This description and I c h i n o s e k i - s h i ( - Y | \ ^ ) are recent
must be kept to a minimum due to the a d d i t i o n s to the l i b r a r y and i n c l u d e
nature of this presentation. Onodera mon jo O h f f ^ l ) , 1642-1867;
Abe Ryö mon jo ( f f f | ? f c £ | ), eighty-five
volumes; shudö mon jo ( | j & l f ) , eighty
There are s t i l l many prefectures where t i t l e s ; and chiba monjo ( <f %% )>
filming has not materialized. This does twenty-two t i t l e s , e t c .
not mean, however, there are no records
from the prefecture or i t s people. In Over 39,000 pages of Surveillance records
many cases, records acquired i n Tokyo or such as k i r i s h i t a n ruizoku zonmei chö
other parts of Japan make references to y
(X'iïf &t%& b<fåd o r
r e g i s t e r s of s u r v i v i n g
the prefecture i n question. Those who relatives of Christians is quite
are interested i n specific areas of Japan impressive.
are advised to consult the indirect entry
of the dictionary card catalog. For Miyagi-Ken % «$\
example, kakocho, from Sendai-shi
can be located in the DCC under: The GSU has a major concentration of
r e c o r d s from M i y a g i P r e f e c t u r e . Our
Japan, Miyagi Ken, Sendai-shi-Buddhist c o l l e c t i o n of 234 r o l l s of m i c r o f i l m from
records and/or v i t a l records. The the Miyagi P r e f e c t u r a l L i b r a r y fåtMt-tøHfå)
prefectures are sequenced according to includes many genealogies and family h i s -
the GSU's area geographical codes and t o r i e s of the Lord Date f a m i l y O / i i . ' ^ )
generally arranged geographically from and t h e i r clansmen of Sendai-han (V)S>^)
north to south and from east to west. a l o n g w i t h a number of supplemental
814c/Suzuki 7

materials. They also contain l o c a l contains local histories and reference

histories and collective biographies from materials only.
the neighboring prefectures. Other
repositories include the Saitö Höonkai Tochigi-Ken tffi ^ J f \
a n d t h e
( $ r i ^ f & ^ ^ )> Sendai Municipal
Library (tø&ij>gUU % f $ ). A significant Same as above except for s i x r o l l s of
number of Kakocho dating from 1680 have miscellaneous family documents from the
:
been acquired from ouver twenty temples Watabe family ( / L ÍK ), the Saitö
i n Sendai City and neighboring communi- family ( Ij-jffi |c ), and the Kimura family
ties as part of a pilot study. Forty ( $>W ) of Utsumoniya City.
volumes of Shumon chö from Shibata-gun
( )» covering 1776 to 1843 have Gunma-Ken
also been acquired.
This i s an untapped area and the
collection includes local histories and
Akita-Ken -j^ys f s
reference materials only.

Over 150 r o l l s of microfilm are available Saitama-Ken í^i^ D^,

from the Akita Prefectual Library (fåfå.i
>H"H$). this collection includes 5000
items previously owned by the Lord Satake
(fi-ff ) of Akita-han, as well as a
massive series of family genealogies
entitled Genroku Kaden Mon jo O t t ^ f e ^ ),
Kyodo Shiryff ( ^ j - ^ f - j j ) and Sho shi
Keizu ) from the neighboring
prefectures. Genroku kaden monjo i s a
collection of 2,495 family genealogies
that were submitted to the Akita Han
o f f i c i a l s concerned about the confusion
and disorder of lineage prevalent among
retainers. The collection i s an extant
part of the larger collections that were
compiled during Genroku and Hoei period
tøf* & K ) 1688-1710.
Yamagata-Ken J.| ,f,
There have been no major a c q u i s i t i o n
projects here y e t . The c o l l e c t i o n
contains local histories and reference
materials only.
Fukushima-Ken få j}-.
There have been no major acquisitions
projects here as yet. The collection
contains local histories and reference
materials only.
Ibaragi-Ken Jfc í^íf;
There have been no major acquisitions
projects here as yet. The collection
We have a small collection of shumon chö
(.?-r^#L ) from years 1845, 1851, ana"
1867 from Iwatsuki City (%P$L^ ).
Chiba-Ken -f f
We have a small collection (thirty-two
íé
t i t l e s ) of Shumon chö ( jf.) \ ) from
the Funabashi Municipal Library (Jdt^^ý^
Tokyo-
Over 2.3 m i l l i o n pages of a v a r i e t y of
records have been acquired thus f a r and
many more are being added from major
r e p o s i t o r i e s i n Tokyo. The l i s t of
r e p o s i t o r i e s where f i l m i n g has taken
place includes: The N a t i o n a l Diet
L i b r a r y ( J f l j U S ^ S f t ø ) , the National
t h e
Archives of Japan ( t ø i - t t i ^ ^
Tokyo University Historiographic
Institute
U n i v e r s i t y Criminal Museum 0>tø£?pif$$tåi),
Keio U n i v e r s i t y Old Document o f f i c e
5 ^ 1 j£- )> and Edogawa Ward L o c a l History
e t c
Archives ( V l M M * ^ $ # H $ )> -
Over 800 r o l l s of m i c r o f i l m have been
acquired from the extensive holdings of
the N a t i o n a l D i e t L i b r a r y and the
National Archives converting genealogies,
f a m i l y h i s t o r i e s , c o l l e c t i v e biographies,
books of heraldry ( ) , samurai
status reports ( f r % - f ö < ) , the records of
appointments ( / f $ H ^ ) , c o l l e c t i v e works
 % ) f r o m
aLl- parts of Japan, as well Yamanashi-Ken J-) ^jf- v

as basic reference materials like

gazetteers, place name d i c t i o n a r i e s ,
l o c a l h i s t o r i e s , family c r e s t s , and
genealogical research methodology.
It i s believed that a large percentage of
materials w r i t t e n about genealogy and
related subjects are included i n the
holdings of these two repositories. A
majority of the local histories are also
from these collections.
Eighty-six t i t l e s of rare kakocho and six
t i t l e s of shumon chö" were acquired from
the Tokyo U n i v e r s i t y . An extensive
collection of 489 volumes of census-sur-
veillance records from the Gifu Prefec-
ture during 1674 to 1869 were made
available by the Keio University, as well
as 50 volumes of the shumon cho from
Edogawa Ward Local History Archives. The
M e i j i University collection contains 27
r o l l s or over 34,000 pages of census-
s u r v e i l l a n c e records mainly from the
Kanto-Chubu, Tohoku, and Kyushu areas of
Japan.
Kanagawa-Ken \if £ v \
Our collection includes Buddhist death
registers from three temples and f i f t y
volumes of shumon cho dating from 1738
The fact that we have acquired twenty-
four r o l l s of approximately 42,000 pages
of census-surveillance records from the
Köshü Collection ( f tH ) of the
Yamanashi Prefectural Libary •
covering the years 1601 to 1869, i s
noteworthy.
Nagano-Ken, G i f u - K e n , S h i z u o k a - K e n ,
A i c h i - K e n , S h i g a - K e n , Osaka-Fun,
Hyogo-Ken, M i e - K e n , Wakayama-Ken,
Kyoto-fun, Nara Ken
There have been no acquisitions projects
in any of these prefectures.
Okayama-Ken ^ ^ jfc
The collection from the Okayama City Li-
brary C$i>$$-t0$$| ) consists of gene-
alogies of the former Lord Ikeda
and the clansmen of Okayama Han O^i, ),
as well as local histories and collective
biographies in Kibi gunsho Shïïsei (%%tf
y* I n
addition, Buddhist death
registers and census-surveillance records
numbering over 20,000 pages have been
filmed from Tamano City ) and
several neighboring counties.
Tottori-Ken fa % f s

from the Hatano City Board of Education

Unexplored

Niigata-ken sjtø ^ ^ Hiroshim-Ken ^ ^ j *

The L i b r a r y has acquired f o r t y - e i g h t The Hiroshima City Central Library i s the

volumes of census-surveillance records custodian of genealogies and other
ranging from 1737-1871 from Sanjo and h i s t o r i c a l documents of the former Lord
Nagaoka City (2£t& )• Asano ( y§ ¥f ). We have acquired
t h i r t e e n r o l l s of 27,000 pages of
materials. A few Kakocho were also
Ishikawa-Ken fa iij ^ microfilmed recently.

As this i s unexplored, our Collection Shimane-Ken %M<^

contains reference materials only.
Unexplored
Fukui-Ken få #
Yamagu chi-Ken J,)X7^ V

Same as above except for six volumes of

printed annotations of the census- The GSU's f i r s t and largest collection of
survellance records compiled by Takashi Japanese materials comes from the
Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives. It i s
saku. ^m-A^n^t^
 814c/Suzuki 9

w e l l known that the archive has a superb P r e f e c t u r a l L i b r a r y ( ^ f < H >í> $ ^ ) and

c o l l e c t i o n o f over 130,000 t i t l e s o f the Nomozaki Town O f f i c e tøfcftø?f?4Nf»íí«p.
government and private documents from the This s u r v e i l l a n c e records c o l l e c t i o n i s
former Yamaguchi (J-i v ) , Tokuyama (*-«lt ) , unique and valuable, p a r t l y because of
Iwakini $ © ) , Hagi ) , Fuchü cTrf ) , the completeness of the r e c o r d s , and
Kiyosue, )» Han. The m i c r o f i l m p a r t l y because of the l o c a t i o n . During
holdings at the GSU are extracts from the Tokugawa P e r i o d , Nagasaki was the
t h i s massive c o l l e c t i o n and i n c l u d e only port i n Japan that was allowed Dutch
genealogies of the Lord Mori ( p\ %^ ) and Chinese t r a d e r s under the s t r i c t
and p r i n c i p a l r e t a i n e r s such as Masuda n a t i o n a l i s o l a t i o n p o l i c y and ban on
( ^.tø ) , Fukuhara ( ) , Kikkawa Christianity. I t a l s o had a h i g h
( £ » | ) , Kobayakawa (>)^^\ ) , as w e l l c o n c e n t r a t i o n of J e s u i t C h r i s t i a n i t y .
as 2,595 retainers of f a m i l i e s ( % $ i ) The Nagasaki Prefectual Library
t h a t were submitted d u r i n g eighteen c o l l e c t i o n of 102 volumes of shumon cho
centuries f o r the compilation of o f f i c i a l dating from 1686 and 1873 and the 205
han genealogies. In a d d i t i o n to t h i s , volumes of shumon cho from the Nomozaki
the s o c i e t y has a c q u i r e d over t h r e e town o f f i c e covering the years 1766 to
m i l l i o n pages of supplemental documents 1871 represents one of the best extant
of great v a l u e . collections.

Other r e p o s t o r i e s from Yamaguchi a r e : Okinawa-Ken }<fjtøjf.

Yamaguchi U n i v e r s i t y A r g r i c u l t u r a l De-
f
partment ( JU^tf ~%_? ) , Iwakumi M i s c e l l a n e o u s f a m i l y and h i s t o r i c a l
Chökokan ( % Tg '$L h ^ ) , Shimonoseki documents from Okinawa Ken and the Amami
Monjakan ( f ^ V ^ f í ? )> Nishimura Museum Island Groups ( % % ) were made
5
( T&ff I f i ? ^ ) , Yamaguchi P r e f e c t u a l a v a i l a b l e to us by the U n i v e r s i t y of
Education Archives (J> v jjf, f fcfaff). Hawaii. The major emphasis of these
c o l l e c t i o n s was l i f e s t y l e , customs and
KANAWA-KEN, TOKUSHIMA-DEN, EHIME-KEN h i s t o r y of the south sea islands,
KOCHI-KEN, OITA-KEN, M I Y A Z A K I - K E N , genealogies o f prominent families,
KAGOSHIMA-KEN, KUMAMOTO-KEN Chinese immigrants, and taxation records
of Satsuma han ( fe fíjf ) .
A l l unexplored.

Fukuoka-Ken % % CONCLUSION

Records from the Kyushu U n i v e r s i t y C u l - The G e n e a l o g i c a l S o c i e t y of U t a h ' s

tural History Institute (jm ^ M ^ W ^ s t Í ^ Japanese c o l l e c t i o n i s s t i l l small com-
have been a c q u i r e d which include pared to that of many other countries,
miscellaneous family genealogies, samurai but i s a growing c o l l e c t i o n . The
status r e p o r t s , land records ( fåiH-'få*. ) , approximately 7,000 r o l l s of m i c r o f i l m
and the C h r i s t i a n related materials consist mainly of four types of records:
(fV'i^tø&t ) throughout the Kyüshü 1) Buddhist death r e g i s t e r , 2) census-
Islands i n c l u d i n g : (jb%$X% ^ & - £ f ,
t
s u r v e i l l a n c e records, 3) compiled gene-
a l o g i e s and supplemental and r e s e a r c h
s o u r c e s and 4) r e f e r e n c e m a t e r i a l s .
Saga-Ken h1u \ <f\ A l t h o u g h t h i s i s one of the largest
c o l l e c t i o n s of i t s kind i n the western
This i s unexplored hemisphere, there are s t i l l vast amounts
of records to be i d e n t i f i e d , located, and
Nagasaki-Ken ff, preserved.

An extensive c o l l e c t i o n of s u r v e i l l a n c e Cooperation among governments, l i b r a r i e s ,

records and C h r i s t i a n - r e l a t e d documents a r c h i v e s , e c c l e s i a s t i c a l l e a d e r s , and
have been a c q u i r e d from the Nagasaki concerned c i t i z e n s w i l l be the key to
814c/Suzuki 10

success in preserving the real history of of their l i v e s . The Genealogical Society

the Japanese nation; that i s to say, the of Utah wishes to f u l f i l l i t s small part
valuable records that refer to individual in preserving this v i t a l heritage for
people and record the significant events future generations.

NOTES

For more details on the subject see, Major Genealogical Record Sources in
Japan, (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1973, revised 1976).

^ r a t a , K i n ' i t s u ( ^ ^ t £ i L ) . Kakocho" Kara mita sekijin no jumyö ( ^ J ^ ^ - ^ ^ :

Minzoku eisei ( ) v o l . 29 No. 4, Tokyo, 1963.
3
See Also: Zen Nippon Bukkyö Kai J i i n Meikan Kankö K a i f l & V ^ f T t ^ f ' m f r f ø Z e n -
T a k 1 9 6 3
koku J i i n Meikan °y «
4
Almost a l l of the traditional compiled genealogies i n Japan are household
successions and do not follow the blood l i n e .
"*See a further treatment of this subject by the pioneer genealogist of Japan,
AMra Ota, OSifl ) i n Kakei Keizuno nyumon (%k * X ? ^ ) pp. 316-349 published by:
Jinbutsu Orai sha Tokyo 1967,
814c/Suzuki

it M f:

m # *
g « g

• ísA©£*#

* tt# • í@ A 0 3t»
tf tt# • Í A o i *

is

tt# • í@A©£*
li Tb" M S M £ ïfï i t « *

UJ m *
isa ÜJ ^

É I 1 j£;Eri3Æ4 *ia#ti
4t# • í@A©3Cflï
UJ p * ajp*££#ég
lijn * M 5 * t t

o j p m ^ M S M
814c/Suzuki 12

Pi *

& m
m M fn H & W L i s t o r R e p a t r i a t e s

3 Bí s W- Army Records
( * I« $* ft ) Census
/s TUB S f t # E i£ P e n s i o n Records
* 'J -* t- fie é fC C h r i s t i a n Church Records
I f S f t . l i f Navy Records
fí H Newspapers

f* m Civil Registration
W] S =ÉÍ & M L i s t o f E n s h r i n e d Patriots
^5 F1 3ÍC Wk Examination of R e l i g i o n R e g i s t e r
A SO H I n d i v i d u a l Examination Register
5 A IS ifg R e g i s t e r of F i v e Family U n i t s
A SHI W SÉ ^ C e r t i f i c a t e of Transfer
tti A A A $t itS Record o f E n t r a n c e and E x i t
S M ÍÉ # ± itS Report o f Widows & Widowers
St £ Feudal Lord Heraldry
Samurai S t a t u s Report
( ) Samurai S e r v i c e Records
A£ St Feudal Lord Genealogies
ü 5^ Tombstone I n s c r i p t i o n s
± i ü Ü Records R e l a t i n g to Land
ii£ I t föSf Buddhist Records
"f Samurai Genealogies
m Family H i s t o r y
it W # Wills
( ÅMr ø ) ^ It Genealogies of Court N o b i l i t y
9k # P r i n t e d Genealogies & H i s t o r i e s
W ttBC ^ Shinto Records
814c/Suzuki 13

SUMMARY OF THE JAPANESE RECORD HOLDINGS OF

THE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF UTAH

Buddhist Buddhist Census- Records

Temples Kakocho Surveillance Acquired
Prefecture Indentified in GSU Records in by GSU
by the Zenko Holdings GSU Holdings (Number of
ku J i i n Meikan (Number of (Number of pages)
(Number) pages) pages)

Hokkaido it m Ü 2,238

444 110,000
Aomori-ken IT

626 3,700 39,400 43,000

Iwate-ken

38,100 60,200 1,010,000

Miyagi-ken m» 914

684 329,000
Akita-ken

1,486 0
Yamagata-ken ill

1,517 0
Fukushima-ken m
1,255 0
Ibaraki-ken &

977 6,600
Tochigi-ken m* *

800 800
Gunma-ken m 1,202

0
Saitama-ken m 2,151

2,300 2,300
Chiba-ken m* 2,948

5,000 98,700 2,326,900

Tokyo-to 2,943

2,700 3,000 5,700

Kanagawa-ken nun* 1,881

4,700 4,700
Niigata-ken 9r M * 3,009

0
Toyama-ken 1,743
 8l4c/Suzukl

SUMMARY OF THE JAPANESE RECORD HOLDINGS OF

THE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF UTAH

Buddhist Buddhist Census- Records

Temples Kakocho Surveillance Acquired
Prefecture Indentified i n GSU Records* n by GSU
by the Zenko Holdings GSU Holdings (Number of
ku J i i n Meikan (Number o f (Number of pages)
(Number) pages) pages)

Ishikawa-ken e ill $k 1,425

0

Fukui-ken & # * 1,782

0

Yamanashi-ken lil S! * 1,492 42,000 42,000

Nagano-ker S Wf * 1,603 83,200 0

Gifu-ken tt * * 2,382 1,600 1,600

Shizuoka-ken * W * 2,671 0

Aichi-ken Se ft J i 4,819 0

Mie-ken — S 2,364 0

Shiga-ken » « * 3,108 0

Ky6to-fu SC «5 ÆF 3,048 0

Ösaka-fu * : & fS 3,369 0

Hyögo-ken A ft ft 3,392 0

Nara-ken 3s ê. Jft 1,796 0

Wakayama-ken *nfcüi» 1,587 0

Okayama-ken UU ® 1,394 6,200 14,300 123,400

Tottori-ken * * * 484 0
 814c/Suzuki 15

SUMMARY OF THE JAPANESE RECORD HOLDINGS OF

THE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF UTAH

Buddhist Buddhist Census- Records

Temples Kakocho Surveillance Acquired
Prefecture Indentified in GSU Record?in by GSU
by the Zenko Holdings GSU Holdings (Number of
ku J i i n Mei kar (Number of (Number of pages)
(Number) pages) pages)

Hiroshima-ken J£ & 1,731 600 28,000

Shimane-ken êffi® 1,382 0

Yamaguchi-ken ill n * 1,474 3,256,000

Kagawa-ken # JH * 910 0

Tokushima-ken å * 668 0

Ehime-ken S M * 1,078 0

Kochi-ken £n m 358 0

Sita-ken * # # 1,235 0

Miyazaki-ken ^ * 334 0

Kagoshima-ken 424 0

Kumamoto-ken W * JR 1,201 0

Fukuoka-ken 81 • # 2,372 41,600

Saga-ken £ * * 1,076 0

Nagasaki-ken * 1 * 706 247,100 248,000

Okinawa-ken * « * 31 16,000

H U H
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Family History in Korea:

Yangban Family History
June-ho Song
# Series 816
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conterence
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
Born in Korea. Resides i n Chonju Chonpuk, Korea. Professor of East Asian History,
Chonpuk National University. Ph.D., Harvard University. Author.

INTRODUCTION after these individual records had f i r s t

Everyone immediately thinks of the chokpo
whenever the topic of family records
comes up in Korea. This i s a reflection
of the importance of the chokpo i n Korean
society of the past. But the chokpo i s
far from being merely a h i s t o r i c a l
curiosity. To the contrary, even today
i t i s of considerable interest to a great
many people in Korea, and the production
of this kind of family record i s s t i l l
very much an ongoing activity.
It i s common knowledge that the chokpo
i s not simply a genealogical record of
just one i n d i v i d u a l or h i s family.
Rather, i t i s a joint genealogy of the
entire clan or common descent group (or
at least one of the major subdivisions of
such a group) w i t h i n which this
i n d i v i d u a l or family i s included.
However, the people who were interested
in preserving family records i n Korean
society of the past did not choose from
the very beginning to use the format of a
joint genealogy known as a chokpo for
this purpose. At f i r s t , naturally, they
made records of their own families on an
individual basis. These i n d i v i d u a l
family records became the fundamental
materials from which at a later date
chokpo were compiled. It was only long
begun to be made that those interested i n
family records began to preserve them
j o i n t l y i n the form of the chokpo.
Thus, the chokpo did not really come
into i t s own u n t i l after the^ latter half
of the seventeenth century. Up u n t i l
that time, individual family records of
various types were developed. Not only
that, but even after the chokpo format
had been adopted, i n d i v i d u a l family
records continued to be made and
preserved along with the chokpo. But, by
their very nature these individual family
records had to remain i n a manuscript
rather than printed format. As a
consequence, very few of these kinds of
family records are extant today, and this
had led to the widely held view that the
chokpo i s the only type of family record
developed i n Korea.
Of course, there i s no room for doubt
that the chokpo i s the most representa-
tive form of family record developed i n
Korea. S t i l l , i t must not be forgotten
that individual family records of several
different types were also developed i n
addition to the chokpo. Specifically,
what I mean by individual family records

*This paper i s an attempt to describe i n detail the types of family records kept i n
traditional Korean society as well as their developmental process i n h i s t o r i c a l
context. Although the primary objective of this effort i s to set forth i n an orderly
fashion my understanding of these records themselves, viewed as a legacy of
traditional Korean culture, I hope that the knowledge and insights gained i n this
process w i l l enhance our understanding of the social structure and nature of
traditional Korean society.
816/Song 2

is the kasung, naeoebo, and p'algojodo. record i s the p'algojodo already

Among these, the kasung not only was the mentioned. Although a family record such
very f i r s t to appear but has also been as the p'algojodo presumably could have
the most universal form of family record been made by just anyone, simply because
during a l l periods of Korean history. of the complexities involved, the mere
fact that this type of family record was
The d i s t i n c t i v e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of the developed i n traditional Korean society
chokpo i s i t s pyramidal configuration. i s i n i t s e l f significant.
That i s , the chokpo i s a genealogical
record of a descent group focused on the Family records with the character of a
common ancestor of a clan who thus forms comprehensive j o i n t genealogy, c a l l e d
the apex of a pyramid of which the mansongbo, or some similar name, were
members of the clan at the time of the also produced i n Korea from an early
compilation of the chokpo constitute the period. Just as the chokpo may be
base. Consequently, both i n terms of defined as the joint kasung of one clan
conception and form, the chokpo i s (that i s , the combination of the
e x a c t l y the opposite of the type of individual family records of the members
family record compiled by Westerners of one clan), so the mansongbo and the
which i s always focused on an "ego" whose l i k e are composite genealogies of a l l the
ancestors are discovered by identifying major clans i n Korea. Composite gene-
the parental couples i n ascendant alogies of this kind are s t i l l being
generations. produced i n Korea today just as i n the
past.
Hence, whereas a Western genealogy i s
always focused on an "ego" and reflects
the search for this person's roots, the FAMILY RECORDS OF A DIFFERENT TYPE THAN
chokpo i s focused on the ancestor of a THE CHOKPO
clan and reflects the search for each and
every one of the countless branches which Kasung and Naeoebo
have emerged from this one root. Hence
the primary objective of chokpo A kasung i s a document which records the
compilation i s to identify a l l of the ancestors i n ^;he d i r e c t descent l i n e of
focal ancestor's descendants i n terms of i t s compiler. In some kasung only the
both t h e i r s p e c i f i c descent l i n e , or names of these ancestors and those of
lineage, w i t h i n the c l a n , and t h e i r t h e i r spouses are recorded. Of course,
generation. Therefore, i n the chokpo i n accordance w i t h the customary practice
the existence of an "ego" invariably i s i n Korean f a m i l y r e c o r d s , a woman's
recognized only as one part or member of p e r s o n a l name never a p p e a r s — o n l y her
the whole common descent group. This c l a n seat and surname and the name of her
means that the most important thing i s to father with his o f f i c i a l t i t l e ( i f any).
provide a clear understanding of this In o t h e r c a s e s , however, a d d i t i o n a l
ego's lineage a f f i l i a t i o n and genera- i n f o r m a t i o n such as b i r t h and death
tional standing within the clan through dates, a b r i e f l i f e h i s t o r y , g r a v e s i t e ,
chokpo compilation because a l l of the and names of c h i l d r e n are given f o r each
ego's behavior as well as his relation- ancestor recorded. And, e s p e c i a l l y with
ships with other persons within the clan r e f e r e n c e to spouses, the a d d i t i o n a l
is supposed to be regulated i n accor- i n f o r m a t i o n r e c o r d e d i n kasung may
dance with these two factors. include d e t a i l s such as the names of
t h e i r four ancestors (sajo)—that i s ,
Yet, there are i n fact types of family f a t h e r , grandfather, great-grandfather,
records i n Korea as w e l l which are and maternal grandfather—and the
exactly the same as the Western type h i g h l i g h t s of t h e i r o f f i c i a l c a r e e r s .
(and, therefore, the exact reverse of the Many kasung record a l l the descendants of
chokpo) both i n conception and i n form. the compiler's p a t r i l i n e a l great-great-
A good example of this kind of family grandfather (kojo i n Korean) through the
816/Song
generation a l i v e at the time of the
compilation. C l e a r l y , t h i s p r a c t i c e
reflects the existence of mutual r i t u a l
mourning obligations, according to the
degree of relationship, among a l l the
descendants of this ancestor. Outside
this scope of kinship ties (that i s ,
beyond p'alch'on or the eighth degree of
relationship), the obligation to mourn
ceases and the sense of close kinship
relationship may diminish accordingly.
Due to the varying amounts of information
they record, kasung take various forms.
The simplest type i s one produced i n a
small format. In this case a l l of the
information i s generally recorded on just
one long sheet of paper which i s folded
like an oriental screen. There are also
kasung written completely i n han'gul (the
native Korean s c r i p t ) instead of the
usual Chinese characters, and these were
clearly compiled by women for their own
use. Other kasung, such as the Aphae
Chong-ssi Kasung compiled by Chong
Yag-yong (1762-1836, pen name Tasan) who
was a famous nineteenth-century Korean
scholar, are quite bulky and appear i n
book form. Tasan's kasung i s organized
into two sections, a naep'yon and an
oep'yon. The naep'yon i s a h i g h l y
detailed record of his ancestors' careers
and something close to a chronology
covering each of the ancestors i n h i s
direct descent line from the founder down
to his father. Moreover, citations are
given for the various documentary records
in which these ancestors are mentioned.
Coverage i s particularly extensive for
the tenth-generation ascendant down
through his father. On the other hand,
Tasan records the achievements of the
prominent persons among the ancestors i n
his collateral lines i n the oep'yon.
The question of how f a r back the
compilers of these kasung traced their
ancestry i s of p a r t i c u l a r i n t e r e s t .
From those kasung compiled during the Y i
dynasty which have survived to the
present, a l l of which date from the later
period long after the clan system had
already been institutionalized, i t can be
seen that they were not made by starting
from the bottom and then setting out the
3
descent line by identifying the ancestors
of preceding generations. To the
contrary, the compilers of these kasung
delineated their descent lines from the
top to the bottom by i d e n t i f y i n g
succeeding generations of descendants.
Therefore, as for the question of who the
ultimate ancestor of the compiler of a
kasung was, i t seems clear that the
compiler already had a certain
predecessor clearly i n mind at the time
he began to construct his kasung and
simply designated t h i s person as h i s
founding ancestor ( s i j o i n Korean).
Then, with this ancestor as the starting
point, he merely enumerated a l l the
succeeding generations in the direct line
of descent down to himself.
Here we are immediately confronted wit]j
the problem of determining how this sijo
became the fixed point of reference. Of
course, the sijo designated i n a kasung
was the focal ancestor of the clan to
which the compiler of the kasung
belonged. Therefore, the solution to
this problem hinges on developing a clear
understanding of the clan system. While
much work remains to be done i n this
area, one thing which can reasonably be
assumed at the present stage of our
knowledge i s that there were persons who
kept records of their own families even
before the clan system was f u l l y
i n s t i t u t i o n a l i z e d , and these persons
undoubtedly recorded their ancestry as
far back as they could.
Next I would like to discuss the second
type of individual family record, the
naeoebo. This type of family record i s
made up of two sections, the naebo and
the oebo, and i s therefore designated the
naeoebo. Since the naebo records the
d i r e c t p a t r i l i n e a l ascendants of i t s
compiler, i t i s organized l i k e a kasung.
On the other hand, what is meant by the
oebo i s a c o l l e c t i o n of records of
ancestry for a l l of the spouses of the
succeeding generations of paternal
ancestors who appear i n the compiler's
naebo. Each of these records follows
exactly the same format as the naebo.
Therefore, a oebo i s a naebo from the
viewpoint of the spouse. To put this i n
816/Song
another way, the compiler of a naeoebo
makes a naebo for each of the spouses of
his direct l i n e a l ascendants, which bound
together constitute a oebo from his point
of view. There are not many family re-
cords of the naeoebo type extant today.
Among those I have seen, one called the
Kisong Hwang-Ssi Naeoebo, which was com-
piled by the eighteenth-century scholar
Hwang Yun-sok (1729-91, pen name Ijae) i s
particularly detailed i n i t s content.
P'algojodo and Sipsebo
1. P'algojodo
The p ' a l g o j o d o , as I have a l r e a d y
mentioned i n passing, i s a family record
focused on the compiler himself which
traces ancestry back through h i s f o u r t h
ascendant generation. As a consequence
of t h i s f o c u s on the c o m p i l e r , the
t r a c i n g of a n c e s t r y i n t h i s k i n d o f
record i s not l i m i t e d to ancestors i n the
p a t r i l i n e a l category, but i s extended to
include both p a t r i l i n e a l and nonpatri-
l i n e a l ascendants w i t h o u t b i a s toward
either the paternal or maternal s i d e .
These features serve to clearly
d i s t i n g u i s h the p ' a l g o j o d o from o t h e r
types of f a m i l y r e c o r d s such as the
chokpo and naeoebo, which are focused on
a founding ancestor and trace descent
down through succeeding generations.
The compiler of a p'algojodo records h i s
father and mother, the parents of both
h i s father and h i s mother, the parents of
each one of these grandparents, and so
on, u n t i l i n t h i s way a l l paternal and
maternal ascendants up to the f o u r t h gen-
e r a t i o n have been recorded. When a r e -
cord i s kept i n t h i s way, there are four
persons i n the grandparent's generation,
eight i n the great-grandparent's genera-
t i o n , and sixteen i n the great-great-
grandparent's generation. I t should be
noted that a d i s t i n c t i v e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c
of t h i s kind of family record i s that
women i n v a r i a b l y constitute h a l f of the
t o t a l number of recorded ancestors. For
example, among the sixteen persons r e -
corded on the l i n e f o r the great-great-
grandparents of the compiler, there are
exactly eight men and eight women.
4
The name p'algojodo has been given to
t h i s type of family record because i t i s
a chart (do i n Korean) of the ancestry of
the compiler back to the generation of
his great-great-grandparents and there
are eight ( p ' a l i n Korean) males, or
great-great-grandfathers (kojo = -gojo i n
Korean), i n t h i s generation. Those who
made f a m i l y records i n the form of the
p'algojodo c l e a r l y grasped the need f o r a
c o n v e n i e n t way to e x p l a i n t h i s v e r y
complicated c h a r t . The f a c t that every-
one has two grandfathers was adopted as
the key since t h i s p r i n c i p l e of b i f u r c a -
t i o n could be used to explain the entire
chart. These two g r a n d f a t h e r s , o f
course, are the f a t h e r ' s father ( j o ) and
the mother's father (known as oejo i n
Korean). Likewise, i n the next ascendant
generation, there are two more grand-
fathers f o r each of these. Therefore, i t
can be e a s i l y understood that everyone
has f o u r g r e a t - g r a n d f a t h e r s and e i g h t
great-great-grandfathers.
The use of t h i s m a l e - f o c u s e d name,
p ' a l g o j o d o , might create the impression
t h a t the e i g h t women who are the
r e m a i n i n g persons i n the g r e a t - g r e a t -
grandparent g e n e r a t i o n are not being
counted as a n c e s t o r s , but a moment's
r e f l e c t i o n makes i t clear that t h i s i s
not the case at a l l . I t i s obvious that
the females i n the compiler's ancestry
are i n c l u d e d e q u a l l y w i t h h i s male
ancestors. Moreover, from the
perspective of the Korean kinship system,
o n l y one a n c e s t o r i n each ascendant
generation recorded i n the p'algojodo i s
a c t u a l l y a p a t r i l i n e a l ascendant of the
compiler while a l l the remaining
ancestors i n the chart f a l l into the
category of n o n p a t r i l i n e a l ancestors
(known i n Korean as oega, a l b e i t i n a
broad sense). Consequently, a l l but one
of the a n c e s t o r s i n each g e n e r a t i o n
r e c o r d e d i n a f a m i l y r e c o r d of the
p'algojodo type are the n o n p a t r i l i n e a l
ascendants of i t s compiler and represent
ancestry traced through the females who
were the spouses of these p a t r i l i n e a l
ancestors.
Now that i t i s c l e a r why t h i s kind of
chart of a family l i n e i s designated a
816/Song
p'algojodo we can move on to another pro-
blem. Obviously, depending on where the
compiler chooses to draw the l i n e , he
could at least theoretically construct a
chart of 2 grandfathers (ijodo), one of 4
great-grandfathers (sajungjodo), one of
32 male ascendants (samsipijodo), or even
one of 512 male ascendants (obaeksipi-
jodo). However, one thing which must be
clearly understood at this point i s that
the above type of chart of a family line
is never cut off at any generation below
that of the great-great-grandfather; and
for this reason there i s no such thing as
an ijodo or sajungjodo.
In other words, the p'algojodo was the
minimal unit. Paradoxically, however,
this minimal unit was at the same time
the maximal unit. Of course, this i s not
to say that ancestry was never traced
further back than the l e v e l of the
great-great-grand father. Indeed, another
type of family record known as the about how h i s nephew's sipsebo came to be
sipsebo contains a record of ancestry
through the tenth ascendant generation.
S t i l l , the p'algojodo was the maximal
unit in the sense that i t always remained
the fundamental unit no matter how far
back a family line was traced—whether
ten generations or even more.
The reason that the p'algojodo served as
the unit i n this way simply cannot be
merely a matter of the conventions f o l -
lowed in keeping a record of ancestry but
must reflect social r e a l i t y . Even though
i t cannot be determined precisely when i t
began, the p r a c t i c e of extending the
scope of the inquiry into someone's fam-
i l y background as far back as his great-
great-grandfather i s considered to have
existed for a very long time i n Korean
history. Just with reference to the Y i
dynasty, i t appears to have been cus-
tomary from the very earliest period to
c l a r i f y the family line of queens as far
back as the fourth ascendant generation
in a l l directions. We find i n the f i r s t
volume of the Sonwonboryak, the chokpo of
the r o y a l family of the Y i dynasty,
p'algojodo for a l l the Y i kings, which
could not have been made without refer-
ence to information on the family line of
each queen up to their eight kojo.
5
2. Sipsebo
The sipsebo, as I have already mentioned,
i s a record of the predecessors of i t s
c o m p i l e r as f a r back as the tenth
ascendant generation. In essence i t i s
an extension of the p'algojodo format
encompassing 512 male ancestors on the
tenth generation l i n e . A c t u a l l y , I have
not yet seen an example of a sipsebo.
However, there i s an explanation of t h i s
kind of family record i n the c o l l e c t e d
w r i t i n g s of the famous e a r l y eighteenth-
century Korean scholar Y i Ik (1681-1763,
pen name Songho) which i s included i n a
preface he wrote f o r the sipsebo compiled
by h i s nephew, Y i Kwan-hyu. In t h i s
preface Songho notes that Y i Kwan-hyu's
s i p s e b o was comprised of s i x t y - f o u r
charts and encompassed 512 tenth-genera-
t i o n male ancestors of i t s compiler.
A l t h o u g h Sö'ngho h i m s e l f says n o t h i n g
comprised of s i x t y - f o u r charts, we can
make an educated guess about the
appearance of a sipsebo by solving t h i s
problem. F i r s t of a l l , i t must be
remembered that a tenth-generation
ancestor appears i n the p'algojodo of a
compiler's sixth-generation ascendant.
Therefore, ancestry as f a r back as the
t e n t h g e n e r a t i o n can be c l a r i f i e d by
constructing p'algojodo for sixth-
generation ascendants. A simple
c a l c u l a t i o n shows that t h i s would r e s u l t
i n a grand t o t a l of 126 p ' a l g o j o d o . That
i s , there would be 2 f o r the f a t h e r ' s
g e n e r a t i o n ( f a t h e r ' s p ' a l g o j o d o and
mother's p'algojodo) and the number added
would double f o r each generation making a
t o t a l of 64 p'algojodo f o r the s i x t h -
generation ancestors which, when combined
w i t h the charts f o r the preceding gene-
r a t i o n s , would make a grand t o t a l of 126
p'algojodo (2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 =
126). However, p'algojodo are generally
bound i n pairs and arranged i n a form
known as simnyukchodo ( s i x t e e n g r a n d -
parents c h a r t ) , which i s combined
p ' a l g o j o d o o f any couple among the
compiler's predecessors, and t h i s reduces
the number of charts to 63. I f so,
according to what Y i Ik wrote, there was
one extra chart besides the 63
simnyukchodo i n the sipsebo his nephew
compiled. This extra chart was probably
one c l a r i f y i n g the d i r e c t l i n e a l ancestry
of the compiler.
Hwang Yun-sók and Chong Yag-yong also
compiled something s i m i l a r to a sipsebo.
(These f a m i l y records have been passed
down to the present day.) However, to
speak p r e c i s e l y , what Hwang Yun-sok and
Chong Yag-yong a c t u a l l y constructed were
a simnyuksebo ( f a m i l y record of sixteen
g e n e r a t i o n s ) and a s i p s a s e b o ( f a m i l y
record of fourteen generations),
r e s p e c t i v e l y , though they did not use
these designations. The r a t i o n a l e f o r
describing t h e i r e f f o r t s i n t h i s way i s
t h a t Hwang c o n s t r u c t e d p ' a l g o j o d o f o r
ancestors as f a r back as the t w e l f t h
generation while Chong did the same f o r
his ancestors through the tenth
generation.
v
N o n e t h e l e s s , Hwang and Chong d i d not
f o l l o w the format of the sipsebo made by
Y i I k ' s nephew, Y i Kwan-hyu. (However,
Hwang did make another kind of family
record which comes very close to being a
sipsebo of the type made by Y i Kwan-hyu.
Instead, they made p'algojodo f o r only
t h e i r d i r e c t p a t r i l i n e a l ascendants and
the spouses of these ancestors (that i s ,
one f o r each ancestral couple on the
pattern of father and mother, paternal
g r a n d f a t h e r and grandmother, p a t e r n a l
great-grandfather and great-grandmother,
and so on). In other words, the ancestry
of the mother, grandmother, and
great-grandmother was not explored any
f u r t h e r than the p'algojodo of each of
these forebears because the compilers d i d
not expand t h e i r e f f o r t s to the more
remote a n c e s t o r s i n these l i n e s ( f o r
example, by making p'algojodo f o r the
f a t h e r and mother o f each of these
spouses of t h e i r p a t r i l i n e a l ascendants).
Therefore, there were never more than two
p'algojodo f o r each generation no matter
how f a r back ancestry was explored.
Now, i f Chong Yag-yong had constructed
his sipsasebo i n the form o f Y i
Kwan-kyu's sipsebo it would have
consisted of a t o t a l of 2,016 p ' a l g o j o d o .
Even bound together i n units of
simnyukchodo, Chong's s i p s a s e b o would
s t i l l have amounted to 1,008 charts, and
the male ancestors appearing just on the
line of the fourteenth ascendant
generation alone would have amounted to
8,192 p e r s o n s . Obviously, it is
completely impossible to construct t h i s
kind of chart of a family l i n e . In f a c t ,
the sipsebo made by Y i Kwan-hyu was t r u l y
exceptional even though, by comparison
with the impossible format just
mentioned, i t encompassed a much smaller
number of predecessors. Thus, on the
w h o l e , i t was customary to c o n s t r u c t
sipsebo type of family records along the
l i n e s of those made by Hwang Yun-sok and
Chong Yag-yong.
3. The S i g n i f i c a n c e of the P'algojodo
from the Perspective of the History of
Family Records
To p r o p e r l y a p p r e c i a t e the p o t e n t i a l
s i g n i f i c a n c e of the p'algojodo w i t h i n the
h i s t o r y of Korean family records, i t i s
c r u c i a l to grasp the v e r y d i f f e r e n t
assumptions u n d e r l y i n g these r e c o r d s .
There i s a p a r t i c u l a r l y sharp contrast
between the p'algojodo and the chokpo
which, as mentioned i n the introduction
to t h i s paper, l a t e r became the dominant
type of family record i n Korea. Thus, I
want to b r i e f l y say something about these
underlying assumptions before going on to
discuss the s i g n i f i c a n c e of the
p'algojodo.
The chokpo i s based on the underlying
assumption that many people have one and
the same source. Thus the whole point of
a f a m i l y r e c o r d of t h i s type i s to
i d e n t i f y a l l the branches stemming from
one r o o t . One of the consequences of
t h i s assumption and type of r e c o r d
keeping i s an i n t e n s i f i e d awareness of
d i v i s i o n i n t o d i s t i n c t groups. This
awareness arises f i r s t of a l l between
clans but tends to spread w i t h i n a given
c l a n as w e l l where the d i s t i n c t i o n
between proximity or distance of
relatedness becomes r e l e v a n t . The sense
of exclusiveness t h i s kind of awareness
tends to generate over time even comes to
assume the form of acrimonious r i v a l r y .
H i s t o r i c a l l y , therefore, many clans have
816/Song
undergone serious internal conflicts, and
disputes have even developed into
lawsuits. This sense of exclusiveness
and the antipathy i t gives rise to, which
h i s t o r i c a l l y have been one of the
i n t r i n s i c characteristics of the Korean
clan system, may be seen as directly
linked to the underlying assumption on
which a family record of the chokpo type
i s based.
By contrast, the p'algojodo i s based on
the underlying assumption that any human
being i s the f r u i t of not just one but of
countless roots. Thus the objective of a
family record of this type i s to trace
one's o r i g i n s to these many r o o t s .
Obviously, the consequences of t h i s
assumption are much different from those
stemming from the assumption underlying a
family record of the chokpo type. In
attempting to appreciate what these
consequences might be, i t might be
pertinent to consider the following
comment Y i Ik made i n that preface to his
nephew's sipsebo already cited:
In a chokpo a l l of the hundreds and
even thousands of descendants of one
person, even including descendants
through daughters' lines, are
recorded without exception. However,
i f I search in my chokpo for the
ancestors from whom I have sprung, I
can only trace my forebears back to
the founding ancestor of the clan i n
which I am included but never reach
the sources of my mother's ancestry.
This i s to say that, though care i s
taken to record descendants i n
d e t a i l , ancestors are recorded i n
only a sketchy fashion. Yet, just as
parents have exactly the same
feelings of love for the daughters as
for the sons they raise, by the same
token, no distinction i s made between
the mother and the father i n the
feelings of love and respect children
have for their parents. If so, just
as the descendants of daughters are
a l l recorded i n the chokpo out of
consideration for the love f e l t for
daughters, the predecessors of a
mother should also be recorded out of
consideration for the f e e l i n g s of
7
love and respect felt for her and the
same applies as w e l l to the
grandmother, great-grandmother, and
so on. After a l l , clarifying one's
ancestry i s the f i t t i n g expression of
f i l i a l piety.
The fact that i n the society of Y i Korea,
where Confucian values focused on
p a t r i l i n e a l i t y are known to have been
dominant, Confucianists did i n fact
compile family records such as the
p'algojodo, which seem to contradict some
of the basic values to which they
adhered, must surely be very significant.
This impression i s further strengthened
by several other considerations. F i r s t ,
in the chokpo produced between the later
part of the fifteenth century and the
early part of the seventeenth century, we
note that the recording of sons and
daughters reflected birth order without
regard to sex, contrary to the later
practice of l i s t i n g a l l sons prior to any
daughters. Second, in most of the chokpo
of t h i s period, the o f f s p r i n g of
daughters were simply recorded without
any l i m i t a t i o n on the number of
generations. Third, with respect to
inheritance, the practice of giving a l l
children, even including married
daughters, an equal share continued u n t i l
about the seventeenth century.
At any r a t e , without engaging i n
excessive speculation on the possible
significance of the p'algojodo, one thing
which can be noted i n the course of
touching on the history of family records
i n Korea i s that the character of the
Korean clan system would probably have
taken on a very different complexion i f
the dominant type of family record had
been the p' algo jodo rather than the
chokpo. Above a l l , clans would not have
developed into those social groups with
an exclusively patrilineal focus which i n
fact h i s t o r i c a l l y emerged i n Korea, and
their capacity to act as cohesive group^
would have been accordingly much weaker.
In a d d i t i o n , the exclusiveness and
related antipathy which became the
i n t r i n s i c characteristics of the Korean
clan system would not have unfolded to
the point they did h i s t o r i c a l l y .
816/Song
Naturally, t h e r e are bound to be
d i f f e r e n c e s of opinion on the degree to
which the f o r e g o i n g judgment and
hypothesis r e f l e c t an accurate assessment
of the clan system of Y i Korea. But, i n
any case, the p'algojodo form of family
record was not developed to the extent of
the chokpo. I b e l i e v e there were several
reasons f o r t h i s . F i r s t , the p'algojodo
i s a kind of record which can be made
o n l y by persons w i t h a v e r y unique
i n t e r e s t i n the subject and a very high
l e v e l of scholarship. Second, since the
p'algojodo i s a record which, l i k e the
kasung and naeoebo, serves to elucidate
the predecessors of only one i n d i v i d u a l
and his own f a m i l y , i t was hardly ever
preserved i n a printed format. This
l i m i t a t i o n on the u t i l i t y o f the
i n d i v i d u a l l y based f a m i l y r e c o r d s was
c e r t a i n l y one o f the f a c t o r s w h i c h
s t i m u l a t e d the c o m p a r a t i v e l y g r e a t e r
development of the chokpo.
THE CHOKPO
Chokpo and Clan
Inasmuch as a chokpo i s the genealogical
record of a c l a n , I would l i k e b r i e f l y to
say something about the n a t u r e and
s t r u c t u r e o f the Korean c l a n system
before going i n t o a discussion of the
chokpo i t s e l f .
As Koreans n o r m a l l y use the term, a
s s i j o k (clan) i s a s o c i a l i n s t i t u t i o n
whose members are, or at l e a s t purport to
be, descended from a common ancestor. On
the basis of t h i s common descent, the
members of a Korean c l a n share the same
song (surname) and pon'gwan (clan s e a t ) .
By the same t o k e n , i t i s g e n e r a l l y
accepted that the sharing of a common
song and pon'gwan i s an i n d i c a t i o n of
descent from the same ancestor. As I
have already noted, the ancestor common
to an entire c l a n i s generally c a l l e d i t s
s i j o (founding ancestor). The pon'gwan
(clan seat) of a clan then i s the name of
the l o c a l administrative d i s t r i c t where
t h i s s i j o i s b e l i e v e d to have l i v e d
during his l i f e t i m e .
8
There are many issues which remain to be
explained i n connection with the Korean
clan. In the f i r s t place i t i s yet to be
determined when clans f i r s t began to
emerge as a social institution in Korea
and how these institutions were formed.
Nor are we even certain yet how sijo and
pon'gwan should be explained. However,
considering the impossibility of dealing
with a l l the unresolved issues i n this
paper, I w i l l single out just a few of
the distinctive features of the Korean
clan system which I believe are of help
for understanding the nature of the
chokpo.
One fact to be noted immediately i s that
in traditional Korean society any member
of that society lacking a clan a f f i l i a -
tion was not recognized as a person with
the normal rights and duties accorded to
a full-fledged member of society. No
one could be recognized as a f u l l y compe-
tent human being (whether in public or i n
private matters) simply on the strength
of giving his name, age, and place of
residence; and, what i s more, even being
able to produce the names of his father,
grandfather, and great-grandfather was
not sufficient grounds. To this informa-
tion had to be added the designation of
his clan (that i s , in concrete terms, a
pon'gwan). This social requirement had
already been established i n Korean his-
tory as customary practice at least by
the latter half of the Koryo period (918-
1392) even though i t i s impossible to say
precisely when i t was f i r s t established.
However, when I speak of the development
of the clan system as one of the most
notable distinguishing features of tradi-
tional Korean society, I do not mean
simply this established customary prac-
tice alone. What I really mean i s that
the thought and behavioral patterns of
each and every member of that society
could not thrcjWj off the influence of the
member's clan and that this influence
at times was even greater than that of
the p o l i t i c a l units to which he belonged,
whether the county or the nation i t s e l f .
If so, the concern arises as to whether
the clan system had this much influence
816/Song
from the moment i t f i r s t came to be; and,
of course, that was not the case. As i n
the case of any other social institution,
the development of the clan system to
this point involved a process comprised
of several stages, and the chokpo i s the
joint genealogical record produced in the
process of the development of the clan
system. For this reason, the chokpo i s
the most concrete source material avail-
able to us for grasping the structure and
nature as w e l l as the developmental
process of the clan system.
One of the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c constituent
features of the Korean clan system i s
that almost a l l of the leading clans are
made up of the descendants of a h i s t o r i -
cal figure who established a base i n the
c a p i t a l of the Koryo dynasty ( i . e . ,
Kaesong) and l i v e d there. In other
words, the main, i f not the whole, body
of each of the clans i s made up of those
who trace their descent back to a histor-
i c a l figure of the kind mentioned above,
and the person known as the founder of
the clan i s only someone who lived i n the
pon'gwan area who became identified as
the ultimate ancestor of the capital-
based actual founder of the clan. Ac-
cordingly, the residential dispersion of
the members of every one of these clans
that emerged during the historical pro-
cess of their formation necessarily f o l -
lowed the pattern of movement "from the
capital toward rural areas," and this
pattern i s a second characteristic^ fea-
ture of the Korean clan system. A there are very few which were produced as
third characteristic i s that the actual
founder I have just spoken of was always
a government o f f i c i a l who generally lived
sometime around the twelfth or thirteenth
centuries. A fourth characteristic of
Korean clans i s that the linkages between
their nominal and actual founders, which
span anywhere from three to four genera-
tions to as many as ten or more genera-
tions, generally are depicted i n the gen-
ealogical record as a single line (that
i s , a series of sons), and even then
there are many instances where the con-
tinuity of this single line i s broken by
missing links.
While granting that there are many
9
problems which remain to be resolved i n
understanding how Korean clans came to
assume the aforementioned characteristic
features, i t i s s t i l l quite clear that
the most rewarding approach to this ques-
tion i s through studying the history of
the chokpo. In fact, i t can be said that
the style i n which the chokpo appeared
was i t s e l f a decisive factor i n determin-
ing the characteristic form of the Korean
clan.
The History of the Chokpo
1. The Appearance of the Chokpo and Its
Characteristics
The chokpo may be called a joint kasung
in the sense that i t i s a genealogy which
combines into one format the family re-
cords the members of a clan hold, and
must hold, individually. Chokpo i n this
form of a joint kasung, however, did not
appear u n t i l the latter half of the sev-
enteenth century. Of course, chokpo had
begun to appear already at around the
middle of the f i f t e e n t h century. But
these early chokpo were not joint kasung,
and so they differed from the chokpo of
the l a t e r period both i n form and
content.
Among the chokpo which appeared during
the approximately two hundred years from
about the middle of the fifteenth to the
latter half of the seventeenth centuries,
a joint project of a clan as became com-
monplace later. These two centuries were
s t i l l the formative period i n terms of
the history of the Korean chokpo. The
total number of clans for which chokpo
were produced during this period scarcely
amounted to t h i r t y , and there were only
seven or eight of these clans for which
chokpo were brought out two or more times
during this period. But, at any rate,
what i s of significance i s that almost
a l l of these early chokpo were produced
at the voluntary instigation and through
the independent efforts of one individual
within the clan concerned. This fact can
easily be confirmed from the testimony of
the individuals who made these chokpo.
816/Song
From the viewpoint of the compilers, the
chokpo of the early period were merely
expansions of their own kasung. That i s ,
a compiler f i r s t constructed a kasung for
himself and then enlarged i t into a
chokpo by recording i n proper genealogi-
~caï order a l l the descendants of the
ancestors who appeared i n his kasung.
Therefore, although rather detailed en-
tries for the direct ascendants of the
compilers are carried i n these e a r l y
chokpo, for the rest, a l l that i s gen-
erally listed are names only. Beyond
this, a l l one sees are extremely brief
entries here and there dealing with
examination passes and o f f i c e s held.
This i s because much of the information
we are accustomed to seeing i n the chokpo
of the later period, from the point of
view of the compiler of an early chokpo,
would properly be found i n the kasung
made by individual clan members. If these
chokpo had been the products of the com-
mon interest and common concern of a l l
the members of a clan, as was the case
for the chokpo of the later period, they
would not have diverged so far from the
principle of equality as such divergence
would have been simply out of the
question.
The chokpo of the later period (after the
mid-seventeenth century) d i f f e r s i g n i f i -
c a n t l y i n several important respects.
For one thing, they contain far more
detailed information. The entry for each
patrilineal descendant includes such i n -
formation as courtesy name (cha), birth
and death dates, a brief outline of h i s
career with the emphasis on examinations
passed and offices held, location of his
gravesite, and various items pertaining
to his spouse. These latter items i n -
clude the spouse's birth and death dates,
the name of the clan to which she be-
longed, the names and o f f i c i a l positions
of her father, grandfather, and great-
grandfather, and her maternal grand-
father's surname and pon'gwan as well as
his o f f i c i a l position.
A c t u a l l y , t h i s more d e t a i l e d coverage
reflects the conditions under which the
chokpo of the latter period were pro-
duced. That i s , as has been pointed out,
10
since these later chokpo were produced at
the joint instigation and through the
common efforts of the members of a
clan, they had to simultaneously serve as
kasung for each of the clan's members.
This very same factor accounts for the
s t r i k i n g difference i n coverage of
daughters' lines between the chokpo of
the earlier and the later periods. The
chokpo of the early period recorded
descendants of daughters, without any
limitation on the number of generations,
on exactly the same basis as patrilineal
descendants. Of course, not a l l the
chokpo of the early period recorded
descendants through daughters i n t h i s
way; but there i s nothing like this kind
of coverage i n the latter chokpo. The
1476 e d i t i o n of the Andong Kwon-ssi
Chokpo, the 1565 edition of the Munhwa
Yu-ssi Chokpo, and the 1649 edition of
the Ch'ongsong Sim-ssi Chokpo may be
c i t e d as prominent examples of early
chokpo of the kind being described here.
In these chokpo, descendants through
daughters f a r outnumber p a t r i l i n e a l
descendants. For example, there i s a
total of about 9,000 persons recorded i n
the Andong Kwon-ssi Chokpo, but male
patrilineals account for no more than 380
persons. In the case of the Munhwa
Yu-ssi Chokpo, among the 42,000 or so
persons recorded, no more than 1,400 are
male patrilineals.
Surely this characteristic of the early
chokpo, together with their unique system
of recording sons and daughters s t r i c t l y
according to birth order, and the social
custom i n those days of making a com-
pletely equal distribution of inherited
property among a l l children, including
married daughters, suggests that the po-
s i t i o n of women in the family and society
was much more equal to that of men during
the eax-ly Y i dynasty than was the case
later. But, at any rate, what i s clear
i s that the chokpo could record the off-
spring of daughters i n this way precisely
because i t was not compiled as a joint
project of the members of a clan but by
an individual and i n the form of an
expansion of his own kasung.
816/Song
2. The Significance of the Early Chokpo
The appearance of the early chokpo i n the
form of an expansion of an individual's
kasung had several consequences for the
history of the chokpo and the clan system
as well as for social thought. It helped
people, particularly those interested i n
preserving a record of their family, both
to recognize the greater u t i l i t y of the
chokpo format for this purpose and to
appreciate the significance of clanship.
This contributed to the development of
the chokpo i n the form of a composite of
i n d i v i d u a l family records and g r e a t l y
stimulated clan consciousness. That i s ,
the increased i n t e r e s t i n the chokpo
intensified the feeling that those who
share blood through descent from a common
ancestor are not "alien" to one another,
and must never become such, for which
reason they are obligated to preserve
special ties among themselves In per-
petuity. This quintessential Confucian
ethic led to the drawing of a sharp
distinction between "us," referring to a
family or descent group, and "them,"
r e f e r r i n g to a l l those who were not
kinsmen (the terms toin and noin, meaning
stranger or passerby, were often used to
describe people in this latter category).
So i t became clear that the joint gene-
alogy was a truly indispensable means of
preserving those special ties among the
members of a clan which were f e l t to be
essential given the intensified sense of
clan consciousness. In other words, i t
was f e l t that to make i t possible to
recognize and preserve special ties among
an in-group who were not alien to one
another, i t was necessary to have a joint
genealogy showing the precise relative
position of each individual within the
group descended from a common ancestor
and the exact relationships between the
members of this common descent group.
Without such a joint genealogy, once a
kinship t i e passed beyond the scope of
the counted degrees of r e l a t i o n s h i p ,
there would be no alternative but to
consider the persons as unrelated. What
is more, under this same circumstance,
even relatively closely related persons
might become mere passersby to one
11
another. In fact, everyone involved i n
the compilation of chokpo expressed pre-
cisely this concern. (Of course, this
was a matter which continued to concern
their descendants as well.) This concern
grew even more urgent as some members of
the clans which had originally been con-
centrated i n the capital gradually began
to move into outlying areas, especially
in connection with the population move-
ments occasioned by the Japanese inva-
sions (1592 and 1598) and Manchu i n -
cursion (1636-37) which occurred during
t h i s period, making frequent contact
among the members of a clan d i f f i c u l t .
Yet, the most noteworthy point for our
discussion i s that the chokpo which began
appearing from around the mid-fifteenth
century were the very f i r s t ever made for
each of the clans represented by them,
and, as a result, the basic structure of
a clan as i t took concrete form i n one of
these f i r s t chokpo came to receive
r e c o g n i t i o n as the only l e g i t i m a t e
representation of the clan i t s e l f . For
example, the s i j o , merely the most remote
ancestor the compiler of the chokpo could
i d e n t i f y among h i s d i r e c t p a t r i l i n e a l
ascendants and the actual founding
ancestor mentioned prevously, and the
direct patrilineal descendant (chongson)
of these ancestors were given a
legitimacy which afterwards could not be
challenged under any circumstances.
Here i t should be pertinent to explore
who the compilers of these early chokpo
were. Research into this question has
confirmed that most of these compilers
were either current or former office-
holders, as well as Confucianists, w^
came from prominent families (myongmun)
which had lived i n the capital for many
generations and regularly produced c i v i l
service examination passers and govern-
ment o f f i c e h o l d e r s . This family and
educational background of the compilers
would seem to have been closely related
to t h e i r motive f o r expanding t h e i r
kasung into the form of the chokpo; and
this can easily be verified by their own
testimony (namely, through the prefaces
and epilogues they wrote for the chokpo
they produced). Since they were the
816/Song
descendants of prominent s c h o l a r - o f f i c i a l
families, these persons had a custom of assessing a person i n terms of
p a r t i c u l a r l y acute i n t e r e s t i n t h e i r own
immediate f o r e b e a r s and had both the
m o t i v a t i o n and the a b i l i t y to keep
p r e c i s e and d e t a i l e d f a m i l y r e c o r d s .
However, more i m p o r t a n t than a n y t h i n g
else was t h e i r strong c l a n consciousness
which gave r i s e to a sense of mission to
transmit the constant awareness of common
ancestry and the t i e s i t generates to
t h e i r own and a l l succeeding generations.
Here we seem, f o r the f i r s t time, to have
begun to form a somewhat clearer idea
about the n a t u r e o f the d i s t i n c t i v e
c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f the Korean c l a n
system: namely, the major Korean clans
i n a c t u a l i t y were made up o f the
descendants of persons who as government
o f f i c i a l s established a foothold i n the
c a p i t a l , and accordingly, the d i s p e r s i o n
of these clans i n v a r i a b l y followed the
p a t t e r n o f movement from the c a p i t a l
toward l o c a l areas.
3. The Development of the Chokpo
I t should be c l e a r by now that the chokpo
from the very beginning was not simply a
means of preserving f a m i l y records but
had a s o c i a l f u n c t i o n as w e l l . Although
t h i s f u n c t i o n at f i r s t was p r i m a r i l y the
moral one of s t r e s s i n g the preservation
of t i e s among the members of a c l a n , i t
gradually came to have a more p r a c t i c a l
o r i e n t a t i o n as the practice of placing a
high value on a p e r s o n ' s family
background i n determining s o c i a l p o s i t i o n
and access to privileges became
customary. Moreover, once the issue of
m i l i t a r y service had come to be c l o s e l y
l i n k e d with the s o c i a l status system (see
below), the f u n c t i o n of the chokpo was
further expanded to encompass the
a d m i n i s t r a t i v e realm where i t became
entangled with urgent m a t e r i a l i n t e r e s t s .
As a r e s u l t , the i n t e r e s t of the general
p u b l i c i n chokpo became greater. With
the maturing of these trends, the golden
age of the Korean chokpo dawned around
the l a t t e r h a l f o f the eighteenth
century.
The tendency just mentioned to value
12
pedigree was based on the long-standing
the r e l a t i v e prominence of his immediate
ancestors, or the clan or lineage i n
which he was included, rather than as an
independent i n d i v i d u a l . This customary
practice l a t e r gave r i s e to the kind of
s o c i a l c l i m a t e i n which a p e r s o n ' s
a c t i v i t i e s and successes i n s o c i a l and
p o l i t i c a l l i f e were determined more by
factors related to family background than
by i n d i v i d u a l a b i l i t y and c h a r a c t e r .
Although i t i s now i m p o s s i b l e to
determine p r e c i s e l y when t h i s s o c i a l
climate f i r s t began to emerge i n Korea or
even from what period i t r e a l l y began to
be a s i g n i f i c a n t f a c t o r , one thing i s
crystal clear: namely, t h i s s o c i a l
climate became more and more pronounced
as time passed and was a f a r more
s i g n i f i c a n t f a c t o r during the Y i dynasty,
e s p e c i a l l y the l a t e r period, than i t had
been during the Koryo dynasty. Many
scholars of t h i s p a r t i c u l a r era of Korean
history, including Yu Hyong-won
(1622-1673), Y i I k , Y i Chung-hwan
( 1 6 9 0 - 1 7 6 0 ) , Chong Yag-yong, and Y i
Kon-ch'ang (1852-1898), with one v o i c e ,
d e p l o r e d as a g r e a t s o c i a l e v i l the
development of an excessive awareness of
family background which they argued had
not been so s e r i o u s a problem u n t i l
"recent times." What they seem to have
been r e f e r r i n g to was a period sometime
around the seventeenth century. Thus, i t
i s quite c l e a r , not only from our own
contemporary examination of the data, but
even from the f i r s t h a n d testimony of
scholars i n those days, that s i g n i f i c a n t
s o c i a l changes were underway during t h i s
period of Korean h i s t o r y .
I n any c a s e , as t h i s s o c i a l c l i m a t e
developed, many people came to hope that
t h e i r family background would become more
w i d e l y known and s o c i a l l y r e c o g n i z e d ,
both f o r t h e i r own sake and f o r that of
t h e i r descendants, to the point that they
even began to f e e l that t h i s was an
absolute necessity. And the value of the
chokpo, as the most e f f e c t i v e means of
s a t i s f y i n g t h i s desire and answering to
t h i s necessity, thus came to be more
widely recognized.
816/Song
Meanwhile, the chokpo became the object
of even greater concern to those people
who knew that, without the clear record
of t h e i r family l i n e provided by a
chokpo, they would experience d i f -
f i c u l t i e s in maintaining their present
social status and therefore f e l t the need
for some means of ensuring that they
would never drop below t h e i r present
position. This was unavoidable i n a
society which placed so much emphasis on
pedigree. These people were those who
had almost nothing to boast about in the
way of family background. Not only were
they not, of course, o f f i c i a l s or
examination passers themselves, but they
did not even have persons i n these
categories among their immediate
ancestors. Their sole claim to social
standing boiled down to the simple fact
that they were descended from an ancestor
among whose other descendants there were
those who did produce o f f i c i a l s and
examination passers so that they received
social recognition as yangban. In other
words, these people were the lowest
fringes of what i s called the yangban
class.
This does not mean, of course, that these
people could ensure their position as
yangban simply through being included i n
their chokpo. Naturally, the c r i t e r i a
defining yangban status were extremely
relative and, as a consequence of this
subjective element, these people might or
might not have been treated as j{angban
depending on their circumstances. (Of
course, this remark i s premised on the
assumption that they had at least the
minimum amount of learning and refinement
needed to qualify as yangban.)
Quite frequently people say that only
yangban could be recorded in chokno, but
this contention i s not accurate. The
mere fact that one was recorded in a
chokpo was not of i t s e l f positive proof
of yangban status, but there was also no
absolute rule that those who were clearly
not yangban could not be recorded i n a
chokpo. The criterion for inclusion i n a
chokpo was not whether a person was, or
was not, a yangban but simply whether or
not he was a descendant of the common
13
ancestor. I f a person had a c l e a r
genealogical l i n k with the common
ancestor, he had a right to be included
i n the chokpo of his clan, no matter who
he was or what his occupation was, and
without regard to his social position.
(Of course, persons of base (ch'on) or
quasi-base status were an exception to
this rule.) The refusal to recognize
this right by not including a descendant
in his clan's chokpo was an absolutely
unimaginable thing, and i t was not done
either. But, at any rate, having a clear
record of one's family l i n e through
inclusion in a chokpo was very important
for those persons on the fringes of the
yangban class, not only as a prerequisite
to their being recognized as yangban, but
also as a means of preventing downward
social mobility, especially that
associated with the shameful condition of
ambiguity i n one's family line. The
e f f o r t s they made to avoid such
consequences were not only for their own
sake but f o r the sake of t h e i r
descendants as well.
There was yet another factor which served
to make the general i n t e r e s t i n the
chokpo even greater. This was the
linkage made i n those days between social
status and the imposition of the military
service obligation which was mentioned
above. Although i t was always the basic
policy of the government during the Y i
dynasty that a l l free citizens bear this
obligation, people i n certain categories
were exempt from the very beginning.
S p e c i f i c a l l y , the r o y a l family, merit
subjects (kongsin), and government
o f f i c i a l s were granted this privilege.
Apart from the exceptional case of the
royal family, where the need to safeguard
their unique social status predominated,
the rationale for granting this exemption
was to reward service to the state and to
f a c i l i t a t e performance of more important
public duties.
However, t h i s p o l i c y regarding the
exemption was problematic from the very
beginning. Despite the basic commitment
to r e s t r i c t i n g the scope of t h i s
privilege, the government realized the
value of extending i t to the descendants
816/Song
of those entitled to i t on their own
merits, as a further reward for service,
as well as to the students preparing to
become o f f i c i a l s as a means of securing
leaders for the society and nation.
Once the p r i n c i p l e of extending t h i s
privilege was established, a myriad of
problems related to defining i t s limits
immediately arose. This e s s e n t i a l l y
insoluble issue continued to plague the
government and took on considerable
urgency because of the large number of
people who could present at least
p a r t i a l l y j u s t i f i e d requests for t h i s
exemption privilege and the government's
pressing need, i f only for reasons of
f i n a n c i a l stringency, to r e s t r i c t i t s
scope.
The crucial importance of this exemption
privilege from the general public's point
of view was seen i n i t s immediate
implications for social status. As i s
well known, the military service
obligation (kunyok) was in fact nothing
but a relatively unburdensome obligation
to pay a certain amount of cloth to the
government. However, in the interest of
safeguarding Confucianism and its
disciples, this obligation was not viewed
by the general public simply in terms of
the relative seriousness of the burden i t
imposed but as an issue which threatened
the immemorial constitution of the state
i t s e l f and the very existence of the
class of scholar-officials. Accordingly,
the general attitude was to interpret the
exemption from this o b l i g a t i o n as a
negative proof of yangban status or, vice
versa, to consider the fulfillment of
this obligation in i t s e l f as decisive
evidence that the person concerned was
not a yangban.
Actually, this was merely the inevitable
consequence of the extension of the
exemption privilege to the descendants of
those who were entitled to i t in their
own r i g h t since t h i s generated a
privileged social stratum. That i s , what
was originally, at least theoretically,
only a privilege granted to individuals
in l i e u of services to the state (rather
than in consideration of social status)
came to be regarded as a right inherent
14
in the social status of a privileged
class which were known as yangban.
Naturally, then, those actively promoting
the revision of their clan's chokpo in
those days often pointed to the issue of
the military service obligation as one of
the most urgent reasons why such a
revision was necessary. That i s , they
frequently j u s t i f i e d t h e i r e f f o r t s by
making an appeal on behalf of those
fellow clansmen l i v i n g outside the
capital in a remote area, noting that
these clansmen would lose ground socially
to the point of having to wear the yoke
of military service and would not receive
recognition for their family background
unless- the chokpo were revised in due
time. During the later Yi dynasty
there were many people in local areas who
appealed to the local magistrate to have
t h e i r names struck from the m i l i t a r y
roster (kunan) by presenting a request
for exemption from m i l i a r y service known
as the t ' a r y o k s o j i . These people
naturally cited their family background
as the j u s t i f i c a t i o n for this appeal, and
the chokpo was inevitably offered as the
evidence for t h e i r claims. And the
magistrates receiving their appeals also
naturally made their decisions on the
basis of the family line as i t appeared
in the chokpo.
THE PROBLEM OF FALSIFICATIONS IN THE
CHOKPO
The problem of falsifications in Korean
family records did not emerge as a
serious matter u n t i l the l a t e r Y i
dynasty. (This was a phenomenon produced
by the tendency for ihe chokpo to become
more and more tied up with urgent
material interests as a consequence of
i t s changing social function.) In fact,
even though the chokpo of the early
period contain erroneous entries as well
as lacunae due to ignorance, f a l s i f i c a -
tions which were deliberately inserted
were completely nonexistent. As long as
the compiler's motive remained at the
stage of the moral and theoretical
objective of clarifying his ancestry and
identifying the persons descended from
816/Song
the same ancestor to preserve special
ties among them, there was no reason
whatsoever to include f a l s i f i e d entries.
But even supposing there were such a
motive, the education and philosophy the
compilers had been exposed to precluded
this kind of deliberate f a l s i f i c a t i o n .
The problem of falsifications seems to
have become a particularly serious matter
in the nineteenth century. Reading the
comments of people like Chong Yag-yong,
for example, i t i s impossible to escape
the conclusion that t h i s was a very
serious social problem during this period
of Korean h i s t o r y . However, the
c r e d i b i l i t y of the chokpo of the period
is not as dubious a matter as i t i s
generally thought to be. Despite the
fact that the impulse to introduce
falsifications was far more i r r e s i s t i b l e ,
the content of the chokpo of this period
is s t i l l remarkably accurate.
The essential accuracy of the chokpo of
the later period i s a fact which has been
confirmed through a very extensive
examination of chokpo carried out over
several years. Of course, there are
exceptions to this general assessment.
Specifically, these exceptions are often
found among those chokpo which were
produced for one subgroup of a clan,
particularly one centered in an isolated
rural area, but rarely among the chokpo
produced by an agency officially
representing an entire clan.
The chokpo of the later period, i t should
be pointed out, have some shortcomings of
a different nature. That i s , since these
chokpo were compiled primarily on the
basis of the materials each household
within the clan submitted (with the
expenses of producing the chokpo prorated
according to the quantity of material a
household submitted for inclusion), those
members who either did not, or could not,
present this material (or afford to pay
for i t s inclusion) were often simply l e f t
out of the chokpo.
At any rate, several factors are thought
to have been operating to ensure that a
s u r p r i s i n g degree of c r e d i b i l i t y was
15
maintained i n the chokpo of the later
period even in the face of temptations
which were d i f f i c u l t to overcome. One
such factor was the rivalry which was a
characteristic feature of clans as social
entities. This r i v a l r y was operative in
the relationship between clans as well as
between segmentary lineages w i t h i n a
given clan at various l e v e l s . This
r i v a l r y was clearly sufficient to ensure
that a mutual check would be exercised on
each other by the members of a clan
whenever an a c t i v i t y such as chokpo
compilation was undertaken.
In order to compile a chokpo, naturally a
kind of standing committee was formed
from i n d i v i d u a l s representing each
segmentary lineage within the clan. And
to resolve any differences of opinion
which might a r i s e during the process
i t s e l f , very detailed rules were drawn up
which established fixed guidelines. In
a d d i t i o n , whenever the compilers f e l t
justified i n including an entry about
which they had reservations, they never
f a i l e d to add a note explaining the
nature of these reservations. In short,
the compilers of the chokpo of the later
period took great pains to preserve the
o b j e c t i v i t y and r e l i a b i l i t y of these
genealogical records.
Of course, even given these efforts, i t
was not possible to completely eliminate
a l l falsifications in the chokpo. Thus,
here we need to consider exactly what the
nature and significance (that i s , the
influence) of these falsifications were.
The need to do this i s a l l the more
pressing because these days many scholars
(perhaps the majority), on the one hand,
do not recognize the value the chokpo has
as a resource for s c h o l a r l y research
because they consider i t unreliable, or,
on the other hand, believe that many
people in the later Y i dynasty were able
to ensure upward s o c i a l m o b i l i t y for
themselves and their descendants through
e x p l o i t i n g the foothold provided by
f a l s i f i e d records. Some even go so far
as to assert that the existing social
structure was challenged by this means.
I am of the opinion that the above
816/Song
attitude and the assertion which i s i t s
c o r o l l a r y c o n s t i t u t e a very serious
misunderstanding. There were two kinds
of falsifications which were included i n
a chokpo. One was f a l s e e n t r i e s
concerning o f f i c i a l positions held and
state examinations passed. The other was
the case of i n s e r t i n g a completely
unrelated l i n e from the genealogical
point of view. As for the other items
which appear i n a chokpo, such as name,
birth and death dates, gravesite, the
clan of the wife, and the names of her
immediate patrilineal ascendants, while
there might be errors due to ignorance,
there i s no evidence to suggest
deliberate f a l s i f i c a t i o n s .
Accordingly, one should think immediately
of linking the person with his times and
society when considering the likelihood
of d e l i b e r a t e e f f o r t s being made to
f a l s i f y entries i n the chokpo. The prob-
lem which we have to explain here i n
concrete terms i s as follows: namely, i n
the case where someone forged the entries
in the chokpo dealing with his predeces-
sors to make them appear more i l l u s t r i o u s
than they actually were, the problem i s
whether he could really have made a claim
for better treatment within his own l i n -
eage and local community on the basis of
this forged record. Even i f he could
have put forth this claim, there i s s t i l l
doubt about the extent to which i t would
have been taken seriously. The fact i s
i t would have been d i f f i c u l t even to
advance such a claim, and there was only
a very slim chance that notice would have
been taken of i t even i f i t had been
advanced. The inescapable conclusion i s
that the effort made to f a l s i f y a chokpo
could not have brought about any s i g n i f i -
cant change i n the person's s o c i a l
position.
This i s because, whatever changes i n
social position chokpo f a l s i f i c a t i o n may
have brought about, such changes had no
impact at a l l on the o v e r a l l s o c i a l
order, whether in the lineage or the
local community. These changes neces-
s a r i l y were limited to the peripheries of
the existing ruling order of the clan or
16
local area. The same was true even in the
cases of people who moved to faraway
places. The only real efficacy of these
changes was their possible u t i l i t y as a
preventive against further downward
social mobility.
As we know, there were organized
associations of Confucianists in every
local area during the Y i dynasty, and the
members of these associations played the
leading roles in the p o l i t i c a l , social,
educational, and other aspects of l i f e of
t h e i r l o c a l areas, through their
a c t i v i t i e s focused either on the local
Confucian academy (hyanggyo) and private
Confucian schools (sSwon) or the local
gentry associations such as the hyangan
or hyangyak. As one might expect,
exclusiveness was one of the distinctive
characteristics of these groups. The
exclusiveness of these associations of
Confucianists operated to ensure that no
unqualified person could join their ranks
and was even stronger than the sense of
exclusiveness which existed among clans
and among segmentary lineages within a
clan. Considering only this one fact of
the existence of associations of this
kind, i t becomes possible to understand
what has been said above about the lack
of efficacy of f a l s i f i e d entries in a
chokpo.
Moreover, these Confucianists also had
more expertise than most people i n what
is known as pohak. Although i t has never
been a formal f i e l d of learning, pohak i s
a term which came to be widely used to
refer to those many people who not only
were well versed in the history of their
own family, but were even experts on the
chokpo of other families. These people
were said to be well informed i n the area
of pohak. Since pohak came to be consid-
ered one of the basic competencies ex-
pected of scholar-officials, most learned
men we,r,e also experts i n the area of
pohak. No matter where you went i n the
society of Y i Korea, there were persons
well versed in pohak (and this i s s t i l l
true today). So naturally there were
persons among them who knew in detail the
history and lineage background of the
leading families of their local area.
816/Song
As a consequence, even supposing that
someone succeeded i n having a false entry
recorded in his clan's chokpo, i t was not
possible to conceal the fact that i t was
a false entry from anyone who had any
real concern i n the matter. This re-
mained d i f f i c u l t even after the passage
of a long period of time and the lapse of
many generations. In short, the argument
being made here that a person responsible
for a f a l s i f i e d entry i n a chokpo was not
able to bring about any improvement i n
his social status and that this kind of
forgery had absolutely no impact on the
e x i s t i n g s o c i a l status system of the
society of that time, finds support pre-
c i s e l y i n the fact of the extensive
development of pohak.
If so, then what are the problems these
f a l s i f i e d entries present to those who
want to use the chokpo today as data for
research? Of course, one shortcoming of
chokpo i s the need to exercise prudence
in relying on the data they contain.
However, t h i s problem can e a s i l y be
surmounted i f an e f f o r t i s made to
exercise perseverance and to become i n -
formed of the p i t f a l l s . There are many
ways to make up for the shortcomings of
the chokpo as a research tool.
Although I have said that f a l s i f i e d en-
tries could not have had much efficacy
even for the distant descendants of the
person responsible for the f a l s i f i c a t i o n ,
I did not mean that there was never a
time when that person's descendants might
be able to participate i n the existing
ruling system of their clan and local
community or, at least, be able to chal-
lenge this system. Certainly, such a
17
period did f i n a l l y come to be. However
that period was rarely any sooner than
1910. Moreover, even when i t did arrive,
the decisive factor i n bringing i t about
was not the improved status shown i n
family records, thanks to the f a l s i f i e d
entries inserted by forebears, but rather
was the comprehensive changes i n the
value system which had nothing to do with
f a l s i f i c a t i o n s i n the chokpo. In short,
change came about as a consequence of
modernization and industrialization.
CONCLUSION
I have tried i n this paper to describe
the major types of family records which
have been developed during the course of
Korean history. At the same time, by
placing emphasis on the r e l a t i o n s h i p
between social processes and the form i n
which these records appeared and evolved,
I have attempted to suggest a few
p o s s i b l y s i g n i f i c a n t revisions i n the
accepted understanding of the clan system
and i t s implications f o r the s o c i a l
status system of t r a d i t i o n a l Korean
s o c i e t y . The fundamental conclusion
which should have emerged very clearly i s
that the history of family records, in
a l l of the forms they have taken, i s
inextricably bound up with some of the
most fundamental social processes of the
later Y i dynasty i n p a r t i c u l a r .
Consequently, rather than being simply a
matter of s a t i s f y i n g an antiquarian
curiosity, the study of family records,
and of the chokpo i n particular, should
be seen as one of the most f r u i t f u l means
of unraveling the many unresolved issues
in the study of Korean history.
816/Song 18

GLOSSARY ( Song )

Andong Kvon hyanggyo

Andong Kwon-ssi hyangyak
Aphae Chong-ssi Hwang Yun-sok
cha I j ae
Chang Op ijodo & ft. w
Ch'angwon Chong Im Kyong-ch'ang
XX
cheiljo -jo
cheilsejo Kangwon
Chesongbo kasung
chinsa Kaesong
Cho Chong-un Kisong Hwang-ssi Naeoebo
Ch'oe Hang
Ch'oe On-su
chokpo kongsin
Cholla Koryo
ch'on Kosong Y i
Chong Kon-su i? Ut Ku Hui-so
Chong Mu r ft kunan
Chong Nam-hyok T ft * kunyok
Chong S i - s u l J i l l kyebo
chongson Kyonggi
ChÓng Yag-yong Kyongsang
Ch'ongsong Sim-ssi Kwon Kun
Ch'ungch'ong mansongbo $4* ft
-do Mansong-taedongbo ^ )^(&\ f ^ f
Hamyang Pak ii Mongmin-simso
>XLh
hangul Munhwa Y u - s s i
Hansan Y i munkwa a it 9f rv
Hungsong Chang Í t «Kc ^ naebo
tf
hyangan naeoebo
816/Song 19

naep'yon Ý3 & Soch'on-ssijokpo

Namwon song it
Namwon Yang Songho-sonsaeng Munjip
noin $kr X». Songwon-ch'ongnok
Ufa
opaeksipijodo so won
i *
oebo ^ ft ssijok IK
oega A ^ Ssijok-wollyu
oejo t'aryok-soji
oep'yon Tasan %
paekkabo t % %% to i n
Pak Chi-ryang won jo
p'al Yang Sa-hyong
p'alch'on Yang S i - j i n
p'algojodo Yang Yo-mae
pohak If ¥ Y i Am
* ft
pon'gwan 1 f , Y i Chung-hwan
# ft*
sajungjodo VST <f ?£• ® Y i Ik * *
Sangnyong Ch'oe Y i Kang
seen'op Yi Yy/M-hyu
M l *
segye •it f. Y i Kon-ch'ang
* í ïr
Sejong * & Y i Se-ju
sijo Yi U
Sim Hi-se >fc 5* # Yu Hui-jam
simnyukjodo
simnyulsebo
Yu Hyong-won
yukpo
* f f 4.
sipsasebo Yuso-p'ilchi * rt
sipsebo
-r * cf
816/Song

ÍJ3 l
— „

li
JSSJ «1 = **
'5'

Figure 1. The f i r s t page of the naep'yon section of Chong Yag-yong's Aphae Chong-ssi
kasung, which comprises 170 pages i n a l l .
816/Song

^7 ÍK
A-it O

at
0s
§1 u i*a»i

ft -fff •Ú
A.
_fc.
? it.
ié
Í ^

j m
JÉB.
3& Mrj

ft
7^ M
Figure 2. The f i r s t page of oep'yon section of Chong Yag-yong's kasung.
816/Song 22

Figure 3. An example of a kasung written i n han'gul. (The lower half i s

transcription of this kasung i n contemporary written Korean, which i s a mixture of
modernized han'gul Chinese characters.)
 C 2S
816/Sorig 7< ' At'

O
íjK 'ft> ^ lp! <*#•-ƒ >h «té.
•et
ff /&
tifï 'É
m *á '4
m fk
Ji 4$
M i l l list
*

/1
13

lil
I

ff t* f j( />'/ij'. JE $ 4*
»1 ; A £ * -3
* &*

Figure 4. A composite of the i n i t i a l portions of the naebo (right) and oebo ( l e f t ) ,

which together make up a naeoebo. This naeoebo i s as the Kisong Hwang-ssi Naeoebo,
compiled by Hwang Yun-sok (1729-91).
816/Song 24

Figure 5. In this p'algojodo for a man named Kim Kuk-yang who lived during the early
seventeenth century, paternal and maternal ancestral couples (including multiple
spouses in several instances) are recorded for four ascendant generations. (Note that
some of the genealogical information for the third and fourth ascendant generations i s
missing).

£_! * I J . — r : "v" — i -
B£ Aft** se, ái i |aft"BS a& *3
te
*
WÍS
¥•"4 € •
^ S \' S ' ifc* fe v v
» EJ øl
J
we. •se» P i i
.7G I f Ti
v. pi
V ^

8 VI.;':;

1
816/Song 25

iÜ? (Ih (pb iS) 1% fi) i%

m
wM ;£ f " ?V 7m rm
* ft
ft
I, * t l f l VA

'lf l å !
3&
ft 4£
f # IS*
Mi

Figure 6. A p'algojodo compiled by Hwang Yun-sok for himself.

816/Song 26

#1 i
f tå
-ío ife i>L *
Il ^

if)

A^ Ik

Figure 7. A p'algojodo compiled by Hwang Yun-sok for his wife.

816/Song

1 l N N V
íbJ».

Figure 8. A simnyukchodo, which i s made up of the combined p'algojodo of the father

(right half) and the mother ( l e f t half) of i t s compiler, Song Hui-op, who lived during
the early seventeenth century.
816/Song 28

00
+
IS

•3- ^ ^ ^

————as

—
•*=
• ' ""'' "
]
Í ± H íl S jfe

I il* 3f J
! _9, ;fth. jg A T
! -

Figure 9. This Yosan Song clan chokpo published i n 1610 i s an example of a typical
early chokpo which, as an extension of a kasung, contains detailed information
primarily for the direct ancestors of i t s compiler only.
 816/Song 29

V»'
v.;;'"
— m v. y •- -
kJE 0 —
m # w "S? i »; • • • •

—.
n tø ft
m ft % '

E il
m Pi "ft
% M
Hi
m
$ —

Z Jt
a 'ü
a ík
té A -i
iE n m * : «
16
±
91 m m m
'ÁL OP IW
»i in: m m *

m /\
in §•<•
4»
IS «
m m ii Ull

a; •til ft
m m
% ¥ PI
n
p
ft m +
e n *tic JJ'J 1515 H
/4 9 * *1*
WJ —
m w p Í5 mi
SJ w] T
& *r >7V

ifi: ft + ot
± ft 8 * ft
tf "± M
fit til)
m if
IK:
51 il *

BP ft m.
« tt n a 5JH
»J
Jt
IB
*
m
is?
±

Figure 10. This circular sent i n 1900 to the members of the Miryang Pak clan by the
committee i n charge of revising the chokpo clearly shows that the burden of providing
the necessary information and funding for this revision i s to be shared jointly by a l l
the clan members.
 1. I

! SL
i
ih
f
44

í
r>7
3-

5í •5* it,
«
s
tin

•JÍÍS. ^ ^ "JSLÍ r n

tø

Figure 11. This is the standard format for a request for exemption from military
service, known as the t'aryoksoji. A sample judgment by the competent o f f i c i a l is
given at the extreme l e f t .
 NOTES

^Chokpo began to appear in Korea from around the middle of the fifteenth
century. However, these early chokpo were not joint genealogies in the true sense. I
discuss this matter in the latter part of this paper.

Other terms used for this kind of record include segye, kyebo, kagye, and
v
sech op.
3
This i s because Tasan attached a p'algojodo to his kasung. The p'algojodo
w i l l be described later in this paper.
^Terms such as wonjo, cheilcho, or cheilsejo were frequently used instead of
s i j o . In fact, some people intentionally avoided the term sijo because they felt i t
implied more than what could be reasonably asserted about a historical person. That
i s , unless he were a mythical figure, this founding ancestor would have himself had
predecessors. Nonetheless, I use the term sijo i n this paper in accordance with
customary usage.
5
Hwang Yun-sok made very special kinds of genealogies for many clans which are
apparently the very clans which would have appeared i n a p'algojodo type of family
record expanded to ten or more generations and constructed along the lines of Yi
Kwan-hyu's sipsebo. Among these, the Hamyang Pak clan genealogy provides a good
i l l u s t r a t i o n of the nature of these extraordinary documents. On the whole i t i s a
genealogy of the ordinary type the Pak clan members might make for themselves. The
only unusual aspect i s the special effort Hwang made to demonstrate, wherever
possible, how the Hamyang Pak clan was connected to his family through marriage.
Essentially, this involved adding parts of the genealogies of many other clans to the
clan records of the Hamyang Pak. Thus Hwang's name appears i n different places no
less than twenty-eight times i n this genealogy either in his own patriline or i n that
of his wife, and his son's name appears some twelve times i n his wife's patriline.

Let me delineate just one of these twenty-eight cases in which Hwang's name appears i n
this genealogy. A Hamyang Pak man named Pak Chi-ryang who served as a prime minister
in the latter half of the thirteenth century during the Koryo dynasty had a son-in-law
by the name of Y i U. This man was from the Kosong Y i clan and, like his
father-in-law, served as a high government o f f i c i a l . Y i U's son Y i Am (1297-1364) i n
his turn was also a prime minister. The family's illustriousness carried over into
the next generation when Y i Am's son, Y i Kang, also served as a high government
o f f i c i a l . Y i Kang's daughter married a man of the Andong Kwon clan named Kwon Kun
(1352-1409), who subsequently became one of the most prominent scholar politicians of
the early Y i dynasty. The son-in-law of Kwon Kun's son-in-law was another famous
scholar p o l i t i c i a n , Ch'oe Hang (1409-1474) of the Sangnyóng Ch'oe clan, who served as
a prime minister under King Sejong (1397-1450). One of Ch'oe Hang's grandsons, Ch'oe
Su-ung, moved from the capital to Namwon, Cholla Province, where his great-great-
granddaughter married Yang Sa-hyong of the Namwon Yang clan, a prominent clan i n
Namwon and the nearby county of Sunchang. Yang Sa-hyong later served as a local
magistrate. His son, Yang S i - j i n , passed the highest c i v i l service examination
(munkwa) i n 1606. Then the son of this munkwa passer, Yang Yo'mae, in his turn earned
a degree known as the chinsa by passing a lower c i v i l service examination. Yang
Yo-mae's daughter married Chang Op of the HungsSng Chang clan, who was another holder
of the chinsa degree living i n Namwon county. Chang Op's son-in-law was a man by the
816/Song 32

name of Chong Mu of the Ch'angwon Chong clan, and i t i s under the name of his son,
Chong Nam-hyok, that the compiler Hwang Yun-sok appears as a son-in-law.

Finally, i t should be pointed out that the document recording the Hamyang Pak
genealogy i s just one of more than thirty such documents of Hwang's compilation s t i l l
extant, each of which constitutes a kind of composite genealogy as the above example
indicates.

Songho Sonsaeng Munjip, v o l . 50, p. 19.

''see note 10.

8
The place names used to designate the pon'gwan of every Korean clan are a l l
names of county-level administrative d i s t r i c t s as they existed during the Yi dynasty,
or at an earlier period in Korean history. There i s not one single exception to this
rule. This fact i s surely a very important clue i n the attempt to explain the origin
of Korean clans,
q
Of course, there were i n fact many people without a clan a f f i l i a t i o n i n
traditional Korean society. Slaves of a l l types were the representative case. But,
as we a l l know, slaves were not accorded f u l l social standing as persons. That i s ,
their status as persons was subject to serious impediments which made them the objects
of buying and s e l l i n g , transmission by inheritance, and gift-giving of various kinds.
10
A c t u a l l y , the expression "influence of the member's clan" i s not precise i n
this context. When one says that an individual was unable to free himself from the
influence of his clan, either i n thought or i n action, the term clan i n this context
does not refer to the entire clan i n which he i s included. Rather, i t means only that
body of his clansmen l i v i n g i n the same geographical area as himself (especially when
they form a corporate group) and genealogically closely related to him. Even when the
clan system was at the height of i t s development, there simply never was a clan which
had the capability of tackling any social issue as an organized corporate group. The
functions of a clan as a social institution were carried out by specific groups l i v i n g
i n specific areas. The various distinctive characteristics of the clan system to be
discussed later on i n this paper, such as the exclusiveness and rivalry endemic to
Korean clans, must be understood from this perspective. This same cautionary note
must also be kept i n mind when dealing with the issue of the cooperativeness and
solidarity of Korean clans.

"'"''"It i s worth noticing that the movement of the major clans during the Y i
dynasty was almost always directed toward the so-called five southeastern provinces of
Kyönggi, Ch'ungch'ong, Cholla, Kyángsang, and Kangwon. Among these, Kyongsang was the
area most preferred by the leading clans.
12
What i s meant here by common efforts, i n concrete terms, i s the sharing of
the financial burden involved i n the production of a chokpo as well as the
responsibility placed on each household within the clan to submit the entries to be
included i n the chokpo.
13
This issue i s handled i n detail i n Professor Edward W. Wagner's paper
entitled "Yangban Society of the Early Y i Dynasty as Seen Through the First Andong
Kwon and Munhwa Yu Chokpo" delivered at the December 14, 1979, meeting of the Korean
Genealogical Society i n Seoul. Mr. Mark Peterson also discusses the woman's position
i n traditional Korean society i n his short a r t i c l e , "Equal Inheritance Rights for
Women," which appears i n Korea Quarterly, v o l . 2, no. 1, 1980, Seoul, Korea.
816/Song 33

±4 V
What i s meant by myongmun i s a descent group much smaller than a clan. It
i s a family expanded v e r t i c a l l y to include i t s direct descent l i n e .
''"^See note 18 for a more detailed statement on yangban status.

•^This assumption might even be seen as implicit in the topic of this paper as
i t was assigned to me. I hope i t i s clear by now why I have addressed myself to a
somewhat broader topic.

"^This was merely a logical outcome of the basic commitment to rule by men,
rather than law, which was the nature of government i n a Confucian state. Therefore,
rather than sound administrative procedures per se, education in the broadest sense,
directed by men of talent, was perceived as the most important means of ensuring good
rule. In any case, in a society such as Y i Korea where an individual person apart
from his kinship group was socially inconceivable, this extension of the privilege of
exemption from military service to the descendants of those entitled to i t on their
own merits might well be viewed as having been inevitable.
18
Perhaps at this point i n our discussion we may at least attempt to begin to
clarify who the yangban were. Yangban i s generally understood to be the designation
for a class in traditional Korean society, particularly Y i dynasty society, that was
accorded a privileged social status and granted preferential treatment of various
kinds in social l i f e . (The term class i s being used here in a very loose sense.)
There can be no objection to this understanding so far as i t goes, but we are s t i l l a
long way from being able to say with any certainty who was eligible for this social
status or, vice versa, what kind of people remained, and had to remain, non-yangban.
S t i l l , I would like to make a few remarks here on the nature of the yangban i n
traditional Korean society. F i r s t , the yangban were not a class established by legal
enactment. Rather, they were a class which came into existence gradually over the
course of a long history. Second, the c r i t e r i a for distinguishing between yangban and
non-yangban were entirely relative and subjective rather than absolute and objective.
It i s the gravest of errors to imagine that there was a sharp line of demarcation
between yangban and non-yangban similar to what i s believed to have existed i n the
f e u d a l i s t i c class system of medieval Europe and Tokugawa Japan. Third, the
distinction between the yangban and non-yangban i n traditional Korea was nonetheless
anything but weak and ambiguous. This seeming contradiction immediately disappears
provided only that the point of reference i s kept clearly i n mind. That i s , even
though the c r i t e r i a for distinguishing between the two were entirely relative, i n any
given context there could never be any real doubt as to who was, and who was not,
yangban. This was because the v a l i d i t y and the significance of any claim to yangban
status hinged entirely on a combination of the general c r i t e r i a and the particular
power configuration within a given community, whether that of the core yangban
centered on the capital and firmly ensconced i n i t s corridors of power, or that of
their more lowly brethren on the fringes of yangban society playing a leading role i n
some remote area far from the corridors of power at the center but linked to those
whose natural milieu they were and, thus, to seme extent sharing i n their glory and
privileges through ties of common descent and the shared world view of Confucianism.

Therefore, while the yangban were i n this sense a nation-wide social class, they were
not a privileged social strata without Internal differentiation with respect to their
actual access to privilege, occupations, and power. Moreover, this essential
ambiguity was not only at the root of the d i f f i c u l t i e s experienced i n matters such as
the administration of the military service obligation, but i s also one of the most
816/Song 34

important clues to understanding the r e a l nature of the social structure of

traditional Korean society.
19
The remarks quoted below are a part of an epilogue written i n 1846 by a man
of the Hansan Y i clan for his clan genealogy published i n the same year. The author
was the man who took the lead i n editing and publishing this genealogy.
In the history of our clan, Hansan Y i , the f i r s t printed genealogy was pro-
duced i n 1643 . . . and i t was revised ninety-seven years later in 1740. . . .
Since then one hundred and six years have passed. Some thirteen years ago an
old man of our clan living i n Hansan, Ch'ungch'ong Province, came to see me
and brought up the subject of making a revision of our genealogy. He asked me
to take the lead i n this undertaking, and I earnestly declined his request for
the reason that I was too old to assume such an important and heavy respon-
s i b i l i t y . He did not give up his request, however, and during the following
five years he kept on urging me repeatedly. Each time he visited me his words
became more sincere. I was especially touched by him when he expressed his
deep regret i n the following words:

"There are branches of our clan i n the remote areas of the country that have
failed for generations to produce any government o f f i c i a l s or successful
candidates in the government examinations. As a result the members of the
present generation of those branches have no means to resort to for securing
exemption from military service ( i n spite of the fact that they also trace
their descent ultimately to those distinguished ancestors from whom we also
are descended, a fact that only the genealogy can prove)."
20
The following i s a prescribed form for a petition any local resident
would bring forward to the yamen to ask for the privilege of exemption from
military service, a service that was considered by people the most painful as well
as the most disgraceful. The form appears in Yuso-p'ilchi, Manual of Legal Style
and Forms for Documentary Writings. I t was one of the most commonly used
materials i n Y i dynasty society as a handbook among government o f f i c i a l s ,
scholars, and yamen clerks as well.
Your Excellency:

Hereby I am submitting a petition to you for your close examination. I am a

direct descendant (number of generations removed) of So-and-so, the one-time
government minister. Unfortunately, however, our family has been unable to
sustain the glory and status which our ancestors were privileged to enjoy, i n
addition to the failure to maintain a decent standard of l i v i n g . Thus we have had
no choice but to (leave the capital of the nation and) move to the present address
subject to the jurisdiction of your office. We are now engaging i n farming work.
Such being the case, we are placed i n a situation very much resembling that of an
orange tree transplanted into a colder climate, which, transformed into a
different species, bears thick-skinned, tasteless fruits smaller i n size than
those of i t s original counterpart.

Now to my surprise, i t came to pass that the yamen clerks serving under your honor
refused to recognize the origin and tradition of our family, thus offering an
intentional affront to us, and then have included my name i n the kunan, the draft
l i s t (in fact, a l i s t of the names of those subject to the cloth levy). I t i s
quite annoying that they keep demanding payment with importunity every day. This
may not be worthy of special mention since i t i s a well-known fact of today that
816/Song 35

by and large our society i s extremely cold and rude. Nevertheless, how could you
expect helpless people l i v i n g i n remote areas to retain that proper dignity
belonging to yangban when your clerks never ceased to look down upon a ruined
yangban?

Indeed, I could not get over the feeling of being seriously humiliated. So I
cannot help appealing my case to you with our family record and clan genealogy as
supporting documentation. Please look thoroughly into the mistreatment I have
suffered and allow me an exemption from military service, thus removing my name
from your l i s t permanently. I also beg you to severely punish your clerks who
dared to injure the prestige of a yangban.

As an example of the decision the magistrate should make i n handling such a petition
as the above, the following i s given i n the manual:

Having checked the petitioner's lineage against his family record and clan
genealogy, i t has become evident that he i s of a yangban family (that i s to
say, he i s undoubtedly descended from the one-time government minister
So-and-so). Therefore, I hereby order that he be given the privilege of
exemption from military service.
21
On the matter of military service exemptions, Chong Yag-yong gives warning
in his celebrated book, Mongmin-simso, a manual for the magistracy, as follows:
When someone in your jurisdiction has i l l e g a l l y attempted to evade his
military service claiming his e l i g i b i l i t y on grounds of such untrue evidence
as a f a l s i f i e d lineage record of his genealogy or a purchased old document
issued as an o f f i c i a l announcement of appointment, he must needs be punished.
22
There are many persons who are remembered for their learning i n the area of
pohak and i n connection with i t s development. One of these experts was Yu Hui-jam who
compiled that very famous Munhwa Yu clan genealogy (10 vols.) of 1565 discussed above.
Another person in this same category was Chong Kon-su (1538-1602) who was renowned for
his a b i l i t y to answer without any hesitation whatever inquiries were made to him about
the genealogies of any of the major clans a l l of which he had thoroughly mastered.
Chong, who labored to compile a comprehensive genealogy known as the Soch'on Ssijokpo,
was given the nickname of "Living Genealogy" (yukbo) by his contemporaries.
There were many other persons who also became widely known as experts i n the area of
pohak such as Sim Hui-se (1601-1645), Cho Chong-un (1607-1683), Chong Si-sul (active
around the mid-seventeenth century), Im Kyong-ch'ang (active around the latter half of
the seventeenth century), and Y i Se-ju (later seventeenth to early eighteenth
century). Notably, Im Kyong-ch'ang was so widely recognized as a prominent expert in
the area of pohak that he even received protection of the state. When i n 1679 he was
banished for the crime of f a i l i n g to report knowledge he had of a treasonous plot
which was set forth i n a protest circular, the chief ministers i n the court requested
that he be pardoned on the grounds of his "mastery of pohak." In response to this
request the king directed: "Since matters related to genealogy are extremely
important, l e t a special favor be bestowed upon him." Im's erudite knowledge of the
chokpo of every clan was an absolute necessity i n dealing with the issue of the
military service exemption which was one of the most serious problems troubling the
government at that time.

Hwang Yun-sok and Chong Yag-yong, while their real value as scholars of course l i e s i n
other fields, were also experts i n pohak. This i s especially true of Hwang. Among
816/Song 36

more recent figures, Ku Hui-so (1861-1930) i s someone else who was renowned for his
knowledge of pohak.

Those with a special interest in pohak usually produced comprehensive genealogies.

Among the comprehensive genealogies they compiled, particularly famous works are Cho
Chong-un's Ssijok-nrollyu (7 vols.), Chong Si-sul's Che Song-bo (18 vols.), and Im
Kyong-ch'ang's Songwon-ch'ongnok (28 vols.). These comprehensive genealogies were
more often than not used as source materials by the compilers of the genealogies for
each clan.

The Paekssi-t'ongbo (46 vols.), which i s believed to have „been compiled by Ku Hui-so
in the early part of this century, i s probably the best comprehensive genealogy i n
Korea both i n terms of content and quality. The Mansong-taedongbo published i n 1931
is another of the more recent comprehensive genealogies and i s a reflection of the
continuation of the pohak tradition explained above.
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Family and
Local History in Japan
Panel
Kenji Suzuki (Mod.),

Anne Walthall,
Kin-itsu Hirata,
Greg Gubler
Senes 818
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
ana do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 FAMILY AND LOCAL HISTORY IN JAPAN:
PEASANT FAMILIES AND SUCCESSION IN TOKUGAWA JAPAN

Anne Walthall

Born in Texas. Resides i n Salt Lake City, Utah. Assistant professor of history,
University of Utah. Ph.D. (Japanese history), University of Chicago. Author.

Although American historians have devoted or whether primogeniture when i t occurred

much e f f o r t to the determination of
family size and related demographic
trends for Tokugawa Japan, research on
peasant inheritance p r a c t i c e s has
scarcely progressed since 1959 when T. C.
Smith called them "among the least known
subjects of Japanese social history."
Questions of succession have been sub-
ordinated to problems of who married at
what age, how economic changes influenced
the establishment of non-successor house-
holds, and what limited opportunities of
succession meant for the number of
children raised to maturity. Descrip-
tions of succession patterns and varia-
tions therein have been unsubstantiated
by quantitative evidence. Most his-
torians and sociologists have agreed that
"the primary emphasis i n the Japanese
family system i s not so much on the
continuity of the 'blood' from father to
oldest son as on the perpetuation of the
family as a corporate unit." Beyond
such statements, they have made l i t t l e
effort to define the ideology of the
family reflected in patterns of succes-
sion to the position of the household
head.
In the years since T. C. Smith mentioned
the lack of research done on inheritance
patterns, a number of Japanese historians
have done i n t e n s i v e , q u a n t i t a t i v e r e -
search on when succession took place and
who succeeded to what i n Tokugawa peasant
society. C r i t i c a l of the 1898 C i v i l Code
that claimed the authority of traditional
practices to l i m i t succession to the
oldest son, these historians undertook to
discover whether peasants had made an
ideological commitment to primogeniture,
was simply a response to specific eco-
nomic circumstances. Their conclusions
may surprise people who have assumed that
the Japanese had abandoned the practice
of partible inheritance long before the
beginning of the Tokugawa period.
The determination of a successor and the
point i n the developmental cycle of a
domestic group when succession took place
was of c r i t i c a l importance to a peasant
family. A mistake, might mean the house-
hold's extinction. For this reason, i t
is d i f f i c u l t to separate the ideological
and pragmatic considerations taken into
account by Tokugawa peasants when they
chose their successors. On the other
hand, the data demonstrate that certain
preconceptions operated under normal
circumstances at least at the level of
e l i m i n a t i n g c e r t a i n segments of the
population from selection for the posi-
tion. The interplay between economic
conditions and s p e c i f i a b l e conceptual
r e s t r a i n t s l i m i t e d the choice of a
successor to a f a i r l y narrow range of
possibilities. The purpose of this paper
i s to define the changes i n the para-
meters of succession choices over time
and then through an investigation of who
was chosen to determine what the house
(ie) meant i n l a t e Tokugawa peasant
society. I w i l l begin with a discussion
of the legal restrictions on the pea-
sants' choice of successor, then examine
the economic foundation of house succes-
sion rights in the seventeenth century,
and conclude with an analysis of suc-
cession patterns i n the last half of the
Tokugawa period.
818a/Walthall
SUCCESSION LAWS
For the historian, the study of bakufu
and han social legislation serves two
purposes. F i r s t , the laws and regula-
tions reflect the ideology of the ruling
calls. Second, they provide a key to
changes i n social practices and a rough
index to their frequency. The more often
a particular activity was prohibited, the
more often the historian can assume i t
occurred. The legislation i t s e l f had two
functions. One was to c o n t r o l the
division of property, and the other was
to regulate the peasants' choice of
successor.
The f i r s t bakufu law to specify the
conditions under which d i v i s i o n of
property might take place appeared i n
1673, long after the legal structure of
the bakuhan system had been established.
It permitted partible inheritance, but
only for peasants holding over ten koku
of land or f o r headmen holding over
twenty koku. For a l l poorer peasants, i t
prohibited the division of land holdings.
The promulgation of this law implied that
the bakufu had decided to move toward a
prohibition of most partible inheritance
practices. In 1713 and again i n 1721,
the bakufu repeated the 1673 regulations.
The later editions announced that despite
the previous issuance of laws governing
inheritance, the peasants did not follow
them. In other laws issued beginning i n
the 1670s, the bakufu emphasized the
danger of fragmenting landholdings among
several sons. I t i n s i s t e d that the
eldest son ought to inherit everything
and the younger sons receive nothing.
However, the bakufu's reiterated r e s t r i c -
tion of partible inheritance to peasants
holding more than ten koku leaves the
strong ^mpression of peasant non-com-
pliance. As we shall see i n the next
section, peasants overwhelmingly
preferred p a r t i b l e inheritance to
primogeniture u n t i l their own perception
of economic conditions forced them to
abandon the practice i n the 1700s.
Bakufu and han instructions on the choice
of successor for peasant households were
much more lenient than those for warrior
2
households, a triumph of pragmatism over
ideology. Throughout the Tokugawa
period, the warriors emphasized the
importance of primogeniture, for only one
male member of the family i n each genera-
tion^ might succeed to the family stip-
end. We have already seen that bakufu
law permitted some peasant families to
divide their inheritance. Moreover, the
bakufu and various han respected peasant
wishes i n the choice of a successor.
Although they preferred that the eldest
son succeed to his parents' property,
they admitted that i f the eldest l e g i -
timate son was adopted into another
family, already independent on his own
land, s i c k , g u i l t y of misconduct i n -
cluding u n f i l i a l behavior, or too young
to do a man's work, he might be replaced
by an adopted son, a younger son, or a
brother. They were thus entirely r e a l i s -
t i c when i t came to matters of peasant
succession. As eighteenth century orders
to v i l l a g e administrators to appoint
successors to already extinct peasant
families suggest, as long as someone took
r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for tax payments, the
government did not care what their blood
relationship was with the previous house-
hold head. For the peasant, however,
things were not that simple. As the
following sections w i l l argue, partible
inheritance had a value for them that i t
did not have for the government. Fur-
thermore, though l i m i t e d by economic
considerations, the selection of an heir
owed something to ideology.
PARTIBLE INHERITANCE IN THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY
During the seventeenth century, the
amount of land under cultivation doubled,
and the population grew from eight or ten
m i l l i o n to twenty-six m i l l i o n . This
process of expansion i n arable land and
population had a significant effect on
succession patterns i n peasant families.
Peasants preferred to divide t h e i r
inheritance when economic conditions
permitted. Moreover, they paid abso-
lutely no attention to bakufu regulations
limiting ^.and division to holdings over
ten koku.
818a/Walthall
The peasants most active in producing
branch f a m i l i e s and expanding t h e i r
holdings were scions of large provincial
families. Such f a m i l i e s t y p i c a l l y
claimed a warrior ancestry. The Kikuike
family of Genpachi, Iwate prefecture, for
example, traced i t s lineage to Kikuike
Shigeyori, founder of the village i n the
early twelfth century. He came o r i g i -
nally from Kyushu, but after the defeat
of his lord, he settled in a remote
mountain valley and made his living as a
peasant. There his family stayed,
supported by the hereditarily dependent
peasants brought with them. In 1601 the
head of the household transferred his
position to his eldest son and estab-
l i s h e d his second son i n a nearby
village. Of the next six generations,
five established branch families, a l l of
whom lived in the village except for the
two younger sons of the last generation.
This family produced a total of fifteen
branch families between 1601 and 1765.
Three of those which remained in the
village produced ten more branch fami-
l i e s . Today almost a l l of the twenty-six
families s t i l l extant in Genpachi carry
the Kikuike surname. A l l are clearly
related and posses private genealogies
showing their relationship to the main
house. Although i t i s rare for peasants
to have kept detailed records, similar
pedigrees have been found i n the Ina
d i s t r i c t of Nagano prefecture and the
mountains of Shikoku. Isolated u n t i l the
land surveys of the l a t e sixteenth
century, these villages remained under
the absolute control of the former
warrior f a m i l i e s . Then the taxation
system of the seventeenth century made
imperative intensive cultivation of the
f i e l d s by independent small peasant
families. A f t e r the middle of the
Tokugawa period, mountain v i l l a g e s
pressed on the limits of their arable.
It became no longer feasible for the main
families to divide their holdings an^
expect the branches to survive.
Nevertheless, as long as economic
conditions permitted, the Kikuike family
and others like i t preferred to practice
partible inheritance.
Peasants from other parts of Japan dis-
3
played a similar preference for partible
inheritance. In Hashiramoto village near
Osaka, the number of houses i n the
village from 1600 to 1690 remained con-
stant at sixty. Between 1688 and 1720,
the number increased to 117, or almost
double the original figure. In contrast,
the number increased by only ten between
1720 and 1770, a figure unchanged i n
modern times. F i f t y f a m i l i e s were
established as branch houses i n the
earlier period, but the increase i n the
later period came primarily from immi-
gration (see table 1). Of the original
sixty houses, twenty-two produced
branches in contrast to three for the
latter period. If branching was possible
only under certain economic conditions,
after the 1720s, i t became much more
d i f f i c u l t for peasant families to meet
them. The reason for the commencement of
land division was the stabilization of
the village productive capacity toward
the end of the seventeenth century. The
land tax r a t e , for example, showed
extreme f l u c t u a t i o n s between 1600 and
1675, from 720 koku to a mere seventy
koku. After the 1690s, the fluctuations
lessened to between four and five hundred
koku. The lack of variation i n harvest
y i e l d s r e f l e c t e d i n these figures
r e s u l t e d from the erection of flood
prevention dikes along the Yodo river.
Once the peasants no longer needed extra
labor to cope with natural disasters,
they found i t feasible to release younger
sons and dependent servants, sometimes
even elder, sons, to branch houses (see
table 2).
Economically the most advanced area of
Japan, the Kinai plain saw considerable
variation in the shift from partible to
i n d i v i s i b l e inheritance. In Kamika-
warabayashi village, partible inheritance
occurred frequently to the early 1680s.
After that, the custom rapidly declined
u n t i l by the early 1700s, single
inheritance had become predominant.
Division of the holding had usually taken
place when the head of household
established a 'retired' branch house when
the eldest son married. Although a
number of sociologists have argued that
this separation was necessary to prevent
818a/Walthall
f r i c t i o n between the two married couples,
i n this village at least, the reason
appears to have been an administrative
one. Only the main houses of
Kamikawarabayashi were responsible for
corvee labor, not the branch houses. As
a consequence, i t behooved the peasants
to keep the number of main families as
small as possible and to Insist that
other families in the village were merely
their dependents. This argument gained
the most credence when the eldest son
became the head of the main family and
the father r e t i r e d . Although the
father's normal productive a c t i v i t i e s
might continue, he no longer had the
responsibility of performing corvee labor
or coercing one of his dependents to do
it. Usually the division of the land
between the two new families was more
equal than might otherwise have been the
case. The disappearance of this practice
in the village after the turn of the
century came about primarily in reac^on
to population pressure on the arable.
Despite bakufu laws l i m i t i n g p a r t i b l e
inheritance, given the chance peasants
continued to a l l o t t h e i r lands among
their sons. In the village of Yokouchi
i n the Suwa d i s t r i c t of Nagano prefec-
ture, land division took place throughout
the eighteenth century. As table 3
indicates, the greatest increase in the
production of branch houses came between
1725 and 1775. Then between 1775 and
1801, seven families became extinct, a
r e f l e c t i o n of s o c i a l d i s l o c a t i o n s and
economic decline climaxed by the Tenmei
famine (1783-1787). Aside from that
period, however, families practiced some
degree of partible inheritance to the end
of the Tokugawa period. Yokouchi was
located near a major highway on the plain
around lake Suwa. Nearby were castle
towns and markets that provided oppor-
tunities to establish branch houses long
a f t e r ^ h e y had disappeared i n other
areas.
Peasants had a number of reasons to
establish branch houses. When the father
moved out with his younger children at
the marriage of his eldest son, personal
relations may have indeed played a part.
P
On the other hand, Japanese historians
have suggested several more pragmatic
motives. In some areas, the bakufu
granted ownership of new land only to the
family who a c t u a l l y did the work of
bringing i t under cultivation, not to the
large provincial families who may have
provided the original capital. When the
government imposed heavy taxes, the need
for intensive labor made i t imperative to
give formerly dependent r e l a t i v e s and
servants t h e i r own piece of land.
Partible inheritance also made sense i n
terms of the agricultural cycle. During
the seventeenth century when single crop
farming predominated and a market for
commercial products had not yet de-
veloped, peasant families required more
labor for planting and harvesting than
they could afford to support the
remainder of the year. They had to rely
on labor exchanges with other families,
and the most reliable were relatives.
The division of land among several sons
meant a guaranteed extra supply of labor
i n time of need. In a d d i t i o n , the
kinship group (dozokudan) had an
important role to play i n v i l l a g e
politics. At the assemblies called to
discuss water r i g h t s , for example,
numbers counted. The more relatives who
had the qualifications to participate i n
decision-making processes, the more
advantageous for the kinship group as a
whole. At this point, the interests of
the individual family diverged from^those
of the government and the v i l l a g e .
By the 1690s i n some areas and as late as
the mid-eighteenth century i n others,
despite the advantages of p a r t i b l e
inheritance, population pressure on the
land forced villages to limit the number
of peasant households. It was often at
this point that the distinction arose
between honbyakusho, peasants with f u l l
membership status in the v i l l a g e , and
mizunomi, the unfranchised peasants. In
Gorobei Shinden v i l l a g e of Nagano
prefecture, for example, u n t i l 1670 a l l
branch f a m i l i e s and migrants to the
v i l l a g e became honbyakusho. In the
eighteenth century, only people who
inherited or bought honbyakusho shares or
rights (kabu) acquired that status and
818a/Walthall
i t s privileges. The difference lay not
i n the size of landholding, for mizunomi
might own just as much land as any
honbyakusho. Instead i t became a matter
of p o l i t i c s , of the right to belong to an
exclusive club. This right was i n d i v i -
s i b l e ; only one family member per
generation might succeed to the coveted
t i t l e of honbyakusho just as only one
person per generation i n a samurai family
might i n h e r i t the family stipend.
Consequently the term main family (honke)
took on even greater significance that i t
had had before.
SUCCESSION PATTERNS IN THE EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY
Once succession to the main house meant
the right not only to worship the family
ancestors but also to p a r t i c i p a t e i n
village decision-making processes, the
designation of the heir became a matter
of family prestige. Given the extreme
v a r i a b i l i t y i n the geography and economy
of villages, in some areas large extended
families continued to the end of the
Tokugawa period while i n others, the
practice of ultimogeniture meant that the
elder sons l e f t home. These exceptions
aside, however, in the late eighteenth
century, primogeniture became the
principal pattern of succession.
Based on q u a n t i t a t i v e evidence from
Murayama d i s t r i c t i n Yamagata prefecture
to v i l l a g e s on the K i n a i p l a i n , the
eldest son succeeded to the position of
household head between f i f t y and seventy
percent of the time (see table 4). When
the eldest son did not succeed, often a
note explaining what had to have been
unusual circumstances was added to the
population registers. The reasons for
the predominance of this pattern were not
simply economic or demographic. In some
villages only the eldest son had the
right to participate^ f u l l y i n village
religious ceremonies. When the family
had an important position i n the village
either as the hereditary village headman
or as the largest landlord or both, then
i t became especially important for the
5
eldest son to succeed to his father's
p o s i t i o n ^ for reasons of social
prestige.
Despite the s t a t i s t i c a l preference for
primogeniture, i n forty to f i f t y percent
of the cases, another member of the
family became household head. If the
head died before the eldest son reached
maturity, economic circumstances might
dictate succession by another adult. For
large landlords, sex and rank order of
birth were more important than a b i l i t y ,
but for a small peasant family, the
household head had to be capable of a
f u l l day's work. Sometimes the eldest
son had simply disappeared, whether to a
nearby city i n search of work or to
another village as an adopted son-in-law.
Sometimes he had died while s t i l l a
child. As peasants and especially poor
peasants found i t increasingly necessary
to limit their family size, sometimes the
family never produced a son at a l l . To
maintain i t s e l f as a family and as a tax
paying unit, the household then had to
select someone else to be the next head.
Who would be selected became problematic.
When the death of a head of household
l e f t behind only a wife with immature
children, the question of his successor
engaged not only his immediate family but
also his relatives and even the village
administration. Sometimes the widow
became the nominal household head u n t i l
her son came of age. Nevertheless, a
woman had no public rights, and her name
was l e g a l l y barred from government
documents. In addition women were not
allowed to p a r t i c i p a t e i n v i l l a g e
religious associations, the miyaza. As
a consequence, the position of a widow as
head of household was always temporary.
As soon as her son matured, he became the
household head. In other cases, a
younger brother l i v i n g i n the same house
might take precedence over a widow i n
being named family head, or an adult male
would be adopted as the successor. If a
widow married again, her new husband
became the household head. In these
cases, to make a male adult the successor
jeopardized the rights of the natural
son. For this reason, contracts made at
818a/Walthall
the time of an adoption s p e c i f i e d whether
succession would2Qrevert to the d i r e c t
l i n e of descent. When a house became
e x t i n c t , a c o n f e r e n c e of r e l a t i v e s
decided who would be chosen to revive i t .
The person so chosen would himself become
the adopted son of the previous household
head. This p r a c t i c e occurred only among
poor peasant f a m i l i e s , those farming less
than three koku, f o r whom the problem of
f i n d i n g a successor was more d i f f i c u l t
than f o r f a m i l i e s who a c t u a l l y had
p r o p e r t y worth i n h e r i t i n g . The
exertions of r e l a t i v e s to revive defunct
houses t e s t i f i e d to the importance of the
k i n s h i p group i n the economic enterprises
of i t s members.
The most unusual cases of f a m i l y succes-
sion were when former heads recovered the
headship. In a v i l l a g e of Murayama
d i s t r i c t , Yamagata prefecture, a f a t h e r
reclaimed his p o s i t i o n a f t e r having
relinquished i f f o r a year. Eight years
l a t e r he returned i t to h i s son. In
another case, a f a t h e r , aged seventy-one,
took over from h i s forty-two year old
son. When h i s son died a few years
l a t e r , the father adopted a son-in-law to
succeed him. In both cases the f a t h e r
acted while the h e i r was s t i l l a l i v e ,
perhaps a d e m o n s t r a t i o n t h a t a b i l i t y
superseded blood. In contrast, several
times grandsons from the same v i l l a g e
became f a m i l y heads, and three succeeded
when they were barely twenty years o l d .
Since i n a l l cases the men passed over
were adopted sons-in-law or second sons,
t h i s p r a c t i c e i n s t e a d i n d i c a t e s and
emphasis on blood l i n e over the mere
a b i l i t y to perpetuate the f a m i l y as a
corporate u n i t . Blood i n t h i s case
meant descent from eldest son to eldest
son.
Peasants o f t e n preferred to adopt a son
or a son-in-law than permit succession by
a c o l l a t e r a l male, a younger brother, or
an uncle. Successions outside the path
of direct lineal descent occurred
i n f r e q u e n t l y and only when the surviving
c h i l d r e n were v e r y young or when no
c h i l d r e n had been born at a l l . It must
not be f o r g o t t e n , however, that as long
as f a m i l i e s had to r e s t r i c t t h e i r s i z e
6
owing to the shortage of l a n d , most
c o l l a t e r a l descendants would already have
found some other means of support before
the questions of succession became an
issue.
The prevalence of adoption f o r a l l ranks
i n Tokugawa society i s a w e l l known f a c t .
H i s t o r i a n s have argued that i n a society
where status and f u n c t i o n were determined
by b i r t h , the p r a c t i c e of a d o p t i o n
provided an e s s e n t i a l mechanism f o r the
promotion of talent and a b i l i t y . Warrior
and merchant f a m i l i e s sometimes passed
over natural sons i n favor of bright
r
adopted men who would 2^ ^ 8 prestige and n
wealth to the l i n e a g e . In other words,
they took a f u n c t i o n a l approach to the
concept of the f a m i l y . The perpetuation
of a r e s p e c t a b l e f a m i l y name c l e a r l y
superseded the p e r p e t u a t i o n of the
bloodline. whenever p o s s i b l e , however,
peasants emphasized the c o n t i n u i t y of the
latter. Males were almost never adopted
when a natural son was present, and i f
they were, they were o f t e n m e r e l y
temporary successors, expected to give up
t h e i r p o s i t i o n when the h e i r came of age.
Although adoptions i n peasant f a m i l i e s ,
e s p e c i a l l y poor peasant f a m i l i e s , became
i n c r e a s i n g l y common i n the l a s t half of
the Tokugawa p e r i o d , the increase
demonstrated not a new r a t i o n a l i t y i n the
c h o i c e o f the f a m i l y s u c c e s s o r but
g r e a t e r r e s t r i c t i o n s p l a c e d on c h i l d -
birth.
From the evidence (see table 5 ) , i t i s
clear that peasants preferred to have a
mature a d u l t son i n h e r i t the f a m i l y
headship. When none e x i s t e d , they
u s u a l l y adopted a mature male, either as
a son, a son-in-law, or more r a r e l y as a
widow's second husband. C o l l a t e r a l l i n e s
succeeded to the main l i n e of descent
r a r e l y and most f r e q u e n t l y when the
p r e v i o u s household head d i e d w i t h o u t
acquiring a wife or c h i l d r e n . The same
was true when fathers succeeded t h e i r
sons, an i n d i c a t i o n of a c r i s i s i n the
s u r v i v a l of the f a m i l y . Women might
become the temporary head of household
i n s t e a d of an adopted son when an
immature natural son survived to be the
future household head, but more o f t e n the
818a/Walthall
succession of a woman meant simply that
no one else was available.
CONCLUSION
It cannot be doubted that primogeniture
constituted the ideological foundation
for peasant succession practices in late
Tokugawa Japan. Nevertheless, the same
statement cannot be made for the f i r s t
half of the period. Despite government
regulations forbidding or l i m i t i n g
partible inheritance in the seventeenth
century, peasants chose t h i s p r a c t i c e
whenever economic conditions permitted.
The establishment of branch houses either
by elder sons or by retired household
heads with younger children meant that
families preferred to provide for a l l
their male children, especially when such
provision meant an expansion in the size
of the kinship group (dozokudan). When
the passage of time brought increasing
population pressure on the arable,
peasant succession practices were then
forced to conform more closely to the
family idealogy promoted by the
government.
By the end of the process of breaking up
large land holdings and e s t a b l i s h i n g
relatives as branch houses on new land,
most peasants lived at least part of
their lives in small stem families. Each
7
family had i t s own b u r i a l p l o t , i t
worshipped i t s own ancestors, and often
i t had i t s own family name, handed down
from father,,, to son at the time of
succession. A l l of these elements
helped to define the household over time,
but i n addition there existed a con-
sciousness of the family based on the
conception of family property. Family
property included the earth and a l l
related material productive conditions.
Family members and especially the family
head acted on the basis of their moral
r e s p o n s i b i l i t y to t h e i r ancestors to
preserve i t . Its maintenance became an
internalized imperative for the peasants
themselves, aside from the significance
i t had for the government's tax revenues.
Even the poorest peasants, even landless
laborers understood not only that their
existence was situated in a temporal flow
from ancestor to descendant but that to
maintain the family, hard work, a man's
work, was necessary. For a l l peasants, a
tension existed between their desire to
maintain the family bloodline and the
imperative to maintain family production.
The resolution depended on the individual
circumstances of each household, but the
lengths gone to bring the line of descent
back to the original bloodline indicates
that at least for peasants, the primary
emphasis was on the continuity of the
'blood' from father to eldest son, not
simply on the perpetuation of the family
as a corporate unit.
818a/Walthall

Table 1

Change i n number of houses: Hashiramoto

Continued from previous period 60 117

Increase: branch family 50 b
3
independent servant 7 2
immigration 5 8

Decrease extinction 3 1
emigration 2 2

Totals 117 127

a
Miyakawa K i t s u r u , Taikö kenchi ron, 3 vols. (Tokyo: Ochanoraizu shöboi 1957)
2: 323
^Includes 7 servants who were established as branch houses of the main family
818a/Walthall

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Table 3
Households that established branches i n Yokouchi.a

No. of household 1671 1700 1725 1751 1775 l8oi 1825 1850 1871

1 1 3 3 5 6 5 6 6 7
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17 1 2 1 1 2 1 0 0 0

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19
20 1 1 2 2 2 0 0 0 0

21 1 2 3 6 8 9 11 11 11

Total 21 48 75 99 92 88 98 106

a
Adapted from Akira Hayami and Nobuko Uchida, "Size of household i n a Japanese
county throughout the Tokugawa era," i n Household and Family i n Fast Time, ed.
Peter Laslett (London: Cambridge University Press, 1972), p. 515«
818a/Walthall 11

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Table 5
4
Structure of family at time of succession

Successor Structure cases

Eldest son 59*f

Younger son no elder son: dead 30
adopted out 11
l e f t village 21
established branch family 2
second son succeeds to 'retired* branch family 5
unknown 32
other 10
total 111

Grandson eldest daughter's son, eldest son adopted out 1

successor's father disinherited 8
successor's father present if
unknown 2
total 15

Father w i f e and female c h i l d r e n o n l y 2

wife only 3
no wife of children (younger s i b l i n g s present i n 6 cases) 9
wife and immature male children 2
total 16

Adocted son natural son absent (working or adopted) 20

natural son present: immature 13
unknown 20
female children only 63
no natural children 68
mature natural son 3
total 187

Second mature natural son 2

husband children: immature males if
females only 7
no children 13
unknown 2
total 28

Vidow Children: youn^ males 25

daughter females only 78
mother no other relatives 19
eldest son absent 6
unknown 3
total 131
818a/Walthall 14

Table 5 continued

Successor Structure cases

Male wife with young male children if

collateral female children only, no wife 2
wife, no children if
no other relatives 35
no wife, young son 2
unknown 1
total if6

female
collateral no other relatives 7

other no children 5
no relatives (servant succeeds) 3
unknown
total 13

Adapted from Daitö Osamu, pp. <+7, 50, 5^, 55; Otake Hideo, pp. 226, 228, 259,
2*flj Oishi Shinzaburö, p. 267.
 1 5
818a/Walthall

NOTES

^"Thomas C. Smith, The Agrarian origins of modern Japan (Stanford: Stanford

University Press, 1959; reprint ed., New York: Atheneum, 1966), p. 37. This state of
the f i e l d may be changing. See Laurel Cornell, "Female household heads i n a Tokugawa
peasant village," paper presented at the 24th international conference of orientalists
i n Japan, Tokyo, 15 June 1979.
2
For examples of this tendency, see Yamane Tsuneo and Hisaya Nonoyama,
"Isolation of the nuclear family and kinship organization i n Japan: a hypothetical
approach to the relationships between family and society" Journal of Marriage and the
Family 29 (1967): 783-96; Robert Y. Eng and T.C. Smith, "Peasant studies and popu-
lation control i n the eighteenth century" Journal of Interdisciplinary History 6 no. 3
(Winter 1976): 439-40; Susan B. Hanley and Kozo Yamamura, Economic and Demographic
change i n Preindustrial Japan, 1600-1868 (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1977), pp. 232-33; John F. Embree, Suye mura (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1939) p. 85; Richard K. Beardsley, John W. Hall and Robert E. Ward, Village Japan
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959) pp. 236-41.
3
Harumi Befu, "Corporate Emphasis and Patterns of Descent i n the Japanese
Family" i n Robert J . Smith and Richard K. Beardsley, eds. Japanese Culture: Its
Development and Characteristics (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1962) p. 34.

I. J . McMullen has argued that when the ruling class decided to use Neo-
Confucian ideology to buttress the state, they also had to accept the Chinese idea
that only a man's direct descendents might pray to his s p i r i t . "Non-agnatic Adoption
in Tokugawa Japan" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 35 (1975): 133-89.
5
I n u i Hiromi has pointed out that there are cases of well established merchant
families i n Osaka going bankrupt soon after an act of succession took place. The
continuity of the family was even more problematic for the tenant-renters. "Horeki
Tenmeiki n i okeru Osaka chonin shakai no doko" Hisutoria no. 83 (June 1979) p. 47.
Smith too has emphasized the suddenness of the adverse changes the inheritance system
imposed on the family. Thomas C. Smith, Nakahara: Family Farming and Population i n a
Japanese Village (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1977) p. 135.
6
0 i s h i Shinzaburo, Kinsei sonraku no kozo to i e seido, 2nd ed. (Tokyo:
Ochancmizu shobo, 1976) pp. 241-45.
7
Takeuchi Toshimi, "Choshi sozoku to kanko to sono i g i " i n Aoyama Michio et a l
°eds. Koza kazoku vol. 5 (Tokyo: Kobundo, 1974) p. 325-29.
8
0 t a k e Hikeo, Hoken shakai no nomin kazoku (Tokyo: Sobunsha, 1962) pp.
209-15.
9
After four generations, eight families in Makuuchi v i l l a g e , Aizu han, had
produced twenty-eight branch families by 1690. The largest holding was worth
sixty-four koku. Although the average was ten koku, twenty-two familes held less than
ten koku. Oishi Shinzaburo, p. 251.
10
The Kikuike divisions in the late seventeenth century to 1761 appear to have
shrunk permanently the amount of land owned by the main family from over four thousand
mon in 1642 to only 1,577 mon i n 1868. A l l other holdings varied between one-hundred
and five-hundred mon. Takeuchi Toshimi, Kazoku kanko to ie seido (Tokyo: Koseisha
kosei kaku, 1969) pp. 167-79.
 818a/Walthall 16

Since this village brought no new fields under cultivation during the
Tokugawa period, by 1730 the number of houses and population had begun to press on the
limits of production. Miyakawa Mitsuru, Taiko kenchi ron, 3 vols. (Tokyo: Ochanomizu
shobo, 1957) 2:324-26.
12
0take Hideo, 216-22.
13
Akira Hyami and Nobuko Uchida, "Size of household i n a Japanese county
throughout the Tokugawa era," i n Household and Family i n Past Time, ed. Peter Laslett
(London: Cambridge University Press, 1972) pp. 514-15.
14
Oishi Shinzaburo, pp. 259-62.
From 1670 to the end of the Tokugawa period there were forty-five honbya-
kusho shares i n this v i l l a g e . The number of mizuncmi rose from eighty-three i n 1713
to 125 i n 1754 to 144 i n 1866. Ibid., p. 262. See also Chie Nakane, Kinship and
Economic Organization i n Rural Japan (New York: Humanities Press, inc., 1967) pp.
68-71.
16
Both Oishi Shinzaburo (pp. 264-65) and Otake Hideo (p. 222) have insisted on
this point.
17
Although the regulations governing participation i n the Kamikawarabayashi
miyasa (shrine association) indicated that only the eldest son could become a f u l l
fledged member, several examples from the mid-eighteenth century where a younger son
or even an adopted son entered the miyaza demonstrate that even for the worship of the
family ancestors, a substitute could be nominated. Otake Hideo, pp. 225-27.
I Q

Ibid., pp. 225,245.

19
Daito Osamu, "Kinsei chu-koki n i okeru nominso no ie sozoku no shotaiyo,"
Rekishi no. 48 (1976) p. 47.
20
Otake Hideo, pp. 227-30.
2 1
I b i d . , p. 232.
22
Daito Osamu, pp. 50-1.
23
Takeuchi Toshimi, "Choshi sozoku to kanao to sono i g i " p. 326. For a
discussion i n English on how and why samurai adopted sons and the literature on the
subject see: Ray A. Moore, "Adoption and Samurai Mobility i n Tokugawa Japan" Journal
of Asian Studies 29 (May 1970): 617-32.
24
Daito Osamu, pp. 55-8. I t i s significant that the percentage of adoptions
and successions by someone other than the eldest son was higher i n Kinai than i n
Murayama and higher for mizunomi than for honbyakusho (see table 4). One might argue
that in both cases the difference came about because of the economic instability of
the family enterprise, caused on the one hand by commercial agriculture and on the
other by the small size of the landholdings.
25
In this case family name actually means a f i r s t name assumed by the head of
household at the time of succession.

1,0,
 FAMILY AND LOCAL HISTORY IN JAPAN
BREAKING THE IMPASSE: SOURCES AND OPTIONS IN JAPANESE FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

Kin-itsu Hirata & Greg Gubler

Born i n Japan. Resides i n Mino City, Japan. Director, Hirata Institute of Health,
Chukyo U n i v e r s i t y . M.D., Nagoya Medical School, Japan. Author, l e c t u r e r ,
genealogist.

Born i n Utah. Resides i n Bountiful, Utah. Senior research specialist, Genealogical

Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ph.D. (Japanese and
Chinese history), Florida State University.

INTRODUCTION records are of l i t t l e consequence i n the

family h i s t o r y context, i t i s s t i l l
Japanese family history research can be noteworthy that this type of situation
very d i f f i c u l t once copies of the modern g r e a t l y hampers e f f e c t i v e research.
family or household r e g i s t e r (koseki There are, however, excellent inventories
ffcl) are exhausted. And since earlier in some l o c a l i t i e s but i n the majority of
versions of the koseki ( v i z . the Japan much remains to be done i n terms of
so-called Jinshin Koseki from 1872 to identifying and locating source material.
1886) are not available and there i s an
eighty-year r e t e n t i o n r u l e f o r j o s e k i Recognizing the exact location and sites
?^ J8T (withdrawn versions of the tangent to family history can also be
koseki), i t i s frequently impossible to troublesome. The map o f Japan has
go beyond three or four generations changed dramatically over the past
without some good fortune and special century. For example, i n the early 1800s
skills. Breaking the impasse that there were an estimated 70,000 villages
roughly parallels the transition from the scattered throughout Japan, over twenty
feudal to modern state (refer to figure times the number that e x i s t today.
one) i s an enormous challenge. For some, While there are isolated villages that
i t i s a l l but impossible. For others, remain untouched by progress, most have
the solution can be found quickly. At been absorbed into larger units with the
any rate, the sources and options w i l l unparalleled expansion of industry and
usually depend on one's class origins and redistribution of the population. I t i s
the a v a i l a b i l i t y of l o c a l source a t a l l order to reconstruct the family
materials. history where entire villages and farms
or much of the historical environment has
The general disorganization, diversity been swept away. I t i s principally
and, scattered nature of pre-Restoration through the study of the h i s t o r i c a l
(before 1868) sources i s one of the most environment that one i s able to determine
vexing of problems. A cursory survey of one's family heritage and origins. One
materials relating to a small town i n must, therefore, be able to identify the
Chiba Prefecture i l l u s t r a t e s the scope of hasshö-chi C^føifi«) (native place) and
the problem. While over 20,000 items become familiar with i t even though ties
that r e l a t e t o the town and i t s with i t may be remote i n an increasing
inhabitants were found to exist from the number of instances.
Tokugawa era (1600-1867), these items
were found i n over eighty separate Japanese surnames can also pose another
l o c a t i o n s in, both p r i v a t e and p u b l i c type of problem. Over 110,000 have been
collections. While many of these identified i n modern Japan but this does
Hirata & Gubler/818b
not include a l l those i n h i s t o r i c a l
documents. Since i t was i l l e g a l for
commoners to use surnames i n p u b l i c
during the Tokugawa era (1600-1867), when
surnames were required by law i n the
1870s, many were selected at random or
from traditions of a particular family.
Because of the lack of continuity and
ties to the past, i t i s hard to make the
proper connections, especially when there
are several given names for some males,
none at a l l recorded for the majority of
females and given names were frequently
passed down.
The intracacies of the feudal written
language i t s e l f and the local variations
also add to the problems of penetrating
the feudal period. Any approach of
necessity requires patience, systematic
searching, the appropriate research
tools, and a large dose of luck.
GETTING STARTED
Family history research must begin with
you. You can begin by making notes of
the events of your l i f e and by recording
information about your family and
heritage that you have heard from others.
You can correspond or interview those of
the older generation both to ascertain
present information and to help you
expand your family history. There also
may be items around the home or i n those
of close r e l a t i v e s that may provide
further clues and d e t a i l s about your
family. These may be located i n the
family butsudan (Buddhist altar),
kamidana (god shelf) or i n an old box,
drawer or scrapbook somewhere. Old
pictures, certificates, papers, newspaper
clippings, personal notes and records,
and even receipts and financial records
can be of value i n adding information to
the family history. Family heirlooms and
r e l i c s may also have a story behind them
worth recording.
If one's parents are alive, they should
be talked to at length regarding family
traditions and about their own l i v e s .
The modern cassette can be of great value
in reducing your note-taking chores. I f
one i s fortunate to have l i v i n g
grandparents, they should be approached
without delay. Other older relatives and
f r i e n d s of the family can also be
valuable resources i f you can put them at
ease and get them to open up regarding
their lives and those of family members.
I f the family has moved, one should
inquire where the branches of the family
have lived and where they are now. It i s
also h e l p f u l to know the honseki-chi
(£ $1/€> ) (registered locality) of the
family branches and names of the former
household heads i n order to acquire
copies of household registers (koseki).
The Japanese family or household register
(koseki) i s an extremely handy source for
family history research. Instead of a
plethora of certificates, documents and
other personal papers, the Japanese use a
combined form for the whole family. This
multi-paged record l i s t s a l l members of
the household (conjugal family since
1947) i n a prescribed sequence—beginning
with the head of the house (koshu) [since
1947 this entry i s the hittosha ( f i f o - f i )
or " f i r s t one entered"]. The information
for this record comes from notification
reports submitted close to the time of
the event by the family head. The koseki
i s the o f f i c i a l , complete record of the
v i t a l events and changes i n status of
Japanese f a m i l i e s . Though i t i s
considered a reliable source, i t depends
on the cooperation and honesty of the
person submitting the report and the
careful transcription and interpretation
of the report i t s e l f . As a result, there
are occasional f a l s i f i c a t i o n s ^ over-
sights, and transcription errors.
Since governmental o f f i c e s (wards,
c i t i e s , towns and villages) handle and
control access to this record, one must
f o l l o w c e r t a i n procedures and specify
what i s wanted to obtain copies of family
registers. Even then, the request may be
denied i f thought out of l i n e . Although
the household r e g i s t r a t i o n system was
initiated i n 1872, the early open-format
registers (called Jinshin Koseki for the
year of their origin), which continued
u n t i l 1886, are not available as they
contain potentially sensitive entries.
Hirata & Gubler/818b
Access to older joseki Jf (withdrawn
or i n a c t i v e r e g i s t e r s i n which a l l
individuals are crossed off for reasons
of death, marriage, removal to another
record, loss of citizenship, etc.) i s
also becoming i n c r e a s i n g l y d i f f i c u l t .
This i s i n part due to the eighty-year
retention limit for those records and to
recent restrictions curtailing access to
the record.
The value of the koseki as a genealogical
and family history source i s generally
overlooked. Nonetheless, one's a b i l i t y
to obtain copies and extract information
w i l l provide a s o l i d foundation f o r
continuation to more advanced research.
The follow page i l l u s t r a t e s the kind of
items that are recorded. By obtaining
copies and using the copies to learn the
previous head of house or information
about a transfer to another register i n
case of marrige, etc. one can identify a
large number of relatives both directly
and l a t e r a l l y . But once this modern
source i s exhausted, the options shrink
and research becomes i n c r e a s i n g l y
d i f f i c u l t , especially for those descended
from commoners.
ON TO THE KAKOCHO
The koseki i s a natural starting point
for family research since i t includes the
great majority of the population and uses
such a convenient format. But as i t i s a
modern source of f a i r l y recent origins
and i s not f u l l y accessible, i t w i l l only
take the researcher so far. I t i s at
t h i s point that one must turn to
altogether different sources i n order to
expand one's pedigree and continue one's
research. Foremost among the
p o s s i b i l i t i e s i s the kakochff (jfi.i>"& ) or
Buddhist death register. Although the
kakocho i s i n many respects a limited
source—the record i s merely a deathday
obituary calendar l i s t i n g the death date,
posthumous or Buddhist vow name and, less
frequently, the common name and
r e l a t i o n s h i p , i t i s , nonetheless, a
record of considerable value for i t i s
the only source a v a i l a b l e that has
recorded such a high proportion of the
population (probably over 90 percent) for
so long (this record-keeping tradition
was firmly established by 1700 and i s
s t i l l practiced today). The source i s
also considered quite r e l i a b l e since
there were generally no ulterior motives
i n the compilation and, i n most cases,
the entry was made at the time of the
event—death. The record was made for
prayers to memorialize the dead, not to
e s t a b l i s h a lineage or prove one's
status. As such, i t ^s a f i r s t - c l a s s
source, however limited.
There are e s s e n t i a l l y three types of
kakocho, classified by they way they are
arranged. They are found either i n the
family temple (as i s the case with the
f i r s t two types) or i n the traditional
home of the family, i f a copy has been
preserved or the family originally had
one made. More detailed information on
these basic types follows:
1. Chronological type. These are
arranged i n general chronological
sequence by calendar year. This i s
occasionally indicated on the cover
as illustrated i n Figure Three. The
type of information l i s t e d i s also
shown.
This chronological type i s usually
referred to as a nendobetsu (Jfyt. ?'J )
kakocho and i s found i n the parish
temple of the deceased. The value of
this record w i l l usually depend on
how much information i s recorded and
whether or not a valid relationship
can be made. The general
chronological sequence makes i t
easier to use though one must have
certain information already i n order
to help the priest i n his search.
2. Ritual type. This i s a copy made by
the priest as a deathday guide. Most
are indexed by the date of the month
on the lunar calendar (most changed
to the solar after 1872). Special-
i s t s r e f e r to ths type as the
higuribetsu ^ (.' •) 1'\ (by day) . Nor-
mally, there are thirty divisions,
f o l l o w i n g the old lunar sequence;
everyone who passed away on a
p a r t i c u l a r day ( f o r example, the
Hirata & Gubler/818b
seventh) of any month i n any year
would be l i s t e d under that day (the
seventh, e t c . ) . This allows the
priest to memorialize the deceased of
the past generation, at least, once a
month. I t also can remind him of
s p e c i f i c anniversaries that the
family may want to become involved
in.
A few are indexed on a monthly
calendar (tsukibetsu ^'J ). For
example, those with a death
anniversary i n the f i r s t month w i l l
be memorialized during that month.
While the majority of the r i t u a l
calendars l i s t the f u l l date i n the
Japanese fashion, some do not l i s t
either the year or day of month the
deceased passed on. In short, they
are very sketchy and were made for
r i t u a l only. These are hard to use
in research. The r i t u a l type, i n
general, i s a l i t t l e harder to use
and frequently i s not shown to temple
patrons.
3. Family or household type. This i s
e s s e n t i a l l y a copy recorded f o r
patron families or one made by the
families themselves. Some are found
in temples but the majority are i n
houses of older l i v i n g descendants of
the deceased. These are u s u a l l y
referred to as iebetsu f^U'J (by
family or house though some people
also read the same characters as
kabetsu. This type of record i s
extremely valuable i n reconstructing
families because of the arrangement
by family unit. This source was used
extensively in the detailed
reconstruction of the branches of the
Yamada and related Hirata families
discussed i n another World Conference
presentation.
While t h i s type of record i s
sometimes d i f f i c u l t to l o c a t e ,
especially with the rapid urbanizaton
of the population, i t i s nonetheless
most valuable as a genealogical
source both i n terms of convenience
and coverage. Finding this type of
source can enable one to extend one's
pedigree significantly. I t can also
help one authenticate other
information, both through cross
checking and the use of the
h i s t o r i c a l method.
While the name kakochö i s commonly used
for what basically i s an obituary record,
the actual name for the record may d i f f e r
at times. The sect and individual temple
may have a p a r t i c u l a r preference
depending on doctrinal and philosophical
viewpoints. (This i s also true of the
types of posthumous names used and the
characters preferred.) Such names as
reibo ( s p i r i t book), meichö (realm of the
dead book), tenkibo ( r o l l of deceased
s p i r i t s ) , go-hömyöchö (book of vow
names), mihotokechö" (book of Buddhas) and
others containing similar characters or
meanings that f i t under t h i s general
heading. There are also a number of
records that contain similar information
but are technically not kakocho. These
include haimeichö (collections of names
from mortuary tablets), hanshln saishi
(memorials to clansmen), shibo meibö"
( l i s t s of battle deaths) and an array of
small devotional books, s i m i l a r to
Catholic devotional calendars, that l i s t
the deathdays of noteworthy historical
and Buddhist figures. There are also a
number of records, such as Senzo daidai
kakitomecho (recorded ancestry by
generations) [see figure 4] that contain
information similar to family kakochö but
are i n t-he format of compiled
genealogies. These are also extremely
valuable for family history research.
Once one knows the nature and content of
the record, the next step i s to search i t
out. The search may begin i n one's own
home and gradually extend to include a l l
known family branches u n t i l a record or
records meeting the scope of the family
history are found. Of course, one should
begin with those closest and pursue a
logical order i n the search. While the
family butsudan (altar) would be a l i k e l y
place for a search, transplanted families
may have misplaced or stored such items.
In this search, one may also encounter
items of h i s t o r i c a l and personal value,
Hirata & Gubler/818b
such as notes, memos, deeds,
c e r t i f i c a t e s , family genealogies and
mortuary tablets ( i h a i ) .
Since the kakocho i s considered a sacred
record, there w i l l be those who w i l l be
reluctant to take i t off or from the
butsudan and l e t one peruse i t . Some
families have spent considerable time and
money i n having an elaborate copy made
and may not be willing to show the record
to other than a member of the immediate
family l e t alone allow copies to be made.
In order to persuade them, i t w i l l be
necessary to have a pre-arranged plan and
to know s p e c i f i c a l l y what one wants.
Gaining the trust of individual family
members w i l l require a convincing and
polished argument on the need f o r a
family history; even then, some w i l l not
be willing to cooperate though they may
regret i t later.
As mentioned previously, kakocho are also
normally found i n the temple where the
family has had a historical a f f i l i a t i o n .
You can locate the address of the
particular Buddhist temple through the
help of parents, relatives or friends of
the family. I f l o c a l , the telephone book
may l i s t the exact address and telephone
number. A larger directory of j i i n % ,
available at many l i b r a r i e s , may also be
helpful i n providing a brief sketch of
the temple and l i s t i n g the location and
name of the priest. You should, of
course, have an appointment before making
a special t r i p . Write or telephone the
head priest beforehand or go through a
contact to set up an appointment. Since
the p r i e s t ' s time i s very precious,
mention the family and your relationship
and have a pedigree chart w i t h the
information you already know w r i t t e n
down.
Although the great majority of the
population from the time the kakocho
became systematized during the l a t t e r
half of the Seventeenth Century (and a
number of random ones before that) were
memorialized i n this record, relatively
few of the e a r l i e r o r i g i n a l s have
survived the ravages of time. Besides
the usual high rate of deterioration i n
5
the damp climate of Japan, there seems to
be a high incidence of f i r e i n Buddhist
temples as well as catastrophic events i n
c e r t a i n areas, such as earthquakes,
floods, and the damage i n f l i c t e d i n World
War I I . An attempt at reconstruction was
g e n e r a l l y made from f a m i l y kakocho,
a v a i l a b l e i h a i (mortuary tablets),
tombstone inscriptions, etc. The priest
also hand copied the originals when they
had deteriorated due to handling or from
age. There was a tendency to not copy
the deceased of low rank (e.g. poor
peasants and eta outcasts) and to
abbreviate wherever possible, though i t
must be kept i n mind that the priests
were i n d i v i d u a l s with preferences and
styles of their own.
The death registers can vary considerably
in their coverage, size, and content on
account of such differences as temple
size, the preferences of the sect and the
zealousness of i n d i v i d u a l p r i e s t s and
their conception of their responsibility.
Although there are roughly 80,000
Buddhist temples i n Japan at present,
many are branches (matsuji ) or even
branches of branches. Some are also
patron temples of certain families or
groups from generation to generation.
Research may be simplified i n some cases
as a r e s u l t of the family or group
connection.
One of the most d i f f i c u l t barriers to
using temple kakocho i s making the
appropriate relationship. At times, one
must find other sources to provide clues
such as the posthumous name, death date,
etc. Many kakocho of the feudal period
often l i s t a tsuzukigara as part of
the obituary entry. While i n some
instances the common name or secular name
of the deceased (the given name only for
most peasant males before the 1870s) may
be l i s t e d , i t i s also common to find a
tsuzukigara or r e l a t i o n s h i p below the
name of the deceased though many entries
have nothing at a l l . This relationship
entry usually includes the common name
and the relationship of the person listed
to the deceased. This was usually a
relative or family successor, a mourner
or feudal sponsor or someone responsible
Hirata & Gubler/818b
for the deceased.
Because of the very r i g i d social
structure and feudal nature of Tokugawa
Society (1600-1867), normally only males
with some independent social status were
listed. The deceased, whose vow or
posthumous name was l i s t e d as the
prominent entry, had h i s or her
relationship to the tsuzukigara shown as
follows: the father of Mansuke, the
servant of Miyamoto Genbe, the
grandmother of Shohei, the daughter of
Kuda K a i k i c h i , a follower of Kono
Shinpei, of the house of Beeya Nobuya, a
vassal of Yamada Ryohei, and the ancestor
of Kikuchi Gunzo. Some entries are more
complete, l i s t i n g both the common name of
the deceased and a r e l a t i o n s h i p to
someone else: Zen'emon, the father of
Uhei; Sakumaya, the son of Enkichi Yuhe;
and Guntaro, the son of Hamaya Seisaburo.
Without this sort of information, i t i s
d i f f i c u l t to reconstruct f a m i l i e s and
make relationships unless the priest i s
aware of the r e l a t i o n s h i p or f u r t h e r
information i s available. There are, of
course, other items such as occupation
references (carpenter, plasterer, foot
soldier, straw mat maker, etc.) and the
use of yagö fy ^ (a sort of trade or house
name) i n towns that may also provide
clues as to the identity and location of
individuals and families.
One of the problems i n using kakocho i s
that the prominent entry i s the somewhat
cumbersome Buddhist vow or posthumous
name. This name (kaimyo -fcJb ) was
generally imparted after death though the
Shin Sect assigned a hömyö 'Å & (law name)
during l i f e to show conversion. I t was a
custom to elevate the dead above the
l i v i n g and to appropriately honor them.
Yanagita Kunio, a famous Japanese
folklorist, made the following
observations about the Buddhist practice
of giving posthumous names: "From early
times there were voices r a i s e d i n
c r i t i c i s m , c a l l i n g i t an outrageous
custom—after a man's death and without
his c o n s e n t — g i v i n g him a name whose
meaning could not be understood and one
much too d i f f i c u l t to remember." He
concludes: "But the most common folk had
6
another f e e l i n g , for they thought by
virtue of this name they could realize a
clear distinction between l i f e and death
and could f e e l t h e i r sorrow being
elevated with time u n t i l they could look
up and venerate the dead as the family
guardian s p i r i t forever."
The length of these Buddhist names varies
according to the status, age, sex, and
contributions of the deceased. While a
few of the most elaborate approach twenty
characters, most adult names average six
or seven characters with the igö \S- 5 or
status designator suffix included. Those
who died as infants, and there was a high
rate of infant mortality i n those days,
generally had very brief names that were
not as unique.
Within the name i t s e l f were name clues
that can enable one to f i g u r e out
something about the deceased. The suffix
ending igg had clues as to the age group,
sex, sect a f f i l i a t i o n , and status of the
deceased. For example, the s u f f i x
-daikoji * was traditionally limited
to daimyo (feudal l o r d s ) and high
o f f i c i a l s (though i t i s not now). The
suffix - g a i j i IsfpJt was used for those who
died as infants while -shinshi 1| £ was
the ending for the average adult male.
Within the name i t s e l f there are further
clues as to the traits of the deceased,
t h e i r achievements and i n t e r e s t , the
cause of death or the common name. A
separate age at death entry also became
common i n many kakocho" after 1800. It i s
possible through the a n a l y s i s of the
characters and information to link names
and families, although this can be a very
d i f f i c u l t exercise when the information
i s not complete or i s unclear.
Researchers and scholars are only now
beginning to realize the value of kakocho
i n reconstructing family h i s t o r y and
authenticating i t . This source can be
extremely helpful i n dealing with the
complexities of the Japanese family,
where adoptions and name changes creage
constant confusion. Kakocho are also
h e l p f u l i n checking out questionable
family genealogies and other sources.
Scholars and family history researchers
are turning more and more to family and
temple kakocho as a means of extending
and clarifying family history and lines.
The value of t h i s source i n the
reconstruction of the Yamada f a m i l y ,
already cited, i s a case In point. Othjg
studies have also appeared recently.
There i s s t i l l much research to be done
on how best to proceed i n this direction.
STICKS AND STONES
In English there i s a popular but t r i t e
expression that we "leave no stone
unturned" i n doing our research. This
suggests thoroughness. In Japan, stone
(and wooden) markers and monuments are
part of the h i s t o r i c a l environment. As
such, i t i s imperative to at l e a s t
attempt to understand why and for whom
they were erected. Since there may be
clues and information of consequence to
one's research, t h i s type of source
should not be overlooked.
Buddhist ihai \ i or mortuary tablets
may prove quite valuable both f o r
researching deceased r e l a t i v e s and
noteworthy ancestors. These tablets are
generally oblong i n shape, made of wood,
and can be lacquered or of natural wood.
The posthumous name i s prominent on the
front face along with the death date.
The reverse side u s u a l l y bears the
person's name i n l i f e and i n some cases a
brief account of his or her l i f e . An age
at death i s also found i n many more
recent i h a i . While the p r a c t i c e of
creating ihai and placing them on the
family butsudan or i n a special room or
alcove i n the temple became popular
during the Tokugawa period (1600-1867),
the actual origins of the system began
much earlier. These type of memorial
t a b l e t s were used i n Sung China
(960-1260) and were introduced to Japan
around the Thirteenth Century. The
practice i n Japan i s considerably
d i f f e r e n t than i n China though both
relate to ancestor veneration. There are
some f a i r l y old tablets here and there
but not for the common man. Since many
of the older ones have been discarded and
people have moved from place to place, an
i n d i v i d u a l family c o l l e c t i o n s are
generally not as complete as some of
those In temples though they are more
personal. A number of tablets have been
remade due to l o s s or d e t e r i o r a t i o n
though nowadays strips of paper or card
called kuri-ihai are gaining accptance.
Occasionally and e s p e c i a l l y i n r u r a l
areas there w i l l be an ihai that dates
from the feudal period. Some are the
original and are hard to read because of
the effects of incense smoke and time.
Others have been remade with ornate
frames and g o l d - l e t t e r e d characters
replacing the^older style of India ink on
natural wood.
Ihai can be arranged i n genealogical
sequence as far as they go and can be
used to authenticate and cross check
other sources. They are u s u a l l y as
reliable as the kakocho as they, too,
were constructed for religious ceremony,
albeit some of those that were created
later may be suspect. On occasion, when
there i s b i o g r a p h i c a l information
a v a i l a b l e on the back, i h a i can be
extremely valuable.
The ancestral grave site or o-haka can
also be an important place to v i s i t .
Many of these are i n the environs of the
family temple. The inscriptions on the
tombstones and an a n a l y s i s of the
monument i t s e l f can be very valuable,
since some have eulogies and even
biographical information, one may find
considerable information i f the ancestors
were prominent.
Before the coming of Buddhism, stone
rooms and earthen mounds were used to
appropriately honor the wealthy and
powerful i n Japan. Some of these were
very large and are s t i l l identifiable
today. With the advent of Buddhism, the
practice changed. since the deceased
went to paradise, not as much attention
was attached to the corpse. Stone
monuments were erected over the remains
of the deceased or special memorials were
b u i l t . Several types of monuments were
popular by the Eleventh Century. These
included the gorinto (five-ring monument
or tower), the i t a b i (plate or stone slab
type), and layered or piled monuments or
Hirata & Gubler/818b
towers as illustrated i n Figure Five.
There were also what i s called treasure
monuments or towers. Sanskrit
inscriptions were used as were
characters. The main clues gathered from
these type of monuments are through the
study of the stone, engravings, and the
way they were erected. This can provide
some clues as to the period and about the
individual commemorated. This can be
very d i f f i c u l t i f the i n s c r i p t i o n i s
unreadable. Since some of these types
continued into the 1600s, there are a few
that can be deciphered.
With the forced a f f i l i a t i o n of the
populace to Buddhism i n the latter half
of the Seventeenth century, the
inscriptions took on an even stronger
Buddhist flavor. Posthumous names were
the prominent entry along with the date
of death; some did include the common
name, the age at death, and the family
mon (crest) engraved i n the stone.
Because of the cost of an appropriate
marker, i t was common to erect a
collective gravestone for the family dead
"from generation to generation." On the
other hand, those of influence often had
their l i f e ' s achievements and highlights
inscribed on the tombstone or on one of
the faces. The poor generally used only
wooden markers, most of which have long
since decomposed.
Dealing with stone monuments and
i n s c r i p t i o n s can be a very complex
undertaking. Knowing the types of
monuments and how to interpret them i s
essential before one begins a survey of
the local area. In Chihöshi no kenkyü
(research procedures i n local history),
there i s a chapter devoted to
"Kinsekibun" (stone monument i n s c r i p -
tions) of the middle ages. Sometimes
there are special studies and surveys of
stone markers and monuments i n a
particular area. These can be helpful i n
orienting one^to the historical landmarks
of a locale. One can discover a number
of clues far back i n the history of a
family i f the family was prominent and of
long standing i n the community. This i s
c e r t a i n l y e a s i e r to do i n the r u r a l
environment than i n the c i t y since the
former i s normally less disturbed by the
great changes that have taken place over
the past century or so. Some of the
clues that one may be able to infer from
looking at the monument might include
such things as the person's rank, status,
wealth, and the location of the family
(unless the markers were moved).
Biographical information may also be
recorded as are eulogies i n some cases.
While i t i s possible to decipher those
with deep large letters sometimes to an
age of over 400 years, some with smaller
l e t t e r s but deeply engraved may be
l e g i b l e only to 200-300 years. The
majority, however, even i f well cared
for, become i l l e g i b l e after 100-200 years
depending on the quality of the stone.
With special rubbing techniques (use of
black chalk) or other techniques (e.g.
copying over wet paper i n candlelight),
one can make out many of those that have
weathered badly, thereby adding more
clues to what i s usually a very limited
picture.
TOKUGAWA SOURCES
It takes considerable time, a great deal
of s k i l l and some luck to sort through
and make connections with the diverse
feudal sources of the Tokugawa period
(1600-1867). While a tremendous amount
of paperwork was created during t h i s
highly regimented era, much of i t i s only
of peripheral value to family history
research. I t nonetheless should be
considered since putting the family
history puzzle together may require every
piece and clue that can possibly be
found. This i s , of course, no easy task,
especially when one i s dealing with a
society and records s i t u a t i o n so
r a d i c a l l y d i f f e r e n t than what one i s
accustomed to.
The source you seek w i l l depend largely
on the class origins or feudal status of
the i n d i v i d u a l or family you are
searching for. The names of the source,
too, can vary considerably among the over
250 or so domains of the realm as i t was
then structured. Even then, there were
constant changes i n the organization and
s i z e of a number of these feudal
Hirata & Gubler/818b
territories due to changing relationships
with the ruling shogunate and internal
politics.
One of the most reliable of the sources
of the period was the s o - c a l l e d
"Examination of r e l i g i o n r e g i s t e r "
(shumon aratamechS f . ^ t X ^ f k )• This
source came into being i n an atmospherre
of suspicion against C h r i s t i a n i t y and
mistrust of foreigners. The Tokugawa
Shogunate initiated this record as part
of an inquisition to identify Christians
by requiring the "forced a f f i l i a t i o n " of
the general population with l o c a l
Buddhist temples, or i n some cases,
Shinto shrines. This a f f i l i a t i o n was
certified by priests and was confirmed by
local c i v i l authorities i n a periodic
census of each family unit i n a town or
village. By 1665, t h i s i n q u i s i t i o n
census was made mandatory throughout
Japan even though the threat had
diminshed by then.
The t i t l e and content of this record
usually varied from domain to domain.
The t i t l e ninbetsuchö yvJ'J ^ (census
register) was also commonly used. From
1721 the record became the basis of a
national census of the masses (samurai,
o f f i c i a l s and certain other groups were
exempt). An example of a ninbetsuchö
from Hakodate i n Hokkaido i s included i n
figure s i x . I t i l l u s t r a t e s the religious
a f f i l i a t i o n , the family or household
composition, the age at census entry and
the way names and r e l a t i o n s h i p s were
recorded. This type of record continued
u n t i l the M e i j i Restoration when the
J i n s h i n Koseki (household r e g i s t e r of
1872) was instituted.
There are several problems one faces i n
taking advantage of this source. The
f i r s t i s the problem of determining the
geographical location ( i n feudal terms)
of one's ancestors. Since many of these
records are scattered, the next problem
is to f i n d the l o c a t i o n of the
appropriate record, i f one e x i s t s .
Actually, only a small percentage of the
t o t a l produced s t i l l e x i s t s while a
number s t i l l remain to be identified.
Since the masses were not allowed
9
surnames during this period, except for a
few instances, i t can be d i f f i c u l t to t i e
into feudal records. Despite being a
census record at a point i n time, i t i s
very r e v e a l i n g as regards family
composition and r e l a t i o n s h i p s . Since
many also include the age of individuals
at the time of the census, one can
estimate birthdates and move easier to
previous censuses when they are
available. S t i l l , there are many gaps
since i t i s rare to have very complete
records over a long period of time.
Among exceptions i s the collection from
Suwa (Nagano Prefecture) where 144 of the
original 201 annual censuses (171-1871)
have survived. The longest period
without records was four years and for a
twenty-year period (1693-1^12) even the
month of birth was l i s t e d .
There are a large number of records of
peripheral value that can provide clues
about the h i s t o r y of v i l l a g e s and
families. These include mura meisaichö
o f v i l l a e s
It^iføt-éc (particulars 8 ) which
periodically l i s t e d the a c t i v i t i e s and
omposition of the v i l l a g e , but more i n
survey terms than genealogical. There
were nayosechö %fåc(registers of c u l -
tivated land) and kenchicho ;f£-jefk (land
registers) that mention the names and
holdings of land owners. Villages also
had rosters (göchö iffi made for c i v i l
authorities mainly for tax purposes.
Another unique record of the feudal
period was the gonin gumichö ^ x t L f k . o r
l i t e r a l l y "five men-in-a-group register."
It was essentially a neighborhood-type
association i n which heads of households
certified that the respective households
were cooperating with government edicts
and policies. The information, however,
i s l i m i t e d and i s mainly u s e f u l i n
identifying family heads i n a locale at a
particular time. There are also a number
of other regulatory-type records that
kept track of the movements of the
population and of specific groups. These
include okuri jöj&frC (records of trans-
fer) , records of entrance and exit, an^
reports of widows and widowers, etc.
They a l l have some genealogical
information but are very limited i n their
Hirata & Gubler/818b
coverage. Other items of value kept by
individuals are personal correspondence,
diaries, guest l i s t s , and personal notes
and records. These must also be
considered i n any search.
For those of samurai ancestry, there are
a large number of distinctive records
created for this privileged group. They
had their rosters (samuraicho *rttk) and
corresponding status reports (bugencho
tfe- ) • There were a l s o s e r v i c e
records (hökögaki fy~'tA \ or yuishogaki
), l i s t s of f i e f s (bugencho),
heraldic records (bukan Jfåp. ) and sam-
urai genealogies (samurai kafu ^ |c )•
Most of these records focus of
l e g i t i m i z i n g the r e t a i n e r s and i n
defining their stipends and positions.
They a l s o contain some b i o g r a p h i c a l
information.
There are, of course, other important
groups, such as feudal l o r d s , court
nobles and the Imperial Household that
have a considerable inventory of records
and documents a p p l i c a b l e to family
history research. Because the focus of
this paper i s on the larger segments of
the population, there i s not time or
space to cover these rather e l i t e groups.
Figure seven shows the coverage of
genealogical sources but i t i s only
indicative of the relationship of class
origins to one's a b i l i t y to extend the
family history. I t does not handle such
issues as the veracity of the sources or
continuity.
HANDLE WITH CAKE
Japanese-compiled genealogies are a much
earlier source than any of the records
previously mentioned. for example, the
K o j l k i #$|& (Record of Ancient Matters),
compiled i n the early Eighth Century, i s
one of the oldest of compilations, but
the mixture of fact and f i c t i o n set a
precedent for later genealogies. The
motives behind the compilation of many of
these can shed some l i g h t about the
veracity of these sources.
Unfortunately, i t was common practice to
use genealogies to justify the newfound
status or show that a person was worthy
10
of a position.
These problems were compounded i n periods
where there were great s o c i a l and
p o l i t i c a l changes. For example, the
beginning of the Kamakura period (1185),
the beginning of the Ashikaga period
(1336) and again with the ascendancy of
the Tokugawa (1600). As new groups and
coalitions assumed power, this process of
l e g i t i m i z a t i o n was renewed. I t was
common to graft into a genealogy of a
clan or family close to the Imperial
family, thus the preference for Fujiwara
and Minamoto lineages. I n the
Seventeenth Century, there were some
famous professional genealogists who made
a good l i v i n g at this business (keizu-
kai £ | K ). They had considerable
knowledge of old genealogies and were
able to work with individuals to create a
s u i t a b l e pedigree. These must be
handled with care since they are a genre
referred to as nise keizu ^ ^ . \ % or false
genealogies.
üta Ryö", a pioneer advocate of keifugaku
t n e
Jitf^? ( study and comparison of
genealogies), wrote several volumes
discussing this problem and setting out
the various lineages and branches. He
cautions to beware of genealogies with
fine mountings. He then provides seven
principles to follow i n handling these
and °th^g family h i s t o r y research
problems:
1. Start with one's self and trace your
lines backwards.
2. Be honest and avoid claiming
pedigrees to enhance one's prestige
or glory .
3. Use logic and a c r i t i c a l , scientific
approach.
4. Authenticate sources whenever
possible since many genealogies were
made for show.
5. Consider the time and place (context)
before proceeding.
6. Make an effort to explore the facts
and to see the other side as well as
the motives.
7. Trace other lines besides just the
line of succession.
Hirata & Gubler/818b
Not a l l compiled genealogies are held i n
disrepute, but their general reputation
i s certainly tarnished. Some genealogies
were conscientiously kept while others
were well regulated once the basis was
established. An example of the latter i s
the monumental Kansei ch5shu shokafu
(Kansei collection of the genealogies of
retainers) compiled i n the early days of
the Nineteenth Century. I t seems to be
f a i r l y r e l i a b l e to about 1550. The
period after that i s marked by a greajj
expansion i n the number of families.
It i s , therefore, questionable whether
the many are actually related to the few.
The pedigrees seem to s t a b i l i z e once
society i s frozen soon after 1600. Since
i t i s hard to compare error with error,
compiled genealogies can only be
authenticated with reliable sources and
documents of the same period. In many
cases, however, nothing exists because
the period from 1460 to 1569 was one of
chaos and d e s t r u c t i o n . This i s ,
therefore, a t a l l order.
IN CONCLUSION
In order to be successful at family
h i s t o r y research, on must make every
effort to gain the perspective of the
age. This can be done through local
histories, maps and a study of the area
i t s e l f . While i t i s , indeed, a lifetime
endeavor, research can be more effective
i f an i n t e l l i g e n t , problem-solving
approach i s followed. One must what he
or she i s looking for and then choose the
tools (sources, research aids, etc.) to
reach the specific objective. While a
number of sources have been introduced i n
this paper, this i s not to suggest that a
shotgun survey approach i s proper. On
the contrary, one must i s o l a t e and
restrict goals to be more effective and
then continually evaluate procedures and
goals. One moves from the known to the
unknown and uncovers answers to questions
one by one.
This approach demands accuracy and
documentation. Since shoddy work only
creates problems, one must continually
proofread and evaluate each source and
piece of information i n terms of logic
il
and c r e d i b i l i t y . One must particularly
verify hearsay and oral traditions. For
example, i t was passed down i n the Yamada
family that some of the Yamada family
ancestors were s p i r i t u a l healers i n a
place called Yokogoshi. I t was only
after documentation was found about the
origins of spiritual healers i n Yokogoshi
that this could be ascertained.
A fundamental t r a i t of anyone who
commences family h i s t o r y research i s
motivation. Sometimes walking among the
tombstones of departed family members or
looking at old records and seeing a
family name can f i r e one up. I t was
while cleaning the area around the family
tombstones before Bon (Buddhist f e s t i v a l
of the dead) each summer between college
terms that an interest i n the Yamada and
Hirata family origins was generated. The
copying of the inscriptions of forty-
seven family members was the beginning of
a long-term project. I t took an even
more important trait, that of
persistence, to complete the project.
The cooperation and help of others i s
also very important, especially i f the
project i s very large. A family
organization can help by assigning tasks
thus decreasing the workload on any one
individual. This sharing of talents can
be very beneficial to the whole group,
but t h i s approach takes considerable
leadership and vision. You w i l l also
benefit by making contacts w i t h
s p e c i a l i s t s who know about the l o c a l
sources and traditions. You can save
considerable time and effort and a few
wild goose chases.
Finally, i n the last analysis, there i s
an element of luck involved, especially
i n Japan where the records are so
disorganized, scattered, and there i s a
lack of continuity. In the case of the
Yamada family h i s t o r y r e c o n s t r u c t i o n ,
too, the relatively good state of records
preservation made the project feasible.
Some of the breakthroughs were simply
coincidental. For example, being able to
trace the Yamada family to Gunma
Prefecture by finding the name Yamada on
a map and making the proper associations
Hirata & Gubler/818b

was purely fortunate. This i s a l l part

of family h i s t o r y research. It is
d i f f i c u l t — a n d as the t i t l e of the paper
suggests, an impasse at times, but the
satisfaction of a task well done and the
meaning to your posterity i s well worth
the effort.
 Hirata & Gubler/818b 13

FIGURE ONE
A CAPSULE VIEW OF JAPANESE SOURCES
w
rH

I
TJ i p
01
c i c

•H i •
u i o
Xi
to i w

I9OO c
Oi OH
.
•s
i
[MODERN] t
i

i860—End Japan; emergence of modern Japanese s t a t e

[FEUDAL] -p
TJ O
cul
sí to i He 1

W rH
1800 i w
Ck tC
tö o
.

0) rtM to I
•> o .
IQ r H I
1301 0) tø .
v co I
CQ:7 tf H d ,
TJ-' TJ' 2 <u I
Bj
rií K o tc .
1750 0)
O; o w I
a) P, rH O 1

S.« aí
u
tö
o to •
I
to O -P I
ö Ö J rH C '
cd a> I
0> X * Vi
ITJ
Sa I CO o ,

I7OO I ITJ CË
to a TJ i
i
8»
Policy of "forced a f f i l i a t i o n " pushed by Tokugawa Shogunate
I65O I n q u i s i t i o n against Christians; policy of seclusion adopted

Tokugawa'Shogunate and Bakuhan System est.; society i s frozen

1600

Reunification of Japan begins; restoration of order

Period of internecine warfare and destruction
1550 i { m
Note: This i s only a rough approximation of what i s a very complex
and s t i l l only p a r t i a l l y surveyed records s i t u a t i o n . The main
emphasis i s on records of genealogical value. The dimension i s
more i n terms of records generated than a v a i l a b i l i t y . For a more
detailed l i s t i n g , refer to Major Genealogical Sources of Japan,
Genealogical Research Papers, series J, no. 1 JSait Latte uiry.
Genealogical Department of the L.D.S. Church, 1974 rev. ed.;.
 Hirata & Gubler/818b 14
FIGURE TWO
SAMPLE CONTENT OF A FAMILY OR HOUSEHOLD REGISTER
[from OKAZAKI family register/1915-type format, p 1]
Honseki (registered l o c a l i t y ) : Zen-koshu (former
Ehime Prefecture, Kita-gun ( d i s t r i c t ) , head of house):
N i i y a V i l l a g e , Ö-aza Kitayama #.... OKAZAKI Kózö
The marriage was dissolved on 23 December 1913 Koshu (head of
due t o the death of the ( f i r s t ) wife, Shigeyo. house):
A marriage n o t i f i c a t i o n reporting the marriage OKAZAKI Közö
of the head of house to MAEDA Haru was received eldest son of the
by the Acting Consul KASUGA Hiromei at the Sao deceased, OKAZAKI
Paulo (Brazil) Consulate-General on 2 March 1925. Kozo
I t was forwarded on 13 Juhe of the same Year. father: OKAZAKI
Közö
A n o t i f i c a t i o n of succession as head of house mother: Tami
was received on 27 November due to the death on oldest son
8' November 1930 of the former head of house, birthdate:
Kozo. 1 January 1884
The head of house died at 10 i n the morning
on 7 March 1946 at Nagasaki Prefecture, K i t a
Matsuura-gun ( d i s t r i c t ) •••• The n o t i f i c a t i o n
report was made that same day by MAEDA Aiko,
who was present, and i t was received by IKEDA
Makoto of that same v i l l a g e and forwarded to
our o f f i c e on the 23rd day of the same month.
The eldest son, OKAZAKI Sadaichi, submitted a
n o t i f i c a t i o n report to succeed as head of house
on 7 June 1946 and t h i s household r e g i s t e r was
cancelled.

[continued, p. 2]
Tami died at the registered l o c a l i t y at 7 i n position: mother
the morning on 11 January 1931; a n o t i f i c a t i o n name: Tami
report was received the same day from the head father: the deceasec
of house, OKAZAKI KözS OKAZAKI Zen'emon
mother: the deceasec
Kuni
oldest daughter/
deceased husband
Kózó's wife
birthdate:
2 February i860
She i s from the family of head of house MAEDA position: wife (2nd
Akira of Hiroshima Prefecture, Yamanaka V i l l a g e , name: Haru
#.... (her r e a l family i s that of head of house father: KAWAHARA
1
KAWAHARA Kiku-emon of Hiroshima Prefecture, Kiku emon
Fukuda V i l l a g e , #....). A n o t i f i c a t i o n report mother: S h i i
was submitted on 2 March 1925 of her marriage second daughter
to OKAZAKI Közö. I t was forwarded on 13 June birthdate:
of the same year and entered on the r e g i s t e r . 2 January 1886

[continues with eldest son, eldest daughter, and second daughter]

Hirata & Gubler/818b
FIGURE THREE
TITLE AND SAMPLE PAGE FROM NENDOBETSU KAKOCHO
(1)
Sample page
(1) year: Bunsei 6 (1Ö23)
Í2) month entry (3) posthumous name
(4) place names (5) common name
(6) relationship (to deceased)
15
^
(1)
T i t l e page
( l ) Saisai (yearly) kakocho
(2) Kojunzan (sango or mountain
name f o r HOun Temple, Sendai
(3) Jó"jü (means the register
always belongs to the temple)
 J

Hirata & Gubler/818b 16

JrV FIGURE FOUR

SENZO DAIDAI KAKITOMECHO
[Recorded ancestry by
generation] rewritten
I94I, copy from butsudan
(family a l t a r ) of the
Iida family of Suwa
(Nagano Prefecture)
This page includes
some of 4th generation
ancestors—death dates
l i s t e d : 1808. 1824,
1786 and 1777)
Hirata & Gubler/818b
FIGURE FIVE
TOMBSTONES AND MONUMENTS

Kamakura-Muroma c h i

earth
Gorinto or "Five- Soto or layered
r i n g monument" I t a b i or plate
or slab stone monument
Tokugawa Period

Lotus tombstone
-£---«• of temple p r i e s t
Inverted tear- Tombstone marking
shaped tombstone grave of an important
vassal
Modern Period

«I
I
Tombstone markings
r
M e i j i Era tomb- the common grave Postwar famxly style
stone with i n - or remains of the l i s t i n g posthuraous
scribed eulogies Nakamura family names and death dates
Hirata & Gubler/818b

FIGURE SIX
NINBETSUCHÖ FROM HAKODATE

TRANSLATION:
15 years from 1847
total 6 Jodo Sect
3 males
3 females Hakodate
Naka Township

daughter younger son wife mother

Sue brother Ichitaro Kase Yoshi Teijiró
age 4 Utaró age 15 age 35 age 64 age 48
age 11
Hirata & Gubler/818b 19

FIGURE SEVEN
COVERAGE OF GENEALOGICAL SOURCES

M o d i f i e d from an i l l u s t r a t i o n i n " R e k i s h i t e k i
j i n k o no minzokugakuteki kenkyu—keizu y o r i no
s h i r y ö , 2" [ e t h n o l o g i c a l s t u d i e s of h i s t o r i c a l
populations—using g e n e a l o g i c a l sources, 2]
( M a t e r i a l s prepared by the Japan Kakocho Com-
m i t t e e , Japan R a c i a l Hygiene A s s o c i a t i o n , n . d . )

Peasant}
familiejs

Merchanjt
familiejs

Shogunajte Familie!

PriestsJ and Nuns

A r i s t o c r a t i c Famiflies

ImperiajL Family
i

n r->
H CO CTi N> oo ON
A cr> o o o o ON
CO OO O O o o o
ft)
Hirata & Gubler/818b 20

NOTES

*Refer to Kimura Motoi, Bunken shiryo chosa no jitsumu [undertaking surveys of

documentary materials] (Tokyo: Kashiwa Shobo, 1974), pp. 10-11.
2
Ibid.
3
An example of this i s the expansion i n and around Hiroshima. A century ago
there were s i x small villages at the edge of the Inland Sea; now a giant Toyo Kogyo
(Mazda) automobile factory sits astride the Enko River, where these villages were once
located. Apparently, many Japanese were recruited to Hawaii from these villages.
(Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 5 June 1974). Imagine the shock of their descendants i f they
were to return several generations later to find nothing but rows of cars.
A
See Nihon no koseki [the Japanese household register] Genealogical Research
Papers, series J , no. 5 (Salt Lake City: The Genealogical Department of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1977).
^Refer to Öta Ryö, Kakeizu no nyúmon [guide to the study of family lineages]
(Tokyo: Jinbutsu Oraisha, 1967), pp. 45-46.

^Refer to Kakocho Kara Mita Kakeifu Hensan I i n k a i , comps. Kakocho kara mita
kakeifu [family history as seen from Buddhist death registers] (Gifu City, Japan:
Hirata Kin-itsu, investigated about 200 families composed of around 1200 individuals
descended from a common ancestor, Masasumi Yamada (d. 1442).

^Senzo daidai kakitomechó from the family altar of the Iida family of Suwa.
This copy was revised i n 1941 from other sources,
g
One of the better ones i s put out by the Zenkoku J i i n Meikan Kankokai, comp.
Zenkoku j i i n meikan [nationwide directory of Buddhist temples] 4 vols., Tokyo, 1973.
9
From Yanagita unio, trans, by Fanny H. Mayer and Ishiwara Yasuyo. About Our
Ancestors (Tokyo: Japan National Commission for UNESCO, 1970), p. 98.
^ F o r example, Mori Aiko on the use of the temple register i n "Koenji kakocho
ni miru Okita-shi enja n i tsuite" [Okita family connections as seen from the Koen
Temple death register] Rekishi kenkyu 183 (April 1976), pp. 10-11, to prove a
connection of Sakai Muneakira to the Okita family. Another similar study showing the
relationship of brothers was Iwasa Yoshikatsu, "Oshio Chüsai kakei no kenkyú, 2," [a
study of the lineage of Oshio Chüsai, part 2] Rekishi kenkyu 183 (April 1976), pp.
48-54.

^Refer to Robert J . Smith, Ancestor Worship i n Contemporary Japan (Stanford,

Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1974) pp. 78-86, for a more complete picture of
the nature of this source. Smith used this source almost exclusively i n his study of
the scope and structure of ancestor worship i n Japan.
12
Refer to Chijiwa Minoru, "Kin sekibun" [stone monument inscriptions] i n
Kimura Motoi, Hayashi Hideo, eds. Chihöshi kenkyu no hóhó [procedures for studying
local history] (Tokyo: Yaki Shoten, 1970), pp. 217-45.
13
A brief study of stone monuments of Suzuki-cho (formerly Odorobayashi
v i l l a g e ) , now part of Funabashi City i n Saitama Prefecture i s an example. Nishigaki
Hirata & Gubler/818b 21

S e i j i , "Mura no seklzö [village stone monuments] Rekishi kenkyu 169 (February 1975),
pp. 30-35.
14
See Hayami Akira, "Shumon aratamechö o tsujite mita Shinshü Yokouchi-mura no
chóki jinkö tokei" (The Demographic Aspects of a Rural Village i n Tokugawa Japan,
1671-1871) Management and Labor Series no. 202 (Tokyo: Keio University, 1967-68),
pp. 69-105.
^ A brief l i s t i n g of Japanese sources i s contained i n the research paper, Major
Genealogical sources of Japan Genealogical Research Papers, series J , no. 1 (Salt
Lake City: The Genealogical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, 1974 rev. ed.).

^From Öta Ryö, Seishi to kakei [surnames and lineages] (Tokyo: Sogensha,
1942), pp. 311-13.

^Besides the work cited above and the introduction cited i n footnote 5, there
i s his monumental work on surnames and lineages. (Ota Ryo, comp., revised by Niwa
Motoji, Shinhen seishi kakei daijiten [newly revised comprehensive dictionary of
surnames and lineages] Tokyo: Akita Shoten, 1974).
18
Seishi to kakei, pp. 311-13.
19
While admitting questions of a u t h e n t i c i t y might preclude t h e i r study,
Sugiyama Sadao and William J . Schuil used this genealogy for data for their a r t i c l e
"Consanguineous Marriages in Feudal Japan," Monumenta Niiponica XV:3-4 (1959-60), pp.
126-41.
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS

i
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright <§ 1980

All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 ORAL FAMILY HISTORY IN SARAWAK
Benedict Sandin
Born Malaysia. Resides i n Sarawak, East Malaysia.
Lecturer or oral historian.
I started to work in the Sarawak Museum
in June, 1952. From the beginning of my
attachment as a junior curator i n the
department, I gathered a great number of
genealogies (tusut or silah-silah) of the
Iban, Malay, and other indigenous people
in Sarawak to add to the number I had
collected since 1929 from my relatives
before joining the museum.
These genealogies are very important to
historians as i n the beginning of each
names of a l l the leading chieftains, war
leaders, warriors, pioneers, and migrants
in a l l regions in the country are men-
tioned. In addition to this, the names
of the d e i t i e s can be found i n the
v a r i e t i e s of chants and songs and
lullabies of the people of various races
and groups i n the country.
The tusut, which means "entangle", i s not
easy to learn. One may be able to record
the batang tusut ( s t r a i g h t l i n e gene-
alogies) , but one may be unable to break
them to various branches i f one i s not a
genius or an e s p e c i a l l y g i f t e d gene-
alogist. As a matter of fact a l l the
so-called tukang tusut (learned gene-
alogist), when they start to study the
genealogical trees, w i l l f i r s t use the
pengingat, a kind of charm which was
intended to aid the momory of the
learners to memorize the tusut by heart.
One who only depended on writing, as far
as this study was concerned, could never
expect to become a good genealogist.
T i l l the present day i n Sarawak, no one
has published a book solely devoted to
the tusut publication. The reason for
this i s simple, for to publish them the
author must be unbiased. He has to t e l l
Write, Sarawak Museum. Author,
the truth and nothing but truth, i n -
cluding the history of slavery and of
incurable disease (kapakrumbak), of serfs
or persons of low birth and their his-
tory, of e v i l eye (tau tepang) and this
makes him liable to legal action or at
least the animosity of those he mentions,
i f these accounts are made public. For
this reason, no one has been willing to
make a complete public record of the
tusut. A l l the genealogies which have
been published by me i n the Sarawak
Museum Journal i n recent years are ones
which helped the readers to determine
approximate dates of the h i s t o r i c a l
events mentioned. They are not the tusut
which cover many people descended from
the ancestors name. That i s to say, they
have been used for a purpose which i s
quite different from their traditional
one i n Iban society, which was to show
relationships between persons and their
connection to particular ancestors.
The tusut i s very important i n the minds
of the indigenous people of Sarawak and
Kalimantan Barat. If a traveler can
connect his relationship genealogically
to h i s hosts; ancestors, they may
immediately render to him kindness and
hospitality even i f he i s paying a v i s i t
to a country which has been at war with
his own i n the past decades.
The genealogist i s always a historian who
i s well-versed about the h i s t o r y and
customs of ancestors i n the past,
especially before the migration of the
Iban from the old countries such as the
Batang A i , Lemanak, Kumpang, Belambang,
Skrang, Undup, and the Sarabas-Krain i n
the Second Division of Sarawak to other
divisions. As a matter of fact that i s
820/Sandin
why many Iban travelers to the new places
northwest of the Rejang River have been
k i n d l y received by t h e i r f a r awa\
relatives i n these countries after they
mention i n conversation their connection
with them i n their tusut. I f a man's
v i s i t has been to look for land to which
to migrate, they have been ready to offer
him land. In this way, the tusut has
been a sacred testament of the Iban and
other natives of Sarawak and Kalimantan
i n the island of Borneo.
As has been partly explained above, the
tusut when discussed by genealogists w i l l
expose good and bad things about the
people's ancestral history, due to this
reason, therefore, most of the gene-
alogists w i l l only recite the tusut of
the low b i r t h persons a f t e r a l l the
younger people have gone to bed, so that
they might not hear the bad history of
the persons concerned. Most of the gene-
alogists come from aristocratic families
whose family histories are good to the
ears of the audience. For this reason
the descendants of slaves and serfs have
always avoided the learning of gene-
a l o g i e s , as they have considered i t
worthless only to know the recitation of
noble tusut, which does not concern them
historically.
The genealogists have also been used by
people irrespective of their birth to
f i n d out i l l e g a l incestuous marriage
relationships. Due to this, at a l l mar-
riages the genealogical trees of both the
bride and the bridegroom must be publicly
recited by the genealogist i n order to
inform the people whether this marriage
i s incestuous or not. In case of incest,
the bride and the bridegroom must undergo
the besapat ka a i ("bathing ceremony"),
when they were cleansed by the blood of a
pig i n the river to appease the taboo,
which may endanger the crops, and to
prevent heavy rains and storms, floods
and erosion from happening i n the
country.
As he i s about to start the recitation of
the genealogy, the genealogist uses many
small sticks to set forth the pedigree.
He s t a r t s h i s pedigree by taking an
2
ancestor, Singalang Burong, the war god,
as the basis because from which he w i l l
be able to relate the customs originating
from the marriage of Singalang Buron's
son, A j i , whose surname was Brani Ngilah
Bulan, Menteri Suka Faja Rengayan, who
was married to Endu Anggu Kaul Ketapu,
who was also c a l l e d Endu Kuku Anyam
Saribu, a daughter of Faja Simpulang Gana
and Endu Sudan Cheremin Bulan, Serentam
Tanah Tumboh, lying exposed to the sun-
shine at the middle of the land, Endu
Iyak Cherindal Tanggui Buloh (a kind of
huge sun hat) hovering over the communal
farm, a daughter of Raja Semarugah a
diety who inherited the earth. Starting
from here he relates the discussions of
Raja Simpulang Gana and Singalang Burong
when the former demanded the payment of
dowry from the latter i n the form of a
cockrel whose size was as big as a
sparrow which has spurs coiled onto i t s
knees and a pig as big as a rat that had
tusks coiled onto the tuft of bristles
and also a black j a r with a spout
together with a gong. In addition, he
also mentions the customs that forbid
incestuous marriage, which i s disastrous
in accordance with the advice of Singa-
lang Burong to his grandson Seragunting,
who committed incest with his mother's
sister Endu Chempaka Tempurung Allang,
who was also called Patri Langit Dayang
Kumang. After he has mentioned those
customs, he begins to set f o r t h h i s
pedigree further to give more information
regarding h i s a r i s t o c r a t i c ancestor's
expensive dowries as they were rich and
chivalrous. On reaching the generation
of the bride and the bridegroom, he
discloses their relationship.
The elders present w i l l then discuss the
appropriate customs to remedy the
marriage which might happen to be i n
defiance of the incestuous taboo. If the
r e l a t i o n s h i p i s calculated from t h e i r
parents and i s i n the ration of one to
two (which means that he i s married to
his aunt or niece), then the river water
w i l l be partitioned for them, and two
pigs w i l l be slaughtered; one i s to be
k i l l e d i n the water, while the other w i l l
be butchered on land. The bride and
bridegroom are requested to bathe
820/Sandin
themselves In the r i v e r that has been
saturated with the blood of the
sacrificial pig. The p i g s to be
slaughtered must be the ones that have
had l i t t e r s , and the j a r the bridegroom
produces must be e q u i v a l e n t to the
monetary value of nine d o l l a r s , while the
bride pays seven d o l l a r s .
If t h e i r generation r a t i o i s at two to
t h r e e , the r i v e r water w i l l a l s o be
p a r t i t i o n e d f o r them and the number of
pigs that have had l i t t e r s w i l l be the
same, but the amount of money p a i d
decreases. A pig w i l l be slaughtered to
smear the land i f t h e i r generation r a t i o
i s at three to f o u r . They must f e l l the
f r u i t trees i f t h e i r marriage i s at the
generation r a t i o of four to f i v e . If
t h e i r generation r a t i o n i s f i v e to s i x ,
they are only asked to b i t e a piece of
i r o n f o r them to strengthen t h e i r own
soul. The b r i d e and bridegroom are
requested to b i t e a grain of s a l t each i f
t h e i r m a r r i a g e i s at the g e n e r a t i o n
r a t i o n of s i x and seven. This i s done i n
order to protect t h e i r bodies and s o u l s .
A f t e r d i s c u s s i n g these customs, the
b r i d e ' s parents proceed with t h e i r demand
for dowry and other fees from the b r i d e -
groom's parents as shown below:-
1. The dowry of the low b i r t h spinster i s
$25.00 and her marriage fee (binga
pinang) s h a l l not exceed $1.00 ( s i g i
jabir).
2. The dowry of the low class f a m i l y i s
$50.00 and the marriage fee (bunga
pinang) s h a l l not exceed $2.00 ( s i g i
panding).
3. The dowry of the higher class f a m i l y
i s $75.00 and the marriage fee (bunga
pinang) s h a l l not exceed $4.00 ( s i g i
alas).
4. The dowry of the a r i s t o c r a t i c f a m i l y
i s from $100.00 to $500.00 and the
marriage fee (bunga pinang) s h a l l not
exceed $5.00 t o $8.00 ( s i g i a l a s
ngerang) to ( s i g i r u s a ) .
The bridegroom's parents pay a l l of these
3
fees. However, they r e c i p r o c a t e by
demanding fees from the b r i d e ' s parents.
The fees that they ask i n return are a
j a r ( t r e a y a n ) , a gong ( b e n d a i ) as a
container f o r holding water to wash the
feet of the bridegroom and as a support
from him to lean onto, a blowpipe as a
punting pole, and a woven blanket as an
awning f o r h i s boat. Despite the dowry
and marriage f e e s , both sides do not
incur any loss because the demand f o r
such fees serve as a means f o r the elders
to outwit each other.
When the d i s c u s s i o n i s over, the elders
declare that i f any of them commits a
breach of marriage without any proper
reason, f o r instance, i f the bridegroom
d i v o r c e s h i s w i f e , the dowry w i l l
automatically be i n the custody of the
bride. In the case where the bride
divorces her husband, the dowry w i l l be
r e t u r n e d to the bridegroom w i t h an
a d d i t i o n a l amount of f i f t y d o l l a r s . The
married couple are warned i f e i t h e r one
of them asks f o r a divorce w i t h i n a
period of one month, he or she w i l l be
f i n e d f o u r d o l l a r s , supplementing the
f i n e f o r the d i v o r c e .
Upon the completion of discussion on t h i s
matter, a wcman from the room then car-
r i e s b e t e l nuts placed i n a b e a u t i f u l
basket c a l l e d s e l o k sundang menarang.
These nuts are to be s p l i t at the b r i d e ' s
g a l l e r y by a fortunate and productive
woman. The number of s l i c e s i s three,
f i v e , or seven. The s l i c e s of the nuts
depend on the number of days the couple
w i l l v i s i t the b r i d e ' s longhouse again.
I f her home i s w i t h i n a short distance
f o r the b r i d e g r o o m ' s house, then the
number of s l i c e s i s fewer and v i c e v e r s a .
A f t e r the s l i c i n g of nut i s over, a bard
i s requested to sing a song, nindok ka
anak, to put a c h i l d to sleep. When the
c h i l d i s presumed to have s l e p t , the bard
w i l l sing another song, ngerak anak, to
wake up the baby. I f the marriage i s not
i n c e s t u o u s and thus does not cause
d i s a s t e r , the ceremonial c u t t i n g of betel
nuts into s l i c e s , which i s the a c t u a l
marriage session, ends when the c h i l d
awakens.
820/Sandin
After the baby i s said to have awakened,
the hosts and guests w i l l be i n a joyous
mood, d r i n k i n g r i c e toddy (tuak) and
coffee and eating cakes, buns, and other
foods. This i s followed by breakfast
when rice and meat and many delicious
foods w i l l be served to the guests along
the verandah of the longhouse.
After the breakfast a couple newly wedded
i n defiance of the incest taboo w i l l
undergo the ceremony of besapat ka ai to
release them from i t . They w i l l be
brought to the river where they w i l l be
bathed with the blood of a pig together
with the river water.
F i r s t they are dressed up and brought to
the river, accompanied by men and women
and a group of young men who beat the
gongs and drums. In front of them walk
the aristocrats who hold onto a l o i n -
cloth nine feet long. Leading the elders
i s the headman of the longhouse where the
marriage i s celebrated. He i s the man
who w i l l spear the pig. Behind him walks
a man who makes an invocation. Next
comes the bearer of a jar let from safely
keeping the souls of the bride and bride-
groom. Behind him walks a woman who
carries the offerings, followed by the
bride and the bridge groom and the elders
who have been selected to take part i n
the ceremony.
The man who has been appointed to act as
a ghost w i l l have taken up his position
on the other side of the river, opposite
the bathing place where the ceremony to
release the couple from the taboo w i l l be
performed.
A r r i v i n g at the r i v e r , the appointed
aristocrat proceeds to make an invoca-
tion, calling for Almighty God and a l l
marine supernaturals, so that they w i l l
know about the ceremony of releasing the
couple who are now married i n defiance of
the taboo. The ceremony conducted i n
accordance with the customs laid down by
Singalang Burong and Apai Puntang Raga
many centuries ago. After the invocation
i s ended, the aristocrat who has been
pointed to slaughter the s a c r i f i c i a l pig
k i l l s i t with a nyabur knife so that i t s
4
blood flows down river to the place where
the bride and the bridegroom take their
ceremonial bath. While the p i g i s
slaughtered, the man who has been
assigned across the river to act as a
ghost shouts at the people on the other
side to inquire why they are making such
a lot of noise. In response to this
inquiry, an elder from this side of the
river answers:
We are releasing t h i s bride and the
bridegroom from the taboo, as they are
married i n defiance of i t . In accordance
with our traditional customs taught to
our ancestors by Singalang Burong and
Apai Puntang Raga long ago, we,
therefore, smear the land with blood of a
pig i n order to prevent disasters such as
earthquakes and t i d a l waves, heavy rains
and storms to spoil our crops and other
things we live on i n this country. We
are now harmonizing the water with the
following a r t i c l e s :
A blowpipe make of tapang wood, with
which to spear s p i r i t u a l l y the holes
of l i g h t n i n g i n order to prevent
floods;
The woven blanket (pua kumbu rayung) for
the s p i r i t u a l covering of pockets at
the edge of the river ungkap to avoid
landslides;
One long sword (pedang panjai) f o r
slashing the moving clouds i n the sky,
so that heavy rain can be stopped;
A woven blanket (kain Keberaya) f o r
waving away the black clouds i n the
sky.
An iron adze (beliong lajung) for cutting
the roots of the lensat fruit tree
during the purifying ceremony i n the
river;
A big bowl (pinggai besai) i n order that
the couple may not spiritually s l i p
with the erosion of the earth;
Two sows (babi sepa), the blood of which
i s used for purifying the land i n
order teo avoid earthquake and erosion
820/Sandin
caused by heavy rain and hurricanes.
The blood of another sow i s used for
purifying the river water to avoid a
flood after the incestuous couple have
bathed i n i t :
A white shell (rangki s i t i ) to be thrown
into the river before the incestuous
couple mingle the blood of a sow (babi
sepa) i n i t s water, and
A tepayan jar for the enclosure of the
souls of a l l of the people i n the While reciting the genealogies (besusut),
d i s t r i c t s p i r i t u a l l y endangered by the the genealogist w i l l f i r s t bite a piece
marriage.
A l l of these articles are given to the names of his parents-in-law (mentua)•
aristocrats who participate i n o f f i c i a t e
at the besapat-ka-ai bathing ceremony,
with the exception of the shell armlet
(rangki), which i s thrown into the r i v e r .
The slain pigs are buried as no one wants
to eat them due to the fact that they are
used to purify the land and water from
sin. The blood of the pig which i s
k i l l e d on the land i s sent to the pad i
fields i n order to prevent disaster of
padi and other crops planted i n the farm.
This marks the end of the ceremony to
release the bride and bridegroom who
undergo the incestuous marriage of
besapat-ka-ai.
It i s also common to hear the elders and
5
genealogists r e c i t e t h e i r tusut when
meeting each other i n any gathering to
trace the connection of their families.
When reciting the long tusut the gene-
alogist has to use daun-ruku (piece of
nipah leaves for wrapping c i g a r s ) to
count the generation's mentioned i n the
genealogy. This kind of conversation i s
very interesting and often continues from
early evening u n t i l the next day.
of iron i n order to strengthen his soul
against the danger of mentioning the
The early part of a l l the main tusut
provides the learner with the origins of
rules of social behavior and religious
observance, how to perform the rites of
the morning for the dead, and the tebalu
payments by the widow or widower to the
relatives of her or his spouse before she
or he was allowed to marry again. I t
also explains the kind of garong baskets
made for honoring the deceased i n Gawai
Antu festival (for the soul of the dead)
and the kind of rutual poles made for
various stages of Gawai Burong # (bird
festival). The auguries and the rules
for interpreting omens were also pre-
served i n the tusut (genealogies).
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

The Family in Japan

L, Keith Brown
Series 822
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 THE FAMILY IN JAPAN: SAMURAI AND MERCHANT FAMILY HISTORY, 1872-1980:
KOSEKI AND OTHER SOURCES

L. Keith Brown

Born i n Iowa. Resides i n P i t t s b u r g h , Pennsylvania. Associate professor of

anthropology, University of Pittsburgh. Ph.D. (anthropology), University of Chicago.
Author.

A long family history carries with i t
certain p o l i t i c a l , economic, and social
benefits for contemporary townsmen i n
Japan. One prominent merchant friend of
mine in a northeastern Japanese town,
when asked what general qualities char-
acterized the leaders of his community,
cited family h i s t o r y , the longer the
better, as one of the important traits
that w i l l lead a middle-aged man to
positions of power and responsibility.
Of course family history may be less
important than wealth, a b i l i t y , and
personality, but i t i s important nonethe-
less .
Especially for the descendants of the
former samurai, that high-ranking warrior
class of the feudal period, a long, con-
tinuous, family history i n the same com-
munity brings with i t a good name and
prestige. Many of the townspeople are
very much aware of which families are the
old ones, those descended from the feudal
period, and which are the newcomers, even
though some of the so-called newcomers
have been there more than one hundred
years. The samurai descendants are con-
sidered to be from an old family i f their
ancestor was one of the original re-
tainers of the castle lord, accompanying
the lord to the town to establish the
f i e f (the property over which someone has
c e r t a i n r i g h t s ) 350 years ago. Any
family started a f t e r that among the
samurai ranks, suffers a slight taint of
newness. Especially any family o r i g i -
nating, or moving into the community,
a f t e r the M e i j i Restoration i n 1868,
suffers from the image of being a
newcomer.
In a society such as Japan where family
history has contemporary value, i t i s not
surprising to find a large number of
families with considerable antiquity i n
t h e i r respective communities. For
example, i n one former samurai
neighborhood of the c a s t l e town of
Mizusawa, i n Iwate-ken i n Northeastern
Japan, one-fourth of the families there
in the 1820s s t i l l live there i n the same
neighborhood 160 years later. Merchants
display even greater residential
s t a b i l i t y , with more than one-third of
the families there i n the mid to late
nineteenth century s t i l l there more than
one hundred years later.
One fortunate result of the value placed
on family continuity and a long family
history i n Japan i s that there i s an
abundance of well-organized data that can
be used for genealogical research. This
is especially true for the period since
the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Using
t h i s data as evidence, I have been
working on a project for the past several
years to see what changes have been
occurring i n the Japanese urban family
during the past century. Of particular
concern i n this project has been the
study of the degree or frequency of
i n t e r g e n e r a t i o n a l c o n t i n u i t y i n urban
families. What are the factors, for
example, that lead a Japanese son, or
occasionally a daughter, to decide to
remain i n the family to continue i t s
l i n e , rather than to leave the parental
home and move to Tokyo or some other big
city to pursue an independent l i f e and
career?
822/Brown
Behind this inquiry has been the desire
to test the very explicit assumption i n
much of the social science literature and
the popular media that modernization and
urbanization i n e v i t a b l y lead to a
breakdown of traditional family forms.
Specifically i n Japan this theory has
been expressed with the assertion that
the postwar generations are moving
towards greater i n d i v i d u a l i s m and the
nuclear family (husband, wife and
children) as the ideal type. Accord-
i n g l y , we have been t o l d that the
three-generation household that was the
assumed expression of the t r a d i t i o n a l
stem family i s rapidly becoming a thing
of the past. One aspect of this pur-
ported t r a n s i t i o n from the stem to
nuclear family system i s that i t i s no
longer necessary for the family line to
be perpetuated by one of the children i n
each generation, normally an eldest son
who cares for the grandparents in their
retirement and ancestorhood in return for
inheriting the family estate. Conse-
quently, i f the traditional stem family
is disappearing, as this theory suggests,
the society must come up with some new
solutions to the problems of old age.
Preliminary analysis of the Mizusawa data
indicates that such predictions about the
Imminent disappearance of the three-gen-
eration household, the stem family
ideology, and a sense of family history,
are a l l premature. For example, though
the samurai data are not yet analyzed,
the material from the merchant neighbor-
hood indicates that more than half of the
families who can trace their ancestry
back one hundred years or more i n that
neighborhood are l i v i n g today i n
households that have at least three or
more generations eating and sleeping
together in the same house. Even when we
look at Japan as a whole, we find that an
impressive 31 percent of the households
include grandparents among their members.
This 31 percent exists i n a society that
has tripled i t s population i n the last
one-hundred years. During this popula-
tion explosion, now brought to a stand-
s t i l l , a large number of new f i r s t and
second generation f a m i l i e s i n e v i t a b l y
resulted, started by the excess children,
e.g., daughters and second and t h i r d
sons, who were not essential for the
continuation of t h e i r n a t a l family
(family of natural birth) l i n e . Con-
sequently, the fact that as many as 31
percent of the households i n a l l of Japan
Include a grandparent i s remarkable,
given the existence of such a large
number of new f a m i l i e s who have not
matured enough to produce t h e i r own
grandparents. The figure i s also nearly
double that found in the United States
(17 percent), and far above the mere 4
percent i n the United Kingdom.
What i s clear from this Japanese material
i s that culture does make a difference.
Though the Japanese have attained a high
degree of urbanization and a position of
world leadership i n i n d u s t r i a l and
technological development, large numbers
of them s t i l l hold to perceptions and
values that get expressed i n patterns of
family organization and behavior that are
quite different from those observed i n
the West. Thus any research on family
history i n Japan can benefit from the
large amounts of documentary sources that
are available because of these particular
values and perceptions concerning family
c o n t i n u i t y and h i s t o r y . But the
researcher must also be aware that many
of the sources were originally created
and assembled i n light of a uniquely
Japanese cultural framework with respect
to the family. Consequently, some
individual and family connections that
normally appear i n western genealogies
are d i f f i c u l t to trace i n Japanese social
and kinship networks, because they are
considered i r r e l e v a n t to t h e i r most
important family and kinship relations.
II. The Japanese stem family
In the town of Mizusawa the family i s
seen as a continuing corporate unit. It
i s brought into existence as a branch of
another family, and p e r s i s t s for an
indefinite future. The founding ancestor
i s normally an excess child of another
family, the main family. That i s , a
younger brother or sister or the heir of
the main family, upon reaching adulthood,
i s no longer necessary for the continued
822/Brown
existence of the natal family, once i t
has been decided that an elder brother
w i l l become the heir. The sister or
younger brother i s then expected to leave
the family. They can either marry into
another family, or they can establish a
new independent family of their own. I f
they marry into another family, they take
that family name and are expected to
produce children, one of whom w i l l i n
turn ultimately continue that l i n e . If
they establish a new independent family
of their own, i t becomes a branch family
of their natal family and household.
Once they establish a new branch family,
its subsequent intergenerational
continuity becomes a point of seme value.
The main and branch families share a
common name and engage i n active and
intimate relations for as long as they
are i n close proximity, which may be for
several centuries. Neighbors w i l l be
well aware of which family i s the branch,
and vrtiich i s the main family, even after
many generations have passed.
The composition of the household varies
with respect to the history of the family
and the vagaries of i t s developmental,
occupational and reproductive cycle. A
new first-generation family normally i s
small and nuclear. That i s , originally
i t may have only one member, then a
married couple, and f i n a l l y a married
couple and their children. In the f i r s t
two generations i t i s unlikely that three
or more generations w i l l l i v e together,
since i t takes at least three generations
for the family to produce i t s own
grandparents. Nevertheless, the concept
of the family i s linear. Once i t i s
established the expectation i s that the
family w i l l continue to have a single
line of existence into the indefinite
future, and i f i t i s prosperous i t w i l l
occasionally send off new branch families
with Its own excess children.
Once a family has completed the f i r s t
three generations of i t s existence, i t i s
expected to be larger and have household
members spanning at least three genera-
tions. Four-generation households are
not rare, and some fortunate families i n
3
Mizusawa have f i v e generations repre-
sented i n their l i v i n g membership. Some
of these older f a m i l i e s have three
married couples living together i n the
same household, each couple representing
a d i f f e r e n t generation i n the l i n e a r
progression of their familial corpora-
tion. In much of the United States such
a situation might well e l i c i t considera-
ble sympathy, or outright pity, because
i t suggests that the family cannot afford
comfortable housing arrangements.
Americans rarely envy the person that has
to live with in-laws, and having two
mothers-in-law resident i n the same
household i s not an ideal arrangement for
most of us on this side of the Pacific.
But i n Mizusawa i t i s an accomplishment
worthy of considerable respect.
In fact i t recently merited an o f f i c i a l
and formal ceremony sponsored by the city
o f f i c e , i n which a l l such families in the
city were honored. The occasion included
a parade, and the awarding of badges to
each of the married couples, who were
congratulated by the mayor and
r e s p e c t f u l l y i d e n t i f i e d by the l o c a l
media.
One of the most important tasks facing
the Mizusawa family i s how to arrange i t s
own continuation, from one generation to
the next. Of course there Is consider-
able internal conflict i n many families
over how this task must be accomplished,
or whether i n fact i t i s even important
to accomplish at a l l . Frequently the
lines in this conflict are drawn between
generations, with the older generations
in the family being more concerned about
family c o n t i n u i t y than the younger
generations. However, other lines of
discord are also evident, such as between
siblings ( ) or along sex lines.
Inevitably the older generation i s the
most worried about who w i l l take care of
them when they become ancestors. This
anxiety i s greatly relieved i f they have
one of their own children committed to
becoming an heir. Of course with the
l i f e expectancy i n Japan now being one of
the longest i n the world, meaning that
the townspeople r e a l i s t i c a l l y expect to
822/Brown
have many post-retirement years ahead,
they are also worried about who w i l l care
for them i n their old age before they
become ancestors. Going off to an
old-age home to be cared for by strangers
i n an unfamiliar domestic environment i s
not a prospect that many of them find
appealing.
One conclusion suggested by the Mizusawa
data concerning the direction of family
change i n Japan i s that much of the large
percentage of small nuclear f a m i l i e s
found i n Tokyo and other metropolitan
areas of Japan, i n contrast to the
r e l a t i v e l y higher frequency of more
t r a d i t i o n a l family forms found i n
p r o v i n c i a l areas of Japan such as
Mizusawa, can be explained i n terms of
the unidirectional aspects of internal
migration during the population explosion
of t h i s past century. The usual
explanation i s that the c i t i e s are
leading the country i n i t s social and
cultural change, just as they lead the
country i n p o l i t i c a l and economic
matters. The provinces, on the other
hand, presumably governed by more
t r a d i t i o n a l and conservative o r i e n t a -
tions, are slower to take on the new
social and cultural forms.
However, i t i s clear that u n t i l the past
few years, most excess children have had
to leave the provinces and go to the
metropolitan areas to find employment.
They leave one of t h e i r s i b l i n g s to
became the heir i n the parental family,
and only that heir i s required to per-
petuate the family line and care for the
grandparents and the ancestors. The
excess children are free to go to Tokyo
which has a much larger labor market and
start their own independent branch family
there. It i s therefore inevitable that
in the large c i t i e s there i s a dispro-
portionate large number of f i r s t and
second generation small nuclear families
formed by these migrating excess children
from the provinces, just as i t i s inevi-
table that i n the provinces there are
higher percentages of the older multi-
ple-generation stem families and
households.
Consequently, rather than q u i c k l y
assuming that this difference reflects
the d i r e c t i o n of s o c i a l and c u l t u r a l
change i n modern Japan, we should pay
particular attention to the effects these
demographic and migration patterns have
on family organization. They do not
n e c e s s a r i l y require a conclusion that
family c o n t i n u i t y i s no longer of
significant value i n urban Japan. The
Mizusawa data suggest that i t i s s t i l l
quite important. Further study of some
of the older families i n places such as
Tokyo to see how they are adapting to
their urban environment would be useful
now.
III. The Sources
It i s this ideology of a continuing stem
family, perpetuated from generation to
generation by a succession of eldest sons
(though exceptions to primogeniture are
frequent), that provided the c u l t u r a l
basis for many governmental codes and
regulations concerning the family i n
prewar Japan. For example, an explicit
expression of this ideology can be found
in the Meiji C i v i l Code enacted i n 1898.
The o f f i c i a l family registers (koseki),
part of the administrative system used to
record a l l b i r t h , deaths, marriages,
divorces, and adoptions, are organized by
family. This contrasts with v i t a l
r e g i s t r a t i o n procedures i n the United
States where such information i s recorded
in the administrative office of the area
where the event occurs, no matter where
the legal residence of the family may be.
Thus i n Japan, many of the sources
a v a i l a b l e for reconstructing family
genealogies i n the past century, and this
includes o f f i c i a l documents as well as
private records, are organized on the
bases of the stem-family ideology. A
discussion of those sources used i n the
Mizusawa study of samurai and merchant
family history follows.
2
A. Koseki (Family Registers).
Koseki i s a national family registration
system that was introduced into the
Mizusawa area i n 1872. In some parts of
Japan i t had i t s beginnings one year
822/Brown
earlier. The koseki system replaced the
temple shumon-aratamae-cho records of the
Tokugawa Period as the census of Japan.
These family registers were maintained i n
the local government offices, and ideally
every Japanese household and family, and
thus every Japanese c i t i z e n , was duly
registered in a koseki.
In the original 1872 koseki each house-
hold was listed separately. The name of
the household head was given f i r s t , and
then the names of a l l the other members
in the household were recorded, as was
their relationship to the household head,
e.g., w i f e , eldest son, second son,
eldest daughter, second daughter, younger
brother, and so forth. There was also a
category of "resident" for those who had
no kinship relationship to the head. The
age, and frequently the birthdate, were
given, along with the names of the mother
and father of each individual i n the
registers. For those members who had
married or were adopted into the family,
the address of t h e i r n a t a l home was
written. The temple membership of the
family was noted, as was i t s s o c i a l
c l a s s , e.g., merchant, farmer, or
samurai. Thus the original 1872 koseki
constituted a household census.
Following the compilation of t h i s
original household census i n 1872, the
koseki turned into a family register.
That i s , once the original population
census for starting the koseki had been
determined on the basis of place of
residence, i . e . , household membership,
the criterion for inclusion changed to
family membership, irrespective of actual
place of residence. People were added to
the family koseki as they were born,
adopted, or married into the family, and
were deleted as they died, married out,
were adopted out, or established their
own branch family, no matter where they
lived. Thus subsequent to the original
1872 r e g i s t e r s , the koseki no longer
served as a household census or residency
list.
For example, students who are temporarily
living away from heme for short periods
of time remain i n their family koseki.
5
S i m i l a r l y , whole households sometimes
move to other c i t i e s , but retain their
permanent residency, and thus t h e i r
k o s e k i , i n t h e i r place of o r i g i n .
Accordingly, i n years subsequent to the
original 1872 compilation of the koseki,
these family registers should not be used
as a household census, though there
certainly i s considerable overlap. There
i s one exception to this. In 1882 a
second household census was taken, and
thus from the 1882 koseki a household
census as well as a family register can
be obtained. For a l l other times, family
membership and not place of residence i s
the c r i t e r i o n f o r i n c l u s i o n i n the
koseki. The family envisaged by the
koseki system was a self-perpetuating
stem family.
Someone i n each household i n the original
1872 koseki was l i s t e d as household head.
Thereafter, any changes i n that position
were diligently recorded. The succession
of the son, or some other family member,
to the position of household head was
recorded shortly after the death of the
former household head, or on the same day
i f the head retired. Other changes i n
the membership of the family were indexed
according to who was the household head
at the moment.
The date of each change i n membership, or
status, within the family i s given. Thus
the koseki i s a continuing or running
record rather than a census for any one
moment i n time. However, u n t i l the
national census was instituted i n 1920,
the koseki system provided most of the
demographic information f o r the
government i n terms of v i t a l s t a t i s t i c s ,
such as births, deaths, infant mortality,
marriages, divorces, migration,
population s i z e , and age and sex
distributions.
During the occupation by the A l l i e d
Forces f o l l o w i n g World War I I , some
significant changes were introduced into
the koseki system. These changes were
intended to make the Japanese family more
consistent with a democratic ideology.
For example, the position of household
head was abolished i n an attempt to
822/Brown
eradicate unilateral patriarchal
authority. Also the stem family ideology
was threatened by the requirement that
administratively a new family was created
whenever a marriage occurred. That i s ,
an eldest son, even i f i t was agreed that
he would be the heir i n the family, had
to establish his own koseki upon his
marriage. The establishment of a new
family koseki by the son was done even i f
he and his new bride continued to l i v e
together i n the same house with h i s
parents and other natal family members.
For many Mizusawa families such separate
koseki are administrative fictions that
belie the actual social and ideological
conditions of the family. The koseki
reforms had behind them a nuclear family
ideology, which was perceived by the
Occupation Forces as being more
democratic, whereas many Mizusawa
residents are s t i l l governed by stem
family values, which they assume to be
more natural and proper.
Koseki can be very useful f o r doing
research on family history i n Japan. The
f i r s t advantage i t has i s that u n t i l the
war i t was organized i n terms of a stem
family concept, and thus intergenera-
t i o n a l connections can e a s i l y be
determined by looking at the koseki. As
long as a person i s a member of the
family, a l l of his or her major l i f e
cycle events are recorded i n the same
register. This means that the researcher
can follow an individual throughout his
or her l i f e . In contrast, with a system
such as i s found i n the United States,
births, marriages, the birth of one's
children, and death can a l l be recorded
in different county seats, making the
tracing of people through their l i f e , and
especially their connections to
succeeding generations, very d i f f i c u l t .
In Japan, even when a person leaves a
koseki, as i n marriage, the date and the
address of the new koseki into which he
i s entering are recorded. Thus i t i s
f a i r l y easy to follow a person throughout
his l i f e and into preceeding or
succeeding generations, i f the researcher
has access to the koseki.
A second advantage of the koseki for
6
family history research i s i t s historical
depth. I t provides detailed information
on people spanning many generations
spread out over two different centuries.
The f i r s t koseki l i s t s a l l the people
l i v i n g i n 1872. Seven generations i s not
an unusual time to be covered by the
family registers for some of the older
families i n Mizusawa. When a koseki
l i s t s the parents of an old man l i v i n g i n
1872, f o r example, the names and
connections of people born as early as
the eighteenth century can be identified.
A t h i r d advantage of the koseki f o r
family history research i s i t s accuracy.
Though certainly many errors occur, some
by intent and some by oversight, the
koseki i s s t i l l one of the most detailed
and accurate family registration systems
in existence. The basic census of the
Tokugawa Period, the shumon-aratame-cho,
consisted of^household registers compiled
once a year. Though much can be gleaned
from them by comparing the l i s t s for the
same households from one year to the
next, many events that occur during the
intervening time of each census are lost.
For example, the birth of an infant who
was born after one census was taken but
died before the next was never recorded.
The problem was further compounded by the
fact that the infant was often not
recorded, even i f l i v i n g at the time of
census, u n t i l i t had attained a certain
age, such as one year. High rates of
infant mortality undoubtedly made such
census practices reasonable In the
Tokugawa Period, but they also make i t
d i f f i c u l t for the contemporary researcher
working on family histories and studying
questions of f e r t i l i t y , family size, and
related problems.
Furthermore, when a person's name appears
in a number of succeeding l i s t s i n the
Tokugawa household census, and then
disappears for a l l subsequent l i s t s , i t
i s d i f f i c u l t to know what has happened to
him. Whether he died, l e f t i n marriage
or adoption, moved or established a new
branch household i s usually not stated,
and only rarely i s his future address
given.
822/Brown
Koseki, on the other hand, were intended
to l i s t a l l membership changes i n the
family, even i f the change lasted for
only a brief moment i n time. In fact, in
many of the Mizusawa koseki, there are
infants included whose death was recorded
as being on the same day as their b i r t h .
Some marriages and adoptions were
likewise short-lived, meaning that the
person leaving the family i n marriage or
adoption on one day reappeared very
shortly in the family koseki again when
the marriage or adoption was terminated.
When a person leaves the family and the
koseki, the reason for leaving i s
recorded, as i s their future address.
Usually the reasons given for a person
being deleted from a koseki are f a i r l y
standardized. They are recorded as
leaving by marriage, adoption, divorce,
termination of adoption, or death, with
no amplifying information provided. On
occasion, more d e t a i l e d reasons are
written, such as the case where a woman
was sent back to her natal f a m i l y ,
divorced because she was sickly.
Nevertheless, the researcher must be
constantly alert for the p o s s i b i l i t y of
error i n the koseki. For example, the
rule i s that i f an infant utters a cry,
its birth should be recorded. I f i t dies
before uttering the cry, i t i s classified
as s t i l l b i r t h and should not be entered
in the f a m i l y k o s e k i . However,
e s p e c i a l l y i n the early days of the
koseki system, i t was inevitable that
some infants died before someone i n the
family could make the long walk to the
v i l l a g e o f f i c e to have the b i r t h
recorded. Consequently, some such
infants never had their names entered i n
the koseki, i f indeed they received a
name at a l l , even though they lived for
several hours, or even several days. I ago, so the local government office i s
know, for example, of one case where the
birth of an infant who died i n the f i r s t
week of l i f e was not recorded, and
another case where a birth was attributed
to one woman when i n fact i t had seemed
quite evident to the neighbors that her
daughter had instead produced an
illegitimate child. However, these kinds
of problems are r e l a t i v e l y r a r e , and
7
especially i n recent time, with v i r t u a l l y
a l l b i r t h s occurring i n h o s p i t a l s
attended by doctors rather than i n homes
attended by family members or midwives,
we can assume that the birth records i n
the koseki are quite accurate.
Marriages are notoriously late i n being
entered i n the koseki records, frequently
not being recorded u n t i l long after the
wedding ceremony and the i n i t i a t i o n of
coresidence by the couple. Especially i n
the early days of the koseki system, many
marriages were not recorded u n t i l just a
few days before the birth of the f i r s t
child, or even after the birth. However,
before dismissing such phenomena as yet
other examples of inaccuracies or lags in
the koseki record, i t must be remembered
that i n Japan ensuring family continuity
was, and i s , of very considerable
importance. Therefore, producing a child
was an e s s e n t i a l c r i t e r i o n for a
successful marriage, and many families
were not w i l l i n g to make the f i n a l
commitment to the marriage by having i t
registered u n t i l they were f a i r l y certain
that i t would be productive.
Any lag i n recording deaths i s less of a
problem, partly because there were fewer
reasons for a family to delay having a
death registered. Furthermore,
authorization for the crematory to do i t s
job i s not issued by the local government
office u n t i l twenty-four hours after the
death i s r e g i s t e r e d . Therefore, the
family normally notifies the city office
as quickly as possible so that there w i l l
be no undue delay i n carrying out the
funeral. Nevertheless, on occasion
people from Mizusawa have moved out of
the town without having t h e i r koseki
changed. Sometimes this has happened to
people born more than one-hundred years
forced at some point to administratively
declare them as dead, even though no
death notice has been received.
S t a t i s t i c a l l y such cases are so few as to
be i n s i g n i f i c a n t , except for the
researcher who i s trying to account for
a l l the members of a particular family.
Once a person i s entered into the koseki
822/Brown
r o l l s , i t Is rare that he i s not followed
through u n t i l leaving the family, through
death, marriage, adoption, or some other
means.
A more serious problem with the koseki
a r i s e s when the researcher needs a
household or residence l i s t . Since the
koseki i s conceptualized as a family
register and not a household census, one
cannot determine from the koseki where
anyone may be living at the moment. Thus
the use of the koseki documents for the
study of mobility patterns must take into
account the sometimes very considerable
lag between the time an individual or
family moves and the time the change gets
recorded i n the koseki. Of course that
lag frequently r e f l e c t s a lack of
permanent commitment on the part of the
individual or the family to the move.
However, there do seem to be times when
the lag i n recording a move Is mostly the
product of inertia or procrastination on
the part of the parties involved.
Koseki can be used for a variety of
research purposes i n the study of family
history. I t can, of course, be used to
construct family genealogies. The
genealogy that emerges i s that of a stem
family, however. Thus the descendants of
the excess children who have l e f t the
family i n marriage, adoption, or by
establishing new branch families cannot
be known unless their new koseki i s also
examined. Since many excess children
l e f t the area, t h i s can be a time-
consuming effort.
Likewise, the earlier history of one who
joins a koseki i n marriage or adoption
cannot be known unless his o r i g i n a l
koseki i s examined. Given the migration
patterns most normally seen i n places
such as Mizusawa, however, this i s less
of a problem than tracing down those who
have l e f t . This i s due to the fact that
those who marry, or move, into Mizusawa,
most frequently ccme from the immediate
area. Those who leave more frequently go
to some distant city such as Tokyo.
The koseki can also be used to determine
c e r t a i n k i n s h i p r e l a t i o n s h i p s between
f a m i l i e s , such as main and branch
families. Mizusawa i s i n an area of
Japan i n which main and branch family
r e l a t i o n s h i p s are e s p e c i a l l y strong.
These connections between families are
socially significant for samurai as well
as for merchants and farmers, though in
the latter they are especially prominent.
Various demographic information can also
be abstracted out of the koseki. Because
the koseki system has been i n operation
for over one hundred years, a period of
most dramatic s o c i a l , c u l t u r a l , and
demographic change i n Japan, i t provides
a record of v i t a l importance. For
example, changing f e r t i l i t y and mortality
rates can be determined by using the
koseki. Indeed, perusal of a limited
sample from Mizusawa suggests that
f e r t i l i t y a c t u a l l y increased at the
beginning of the twentieth century, and,
coupled with a dramatic drop i n the
m o r t a l i t y rate i n the same period,
produced a very sharp population
explosion. This accounts for the large
number of excess children produced i n the
f i r s t h a l f of t h i s century, who had
l i t t l e recourse but to go to Tokyo and
other large c i t i e s and start their own
families there.
My own calculations on the f e r t i l i t y rate
were originally computed on the basis of
the average number of children born per
mother. However, since the t o t a l
reproductive history of those women who
marry into a family i s now known, unless
her original koseki i s also examined, i t
is then necessary to compute basic birth
rates i n terms of the total number of
births per capita, and per woman i n the
reproductive ages, i n the total sample
population. To do t h i s the base
population living i n the sample families
at the designated time had to be
determined. This was not an easy task,
since the koseki i s a running or
continuous record, being kept current by
additions and deletions but now showing
e x p l i c i t l y who belongs to the family at
any one time, as would be the case with
an annual household census. Never-
theless, i t i s possible to draw such
information out of the koseki by paying
822/Brown
attention to when people enter or leave
the sample. Nevertheless, without a
computer i t can be a time-consuming
procedure.
By going through the koseki records and
isolating those people who belong to the
sample families at designated intervals
during the past century, i t i s possible
to identify changes i n family composition
in the Mizusawa families since 1872. I t
i s this procedure that pointed out the
fact that among those families who have
continued for the entire history of the
koseki system, since 1872, the frequency
of households having three or more
generations l i v i n g together at the same
time has actually increased. This fact
can be explained i n terms of the greater
longevity for the contemporary parents
and grandparents than was the case i n the
previous century. I t also brings into
question the assumption that the nuclear
family i s the emergent pattern i n urban
Japan.
Koseki can also be used to examine
mobility and migration patterns, though
here the lag between the time of the
actual move and i t s recording i n the
koseki can be a problem. However, i t was
the examination of the koseki that
revealed the unidirectional aspects of
mobility i n Mizusawa. Excess children
either marry into other Mizusawa families
or leave the region altogether for some
large metropolitan area. Families who
move from Mizusawa predominantly leave
the prefecture. People who marry into
Mizusawa families, on the other hand,
predominantly come from other Mizusawa
families or at most from the immediate
surrounding areas. Likewise, families
that move into Mizusawa ccme from nearby
communities, and rarely come from outside
the prefecture.
Because of the large quantity of
information given i n the koseki even for
my small samples (about seventy families
from each of the farm, merchant, and
former samurai communities), the data
were coded and typed onto computer tape.
Computer processing allows for extensive
use of the data for different kinds of
9
analytical tests, without going through
the data by hand each time a different
analysis i s attempted.
George Collier of Stanford University and
others have developed computer programs
that will graphically represent
genealogies from the kinds of information
that the koseki yields. Also programs
developed by P h i l i p S. S i d e l at the
University of Pittsburgh and Vicky Ho of
the Population Institute of the East-West
Center are now available i n which the
computer can identify the membership of
each family i n the sample at any one
moment i n time. These programs instruct
the computer to search the koseki f i l e
f o r entry and e x i t dates f o r each
individual so that only those people who
were family members on the designated
date were counted. I t i s this family
reconstruction program that identified
some of the structural changes that have
occurred i n the Mizusawa families since
pill
One note of caution i s necessary,
however, with respect to entering koseki
data into the computer. Special pre-
cautions must be taken, given the pos-
s i b i l i t y of others gaining access to the
computer f i l e s , that the confidentiality
of the subjects i s rigorously protected.
Koseki records are maintained by the
l o c a l government, e.g., the v i l l a g e ,
town, c i t y , or ward o f f i c e . It is
increasingly d i f f i c u l t to get access to
the koseki, even for research, for very
good reasons. The koseki contain a
wealth of information, much of which i s
of a p r i v a t e or c o n f i d e n t i a l nature.
Divorce, for example, though remarkably
rare i n Japan, i s a problem that i s not
openly revealed. Furthermore, marriage
detectives i n the past were occasionally
hired to investigate the background or
genealogy of prospective candidates
before an arranged marriage was
concluded. Frequently they used the
koseki records, sometimes to the
detriment of the subject i n t h e i r
i n v e s t i g a t i o n s . Therefore, the l o c a l
governments are now n e c e s s a r i l y being
very c a r e f u l about g i v i n g nonfamily
822/Brown
members access to the koseki records,
even for bona fide research.
Furthermore, i n the past decade a
movement by various minority groups i n
Japan has resulted i n the impounding of
a l l the early koseki by the Ministry of
Justice. The original koseki, started i n
1872 i n Mizusawa, contain a notation on
the social class of the family. The
c l a s s i f i c a t i o n used at that time was a
remnant of the Confucian ideology
followed i n feudal Japan. Samurai were
at the top, followed i n order by farmers,
artisans, merchants, and outcasts. This
system of s o c i a l d i s c r i m i n a t i o n was
divested of legal standing early i n the
M e i j i Period, but culturally i t s t i l l has
meaning today. This i s not suprising for
a society where family history has such
importance. Therefore, the descendant of
a former samurai, for example, can gain
some social benefits by being able to
document with the koseki the honorable-
ness of his ancestral l i n e . In fact, I
have had a samurai descendant hand me a
xerox copy of his complete family koseki.
Conversely, descendants of the outcasts
suffer socially when the nature of their
ancestry i s known. Therefore, by law,
the Ministry of Justice has locked up the
early koseki, those covering the years
from the inception of the system u n t i l
about 1886. Following 1887 such
notations concerning social class were
discontinued. Consequently, the later
koseki are p o l i t i c a l l y less sensitive and
thus are s t i l l under the control of the
local governments. However, even the
local government o f f i c i a l s do not have
access to the older koseki, and they are
not now available for research.
Given the detailed information that i s
available i n the koseki, i t i s proper and
important for the government to carefully
control access to them, and especially to
protect the identity of minority groups.
Japan has moved wisely i n these matters.
However, these recent developments do
make family h i s t o r y research more
d i f f i c u l t i n Japan now, and some c r i t i c a l
information, such as the household
composition data i n the original 1872
10
koseki, i s not l i k e l y to be found
duplicated i n any other documents.
There are a number of other sources of
information that are available that can
be used for family history research, but
none i s as detailed as the koseki. Many
of them were similarly compiled with a
stem family ideology i n mind, so they do
not contain detailed information about
people who are ancillary to the important
project of the family i n keeping the line
going. For example, excess children are
frequently not mentioned i n some of the
p r i v a t e genealogies held by samurai
descendants and others, because they were
irrelevant with respect to sustaining a
continuing line of succession from one
generation to the next.
B. Household Census (jumin-hyo).
Each ward headman keeps a l i s t of a l l the
households and their inhabitants i n his
ward. A ward i n Mizusawa normally has
about 150 households. The original copy
of this record, which i s kept up-to-date,
is held at the city office, and i s used
for tax and voting purposes. The sex,
birthdate, and the relationship of each
household member to the household head i s
recorded. For those who have moved into
the ward during the past several decades,
their address of origin i s also given, as
i s the location of their family koseki.
When a person leaves the household, his
or her name i s crossed out with a note
giving their new address. Consequently,
recent migration patterns can be
identified.
The household census i s intended to be a
current record only. I t Is not concerned
with past conditions. Therefore,
although some earlier information can be
r e t r i e v e d from the records of those
crossed o f f , the record i s not
deliberately preserved and w i l l be lost
when the entire sheet has been crossed
off, and replaced by a new card for the
family. This household r e g i s t r a t i o n
system was i n i t i a t e d i n 1952. I t s
Inception roughly coincided with the
changes i n the koseki from a system based
on a stem-family concept to one i n which
822/Brown
the nuclear family has become the basic
unit.
The household census information i s
useful in relating household composition
to other factors, i f they are known, such
as family history, occupation, or income.
In particular a comparison of the current
household census with that available i n
the o r i g i n a l koseki i n 1872 is
i n s t r u c t i v e i n terms of family and
household change. Since l o c a l tax
l i a b i l i t y i s based on the person's
o f f i c i a l residence, as l i s t e d i n the
household censuses, these records are
normally quite current and accurate, even
to the extent of reflecting the actual
place of residence of students away from
heme at college. For example, business
executives who are transferred to other
c i t i e s , but return home to be with their
families on the weekend, often have their
o f f i c i a l residence l i s t e d i n the other
c i t y where they earn their income. Thus
by comparing the household census with
the koseki, a very precise analyatical
distinction between household and family
can be achieved. The fact that the ward
headman monitors these l i s t s insures
their currency and accuracy, because he
is quite familiar with a l l the households
in his ward through his frequent rounds
in the ward.
C. Land Records.
The d i s t r i c t offices of the Ministry of
Justice maintain land records for the
entire area within their jurisdiction.
These records are used when any land
transfers are made. They are detailed,
down to the centimeter, and are
accompanied by large-scale maps. The
records are indexed by address or l o t
location. This system of land records
was initiated i n Mizusawa i n the late
nineteenth century. Each record includes
information on the lot size, location,
and person holding the t i t l e to that
piece of land.
Since these records are assembled by
address, rather than by date of
transaction, i t i s easy to trace the
ownership of any house or piece of land.
11
A large number of the transfers are made
by familial succession, so these records
can be used to identify some of the
ancestors of current or earlier families.
Because t i t l e to most property i s held In
the name of only the household head, the
identity of other members of the family
cannot be determined from these records.
D. L o c a l H i s t o r i e s , Gazetteers, and
Chronicles.
V i r t u a l l y every community i n Japan had
i t s own publication on i t s local culture
and history. These publications come i n
a wide variety of forms and content, some
being very scholarly and others being
more amateurish. In any case, they
usually abound with information
concerning important d i g n i t a r i e s and
office holders i n the community, past and
present. Coupled with other sources of
information they can be u s e f u l i n
reconstructing family histories.
For example, one family i n a village near
Mizusawa consistently, generation after
generation, provided the headman for the
v i l l a g e , as though i t were a hereditary
position. This custom continued for some
years, even after the position of village
mayor was transformed into an elected
office. Consequently, the names and
a c t i v i t i e s of the head of that particular
family, generation after generation, are
duly recorded i n the village chronicle.
Other o f f i c e holders are l i k e w i s e
frequently mentioned or l i s t e d . Given
the residential s t a b i l i t y found i n many
r u r a l v i l l a g e s , we can determine the
intergenerational connections for some of
these office-holding families.
This line of research can be pursued back
into the Tokugawa period for merchants
and samurai, but becomes very d i f f i c u l t
for farmers. Commoners were not allowed
to have, or use, family names during the
Tokugawa Period. Therefore, i n the rural
villages, intergenerational connections
are not evident for those office holders
for whom only personal names are given,
unless house names (yago) are also used
in the local chronicle. Samurai, on the
other hand, were allowed to have and use
family names. Merchants, though
classified as commoners, systematically
used their house or shop names, and thus
the prohibition against using a family
name had l i t t l e effect on them.
Consequently, family identification of
office holders and others appearing i n
these local publications i s easier for
samurai and merchants during the Tokugawa
Period than for farmers.
E. Temple Records.
Buddhist temples are the institutions i n
Mizusawa that most frequently perform
funerals and memorial services.
Therefore, a survey of t h e i r death
registers (kako-cho), i f they have not
been destroyed by one of the frequent
f i r e s that seem to plague temples, can be
used to reconstruct family h i s t o r i e s .
The ancestors of the member families can
be identified by the registers of the
funerals and memorial services performed
for them at the temple.
There seems to be no social class or
residential basis for a family belonging
to one temple as against another, at
least i n Mizusawa. Thus, samurai and
commoner f a m i l i e s are represented
together i n a l l the larger Mizusawa
temples. However, few families change
membership, once they start out with a
particular temple. One exception to this
rule i s the family of the castle lord,
who had different ancestors buried at
different temples. Virtually a l l of the
major temples i n the town have at least
one tomb for someone from the castle
lord's family.
The d i f f i c u l t y i n using the temple
registers for family history research Is
that they are organized by funeral or
death dates rather than by f a m i l i e s .
This i s convenient for the temple priest
who must know on what days what memorial
services should be scheduled, but i t
means that the researcher Interested i n
tracing back the history of a particular
family must read through long l i s t s of
names and dates i n searching for the
v i t a l s t a t i s t i c s of the p a r t i c u l a r
families i n question.
F. Samurai Register.
Because having a samurai ancestor brings
some prestige to the contemporary
descendants of the warrior c l a s s i n
Mizusawa, an association of these former
retainers of the castle lord has been
organized. This association meets at
l e a s t once a year, and I t sponsors
various events of c i v i c interest. The
members keep track, as much as possible,
of a l l the descendants of the
approximately 800 retainers the castle
lord had at the end of his reign i n the
mid-nineteenth century. Given the stem
family ideology that i s so prominent i n
Mizusawa, the association i s interested
primarily i n the l i n e a l descendants of
those samurai retainers. Consequently,
l i t t l e i s known of t h e i r spouses,
siblings, and the excess children and
their descendants. But the household
heads of those retainer f a m i l i e s ,
identified from generation to generation
to the present time i f they are s t i l l i n
town, have been researched by several of
the members of the association. A f a i r l y
complete l i s t has now been compiled. No
such l i s t was discovered f o r the
merchants, probably f o r the obvious
reason that documenting the details of
t h e i r ancestry i s less important to
merchants.
G. Family Documents and Ancestral
Symbols.
Many of the samurai f a m i l i e s have
researched their own ancestry, and have
w r i t t e n t h e i r family genealogies.
Frequently these genealogies show only
the succession of household heads through
the generations, but some of the more
detailed ones i n addition show ancillary
family members, such as s i b l i n g s and
spouses. I f an excess c h i l d has
extablished a branch family nearby at
some time i n the past, that connection
may appear i n the genealogy.
One of the basic sources used by the
townspeople i n researching t h e i r own
family histories i s the mortuary tablets
(ihai) i n the family altar. Normally a
mortuary tablet i s kept for anyone who
822/Brown
dies while a family member. The tablet
i s prepared for each individual at their
death by the temple priest. On one side
he writes the name of the person, birth
date, age at death, and frequently their
relationship to the household head. On
the other side the priest writes the
posthumous name he has bestowed upon
them. These names are ranked, and much
can be learned about the status of the
person through the l e v e l of the
posthumous name they have received from
the priest. Aside from age and sex
d i f f e r e n c e s , the posthumous name i s
supposedly a reflection of the religious
merit of the person. In actual fact, to
most people i n Mizusawa, this means how
much money have they contributed to the
temple. Consequently, some indication of
the r e l a t i v e economic and p o l i t i c a l
standing of a family i n the past can be
inferred by the posthumous names their
ancestors have earned.
By noting whose mortuary tablet i s i n the
family a l t a r one can get a f a i r l y
complete idea of who the ancestors and
other predecessors were who died while a
member of the family. But some
discrepancies do occur. For example, a
c h i l d who dies while very young may
receive only a family funeral, and no
permanent mortuary t a b l e t . Since
individual tablets can be removed from
the family a l t a r , some tablets may be
missing because they were taken by a
favorite aunt, or daughter, or set adrift
i n the Kitakami River during the
midsummer A l l Souls Day f e s t i v a l . In
Mizusawa such discrepancies are rare, but
they can occur.
Tombstones are another source of
information on a l l those people who died
while members of the family. Many
Mizusawa residents have surveyed the
names and connections of those entombed
i n the family plot at the temple
cemetery. For most families there i s a
single headstone for the entire family,
rather than a separate stone for each
ancestor, again reflecting the strength
of the stem family ideology. Each
ancestor i s individually symbolized by
having his name engraved on the side of
13
the family tombstone. Individual wooden
markers are also erected at the time of
the funeral, but they stand for only
about twenty-five years.
Most families keep detailed guest l i s t s
for a l l their funerals, memorial
services, weddings, and other ceremonies,
and by perusing these the researcher can
identify the head of those families with
whom i n t e r a c t i o n and exchanges are
sustained. In the f a i r l y closed farmer
and merchant communities, there i s
considerable overlap i n these l i s t s from
house to house, but the former samurai
turned salarymen have a broader social
f i e l d that i s less constrained by
neighborhood t i e s . These l i s t s are kept
for many generations, and give
considerable information about the family
holding the ceremonies as well as about
t h e i r neighbors, r e l a t i v e s , and other
associates.
There are other occasional and ad hoc
documents, such as a map showing each
household i n the town of Mizusawa at the
time the train station was b u i l t at the
end of the nineteenth century, or a l i s t
of a l l the households i n the town where
part of the Emperor's entourage stayed
when he visited Mizusawa i n 1876 and
1881. These are u s e f u l i n knowing
whether a family was present at those
times and who the household head was, but
they give no indication of who the other
members of the families might have been.
IV. Conclusions.
The stem family ideology and the social
s i g n i f i c a n c e and value given to long
family h i s t o r i e s have resulted i n an
abundance of r i c h sources f o r doing
family history research i n Japan. The
koseki family registers are remarkably
d e t a i l e d and r e l i a b l e , and t h e i r
continuous history since 1872 makes them
p a r t i c u l a r l y u s e f u l f o r genealogical
research and the study of change i n the
Japanese family. Other public documents,
such as land records, temple registers,
and household censuses, coupled with
memorial tablets, tombstones, genealogies
and other sources held by private
f a m i l i e s , o f f e r supplemental m a t e r i a l
that can be most useful i n f i l l i n g in or
deepening the h i s t o r i c a l picture of the
families under study.
These materials, used i n the study of
f a m i l y h i s t o r y among samurai and
merchants i n the town of Mizusawa i n
northeastern Japan have revealed some
interesting facts about changing family
patterns i n that urban area in the past
one hundred years:
A. There i s much greater residential
s t a b i l i t y of families from generation to
generation than the usual theories of
modernization and urbanization have
suggested. More than one-fourth of the
former samurai families l i v i n g there i n
1872 are s t i l l there i n the same
neighborhood today. Merchant families
show even greater s t a b i l i t y and family
c o n t i n u i t y , with more than one-third
continuing v i r t u a l l y unchanged throughout
the same period. The fact that there i s
a larger family estate with the
merchants, a family shop and a shop name,
accounts f o r the higher r e s i d e n t i a l
s t a b i l i t y among the merchants than among
the salarymen descendants of the former
samurai. Both populations feel that the
stem family i s natural and proper and
that a long family history i s something
to be valued and protected. The ultimate
basis f o r t h i s i s both economic and
religious. For example, i t frequently i s
to the economic advantage of one of the
children in each generation to forgo an
independent career and l i f e in the big
c i t y i n order to i n h e r i t the f a m i l y
estate from the parents. Furthermore
ancestors are dependent upon t h e i r
descendants for their well-being in the
after-life. Their descendants i n the
generation, performing f a i t h f u l l y their
obligations to the ancestors, socialize
the next generation into thinking that
such obligations should be f u l f i l l e d for
their ancestors.
B. Those families that have continued
unbroken for this past century more often
than not have households that include
members spanning at least three
generations, calling into question that
theory that the three-generation stem
family household is on the way out i n
modern, urban Japan. Looking at only
those f a m i l i e s that continue without
break over the entire century, we see
that the percentage of three-generation
households has actually increased since
the nineteenth century. The average size
of the household f o r merchants has
remained constant at about 4.5 members
per household.
C. The population explosion that Japan
has experienced since the end of the
Tokugawa Period has produced a large
number of excess children who, because
they had no opportunity to succeed their
fathers i n the natal home and business,
l e f t for the large c i t i e s . This accounts
for the greater frequencies of small,
nuclear one- and two-generation
households i n metropolitan areas such as
Tokyo. Further study i s required to
determine whether these differences i n
average family size and composition i n
provincial areas, as compared with the
large c i t i e s , reflect actual attitudinal
and cultural differences with respect to
the f a m i l y , or whether they are an
inevitable, and temporary, effect of the
u n i d i r e c t i o n a l aspects of i n t e r n a l
migration i n Japan. The data from the
Mizusawa end of the migration path
suggests that the traditional stem family
ideology i s strong and healthy there.
822/Brown 15

NOTES

See Hayao Shimizu, "The Evolving Japanese Family: Responsibilities i n

Japanese-style Welfare Society," Look Japan, v o l . 26, no. 289 10 A p r i l 1980: p. 5.
2
For a detailed discussion i n Japanese of the koseki system, with some
comparative material from other societies, see Nihon Koseki no Tokushitsu (Tokyo:
Teikoku Hanrei Hoki Shuppansha, 1972).
3
For a very impressive study using these shumon aratame-cho, see Thomas C.
Smith, Nakahara: Family Farming and Population i n a Japanese Village, 1717-1830 (Stan-
ford: Stanford University Press, 1977).
4
For a scholarly and thorough discussion of the mortuary tablets and other
aspects of ancestor worship i n Japan see Robert J . Smith, Ancestor Worship i n
Contemporary Japan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974).
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Chinese Clan
Genealogies
and Family Histori
Panel
James W. Hayes (Mod.),
Shih-ch'ing Wang,
Tien-Wai Lin
Series 824
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 CHINESE CLAN GENEALOGIES AND FAMILY HISTORIES:
HISTORIOGRAPHY OF CHINESE CLAN GENEALOGIES—TAIWAN
1
Shih-ch ing Wang
Born i n Taiwan. Resides i n Taipei, Taiwan.
Historical Studies, Association for Asian Studies. Author, historian.
I. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE COMPILATION OF
TAIWAN CLAN GENEALOGIES
Excluding the minority of aborigines i n
mountains ( jfHUJÍ^ ) and aborigines i n
plains ( ^píSí^ )» the majority of the
current residents of Taiwan are of the
Chinese Han race. The population of
Taiwan today t o t a l s approximately
17,000,000, including the population of
aborigines i n mountains of around
150,000. Aborigines i n plains for the
most part have undergone a high degree of
sinicization, and i t i s sometimes hard to
d i s t i n g u i s h them from the Han race.
Around 1949 some Manehus, Mongols, and
Tibetans moved to Taiwan, but they do not
constitute a major portion of the current
population. The genealogies mentioned i n
this essay w i l l be limited to those of
the Han race.
Han immigration from mainland China to
Taiwan began as early as the 1570s and
was conducted on a large scale during the
years from 1730 to 1795. When these
immigrants l e f t for Taiwan, they often
brought with them t h e i r f a m i l i e s '
genealogies.
Two of the earliest such genealogies were
the genealogy of the Shi clan of Xun-hai
( W B M & W i B )» written i n the year 1715,
and the genealogy of the Yi-second-branch
of the Wu clan ( S f t i r f S i ),
written i n 1730. Some of those who did
not bring genealogies with them, upon
enjoying a period of p r o s p e r i t y i n
Taiwan, would return to their homeland i n
mainland China to bring the transcripts
of such genealogies to their new home.
Taking tlie action of the Zheng clan of
Wu-jiang O ^ i l i P f t ) as an example, we
can see the extent of e f f o r t and
Researcher, Committee for Taiwan
importance placed on such genealogies.
Before the said Zheng clan compiled their
genealogy i n Taiwan i n the year 1818,
they sent a clan member to their place of
origin to make a transcript of previous
e d i t i o n s of t h e i r genealogies. This
system of genealogical compilation was
popular i n Taiwan and manifested a degree
of prestige and influence for those who
could afford to carry i t out, as the
expense of traveling between Taiwan and
China was significant. In some cases
genealogies were compiled by clans i n
Taiwan that only traced their ancestors
to the ones who f i r s t moved to Taiwan,
such as the .family genealogy of Lai Ren-
j i of J i a - y i ( Üttllt:Elets ), compiled
i n 1883, and the genealogy of the L i clan
of Xi-luo ( E
The clan genealogies surveyed on Taiwan
by the Genealogical Society of Utah total
1,218, 117 of which were compiled during
the Ching dynasty (1689-1895). These
genealogies were mostly handwritten,
although there were some woodprinted
editions which appeared towards the close
of the Ching dynasty.
In 1896 Taiwan was ceded by treaty from
China to Japan after the Chinese defeat
in the Sino-Japanese War, and the island
was then under Japanese j u r i s d i c t i o n .
A f t e r t h i s date clan members s t i l l
returned to the mainland, often when a
clan endeavored to complete genealogical
compilations. Some clans who had not
sent clan members back to gather such
information during the Ching era did so
after 1896. The Wang clan of San Huai
Hall of J i n - j i a n g of Quan-Zhou
( MiH-liSfllHlSl^ïg; ) moved to Taiwan i n
the 1860s and sent clan members back to
t h e i r homeland i n 1922. There they
Wang/824A
transcribed seven genealogies. The Xu
clan of Yu-du of An-xi ( ^§||>tf|5fi ft )
made a new edition of their genealogy on
the mainland in 1928 and sent messengers
to t e l l t h e i r clansmen i n Taiwan to
return to the mainland to compile the
genealogy together, a f t e r which they
completed the genealogy of the Xu clan of
Yu-du ( mmfr&mm).
Generally speaking, the t r a d i t i o n of
compiling genealogies remained popular,
and clan members i n mainland China and
Taiwan s t i l l kept i n contact during the
Japanese period (1896-1945). Of the
1,218 genealogies surveyed by the
Genealogical Society of JJtah, 240 were
produced during this era.
Immediately after the end of the war i n
1945, residents of Taiwan were pre-
occupied with r e s t o r a t i o n , and l i t t l e
effort was put Into the compilation of
genealogies. A f t e r the n a t i o n a l
government moved to Taiwan i n 1949,
genealogical compilation regained
prevalence with the prosperity of the
society and the establishment of clan
associations ( ^?|&# ). From this time
genealogies were produced by members
selected from the same c l a n i n
t r a d i t i o n a l ways: by committees of
genealogical compilation i n i t i a t e d by
clan associations of the same surname or
by professional genealogical compilers
and publishing companies. Some of those
who moved from the mainland to Taiwan
with the n a t i o n a l government i n 1949
brought with them their genealogies^ or
compiled their genealogies i n Taiwan.
Most of the publishing companies who
provided genealogical service are located
in the d i s t r i c t s of Taichung. The New
Far Eastern Publishing Company
(fiiSJKÖIKifc). initiated i n 1957, i s the
f i r s t and most famous of these and had
published twenty-one genealogies by 1976.
These publishing companies and compilers
have published more than 100 genealogies.
In these genealogies the companies have
expanded their coverage to include a l l
members of a certain surname on the whole
island, sometimes including clansmen who
moved to Taiwan from other provinces
a f t e r 1945. These d i f f e r from the
t r a d i t i o n a l genealogies, which only
compiled the data of the elder branch or
the younger branch of the same clan.
Subsequently, New Far Eastern Publishing
Company changed i t s d i r e c t i o n i n
genealogical compilation and produced the
genealogy of the elder branch ( ýz'm ) o r
the younger branch ( / J ^ ) of a certain
clan at a restricted d i s t r i c t .
Of 1,218 genealogies surveyed by the
Genealogical Society of Utah, 855 were
produced after 1945. Most of them were
printed on lead plates ^while a
smaller
number were handwritten.
II. THE METHODS OF GENEALOGICAL COMPI-
LATION AND THE RITUAL OF JIAN-ZU-
ZHU-BU
1. The Methods of Genealogical Compila-
tion
There i s no set time for a clan to
reproduce a new e d i t i o n of t h e i r
genealogy. For example, the genealogy of
the Lin clan of Wu-quan ( S ^ # f t ^ i t )
states that i t i s proper for the clan Jo
produce a new edition every ten years.
The rule of the genealogy of the Jiang
clan of Wu-ling ( ^SK^Fft^ü ) states
that from the middle age of the Ming
dynasty (ca. 1500) to the early Ching
dynasty (ca. 1700) the recommended time
for a clan to reproduce a new edition was
every thirty years, and tha^ the majority
of clans adhered to this. In Taiwan,
most genealogies are reproduced every
thirty to sixty years.
The editions of genealogical compilations
have undergone changes along with the
development of society. These changes
are explained i n the f i r s t chapter of
each edition. Chang Gu-yun, a scholar of
history and geography, holds the view
that the compilation of genealogies
should be conducted by historians and not
private publishing companies.
The general form of Taiwan genealogies
follows the one of Fukien or Kwangtung,
being p r i m a r i l y based on the Ou-Su's
Wang/824A

genealogical r u l e s ( R f j c i f f ö ) , or those categories o f the c o n t e n t of the

by Ou Yang X i u ( R k f ë g ) and Su Shi genealogy. I t forms such an important
( fficfå ) . The modern genealogies of part of the genealogy that i t cannot be
Taiwan don't obey the Ou-Su's omitted. The categories of the content
genealogical r u l e s thoroughly and have are d i f f e r e n t w i t h each g e n e a l o g y ,
made some r e v i s i o n s of them. according to the s i m p l i c i t y or complexity
of the genealogy.
The c o n t e n t s o f Taiwanese g e n e a l o g i e s
f a l l into numerous c a t e g o r i e s . We can (5) Zi-hang ( ^ f j )
b r i e f l y c l a s s i f y them as f o l l o w s :
Zi-hang i s the f i r s t character of one's
(1) Pictures personal name and v a r i e s with each
generation. From the Zi-hang, one can
In the f i r s t or middle volume of a discern which generation he belongs to.
genealogy, there are often pictures of Because the Taiwanese emphasize the
ancestral h a l l s , a n c e s t r a l houses, d i f f e r e n c e i n s e n i o r i t y among the
ancestral graveyards, the funeral rites generations i n their clan, there i s a
of ancestors, and the original tree of proverb saying, "To comment on a person
the lineage ( T^^TKÍSH )' Their aim i s according to generation, not age." I t i s
to glorify the prestige of the clan and said that the Zi-hang system was
to mold the descendants' character. initiated i n the 1270s. The Zi-hang
Before 1896 the pictures were drawn by comprises 20 or 40 or even 100
hand and after that year were mostly characters. One character represents one
photographed. generation. Before the characters of one
Zi-hang are completely used up, the new
(2) Preface ( f t ) Zi-hang w i l l be drawn up and w i l l not
adopt the same characters as previous
The p r e f a c e e x p l a i n s the meaning, Zi-hang. Today the Zi-hang s t i l l exists
purpose, and p r o c e s s o f g e n e a l o g i c a l in genealogies, but i t i s rarely adopted.
compilation. Some o f the p r e f a c e s
describe the whole story of the c l a n , the (6) Ancestry ( £§f|)
union and d i v i s i o n of the clan,
migration, ancestral h a l l s , and the c l a n The ancestry portion records both the
estates for worshiping ancestors ancestral homes of previous clansmen on
( ISffi&H )• For these reasons the the mainland and the places of residence
preface plays an important r o l e i n the after their a r r i v a l i n Taiwan. Some
genealogy. I t was always w r i t t e n by the genealogies also draw the routes f £ r m

chief editor or a famous scholar or by Taiwan to their home i n the mainland.

an i n - l a w . Sources f o r the prefaces are One reason for this practice i s that
books r e l a t i n g to genealogy, the prefaces ancestral graveyards and ancestral halls
of previous e d i t i o n s of the genealogies, of Taiwan migrants were i n mainland
e t c . The preface also gives the h i s t o r y China. Some clans also sent t h e i r
of the compilation of the genealogy. members to the mainland to worship their
ancestors and to repair the ancestral
(3) Clan Origins ( j g ^ i f ) graveyards, up to the year 1949. A
second reason was that a dead Taiwanese
C l a n o r i g i n s examine the o r i g i n s , soul i n the funeral rites of Gong De Chao
d i v i s i o n s , and migrations of the c l a n . Du ( ÏÖftféiJi: ) was believed to be guided
Their sources are mostly h i s t o r y books to meet his ancestor's soul according j:cp
and previous genealogies. the ancestry recorded i n the genealogy.
U n t i l 1945 Taiwanese s t i l l taught their
(4) Introduction (/L#tj) descendants to r e c i t e t h e i r mainland
ancestry. In addition, a h a l l t i t l e
The i n t r o d u c t i o n s t a t e s the r u l e s o f ( ) and a lantern t i t l e ) were
genealogical compilation and the recorded.
Wang/824A
The h a l l t i t l e i s the name written on the
l i n t e l of the h a l l , and i t i s taken from
the name of the prefecture (gg ) of one
surname's place of origin or from the
name of one place where the clan i s most
famous. For example, the Ying-Chuan Hall
(SIJII^) of the Chen clan was named after
Ying-Chuan Prefecture of Honan Province
( M^SJIIHK )> where one of the ancestors
of the Chen clan prospered. When some
branches of a c l a n b u i l t t h e i r own,
independent h a l l s , they chose their own
h a l l t i t l e s , selecting propitious words.
For example, after rising i n business,
the An-tai branch of the L i n clan of
i t s
Da-ping ( *i?#ft^SM'tft ) buüt
family h a l l and gave i t a name, "An-tai
Hall" ( 'ic#1£ )• An means peaceful and
Tai means exalted. A lantern t i t l e i s
the words written on the big lanterns
( ift^T ) used on important occasions,
especially i n the r i t u a l s of marriage and
death. The t i t l e i s taken from the
history of the clan. For example, the
l a n t e r n t i t l e "Kai-Min Wang Clan"
s a s
( §iSïft ) Y that the Wang clan are
the descendants of Wang Shen-chao
W a n
( )» 8 Shen-bang ( ^|p||$ ), and
Wang Shen-zhi ( I|p£n )» who opened
Fukien ( Jfj ) at the end of the Tang
dynasty (ca. A.D. 900).
(7) Titles and Recognition ( ) l i n k e d v e r t i c a l l y , and brothers are
This portion of the genealogy records
o f f i c i a l t i t l e s awarded to subjects by
the government and the honorable tablets
awarded by the o f f i c i a l s . This category
was always included i n the f i r s t part of
the genealogy to express thanks to the
emperors and to g l o r i f y the v i r t u o u s
deeds of their ancestors.
(8) Ancestral Halls or Ancestor Worship
( mmmz)
This section records matters relating to
worship of the ancestor, which was so
significant i n Chinese social l i f e . Most
genealogies have t h i s category. The
sources of this section are the ancestral
h a l l s , the i d e n t i f i c a t i o n s of c l a n
estates f o r ancestor worship, the
previous genealogies, and other documents
relating to worship.
4
(9) Family Regulations ( )
There are two purposes i n compiling this
category. One i s to persuade the young
members of a clan to be good; the other
i s to carry forward the virtues of the
ancestors. The family regulations are
made by the head of a clan and by the
standards of society. So with these
records we may f u r t h e r understand
different customs i n various periods of
time.
(10) The Biographies of the Famous
Clansmen ( ££fg )
o v m
Those who have done special deeds have
their biographies i n this category as
good examples for members of the clan.
The sources of this category are the
recorded documents of one's a c t i v i t i e s or
history books.
(11) The Lineage Table ( j f r ^ g )
The lineage table of genealogy was
i n i t i a t e d by Ou Yang Xiu and Su Shi i n
the years of the Sung dynasty (ca. A.D.
1050). From the table one can know the
heritage of his clan and discover which
generation of the clan he belongs to. In
the table, the different generations are
l i s t e d on the same row. In the old
s t y l e , members of approximately f i v e
generations were listed on a page. This
has been changed and now members of ten
or twenty generations are listed on the
same page of genealogy. The daughters
were not listed i n previous genealogies,
but some genealogiejs have recorded
daughters since 1945.
(12) Shi-lu ( ü i f )
The S h i - l u of genealogy records the short
h i s t o r y of the clansman. Regardless of
the simplicity or c o m p l e x i t y of a
genealogy, t h i s i s a necessary part and
cannot be omitted. Some genealogies have
o n l y the S h i - l u w i t h o u t any o t h e r
records.
The contents of a S h i - l u may be divided
i n t o three s e c t i o n s . The f i r s t one
Wang/824A
gives a man's posthumous and o f f i c i a l
t i t l e s , dates of b i r t h and death,
graveyard location, age, and a c t i v i t i e s
in l i f e . Following comes his wife's
dates of birth and death, good deeds,
graveyard location, and age. The last
section records the number of children
and names of those t h e i r daughters
married. In short, the Shi-lu's purpose
i s to relate the ancestor's history.
The source of one's date of birth i s
collected from the "Pa-Zi" ( ),
"Sheng-shi-bu" ( £Bfff ), and "the Pa-Zi
of Marriage" ( ^ g ^ - ^ f A ^ )• Pa-Zi are
eight characters that express^the year,
month, day, and hour of birth. Because
the Taiwanese believe that one's Pa-Zi
can influence his fate, they record i t i n
order to know their fortune.
Sheng-shi-bu i s prepared by some clans
for recording the date of the newborn
children. In old times when a baby boy
was born, his parents brought offerings
to worship ancestors at the ancestral
halls and registered the baby's name and
date of birth on Sheng-shi-bu. After
1945 the source has been the household
registration book ( p a ^ W - )> which
records the birth date of each person.
For the date of an ancestor's death, one
may examine the a n c e s t r a l tablet
( ffiïW ), the tomb pjate ( MW ),
Gong-de-bang ( ), and the death
certificate.
(13) Annals ( gg )
The annals of genealogy comprise the more
important facts that relate to the clan,
such as the table of those who passed
c i v i l examinations, the table of those
who served as o f f i c i a l s , etc.
(14) Literature ( g £ )
Literature includes famous writings or
precious documents of the family. For
example, the genealogy of the Zheng clan
of Wu-jiang includes an anthology of the
w r i t i n g s of famous ancestors. The
genealogy of the Chen clan of Ying-Chuan
Hall records precious documents such as
the records of family p a r t i t i o n and
5
correspondence with their clansmen on the
mainland.
Most l i t e r a t u r e i n genealogy i s from
sources preserved by the clansmen, while
a small part i s c o l l e c t e d from the
general anthologies.
(15) Clan Directories ( S 8 E f i ^££ )
Taiwan has been transformed from an
agrarian state to an industrial society.
Social mobility has increased so much
that clansmen have spread a l l over the
island. In order to correspond with each
other, most genealogies 2^ncluded a
section of clan directories.
2. The Rules of Genealogical Compilation
Many rules must be obeyed i n producing
genealogies, especially for the writing
of the lineage table and Shi-lu. The
r u l e s d i f f e r f o r each genealogy and
change with societal development, yet we
can enumerate them generally as follows:
(1) Registration ( gW^l^O
The age at which a person was registered
i n the genealogy v a r i e d from one
genealogy to another. The Zhao clan of
Yan-Shui (^TKfêtt ) registered a
baby boy i n the lineage table when he
received a name and i n the Shi-lu at
marriage.
(2) Branch ( ^ )
The branch indicates seniority i n a clan.
In the Ching dynasty the Taiwan branch of
a clan took i t s clan on the mainland as
the head clan and added i t s ancestry
before the surname i n the clan genealogy.
The branch of genealogy was arranged i n
order of seniority. The f i r s t member of
a clan to migrate to another place would
record the place-name under his name i n
the lineage table.
(3) Heir ( i H )
Chinese people traditionally placed much
importance on ancestor worship
succession. Therefore, much attention
Wang/824A
and importance i s placed on the male heir
of a clan. In a genealogy, the number of
sons must be recorded under the father's
name. If one has no son, he might adopt
a son as his heir, or else the word Zhi
( lh ) meaning "no heir" w i l l appear under
his name.
(4) The Adopted Son ( ) when she has sons.
The traditional genealogies often state
that adopting a son of a d i f f e r e n t
surname as the heir i s not allowed. But
this regulation has been changed, owing
to social development. In some cases the
adoption of sons of different surnames
has been permitted.
(5) The Illegitimate Child
In earlier times, an illegitimate child
was regarded as a disgrace to one's
family, but because of the blood
relationship the illegitimate child was
recorded i n supplementary copies of the
genealogy ( fftft ). I f the real father
was i d e n t i f i e d , the c h i l d could be
recorded i n the genealogy with the status
of the son of a concubine; i f he lived
with his mother, he would be recorded i n
the genealogy of his mother's family.
(6) Daughter
As a r e s u l t of Chinese thought that
valued sons over daughters, some
traditional genealogies did not record
the daughters. Some only recorded the
names of the daughters and who they
married. Modern genealogies record the
names of the daughters i n order of age, Genealogies are relevant to the honor and
after the sons, with the date of each
daughter's birth and a short history of
her l i f e before her marriage.
(7) Yu-shang ( ) r e s i d e n t s f r o m d i s o r d e r s , o r showed
Children who met death before the age of
eight were recorded as Yu-shang. Some
genealogies record the Yu-shang and some
don't. I f a child reached the age of
eight, he was listed i n the lineage table
but not i n Shi-lu.
6
(8) Wife and Concubine
In traditional genealogies the wife and
the concubine were not recorded i n the
lineage t a b l e . The former i s only
mentioned i n the Shi-lu of her husband
with her surname, father's name, or her
good deeds. The latter i s recorded only
(9) Second Marriages and Abandoned Wives
Genealogies d i f f e r when i t comes to
recording the wife or concubine who
remarried. Most traditional genealogies
did not record the woman who remarried:
an expression of the termination of
relations with her. The new genealogies
have changed this traditional way and
record the name with a designation
indicating remarriage.
(10) Zhui (J| )
Zhui means a son-in-law who took the
place of a son and lives i n his wife's
home, u s u a l l y In an h e i r l e s s family.
After his death, i f his wife remarried a
man who had the same surname and Zi-hang,
he would be recorded i n the genealogy;
otherwise he would not.
(11) Monks
Men who became monks mostly were not
recorded i n genealogies, though sometimes
gaining recognition i n the lineage t a b l e .
(12) C r i t i c i s m føgL)
dishonor of a c l a n , so good deeds were
o f t e n r e c o r d e d and bad ones o m i t t e d .
Those who passed the c i v i l examinations,
served the government, o f t e n protected
f i l i a l p i e t y would r e c e i v e s p e c i a l
recognition f o r t h e i r e f f o r t s . Those who
did g r e a t e v i l deeds would not be
recorded. Sometimes those who d i d not
obey f a m i l y regulations wotd^be recorded
w i t h a red point on the name.
I
Wang/824A
3. The R i t u a l of Jian-Zu-Zhu-Bu
<mmum )
In e a r l i e r times, a f t e r completing the
genealogical compilation, a clan would
h o l d a r i t u a l of J i a n - Z u - Z h u - B u to
i m p l o r e the a n c e s t o r s to pray f o r
happiness and to admire t h e i r virtuous
deeds. The r i t u a l d i f f e r e d i n each c l a n
according to the scale of genealogical
compilation. Some would be held i n the
ancestral h a l l s or f a m i l y h a l l s , while
others would e s t a b l i s h a l t a r s at the b i g
ancestral h a l l ( -^-^få ) to hold the
ritual. The f o l l o w i n g two examples
depict the r i t u a l i n d e t a i l . The Wangs
of Y a n - l l n g of X i - Z h o u of Ban-quiao
< &tif8S9Hjfttt3E*i ) selected a lucky day
for their r i t u a l . A t t h a t day the
members of the Wangs got together at the
family hall and supplied o f f e r i n g s to
worship t h e i r ancestors. The Chens of
Lan-yuan of Feng-xi ( H i Ü f i l S Ê l f t ) were
i n v i t e d by t h e i r clansmen i n the mainland
to take part i n the r i t u a l , which l a s t e d
four days i n 1929.
A f t e r 1945, genealogical compilation was
still p o p u l a r , but the r i t u a l of
Jian-Zu-Zhu-Bu was o f t e n omitted.
are two s p e c i f i c reasons f o r the omission
of t h i s popular r i t u a l . One i s that the
work of the genealogical compilation was
often entrusted to professional
g e n e a l o g i c a l p u b l i s h i n g companies o r
compilers, who were not members of the
clan. Another f a c t o r was that i n the
postwar p e r i o d the r e s i d e n t s o f the
i s l a n d were too p r e o c c u p i e d w i t h the
struggle f o r economic development to put
much emphasis on the c o m p i l a t i o n o f
genealogy and the r i t u a l that was held at
i t s completion.
T r a d i t i o n a l l y , a f t e r c o m p l e t i n g the
genealogical compilation,
p r e s e r v a t i o n o f the genealogy was
important. The genealogy of the Peng
c l a n Is a case i n p o i n t . The clan
genealogies were p r e s e r v e d by
appointed persons i n each branch of the
clan. The genealogy s t i p u l a t e d that i t
must be preserved i n a safe place and was
not allowed to be s o l d . Anyone who
v i o l a t e d these r e g u l a t i o n s was to be
7
punished i n the presence of the members
of the c l a n , and thy^ sold genealogies
were to be r e t r i e v e d .
III. THE APPLICATION OF CLAN GENEALOGIES
AS HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
The importance of clan genealogies as
h i s t o r i c a l documents has previously been
a s c e r t a i n e d by v a r i o u s s c h o l a r s . Lo
Hslangrlin's ( f t g f t ) The Origins of
Hakkas ( ^ and The Study of
Chinese Clan Genealogy ( <$>mWiBW$t )
and Chen Shao-shing's ( ) The
S u r n a m e , t,h& G e n e a l o g y and the C l a n
Association (j&ft « W Ê ' WBRÊ ) a l l have
s t r e s s e d the importance o f the c l a n
genealogy i n the s t u d y o f the l o c a l
h i s t o r y of Fukien, Kwangtung, and Taiwan.
Chang Qi-yun' s ( < i £ B 3 ) The New
Development of Genealogy also stresses
the importance of these genealogies.
The 1,218 clan genealogies and family
g e n e a l o g i e s surveyed i n Taiwan and
microfilmed by the Genealogical Society
of Utah i n c l u d e dates o f m i g r a t i o n ,
c u l t i v a t i o n , biographies of famous men,
dates of b i r t h s , marriages, and deaths,
There the organization of r e l i g i o u s worship,
and anthologies. These copies represent
precious data as h i s t o r i c a l documents f o r
studying local history, Taiwanese
s o c i e t y , the development o f s o c i e t y ,
population, and r e l i g i o u s worship, e t c .
These genealogies can be used i n the
f o l l o w i n g ways as h i s t o r i c a l documents:
1. Genealogies as Records of Migration
The inspection of genealogies provides
valuable, and i n many cases e x c l u s i v e ,
information concerning the movement of
the Han Chinese to Taiwan and t h e i r
the development. For example, the
genealogies of the Wang c l a n of
Y a n g - l i n g , and the Chen clan of Lan-yu of
Feng-xi and the short genealogy of the
the Gao clan of An-ping ( ^ ^ ^ f t ^ l t l f e B S )
record that t h e i r ancestors moved from
Gu-Shi Xian of Honan ( / P J F ^ H Í P ) t 0
Fukien, where they quelled disorders and
sought a refuge from f i g h t i n g . They also
r e c o r d how t h e i r a n c e s t o r s m i g r a t e d
Wang/824A
w i t h i n Fukien and Kwangtung and record
the movement at the end of the
seventeenth century when t h e i r ancestors
immigrated into the north part of Taiwan
to open up lands f o r farming.
The genealogy of the Huang c l a n o f
Tou-fen ( ® f ö f f f t $ ê ü ) and the genealogy
of the Xi-shan branch of the Huang clan
of M i a o - l i ( m % W M n f t l L % 1 » > record
t h a t t h e i r a n c e s t o r s m i g r a t e d from
Kwangtung to Taiwan during the r e i g n of
Emperor Qian-long ( A . D . 1736-1795) and
landed a t K e e l u n g . At f i r s t , t h e i r
ancestors chose a residence at Song-shan
( fë|i| ) and then moved southward to
Xin-zhu ( f f f f t ) or M i a o - l i ( ).
The genealogy of the L i n c l a n of Taichung
( # « t » # f t 8 i i S ) recorded that the f i r s t
ancestor of the Q i-hu-nan-zhu-ren-gong
branch of the clan ( £gfS±A&K ) Genealogies provide u s e f u l material f o r
moved from Xia-men ( M M ) to the c e n t r a l
part of Taiwan and worked on the land.
L i n shih ( # 5 ) , belonging to the
t n e
Mu-gong branch ( ) °f c l a n , was
the f i r s t ancestor of Lins of Wu-feng
( %%. ) • He moved to Taiwan with his
group i n 1747, and developed h i s land
i n t e r e s t s u n t i l he earned an annual
income^ of about 100,000 dan ( 5 ) of
rice.
Information related i n such genealogies
informs us that most residents of Fukien
and Kwangtung came to those two provinces
from Honan to seek a refuge from the
f i g h t i n g at the end of the Tang dynasty.
In early periods, migrants came to Taiwan
f o r adventure or to escape. They opened
up f r o n t i e r lands working as fishermen or
at other trades. The information i n
Taiwanese genealogies may help us w r i t e
the perfect book about the h i s t o r y of
Taiwan m i g r a n t s escaping f r o m the
oppression of the Manchurian government
to seek t h e i r new l i f e on Taiwan. From
the examples above we can learn much
about the background of i n d i v i d u a l c l a n s ,
as w e l l as general trends on the i s l a n d .
8
2. G e n e a l o g i e s as S o u r c e s f o r C l a n
H i s t o r i e s ( fcféfc ) i n t h e L o c a l
History )
Clan h i s t o r i e s form an e s s e n t i a l section
i n the l o c a l h i s t o r y . The c l a n h i s t o r y
takes information from genealogies from
the various branches of the l o c a l c l a n s .
Such c l a n h i s t o r i e s contain a l i s t of
surnames, l i n e s of d i s t r i b u t i o n of l o c a l
c l a n s , and the s t r u c t u r e o f l i n e a g e
settlements. The c l a n h i s t o r i e s i n the
g e n e r a l h i s t o r y of Taiwan p r o v i n c e
( ^jH^itt^ ) o r i
* h n t i e i s t o r
y °f T a i p e i
Hsien ( & 4 £ f l i £ ) are a l l produced by the
information from genealogies.
3. G e n e a l o g i e s as M a t e r i a l f o r t h e
Biographical ( Ajføife ) P o r t i o n of the
Local History
the personal h i s t o r i e s of members of the
c l a n and are h e l p f u l i n the compilation
of the biographical section of the l o c a l
h i s t o r y . I f we take the genealogy of the
Zheng c l a n of Wu-jiang as an example, we
f i n d i t contains abundant information on
the l i f e of Zheng Yong-xi ( g f ^ ^ ) , the
f i r s t Chin-shih ( fê± ) , or the f i r s t to
pass the government e x a m i n a t i o n s i n
Taiwan. The same genealogy gives us
i n f o r m a t i o n c o n c e r n i n g Zheng Ru-song
( Hp#p|£ ) i a scholar of the ju-ren rank
( # A )» and Zheng Yong-jian ( j g j p ) , a
llng-sheng ( J H ^ ) scholar. The
genealogy of the L i n c l a n of Wu-feng
( P ^ ^ f t ^ Ü ) includes the biographies
of L i n Wen-cha ( #:$Cf^ ) , the only army
general of the IB rank i n Taiwan, L i n
a
Wen-qin ( |f;j$y£^ )» ju-ren scholar, and
L i n Chao-dong ( ^ t t ^ l t t ) » another general
of lesser rank.
The o t h e r g e n e a l o g i e s a l s o list the
e l i t e s and l o c a l leaders.
In a d d i t i o n to using the information i n
g e n e a l o g i e s to w r i t e the b i o g r a p h i c a l
s e c t i o n o f l o c a l h i s t o r i e s , we can
 ...

Wang/824A

produce s t a t i s t i c s and compile data on 5. Genealogies as Documents about the

the success of famous clans i n c i v i l Family and Marriage
examinations. Furthermore, we can trace
the r i s e and f a l l of the i n f l u e n t i a l Families i n Taiwan t r a d i t i o n a l l y were and
clans and their r e l a t i o n to the are concerned w i t h the heritage of male
development of a g r i c u l t u r e , trade, descendants f o r the p r e s e r v a t i o n o f
e d u c a t i o n , the m i l i t a r y , and l o c a l ancestor worship. For t h i s purpose, most
offices. genealogies recorded the status of the
male members of the c l a n . We can use
4. Genealogies as Documents f o r P o p u l a - t h i s information f o r the study of the
t i o n Studies f a m i l y i n s t i t u t i o n and o r g a n i z a t i o n
during the Ching dynasty. Some
There were two reasons why the population genealogies also record the status of
of Taiwan was not c o r r e c t l y recorded i n women i n m a r r i a g e such as wife,
the early Ching dynasty. One was that concubine, widow, second w i f e , e t c . The
people c o v e r t l y e n t e r e d Taiwan a f t e r s h o r t genealogy o f the Gao c l a n o f
being proclaimed bandits by the Ching An-ping, the genealogy of the Wang c l a n
government and were not l i s t e d i n of Y a n - l i n g , the genealogy of the L i clan
taxation manuals. The other was the of Dui-shan ( £; m $ ft §f ) , the
e d i c t i s s u e d by the K a n g x i emperor genealogy of the L i c l a n of X i a n - j i n g
a n d
( i g g E ^ ) that the taxed population would ( ÍÚlM^S:MB ) the genealogy of the
be assessed on the recorded population i n Chen yi-yuan clan ( m & W M M ) all
1711 and that new b i r t h s would be exempt. contain this information. They are
useful for the study of family
I f we were to c o l l e c t more genealogies, i n s t i t u t i o n s , m a r i t a l r e l a t i o n s , and
we c o u l d use them to w r i t e a more marital status.
d e t a i l e d population h i s t o r y of Taiwan i n
the Ching dynasty and to study the 6. Genealogies as Documents of A n c e s t o r
population d i s t r i b u t i o n , the increase of Worship
population, the structure of population
and i t s change, and the r e l a t i o n s between The Han race i n Taiwan considered the
the population and socioeconomic worship of t h e i r ancestors and gods so
conditions. In The Surname, the important that most genealogies record
Genealogy and the Clan A s s o c i a t i o n , Chen the information about ancestor worship.
Shao-shing points out that we can know This information may be divided into two
the r e a l increase of Chinese population k i n d s . One i s r e l a t e d to the worship of
by the use of genealogies. He uses the ancestors; the other i s related to the
genealogy of the Nan Chen clan worship of gods of the same c l a n or
( fåfåLtfcWt ) to count the population of residence.
every generation from the f i r s t to the
seventeenth generation of the c l a n . He The clan h a l l s , family h a l l s , worship
also uses the genealogy of Taiwan Wen-lan r i t e s , the s a c r i f i c i a l a r t i c l e s , the
clan of Deng-ying ( g « £ ) ! 2 S £ f é t a f ë ! f ) covenants and regulations of clan estates
to count the p o p u l a t i o n o f every f o r worshiping ancestors ( ^ } E £ i f ó $ l l )
generation from the f i r s t to the n i n t h are recorded i n genealogies such as that
generation of the branch. The population of the Chen c l a n o f F e n g - x i , the
of the branch increased from 1 to 660 genealogy of the Chen clan of Wu-rong of
between 1745 and 1953. In short, the Taipei ( ^ i t K ^ m ^ m m )» the short
author points out that we may use the genealogy of the Gao clan of An-ping, the
information i n genealogies to estimate genealogy of the Wang c l a n of Ping-Zhen Y
the i n c r e a s e i n the p o p u l a t i o n o f of Tao-yuan ( #|c@¥ÍÍ3Eftí£§Í ) , the
Taiwan. f a m i l y genealogy of the Chen clan of
 10

Wu-jiang, and the revised genealogy of ( ^ f e f R f c T t t B H t X ), which showed how

the Peng clan of Taiwan the members of the L i clan built the
( SMMføB&mm )• For the latter temple i n 1823 and how they bought the
there are three genealogies to explain land for the expenses of god worship and
the worship of gods of the same clan. for clan meetings. The genealogy of
The genealogy of the L i clan of Dui-shan the Gao clan of An-ping recorded the
of Lu-zhou recorded in detail how the short history of the Gaos' Ji-ying Temple
clan worshiped the Bao Sheng Da Di
( tøÆA^ )* ^ g e n e a l
°gy o f
the L i
of jing-Mei ( %mm&mmm'm )» ^
gave a short history of the temple, the
clan of San-Xia ( =J$$.Hii£ff ) recorded
the short history of Qing Sui Zu Shi origins of the main god of the temple,
Temple of Chang Fu yen and the religious^yTitual held by f i v e
( ftHëüTKiafflÜtë ), which described groups i n turn. With the above
the situation of god worship, and also mentioned data we may study the r i t u a l of
recorded the lineage of the seven god or ancestor worship and i t s relation
branches of Zhai-shu Temple to the r e l i g i o u s organizations
Taiwanese clans and to social history.

NOTES

The Population S t a t i s t i c s of Taiwan and Fukien of R.O.C. (Taipei: Ministry

of the Interior, 1979), p. 28; Statistics on C i v i l A f f a i r s , Taiwan Province No. 5
(Taipei: Department of C i v i l Affairs of Taiwan Provincial Government, 1976), pp.
95-101.
2
Zheng Yu-chen [ gjSglfS], The genealogy of the Zheng clan of Wu-jiang (1913).
3
Lai Hui-chuan [fMjgJH], The family genealogy of Lai Ren-ji (1938).
4
The genealogy of the L i clan of X i - l u o .
5
Wang Shih-ch'ing [ EEÜ|g ] , The F i r s t Manuscript of the Catalogue of Public
and Private Preserved Clan Genealogy of Taiwan (The Committee of Taiwan Provincial
Documents, 1978), Taiwan Documents, v o l . 29, no. 4.

^Wang Guo-shen [ EEIHIË ], The genealogy of the Wang clan of San Huai Hall
(1922).
7
Xu Yang-fang [ f p f l ^ ] , The genealogy of the Xu clan of Yu-du (1928).
8„
See note 5.
9
The genealogy of the Jiang clan of Wu-ling and the genealogy of the L i u clan
of Nan-chuan were brought to Taiwan i n 1949; the manuscript of the genealogy of the
Chai clan of Huai-hai and the collections of the genealogy of Taiwan Wangs of Hainan
were compiled i n Taiwan.
^See note 5.
Wang/824A H

11
Sheng Qing-qi [ fåfåjft ] , The Study of the Genealogical Compilation of Taiwan
(The Committee of Taiwan P r o v i n c i a l Documents, 1963), Taiwan Documents, v o l . 14., no.
3, pp. 71-96.
12 fcgjí^ ÊÊÊ
Wu Jing-heng and Chen B u - l e i , The genealogy of the Jiang clan of Wu-ling
(1948), 32 volumes.
13
The genealogy of the Huang clan of Miao-li (1912).
14
The Gong-de-bang [ j&fåfå] of the Wang clan of Xia-Xi-Zhou ( A . D . 1782-1957).
15
C h e n Ren-de [ ] , ed . , The genealogy of the L i n clan of Yan-Cheng of
c h e n
Chang-bu p a i [ j g ü ^ f ë S f t f t f é Ü l i Guo-zhang The genealogy of the Chen
c l a n of B e i - t o u [ i m U ^ m M ] •
1 6
A t f i r s t the hour of b i r t h was not counted. A f t e r the Sung dynasty, i t was
added to the P a - Z i .

17
Chen C h i n g - l i e n [ gjgjfjg ] preserves the Sheng-shi-bu of his c l a n . The Big
H a l l of the Yang clan of J i a - l i of Tainan Hsien [ $ f f i f l t ø | £ & t t * n $ f f l ] , prepares
Shen-geng-Bu
18
See note 14.
19
Chen Yun-dong [ fåMfå. ]» The genealogy of the Chen clan of Ying-Chuan (1975).
20
Sheng Q i n g - q i , On the Production of Genealogy (The Genealogical Society of
R . O . C . , 1979), pp. 59-95.
21 "%áï-i:ú
(a) See note 2 . (b) The genealogy o f the Zeng c l a n o f J i n - j i a n g
[ HOI'S ftKü ]• (c) Sheng Q i n g - q i , An i n t r o d u c t i o n of the Genealogy of Twenty-five
Clans (Committee of Taipei Documents, 1958), Taipei Documents [ ÉitlSttø} ] , v o l . 7, no.
1, pp. 1-41; no. 2, pp. 1-46.
22
Wang Guang-yu [ BE^fè ] , The genealogy of Taiwan Wangs of Y a n - l i n g
[ mmm-ëïfèmm ], i865.
23
Chen Guang-pan [ $H%$r ] , The genealogy of the Chen c l a n of Lan-yuan of
Feng-xi (Jin-shen-yi watch shop, 1933).
24 ÍÉÍIAJ
The new edition of the genealogy* of the Peng clan [ • ^ ^ H ^ ^ f t ^ i f ] (The
Committee of the Genealogy of the Peng Clan, 1959).
25
Lo Hsiang-lin [ ], The Origins of Hakkas, collected i n special
publication i n commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the headquarters of Chong-you
(The headquarters of Chong-you, 1950), chapter 3, pp. 1-10.
26
Lo H s i a n g - l i n , The Study of Chinese Clan Genealogy (Hong Kong: The Chinese
Academic Society Publishing C o . , 1971), the middle volume.
27
Chen Shao-shing, The Surname, the Genealogy and the Clan A s s o c i a t i o n (The
Committee of Taiwan P r o v i n c i a l Documents, 1958), Taiwan Documents, v o l . 9, no. 3, pp.
15-32.
Wang/824A 12

28
Chang Qi-yun [ <Jg^gQ ], The New Development of Genealogy (Central Dally
Newspaper, 1975, 5.31).
29
(a) The genealogy o f the Huang c l a n of Huang q i - z h i o f T o u - f e n
[ « » i i J t # & « T * f t * » I• PP- 214-216; (b) Huang Wen-xin [ ) , Clan and the
o r i g i n s of the Huang clan (Huang Wen-xin, 1965), pp. 373, 380, 382.
30
(a)Lin Yao-ting [ #)|f|2^ ], The genealogy of the Qi-hu-nan-zhu-ren-gong branch
of the L i n clan (1937); (b) L i n Xian-tang [ 1, The private genealogy of the
Mu-gong branch of the Lin clan (1936).
31
See note 2.
32
(a) See note 30(b); (b) Zhuang Song [ ], The family biography of the L i n
clan (1939).
33
Yu Wen-yi [ ], The new edition of the history of Taiwan Prefecture
(1764), v o l . 5, Taxations.
34
See note 27.
35
(a) L i Guang-hui [ ^t^tfå ], The genealogy of the L i clan of Dui-shan of
Jung-An (1797); (b) L i Tu-cheng [ æ&ift]* The genealogy of the L i clan of Dui-shan of
Tung-An (1971).
36
(a) L i Chao-bin [ $ $ 8 t ø ] , The genealogy of the L i clan (1921); (b) L i
Chang-rong r $ j | r ^ ] » The genealogy of the L i c l a n of X i a n - j i n g (1974).
37
(1951) Gao Ting-shen [ fåfåM ], The short genealogy of the Gao clan of An-Ping

38
William M. Speild and Wang Shih-ch'ing, The Privately Preserved Documents of
the Ching Dynasty i n Taiwan and Their Value (Presented i n the annual meeting of the
Society of Asian Studies).
 CHINESE CLAN GENEALOGIES AND FAMILY HISTORIES:
CHINESE GENEALOGIES AS LOCAL AND FAMILY HISTORY

Dr. James Hayes

Born i n England. Resides i n Hong Kong. Town manager and d i s t r i c t officer Tsuen Wan,
New Territories Administration. Ph.D., University of London, London, England.
Author, editor, historian.

In 1967 Professor L. Carrington Goodrich generally described as chi (gazetteers).

of Columbia U n i v e r s i t y wrote, at my
request, a note on two Ming cannon found
i n Hong Kong i n the 1950s, which appeared
in the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch..
Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 7 (1967).
It concerned a brief period three hundred
years before In which princes of the Ming
royal house struggled unsuccessfully
against the conquering Manchu dynasty and
in consequence brought renewed hardship
to the common people. I added a note
i l l u s t r a t i n g these hard times using
material from a local genealogy, and i n
later correspondence with me Professor
Goodrich commented that this was a new
and valuable a d d i t i o n to n a t i o n a l
history.
Siang-tseh Chiang, who used gazetteers
extensively for his history of the Nien
Rebellion (1954), writes:
A local gazetteer may be considered
a combination of h i s t o r y and
p o l i t i c a l geography for a certain
local unit. Since the purpose of
the gazetteers was mainly to
provide a reference book for the
local administrators, they
contained separate t r e a t i e s on
various subjects. . . . Their
value l i e s i n their inclusion of
contemporary materials collected by
the native scholars jzo describe
their native l o c a l i t y .

Chinese genealogies are indeed precious
repositories of h i s t o r i c a l material. My
address today i s on this theme, though I
am here concerned l e s s w i t h n a t i o n a l
events than with the regional situation;
and when taken together w i t h other
sources with the genealogies' particular
contribution towards the compilation of
local histories. But before showing how
this works out i n practice for one small
area of the Hong Kong region of
Kwangtung, I must f i r s t place l o c a l
genealogies i n their historiographical
context.
THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF LOCAL HISTORY
In China, historical and other types of
material concerning places and people are
normally provided i n a series of books
There are gazetteers at the provincial,
prefectural, and county level. At the
local level I t i s usual for each county
or hsien to have i t s own compilation, and
i n every instance the gazetteer i s
published through a number of editions
from Ming times onwards, with Sung and
Yuan works available i n some cases. The
number of editions and the age of the
oldest publication depends largely on how
long the county has existed as an
independent a d m i n i s t r a t i v e area. For
example, the gazetteer of the San On
d i s t r i c t , of which the present Hong Kong
territory forms two-thirds, established
i n 1573, has six editions, the earliest
compiled i n 1587 and the latest i n 1819;
whereas according to a bibliographical
work i n Kwangtung the much older county
of Nam Hoi i n the same province, which
Hayes/824b
dates from A.D. 590 has nine editions,
the two earliest ±>y Sung authors and the
third dated 1304.
However, even i f a d i s t r i c t was a late
establishment, i t i s never the case that
earlier materials are not available. The
Chinese local administrative divisions
are of great age, though their boundar-
ies, names, and t i t l e s varied i n a moving
progression from Han times onwards. As
population grew and problems of control
mounted, old administrative areas were
divided and given new designations, part
of the separate county of San On after
i t s establishment i n 1573, the Hong Kong
region together with the rest of San On
had earlier belonged to the Tung Kwun
county. Before i t s elevation to county
status i n A.D. 973, this unit had formed
part of the wider administrative area of
the same name under the Tang. Before
t h a t , i t was included i n the Po On
d i s t r i c t of Tung Kwun Kwan i n the early
seventh century Sui dynasty. Earlier
s t i l l , i t had been part of the Pok Lo
d i s t r i c t of Nam Hoi Kwan since Han
times.
Material about our county and region can
be found i n the gazetteers and encyclo-
paedia which deal with these e a r l i e r
administrative entities. And one can
also find i t repeated or edited i n the
gazetteers coverning the wider geograph-
i c a l areas of a prefecture and of the
province i t s e l f . Of course, these
records take i n a tremendous sweep of
area and times, and for these reasons the
amount of material available for small
parts of the whole cannot be large, save
by good fortune.
Thus f a r , I have only mentioned the
gazetteers f o r d i s t r i c t s and l a r g e r
administrative units, but i n fact some
areas provide gazetteers at the sub-
county level. By now many counties have
gazetteers for large towns and important
sub-districts. Many of these were
compiled i n the nineteenth and twentieth
centurg.es, but relatively few before that
time. Unfortunately f o r the l o c a l
historian of the Hong King region, not
only i s the San On gazetteer i t s e l f very
much out-of-date, but i t s scholars and
officials have never produced a
sub-county gazetteer.
By now i t w i l l be f a i r l y obvious that
when we come to look at smaller areas
such as the Tsuen Wan sub-district of the
Hong Kong region, with which this paper
is specially concerned, reference to the
county history and the other wider or
older sources above, i s not l i k e l y to
produce much material. In our case, the
l o c a l h i s t o r i a n s f i n d to t h e i r g r i e f
that, despite the known long settlement
of the sub-district and the county to
which i t belongs, the stock of
information r e l a t i n g to l o c a l i t i e s i s
particularly sparse. A few names on maps
and the inclusion of villages i n l i s t s of
settlements, together with references to
events involving such diverse elements as
emperors and pirates, are a l l that i s
available. This can perhaps be a t t r i -
buted to the fact that the people of the
s u b - d i s t r i c t have been farmers and
fishermen for generations and have not
produced f a m i l i e s of scholar-gentry
who—like the principal local family of
the Hong Kong part of San On county—
would at one time or another have
produced volumes of collected papers and
poems which might shed some light on the
d i s t r i c t and i t s people i n the past.
THE LOCAL SOURCE MATERIAL FOR LOCAL
HISTORY
Where, then, do historians turn when they
wish to write a local history? Inevitab-
l y , they have to search out and use a
wide variety of basic source materials.
In these circumstances i t i s fortunate
that family records are kept as well as
the county gazetteers. Recourse to the
long-settled lineages of the sub-district
should be the f i r s t step when looking for
additional written material. In Tsuen
Wan many lineages s t i l l have genealogies,
though most of them are i n manuscript: I
shall say more about them i n a later part
of this paper. Supplementing these, or
substituting for them where there are
none, are the grave tablets of founding
or early ancestors. These often contain
genealogical information that helps to
Hayes/824b
establish length of settlement i n the
d i s t r i c t , and sometimes provide other
useful facts.
Besides these d i r e c t sources on the
lineages, there i s other local material.
China i s the land of the written record,
and the inquiring historian can hope to
find tablets that have been placed i n
local temples and public buildings, and
beside bridges and fords to commemorate
their^Æstablishment or subsequent r e -
pair. These provide information on
t h e i r h i s t o r y and on the persons or
organizations donating money and organ-
izing the work. More rarely, there are
also tablets which record a magistrate's
decision i n a local law case. In the
Tsuen Wan sub-district, as i s probably
the case across China, such sources are
not p l e n t i f u l , but at least they exist.
Oral history, too, i s a useful supple-
ment, especially in assisting understand-
ing, though i t has to be used with care.
Taken together with surviving land deeds
from the Chinese period, scraps of
information from the w r i t t e n county
history and local folk lore, and written
sources from t^he period of B r i t i s h rule
from 1899 on, these materials can be
worked up to provide some kind of record
which could not otherwise be assembled.
The whole process requires a good deal of
legwork i n v o l v i n g v i s i t s to v i l l a g e s ,
temples, the main graves of l o c a l
lineages, and the countryside i n general.
It is particularly necessary to assemble
as much material as possible from the
local lineages themselves. Thereafter,
the work becomes one of assembling a
jigsaw and of using detective s k i l l s to
ascertain where gaps i n the materials
exist and where and how they may be
f i l l e d . The whole thing i s indubitably
rather e x c i t i n g . One proceeds by a
process of f i t s and starts, occasionally
making chance discoveries that shed new
light or offer extra avenues of approach,
there are also times when i t seems a l l
too l i k e l y that^no now material w i l l ever
be forthcoming.
3
THE TSUEN WAN SUB-DISTRICT
I now turn to a description of the area
under study. The Tsuen Wan sub-district
i s located i n the New Territories of Hong
Kong. I t i s very small i n size. In a l l ,
i t takes i n no more than 9.25 square
miles of land on the mainland plus the
islands of Tsing Y i and Ma Wan, which
together account for another 3.36 square
miles. Nowadays, for modern admini-
s t r a t i v e and planning purposes, the
northeastern part of Lantau i s included,
but this was never part of the tradition-
a l subdivision. Its main physical char-
acteristics comprise coastal fringes and
a l o t of h i l l country rising from sea
level to a maximum height of over 3,000
feet, including Tai Mo Shan, the highest
mountain i n the Hong Kong region. The
island of Tsing Y i also has a high peak,
and only Ma Wan i s lowlying. In the
mainland portion, before development, the
lower f o o t h i l l s and the land near the sea
were broken up by numerous small h i l l s
and intersected by short but, i n the wet
season, fast flowing streams, I t was,
too, a hidden landscape, with the
villages tucked away and rendered remote
by the nature of the terrain.
As befitted i t s size and the relatively
small amount of c u l t i v a t e d land
a v a i l a b l e , the v i l l a g e s of the sub-
d i s t r i c t were not l a r g e . When the
B r i t i s h took over the area i n 1899, few
would have numbered over 300 persons.
The smaller villages and hamlets usually
contained 100 people or, i n many cases,
even under 50. A number of villages
clustered round Tsuen Wan bay, and others
were located along the coast or i n the
h i l l s , where r i c e growing settlements
could be found at altitudes of 1,000 feet
and more. Outside Tsuen Wan proper, the
largest group of villages was contained
in the Shing Mun valley. Somewhat under
1,000 persons lived there, with another
1,000 i n Tsuen Wan i t s e l f and a similar
number i n scattered locations. There was
also a small permanent boat population
moored i n "L^uen Wan bay and other local
anchorages.
Hayes/824b
Local f e r r i e s ran between d i f f e r e n t
points in the immediate area and outside
i t , i n c l u d i n g Hong Kong. Otherwise,
communication between settlements and
market places was entirely by the network
of footpaths opened by village people;
but even the main routes leading to
Kowloon and over to the northwest New
Territories were l i t t l e better than mud
paths, occasionally paved with stones.
It was i n such circumstances that the
community lived and worked, relying for a
livelihood on subsistence rice farming, a
good deal of coastal fishing by stake net
and sampan, and on small-scale r u r a l
industries l i k e bean curd, bean stick,
and soy sauce manufacturing, and f r u i t
preserving and wine d i s t i l l i n g . A l l
these undertakings required a p l e n t i f u l
supply of clean water. There was also a
quite large scale production of incense
powder for the joss stick industry, i n
which the aromatic wood used f o r
producing the powder was reduced by stone
hammers driven by water wheels placed
near fast flowing streams.
LOCAL SOCIETY AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
This section i s important for the paper.
It describes the type of rural society
that existed locally and, as we shall
see, had provided i t s e l f with a strong
cultural and social identity that was
favorable to c o n t i n u i t y and the
production of basic records.
Perhaps because of the d i f f i c u l t terrain
described above, villages tended to be
self-sufficient, though reliant on their
neighbors for assitance i n time of
trouble. Community and family organiza-
tion was well developed by the end of the
nineteenth century, when the B r i t i s h took
over the area. There was a community
temple serving the villages of the Tsuen
Wan Group, another for the Kwai Chung
community, and yet another for the Shing
Mun group. The two islands of Tsing Y i
and Ma Wan also had their own community
temples. The lineages, too, were well
organized. The Hong Kong government's
land records compiled between 1900-1904
show that, eighty years ago, there were
4
no less tljan 160 lineage trusts i n
existence; and my v i s i t s to villages
and conversations with elderly persons
indicate that practically every lineage
had at least one ancestral h a l l . This
applied to even the smallest hamlets:
though comprising no more than a few
houses, one was normally dedicated to the
worship of ancestors. My inquiries show
that most lineages possessed a family
record, u s u a l l y i n manuscript, which
usually indicate where the family had
come from, and when i t came to Tsuen Wan,
but vary greatly i n length and content,
as I shall explain below. In recent
years a few villages have also drawn up
brief histories of their settlement and
development.
Thus by 1899, the village communities had
laid the groundwork f o r f r u i t f u l
h i s t o r i c a l inquiries at a later date.
However the circumstances of the villages
and of the lineages have greatly changed
in the interim. Before and after the
Pacific War 1941-45, some villages were
abandoned and a few lineages disappeared,
and some are now represented by only a
few families. Others more fortunate have
prospered. Also, i n the past twenty
years many villages have been resited to
new locations by the Hong Kong government
to f a c i l i t a t e development of the New Town
of Tsuen Wan. In the process they have
usually improved their circumstances and
reinvigorated their communities.
THE LOCAL GENEALOGIES
My enquiries so f a r — I must stress that
they are not yet completed—have traced a
t o t a l of about f i f t y lineages with
descendants l i v i n g locally at the present
time. Another half dozen or so appear to
have held land i n the villages of the
sub-district and to have been settled
l o c a l l y at the time the Block Crown
leases were drawn up i n 1900-1904, since
their names can be traced i n the land
registers.
Of the lineages s t i l l i n local^^residence,
over half have genealogies. Twelve
more state that they possessed them up to
the period of the Japanese occupation of
Hayes/824b
Hong Kong, 1841-45, but either lost <j>r
destroyed them before or at that time.
Among these extant family records, one i s
a large general genealogy, printed in the
nineteenth century, i n which the local
settlements of the Lineage are l i s t e d .
The rest are i n manuscript, with one
exception apparently revised several
times i n manuscript versions but printed
only recently.
The genealogies vary between a number of
quite lengthy records, whose contents
include much material on earlier genera-
tions and settlements before members of
the lineage moved to Tsuen Wan, to others
which are l i t t l e more than a l i s t of male
persons and t h e i r wives i n one fong
(branch) of a local lineage over the last
several hundred years or l e s s . The
longest record has 136 pages and the
shortest but 10. Some contain prefaces
from earlier editions and include clan
rules and information on worshipping
rites. Some meticulously recite year,
date, and even time of birth and death
and give details of place and date of
burial and reburial. Many include a l l
the feng shui (geomantic) details of the
siting of the ancestors' tombs. Other
genealogies are simply bare registers.
In short, there i s no uniformity among
them.
THE GENEALOGIES AND THE LOCAL HISTORY OF
TSUEN WAN
Based on the results of my research thus
far, my preliminary assessment i s that
the value of local genealogies to the
historian of the Tsuen Wan sub-district
l i e s not so much i n contributing directly
to the knowledge of events, though they
help by underpinning what we know i n
o u t l i n e , but more i n supplying v i t a l
background information on the history and
development of i t s lineages and the
composition and nature of local society.
How, then do the genealogies contribute
to the history? By going through what i s
known of the area from old records, and
from more recent historical and archaeo-
logical studies, we can see how they
assist i n some matters and not i n others.
5
In the f i r s t place, i t i s hardly
surprising that the genealogies shed no
light on the earliest period of local
settlement. There i s evidence i n the
Tsuen Wan sub-district, as i n most parts
of the Hong Kong region, of pre-Chinese
settlement behind the beaches and on h i l l
slopes near the sea, but most of thg
information comes from archaeologists.
A number of sites were identified before
the P a c i f i c War, but the l a r g e - s c a l e
development of the area through the
reclamation of foreshore and seabed and
the cutting of development platforms on
the nearby h i l l s has precluded followup
work post-war. Neither do the genealo-
gies a s s i s t with information on the
t r i b e s people—not n e c e s s a r i l y to be
linked with the earliest inhabitants—who
are known from historical records to have
inhabited some areas of the New Terri-
tories i n the Sung period (960-1278).
At the close of Sung (1278), as stated
e a r l i e r , Tsuen Wan, by i t s older name of
Chin Wan, witnessed a sea battle between
Mongol forces and the defenders of the
f a l l i n g dynasty. There now begins to be
evidence of Chinese interest i n the area,
i f not yet of settlement for which no
material has yet come to l i g h t . The
grave of one of the ancestors of the
important Tang family Kam Tin was
placed here i n mid-Sung, and there was
another grave on Tsing Y i Island,
reportedly that of the mother of an
o f f i c i a l of the salt gabelle stationed at
Kowloon City i n late Sung times, which
dates from that period. This family came
from Sha Tseng outside the border of the
present Hong Kong and New Territories,
and according to local villagers their
descendants were s t i l l coming regularly
to worship at the grave up to and after
the Second World War. Through genealo-
gical records, these persons were able to
show their connection with the grave and
collect compensation from the government
when i t had to be moved for development
i n 1976.
The next episode in local history was a
dramatic one, and by reaso/j^ of i t s later
date i s better documented. In 1662 the
Ch'ing government ordered the evacuation
Hayes/824b
of the sea coasts of Kwangtung and other
maritime provinces as f a r north as
Shantung i n order to deny military help
and supplies to i t s enemy, the Cheng
family based on Amoy and Taiwan. This
order was only rescinded a f t e r seven
years, on the appeal of two senior
provincial o f f i c i a l s , but by this time
the people had suffered so badly that
only a remnant returned. The d i s t r i c t
gazetteer gives d e t a i l s of population
loss, but i t does ngj specify which areas
were most affected.
This i s where the value of local genealo-
gies i s most clearly shown. They i n d i -
cate beyond a doubt that the lineages
present i n 1898, whose landholdings and
settlements are shown i n the B r i t i s h land
registers and survey sheets of that time,
had arrived i n Tsuen Wan i n the late
seventeenth and e a r l y eighteenth cen-
turies. I t i s possible to state with a
degree of authority attributable to no
other source that the Tsuen Wan sub-
d i s t r i c t as i t was i n 1898, was mainly
repopulated by newcomers from south
Fukien and northeast Kwangtung i n the
f i r s t half of the eighteenth century.
The principal villages of the d i s t r i c t
date from this time, though some were
already settled i n the late seventeenth
century and a few were established i n the
l a t e eighteenth century and even the
early years of the next, but mostly i n
outlying and h i l l y areas. This i s , of
course, a late settlement, considering
that a number of New Territories and
Kowloon lineages settled locally i n the
Sung dynasty, w i t h many others
originating from Yuen and Ming times.
However, the date i s consistent with the
disruption caused by the great evacuation
and the authorities' efforts to repop-
ulate the abandoned or unclaimed areas,
by devising special terms to encourage
new settlers.
Perhaps a more interesting, but less easy
question to solve, i s whether Tsuen Wan
had a settled population before the evac-
uation. What light can the genealogies
and other sources shed on this matter?
As yet, i t i s not yet certain whether any
of the present lineages of Tsuen Wan were
6
present before the catastrophe. While
the genealogies of several of the oldest
local families indicate that they may
have arrived just before or after the
evacuation, i t i s not possible to put a
definite date to their a r r i v a l , only a
span of years i n which i t took place.
There are, however, c l e a r i n d i c a t i o n s
from other sources that the area was
settled before the evacuation. The Tang
family referred to earlier, the biggest
landowner across the whole Hong Kong
region, claimed to have owned and
controlled land on Tsing Y i Island from
Ming times without actually l i v i n g there
themselves; and i t seems that i t s
absentee ownership extended t02^>ther
parts of the Tsuen Wan d i s t r i c t . If
this was really so, then and earlier, i t
must mean that the Tang family had found
tenants to make their ownership worth-
while since, as stated, their interest
was solely i n collecting rent charges
from others. From information derived
from l o c a l elders on the pre-1898
s i t u a t i o n , i t appears that the Tang
lineage was able to impose i t s control
over the new arrivals and to extract
rents and charges from them as from the
earlier population l i v i n g in these places
before the evacuation.
The genealogies of local families confirm
that, i n the century after the evacua-
t i o n , there was a great increase of
population among the incoming lineages,
and a corresponding development of the
acreage under cultivation. The villages
took shape and size, and l i f e settled
into a regular pattern, punctuated more
by the joys and tragedies of family l i f e
than by major events from outside, and
enlivened by the observance of the
regular f e s t i v a l s with t h e i r s p e c i a l
delicacies, extra food, and performances
of puppet opera at the local temples.
Moving on, there are glimpses of Tsuen
Wan i n the 1850s from the records of the
I t a l i a n mission newly established i n
B r i t i s h Hong Kong. An Italian priest had
establ^ghed a thriving school and church
there. There are also the captured
papers of a group of gentry i n San On
Hayes/824b
City who sought to prevent the provision-
ing of Hong Kong by the village communi-
ties i n i t s v i c i n i t y . War was then going
on between China and Britain. The docu-
ments recount a s p i r i t e d encounter
between troops sent to enforce the
prohibition and local v i l l a g e r s , led by a
"recreant" local graduate whom the San On
gentry c l e a r l y considered should have
known better. This person has not yet
been identified.
The next historical incident i s , as far
as I know, recorded only i n l o c a l
sources, and from commemorative tablets
in two of the community temples rather
than from the genealogies. This was a
major dispute between the v i l l a g e
communities of Tsuen Wan and Shing Mun,
which lasted for three years (1862-64),
and l e f t behind ruined houses, abandoned
f i e l d s , and seventeen dead on each side.
It was a purely local incident between
f a m i l i e s who had l i v e d and worked
together, with much intermarriage, for up
to two centuries. I t must have l e f t a
legacy of dislike and distrust in i t s
wake, fanned annually by the r i t e s to the
heroic dead that were performed there-
a f t e r i n spring and autumn i n the
community temples of each of the warring
groups, and s t i l l practiced i n the Tsuen
Wan group to this day.
Another major event, followed thirty-five
years later, was the lease of the New
Territories to Britain i n 1898. There
was organized opposition to the B r i t i s h
during the takeover but no local incident
of any importance as the m i l i t a r y
operations were d i r e c t e d against the
major c l a n s o f the northwest
2 g New
Territories. Thereafter there i s
nothing recorded u n t i l the modern
development of Tsuen Wan, which began i n
the 1930s. I t i s noted b r i e f l y and
periodically i n the annual reports of the
B r i t i s h o f f i c i a l who looked after the
area, then part of the Southern D i s t r i c t
of the New Territories. The Japanese
Occupation, 1941-45, and the intensive
redevelopment of Tsuen Wan post-war
complete the record but are not part of
this story.
7
THE GENEALOGIES AND LOCAL SOCIETY
I turn now to the genealogies' contri-
bution to the understanding of l o c a l
society. In providing background d e t a i l ,
supplementing other sources, and pro-
viding explanatory m a t e r i a l , they
undoubtedly make a major contribution to
local history.
F i r s t and foremost they indicate a soci-
ety i n which Chinese ethical traditions
and family practices were strongly
adhered to. Even among these families of
late settlement in an outlying part of
Kwangtung and predominently of peasant
origin and status, strong forces had been
transmitted from the earlier generations
of each lineage to help ensure i t s
continuance. The very existence of the
records i n most lineages, small as well
as large, the inclusion of material on
clan rules and worshipping practices i n
the larger genealogies, and the abundant
evidence on adoption of males from other
branches of a lineage, where necessary,
i n order to carry on the line and ensure
the necessary worship of ancestors a l l
indicate a l i v e l y concern for family and
testify to the strength of the Chinese
ethical tradition amongst these ordinary
people.
This awareness of family i s restated i n a
h i s t o r i c a l account of one of the smaller
s i n g l e lineage v i l l a g e s of Tsuen Wan
compiled only sixteen years ago. The
relevant passage, almost ideological i n
i t s fervor, runs:
The Chinese are a competent and
industrious people whose society i s
based on a unique, and almost ideal
family system. The head of the
family regards i t as his foremost
duty to bring honour and glory to
his forefathers, and to open a way
to prosperity for his descendants
who w i l l again honour and glorify
him. That i s what the Chinese c a l l
"to g l o r i f y the f o r e f a t h e r s , to
enrich the posterity." This faith
i s c a r r i e d on generation a f t e r
generation. I t leads to ancestral
worship which has become the back-
Hayes/824b
bone of the Chinese family system.
Each village consists of a number
of families descended from the same
founder, and the ancestral temple,
i n which the v i l l a g e r s worship
their forefathers, exists as long
as the village exists. This system
has had a profound influence i n the
development of s o c i a l m o r a l i t y ,
fraternity, and security.j^in China
throughout the centuries.
Such concern, looking upwards to past and
downwards to future generations, was also
voiced by a leading villager i n a recent
Tsuen Wan village removal. Now aged
s i x t y - e i g h t and normally resident i n
Canada, he informed me: "I have come
back because I owe i t to my ancestors to
see that their property i s f u l l y com-
pensated, because I owe i t to myself
also, and because I have a responsibility
to my descendants."
The awareness of the need for continuity,
and fraternal unity to preserve i t , i s
echoed i n family documents l i k e deeds of
partition. One from a local v i l l a g e
(1877) d i v i d i n g property among three
brothers emphasized that, l i k e Cheung
Kao-ling [Chans Chin-ling] (673-740), a
Contonese minister of T'ang famed for
maintaining his family property intact
over generations, they had not intended
to s p l i t their ancestral land but now
that the need had occurred the brothers
were enjoined not to dispute possession,
"Harmonized r e l a t i o n s h i p , " reads the
document " w i l l consolidate brotherly
love, which in turn will^foster noble and
everlasting posterity."
A further proof of this concern with
family among local village people was
their preoccupation with the landscape.
As far as I could gauge, this was not due
principally to concern with environmental
or easthetic considerations, but because
the siting of the graves of ancestors was
believed to have a direct connection with
f a m i l i e s and t h e i r fortunes. Before
development of the New Town the land was
dotted with graves that had a l l been
sited by geomancers. Some locations were
particularly favored, being considered by
the experts to have better feng shui
(favorable influences) than others. This
emphasis, amounting to a p o s i t i v e
fixation, i s strongly reflected i n the
genealogies which usually give details of
sitings following the readings taken by
the geomancer on his special compass.
These are usually to be found on the
grave t a b l e t s a l s o . A l l this
expenditure of time, money, and mental
and physical energy had i t s roots i n one
thing: the family and the need to
provide f o r i t s continuation through
ensuring i t s success and good fortune i n
succeeding generations.
It follows that interference with the
good feng-shui of graves, with i t s
potential to the family or even lineage,
was always to be feared and resisted by
descendants. Siting new graves behind
others—called k e i or "mounting"—was a
f e r t i l e source of dispute and sometimes
conflict. I have come across one recent
case between two branches of a Tsuen Wan
lineage, and heard of a major pre-war
example from the 1920s where a r i c h
outsider sponsored by villagers sought to
build a large tomb above a lineage grave
belonging to another local family. After
ineffectual efforts to stop the work, the
Tsuen Wan villagers met i n the local
community temple and determined to give
battle with sticks and stones, despite
alleged advice from the d i s t r i c t office
and local police that i t was too late to
object. Ultimately the outsider gave up
and constructed a smaller grave i n a
nearby location.
Preoccupation with graves extended to
b u i l d i n g s connected with the lineage.
One of the local genealogies contains
detailed instructions for taking down i t s
ancestral h a l l and rebuilding a smalle^
one on a different feng shui alignment.
This i s yet another indication of the
intense conviction that fortune of family
and lineage was determined by geomantic
influence.
Through these contributions the
genealogies and other family source
material help to explain the well-known
phenomenon of feuding i n the southeast
Hayes/824b
35
China region. Reinforced by the
general belief in malevolent s p i r i t s , the
family and i t s fortunes assumed a central
position i n the always potentially tense
atmosphere of rural l i f e . I t was indeed
a l l too easy for lineages and villages to
f a l l foul of each other, and branches
within a lineage or even families within
a branch could as readily feud among
themselves as with outsiders; and
especially over feng-shui.
Let us now consider another aspect of
family and local history, the subject of
emigration and the genealogies' contribu-
tion to our knowledge and understanding
of t h i s important feature of south
Chinese l i f e i n the past one hundred
years and more.
The Tsuen Wan D i s t r i c t was considered
poor. The local elders never f a i l to
impress this point upon one, and as late
as 1931 a v i s i t o r from Hong Kong wrote
disparagingly of the poor quality and the
cheapness of food ;Lg the two teahouses i n
i t s market street. Limited land and an
expanded population seems to have forced
men to go elsewhere for employment i n the
mid-nineteenth century, i f not before.
Local evidence i s p l e n t i f u l on t h i s
subject. Many of the genealogies l i s t
persons as having gone overseas and died
there, often without issue, and a tablet
i n the T i n Hau Temple at Tsuen Wan
commemorating a major r e p a i r i n 1900
carries the names of scores of local
persons who sent c o n t r i b u t i o n s from
overseas. The l i s t includes such places
as Australia, Manila, Siam, Singapore,
Hawaii, Jamaica, San Francisco, and
others.
Emigration lasted into the B r i t i s h period
when local men continued to go abroad i n
search of work. The trend was s u f f i -
ciently established for the Shing Mun
villagers, faced with removal from their
valley for the construction of a major
reservoir i n the late 1920s, to send
representatives to Borneo at government
expense to investigate the p o s s i b i l i t i e s
of s e t t l i n g there instead of i n the
relatively crowded New Territories, where
most form land worth cultivating had long
37
since been taken up. And during the
last five years the District Office has
often corresponded with men from other
lineages who went abroad in the 1920s and
1930s, and with the descendants of those
who went overseas at an earlier time. In
one case, the whole branch of a sizeable
lineajga has long been resident over-
seas Jj^m
There are other aspects on which the
genealogies can shed some l i g h t ,
c o n t r i b u t i n g both to knowledge of l o c a l
s o c i e t y and to m a t t e r s o f broader
academic i n t e r e s t . One of these i s
determining whether the l o c a l lineages
were o r i g i n a l l y Hakka-speaking or P u n t i -
(Cantonese) s p e a k i n g . This point i s
r e l e v a n t to the w i d e r debate on the
r e l a t i o n s h i p between these two major
d i a l e c t groups i n Kwangtung, K w a n g s i ,
Taiwan, and elsewhere.
The more one looks into l o c a l society the
c l e a r e r i t i s t h a t Hakka and Punt i
d i v i s i o n s are not so r i g i d as might be
supposed from r e a d i n g some of the
l i t e r a t u r e on t h e i r r e l a t i o n s h i p s i n
o t h e r p a r t s o f Kwangtung, e s p e c i a l l y
during the period of large-scale warfare
between the two groups that occurred i n
the 1850s and 1860s. In the Tsuen Wan
s u b - d i s t r i c t up t o 1941, the l o c a l
l i n e a g e s were a l l H a k k a - s p e a k i n g , and
Hakka was the g e n e r a l language o f
i n s t r u c t i o n i n the v i l l a g e schools. Yet
i s c l e a r from the genealogical records
and from l o c a l enquiries that some of the
l o c a l lineages were not Hakka-speaking
when they came to Tsuen Wan. A process
of a s s i m i l a t i o n took place due to various
f a c t o r s such as Hakka being the speech of
the m a j o r i t y and the language of i n s t r u c -
t i o n i n the schools, marriage l i n k s being
l a r g e l j t ø w i t h other Hakka settlements, and
so on.
Yet another aspect of both l o c a l and
general i n t e r e s t i s the connection of
genealogies with l i t e r a c y . To what
e x t e n t i s one a p r e r e q u i s i t e o f the
other? Do non or s e m i - l i t e r a t e s i n
Chinese l i n e a g e s have an i n t e r e s t i n
genealogies; and i f they have, what do
they do about maintaining them over the
 Hayes/824b
years?
The extent of literacy i n nineteenth-
century Tsuen Wan i s not well estab-
lished, but a respectable number o^Qlocal
schools were i n existence i n 1912, some
of them s t i l l operating today. It i s
clear that education was valued and that
male children received schooling wherever
i t was practical, albeit length of study
and the level of scholarship reached was
in most cases neither long nor very high.
Being kept mostly i n manuscript, the
local genealogies provide opportunities
for assessing the situation. General-
i z i n g , i t would appear that there was an
interest i n keeping family records that
seems to have transcended low levels of
literacy, and that as often happened i n
other fields there was need of special-
ists. The standard of brush work i s
often high, indicating that a writer has
been employed. However, the genealogies
produced and reproduced i n this way often
bear signs of additions by the village
families, and there are often t e l l - t a l e
entries in a poor hand that show the low
level of education of the writers and
point up the difference. They invariably
stand i n contrast to the body of the
text, often written f i f t y to a hundred
years before by dating or other evidence,
and surely i n d i c a t e that i n lineages
whose members had a limited education the
records had periodically to be taken to a
write to be brought up to date or re-
copied. I recall an example when Dis-
t r i c t Officer South i n 1958. V i s i t i n g a
small lineage in Sai Kung d i s t r i c t where
the villages are similar to those of
Tsuen Wan and are also Hakka-speaking, I
inquired about the clan record. I was
then informed that, having been taken
recently to Sai Kung market to be copied,
i t was not available for inspection.
Thus the evidence from Tsuen Wan and
places l i k e i t seems to indicate that a
low level education did not necessarily
Indicate a lesser interest in genealogy.
LOCAL GENEALOGIES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION
TO FAMILY HISTORY
In this f i n a l , necessarily briefer, part
of the paper I have to assess the local
10
genealogies as a contribution of family
history. As noted above I have here to
take the several types of genealogy
encountered locally into account:
(a) the general genealogy (but usually
linked to one geographically-located
though often widely d i s t r i b u t e d
lineage),
(b) the genealogy of a p a r t i c u l a r
lineage i n a specific location (with
considerable variation on how much
background and ancillary information
i s provided),
(c) a part-genealogy referring only to a
portion of a specific lineage (again
with a varying degree of additional
information).
Our l o ^ l example of the general gen-
ealogy i s unfortunately too damaged to
be made available for detailed study, but
a convenient, non-local, substitute of
this kind i s that of the, Ng family of
Kwangtung (Wu i n kuoyu) published i n
1933 which Wolfram Eberhard studied i n
his Social Mobility i n Traditional China
(1962). Large as genealogies go, i t
deals only with i t s past elites and a few
hundred of i t s l i v i n g members, although
the compiler indicates (pp. 55-56) that
at the time of assembling i t , more than
one m i l l i o n people i n Kwangtung and
Kwangsi had the name Wu and claimed to
belong to the clan.
At the other end of the scale are the
small genealogies of lineage and part
lineage of the kind available locally i n
the Tsuen Wan s u b - d i s t r i c t , and i n
general over the Hong Kong region. Most
of these c o l l e c t e d to date are i n
manuscript only.
Of what use are a general genealogy l i k e
that cited, and those of the smaller
kind?
With such diverse m a t e r i a l , often
incomplete at that, and limited at most
to only the one province of Kwangtung or
part of i t as they usually are, i s not
the whole thing just too immense and
Hayes/824b 11

d i f f i c u l t to make much sense of? Is i t
not a waste of time to grub around i n the
mess of bits and pieces which comprise
the subject matter of our enquiry?
Personally I do not think so. On the
c r e d i t s i d e , there i s the fact that
genealogical record-keeping has been
developed to a high degree i n China, over
hundreds, and i n some cases, thousands of
years. Also, the compilation of bio-
graphies has been a prominent and con-
tinuous part of Chinese historiography at
the national and local level for as long
as such records have been kept, with care
ever taken to establish a man's place of
origin. There are also grounds for hope
that more material w i l l emerge. Genealo-
gies have not been generally available i n
libraries u n t i l the last f i f t y years, and
their collection i n a large-scale i s a
comparatively recent thing. Kwangtung
genealogies, for instance, were scarcely
represented i n overseas c o l l e c t i o n s
pre-war, but various recent books on the
subject of genealogies, the reprinting
of old genealogies i n Taiwan, Hong Kong,
and other places post-war, the compila-
tion of new ones, and the collecting done
i n Hong Kong over the last ten years show
that the situation has been much im-
proved. Much mgire material i s now a v a i l -
able for study.
In t h i s improving s i t u a t i o n , a l l new
information on Kwangtung genealogies, of
whatever type and bulk, i s potentially
useful. Considering the general record,
as Eberhard said of the Wu genealogy, i t s
principal use i s to indicate the houses
into which the clan divided and from
which i t ramified throughout the two
southeastern provinces. I t provides the
framework into which, i n time, a great
deal more information about the Wus can
be assembled from smaller, more localized
family records. In turn, where these are
incomplete, the larger, more generalized
genealogies can help elucidate links and
o r i g i n s through comparison, say, of
generation names which usually follow a
set pattern i n many lineages and make i t
possible to establish how they f i t into
larger^ ^and older groups bearing the same
name. Thus they have a mutual
supporting role to play.

NOTES

Journal of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal A s i a t i c Society, hereafter styled

JHKBRAS 7(1967): 152-57.
2
JHKBRAS 7(1967): 154, note 4.
3
Slang-tseh Chiang, The Nien R e b e l l i o n ( S e a t t l e : U n i v e r s i t y of Washington
Press, 1954), p . 148. For a study of gazetteers see fåigfÉ <PMJJM^MMS
(Shanghai, Commercial P r e s s , 1934).
4
K . M. A. Barnett i n JHKBRAS 4(1964): 66-67.

T a i p e i , 1970, pp. 17-21.

6
San On Gazetteer (#r£Sfcf£), 1819 edition, chuan 1.

L i King-san, San On Gazetteer, pp. 5-14, 15-17 l i s t s the various editions of

Hayes/824b 12

the gazetteers for Kwangtung Province and for the Kwangschou prefecture to which San
On has long belonged,
g
For examples for kwangtung, the town of Fat Shan has three gazetteers dated
1752, 1830, and 1923 while the gazetteer for Yue Lam Heung of Nam Hoi District i s
dated 1883. See L i King-san, San On Gazetteer, pp. 166-68.
9
See, for instance, p. 21 of the map i n the Ming work ( ÍJAI2 ) chüan 32
showing the area of Tsuen Wan (formerly Chin Wan—Shallow Bay) and Kwai Chung; their
inclusion i n the l i s t s of villages i n the 1688 and 1819 editions of the San On
D i s t r i c t Gazetteer, chüan 3 & 2; the reference to the battle at Tsuen Wan between Sung
and Mongol forces gathered together from various h i s t o r i c a l sources i n Jan Yu-wen's
Sung Wong Toi, A Commemorative Volume ( " ^ . ^ M K ^ t M ) (Hong Kong: privately printed,
1957), pp. 154-57, and Jao Chung-yi's ( %\1$-%^<£_P ) (Hong Kong: 1959) pp. 31-32;
(

and the reference to a sea fight with two pirate leaders at Chun Fa Yeung (thought to
be the sea off Tsing Yi) i n the 1819 edition of the D i s t r i c t Gazetteer, chüan 13.
^C. K. Yang, Religion i n Chinese Society (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univers-
i t y of California Press, 1967) pp. 175-77, calls them "steles."

^Some of these are noted at pp. 271-76 of my book, The Hong Kong Region,
Institutions and Leadership i n Town and Countryside (Archon - Dawson, 1977).
12
Time and leisure are important elements. In a busy post, I do not have the
time or opportunity to do the painstaking followup interviews essential to this kind
of work, and therefore the local part of this paper i s s t i l l far from complete. But I
do have the advantage of being the local o f f i c i a l , engaged i n close contact with i n d i -
genous families and their leaders, and occupied for part of my time i n removing old
villages to new locations. Thereby, material that might not otherwise come to a
researcher has been available.
13
A Gazetteer of Place Names In Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New T e r r i t o r i e s
(Hong Kong: Government Printer, n.d. but 1960) pp. 148, 153-54. See the map included
with this a r t i c l e .
14
Unfortunately there i s no detailed census information available. The figure
of 2,982 i s given for the land population i n the 1911 Colony Census and 4,903 i n the
1921 one, while i t i s recorded that 855 villagers were moved from Shing Mun i n 1928
for construction of a reservoir. The boat population, which was separate, i s not
stated. See the Hong Kong Government's bound volumes of Sessional Papers for 1911, p.
103(21), (26), (36), for 1921, p. 173, and for 1928, pp. 21-23, respectively.
Supplementary material on the sub-district i s included i n my note on Tai Mo Shan i n
JHKBRAS 17(1977): 168-79.
The region was popularly supposed to be almost beyond the control of
government. An older version of the Cheung genealogy of Lo Wai, which staties i t s
a r r i v a l date at 1680, describes the place as pin cheung mok kap ( fÜft^K. )» "beyond
the length of a whip," and i n a coastal region regularly used as a base by pirates who
came out for plunder.

^The land registers drawn up at the time of the comprehensive survey and
settlement of t i t l e s i n 1900-1904, rather than the genealogies, give details of the
land set aside i n family trusts, and the names of their managers. (The o f f i c i a l
reports on the survey and land settlement are l i s t e d i n Hayes, The Hong Kong Region,
pp. 271-72). The trusts show the strength of the family through i t s widespread
Hayes/824b 13

organization for the commemoration of ancestors.

^ 1 suspect that more may exist, but i n these cases I have not yet been able to
see what, after a l l , are private records. That i t has bee possible to see so many
already i s due to friendship with local families, and because the records have often
to be used to establish claims to the rights accruing to indigenous villagers of the
New Territories to purchase land for village houses.

For interesting accounts of records in wealthier families, see Chiang Yee A

Chinese Childhood (London, Methuen & Co. l t d . , 1940) and the passage from Eugene Simon
(1865) quoted i n extenso by L. A. Lyall i n China (The Modern World Series) London,
Ernest Benn, lyjJ4, especially at pp. 30-31.
17 mm*' • -:liM
It i s practically certain from my inquiries, and those of other persons, that
a number of families deliberately destroyed their family records and land papers
during the Japanese wartime occupation of Hong Kong.
Kung-chuen Hsiao, i n his monumental work Rural China Imperial Control i n the
Nineteenth Century (Seattle, university of Washington Press, 1960) has a section on
clan a c t i v i t i e s which includes a few pages (333-34) on "Genealogical Records" and
related notes nos. 59-66 on pp. 665-66. It appears that manuscript genealogies such
as those to be found i n the Hong Kong region (and elsewhere i n S. E. Kwangtung) did
not come to his notice. This i s hardly surprising since they have only come into
collections i n Hong Kong and Tawian i n the last decade or so.

18
See the Journal of the Hong Kong Archaelogical Society and the map showing
local sites published by the Society i n mid-1970s.
19
See L i n T'ien-wei's essays ( i n Chinese) i n Chung Chi Journal (Chinese Univer-
sity of Hong Kong) 3, no. 2 (May 1964): 175-89 and i n Essays i n Chinese Studies
Presented to Professor Lo Hsiang-lin (Festschrift) (Hong Kong: 1970), pp. 135-51.
Also K. M. A. Barnett, "Hong Kong before the Chinese: the Frame, the Puzzle and the
Missing Pieces," i n JHKBRAS 4(1964): 42-67, and his "Introduction on Hong Kong Place
Names" reported i n JHKBRAS 14(1974): 136-59.
20
See JHKBRAS 17(1977): 180-85.
f
21 Jfapjf'
See inter a l i a San On Gazetteer (1819) chüan 14. Also Lo Hsiang-lin, et a l ,
Hong Kong and Its External Communications Before 1842 (Hong Kong Institute of Chinese
Culture: 1959, i n Chinese, English version with reduced annotation, 1963), which
gives the necessary references to earlier works.
22
See San On Gazetteer (1819), chüan 8 and 13. Also K. M. A. Barnett i n J . M.
Braga, comp., Hong Kong Business Symposium (Hong Kong: S. C. M. P. Ltd., 1957) pp.
262-63.
23
6.
See Lo Hsiang-lin, et a l , Hong Kong and Its External Communications, Chapter

24
I do not know how we got our footing i n Tsing Y i . It was i n the time of the
Ming dynasty. No descendants of Tang Kou Nam are at present l i v i n g on Tsing Y i . "
(Minute of 11 June 1904 i n CSO 1903/8551 i n the Public Record Office of Hong Kong,
which styles the Tangs "chief landlords."
Hayes/824b 14

25
Eighteenth-century land deeds from the Kwal Chung area indicate ownership by
the Tang family, apparently on the same absentee basis as on Tsing Y i : Hong Kong Land
Registry, nos. 29539 (transaction dated 1763 registered i n 1900) and 28348 (trans-
action dated 1840 registered i n 1900). Also no. 27530 for Tang land at Kwai Chung
sold and registered i n 1900. Copies by courtesy of Reverend Carl Smith of Hong Kong.
Also, a long settled Tang lineage at Shek Wai Kok village i n Tsuen Wan, whose
genealogy shows a distant connection with the main family, i s reported to have
collected rents on i t s behalf i n Tsuen Wan before 1898.
26
Father T. F. Ryan, The Story of a Hundred Years, The P o n t i f i c a l Institute of
Foreign Missions (P. I . M. E.) i n Hong Kong 1858-1958 (Catholic Truth Society: 1958)
pp. Zb,38, 43.
27
Printed i n the Hong Kong Government Gazette, GN 62, 25 A p r i l 1857.
28
See my note i n JHKBRAS 17(1977): 185-98. The relevant genealogies should
mention these persons and record their deaths, but I have not yet had time to examine
them i n d e t a i l .

See R. G. Groves i n JHKBRAS 9(1969): 31-64.

30
See the annual departmental reports of the D i s t r i c t Officer South, printed
annually by the Hong Kong Government.
31
From Yeung Uk v i l l a g e , Tsuen Wan.
32
From Kau Wah Keng v i l l a g e , Tsuen Wan. I owe the identification of Chang
Chin-ling with the Chang Kung mentioned i n the document to my colleague, Mr. Lui
Hau-tuen. The importance of good family l i f e was carried over into r i t u a l . I t i s
instructive that when opening a new ancestral h a l l or tending to shrines set up i n
connection with appeasement ceremonies where earth has been disturbed, special selec-
tion i s made of men who are blessed with fortune, principally i n having sons and
grandsons. The same i s true for women selected to make up a bridal bed, who ideally
should have sons, brothers and sisters with sons, and l i v i n g parents.
33
In some cases, a special prospectus was prepared by a geomancer who gave i t
to his client. Though not yet seen i n Tsuen Wan, I have come across such books i n the
course of collecting.
Geomancers were itinerants whose services were much i n demand. The genealogy
of the Chan lineage of San Uk Tsuen, Tsing Y i , contains information on the place of
origin and contact addresses for the geomancer (and his wife and two sons) who advised
on the resiting of i t s ancestral h a l l (see note 34 and related text). In this case,
he was from the Shun Tak d i s t r i c t of Kwangtung.

Geomancers were gentlemen was expected to be carried over the h i l l s to the

scene of favourable sites: see JHKBRAS 16(1976) p. 175.

After writing that the real interest of local families was more about good
fortune than the environmental setting of their ancestors' tombs, I chanced upon Hsieh
Yu-wei " F i l i a l Piety and Chinese Society" i n Charles A. Moore (ed.) The Chinese Mind,
Essentials of Chinese Philosophy and Culture (Honolulu: The University Press off
Hawaii) who seems to confirm my view. Hsieh states that "the Chinese geomancy
practised by the common people i n another form of ancestral worship l a i d even more
emphasis upon the seeking of blessings looked upon as identical to Buddhist or Taoist
 Hayes/824b 15

deities." (p. 180).

34
Chan of San Uk Tsuen, Tsing Y i . A copy of this genealogy has been placed i n
the Chinese Library of the University of Hong Kong. For information on the siting of
graves, ancestral halls and houses see B. C. Henry, The Cross and the Dragon (New
York: 1882) pp. 166-76.
35 feÍM
See e.g. Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organization i n South-eastern China
(London: The Athlone Press, 1958) pp. 96-WT.
36
Article on Tsuen Wan i n S í § : 7 t $ t , Vol. 1, No. 1, Oct. 1931, pp. 11-12.
37 ''ilftÍW
Hong Kong Government Sessional Papers 1928, pp. 21-23.
Monographs
38 on Social Anthropology No. 12 (London: London School of Economics, 1953),
pp. 23-24,Hofor
ofaMuk
similar
Min case.
Ha, Tsuen Wan. See Ju-k'ang Tien, The Chines of Sarawak:
39
See Hayes, The Hong Kong Region, pp. 29-30, 207.
40
See Orme's Report on the New Territories 1899-1912 i n Sessional Papers 1912,
Appendix G. This shows fourteen schools i n the sub-district, a l l but two of them
teaching i n Hakka, with a total enrollment (by calculation) of 260.
41
The Sung (5)5) lineage of T i t Kim Hang v i l l a g e , Sai Kung. See Gazetteer of
Place Names, p. 184.
42 '* i Í É Í S Í
Tsang genealogy j£ få f| jg j[v_ §g ordered by Tseng Kuo-f an and compiled by
?Ut8ffïSHfc*áP by appearance mid-nineteenth
f century. See also Lo Hsiang-lin, A Study of
Chinese Genealogies (in Chinese) (Hong Kong: Institute of Chinese Culture, 1971), p.
W .
4 3
{nMltfo&MtøifåM 10# Ê5H22íf . See Lo, A Study of Chinese Genealogies, p.
178.
44
See e.g. Lo, A Study of Chinese Genealogies, and Akigora Taga, An Analytical
Study of Chinese Genealogical Books ( i n Japanese) (Tokyo: 1960). A splendid
collection of Chinese genealogies has now been assembled by the Genealogical Society
of Utah.
45
Material i s s t i l l forthcoming. Only the other day I came across a large
handwritten genealogy of the Wu family. I t had apparently been compiled no later than
1860 and contained a good deal of the material included i n the 1933 publication used
by Eberhard. This copy i s now i n the collection of the Genealogical Society of Utah.
Another manuscript genealogy of part of the Wu lineage was found three years ago. I t
contains detailed information on the payments required for various worshipping activ-
i t i e s for gods as well as ancestors. A copy i s i n Chinese Library at the University of
Hong Kong.
46
See T'ien, i b i d , p. 22, though he states that "for the very large majority of
Chinese, detailed tracing of distant relationships i s impossible." Perhaps he might
have added "without the genealogies."
 CHINESE CLAN GENEALOGIES AND FAMILY HISTORY:
CHINESE CLAN GENEALOGIES AS THEY RELATE TO LOCAL HISTORY

Tien-wai Lin

Born i n China. Resides i n Hong Kong. Professor of Chinese, U n i v e r s i t y of Hong Kong.

Author, l e c t u r e r .

I. THE DEVELOPMENT OF GENEALOGY AND Hsiao ( M M ) of the L a t t e r Han ( f £ g | )

LOCAL HISTORICAL RECORDS IN CHINA Dynasty, and Chi Yu ( S I E ) of the Chin
( H ) Dynasty also t^ad a r t i c l e s on
China i s one of the countries with an genealogical studies. From the
ancient c i v i l i z a t i o n . In the past, i t Dynasties of Wei ( ÜL ) and Chin ( | f )
was p a r t i c u l a r l y noted f o r i t s h i s t o r i c a l onward, the o r i g i n of a c l a n was
books and a r t i c l e s . Thus i t possesses a e s p e c i a l l y important i n the Nine-graded
very r i c h source of h i s t o r i c a l m a t e r i a l s . Chung Cheng system of the C i v i l Service
About 2,500 years ago, with h i s t o r i c a l ( Aoo4"IEflJ )• There was a department
materials from gazetteers and records, to c o l l e c t and examine the genealogies of
Chinese h i s t o r i a n s had f i n i s h e d The the whole country. Thus, genealogy study
Spring and Autumn Annals ( ) • At became w i d e s p r e a d , and aroused the
that time records could be c l a s s i f i e d attention of the people. I t became a
i n t o two t y p e s : Records of Notable specialized subject. Outstanding
Sayings ( ggH" ) and Records of examples of genealogies w r i t t e n at that
H i s t o r i c a l Facts ( I B ^ ). Then, time are the Bei Chia Pu ( Wf<§g ) of
about 2,100 years ago, h i s t o r i c a l records Wang Chung Yu ( I j f j f ) , the Bei Kwan
were developed into two d i f f e r e n t Pu ( of Ssu Mien ( & M ) and the
subjects: genealogy and l o c a l h i s t o r y . Hsing Yuen ( ) of Ho Cheng Tien
They started at approximately the same ( M * ^ )•
t i m e , but have d i f f e r e n t t r e n d s o f
development. However, China was one of During the Ta'ng O g ) Dynasty, Kao Chien
the f i r s t c o u n t r i e s which kept these ( M\k ) (576-647) edited the S z i Chu
r e c o r d s and used them i n h i s t o r i c a l Chih ( f£l£;i> ) which includes materials
study. on 293 clans and 1651 lineages. Later
L i u Chung ( ) edited the Hsing S z i
Lu ( ttftli ) . These two genealogies have
Genealogy o r i g i n a t e s from ancestor a f i x e d pattern, and thus genealogies
worship and the p a t r i a r c h a l clan system edited l a t e r f o l l o w t h e i r pattern. The
of the feudal s o c i e t y . I t i s used to genealogies at that time stressed
record the o r i g i n of t h e i r ancestors, the p o l i t i c a l rank. They recorded the r o y a l
d i s t r i b u t i o n of t h e i r descendants, and f a m i l y f i r s t , then the r e l a t i v e s of the
t h e i r blood r e l a t i o n s h i p s . Genealogie^ royal f a m i l y , and then the o f f i c e r s and
have existed ever since 770-225 B . C . o f f i c i a l s i n the order of t h e i r ranks.
The f i r s t genealogy of a clan i n our This was d i f f e r e n t from the genealogies
country i s Hsi Ben ( i ë r í ) w r i t t e n by L i u b e f o r e the T a ' n g D y n a s t y , which were
Hsiang ( JgiJ[nj ) i n the Han ( $| ) Dynasty. recorded i n the order of the fame of a
I t records the f a m i l y of Huang T i (ft?!?). clan.
The f i r s t genealogy of a family i s Yang
Hsiung Chia Pu ( H t t g ? § f ) , by Yang Hsiung
( Wê ) (53 B . C . to 18 A . D . ) . Later, During the Ta'ng Dynasty, genealogies had
Pan Ku ( 3EH ) , Wang Fu ( £ f t ) , Ying three c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s :
824/Lin
c

1. The C i v i l Service Examination System Dynasty. In the T a ' n g D y n a s t y , the

i n China began from the Dynasties of f o l l o w i n g genealogies are recorded:
Sui C$| ) and Ta'ng ( j * ) . Many
scholars from poor f a m i l i e s became 1. Tai Ta'ng Hsing Hai Luk ( )
government o f f i c i a l s , and some even by Lau Chung ( f P f t j ) . It consists of
became generals and m i n i s t e r s . In 200 chapters.
order to raise the fame of one's
c l a n , some t r i e d to claim themselves 2. Hoi Yuen Pu ( Hj?7C!g ) by Wai Shu
as descendants of the previous Great )•
Clans.
3. Wing Tai Pu ( j§cS§f ) by Lau Fong
An example of t h i s i s the Lee Clan of
Sau Kun Wat ( ) Lineage in
(W% ).
Hong Kong. They claim to be the 4. Hsing Yen ( ÍÊ.M ) and Yuen Pu
descendants o£ the Emperor of the ( M B ) by Cheung Kau Ling (<gA*& )•
Ta'ng Dynasty.
5. Yuan Ho Hsing Chuan ( x f P t t ^ ) by Lin
2. From the Dynasty of N o r t h e r n Wei Pao (#H ).
( iWk ) > they adopted the Han C i v i l i -
z a t i o n . More than one hundred clans 6. Hsing Kai ( fèfë ) by Siu See
of the Sien B i ( f|j$. ) tribe adopted
Han surnames. A f t e r the Ta'ng and
( M >•
the Sung (J(i5Fs) Dynasties, people were 7. T i n Ha Kun Mong S i Chuk Pu
granted the surname of the Emperor ( %TUW.8:mm ) by Lee L i n Pao
for t h e i r l o y a l t y to the r o y a l ( 3M*ft ).
f a m i l y , l i k e the Lees of the Ta'ng
Dynasty, and the Chius of the Sung 8. Hsing Yuen ( ö ^ B ) by Ho Sing Tin
Time, a l t h o u g h they might not be ( )•
royal descendants, and were d i f f e r e n t
in blood r e l a t i o n s h i p . Thus, from In the Sung Dynasty, there were the
the Ta'ng Dynasty onward, there i s a following genealogies:
k i n d of genealogy c a l l e d Yuen Pu
(Hit ) , which means that they 1. Ku Kum Hsing S z i Shu P i n Ching
belong to the same clan only because ( * 4-0ft» » S E ) w T a n g M i n g S a i
their surname sounds the same. They ( ) •
have no actual r e l a t i o n s h i p with the
famous c l a n s . 2. Genealogy of the So Clan ( IS ft K i t )
by So Shun ( jftfå ) .
3. Before the Ta'ng Dynasty, the pro-
motion of o f f i c e r s and o f f i c i a l s , the
attending of the C i v i l Service Exam- In the Ming Dynasty, there was the Wan
i n a t i o n , the way to be government Hsing Tung Pu ( H & $ t ! f ) by Ling T i Chi
o f f i c i a l s , and marriages were carried ( ^ifift] ) .
out a c c o r d i n g to the p o s i t i o n o f
one's clan ( ^ i f r f ^ H ) as recorded i n P r i v a t e l y - k e p t genealogies i n the Sung
the g e n e a l o g i e s . However, such Dynasty included Kun Chai Tuk Shu Chih
condition disappeared a f t e r the Ta'ng (SBIRKttS by Chiao Kung Mu ( f i & S S ) , Chik
Time. Thus, Cheng Chiao ( tfft ) Chai Shu Luk K a i T a i ( Ê f f H i i t ë ¥ I l ) by
thought that, a f t e r the Ta'ng Time, Chan Chun Sun ( ) [ i t has a sepa-
genealogies were neglected; and the rate section on genealogy], and S z i Chuk
study of genealogy ceased to e x i s t . Leuk ( ft^ft) by Cheung Chiu In
the Ming Dynasty, there was the Kwok S i
However, i t i s not true that genealogy King Chik Chih ( H £ & J f f & ) by Chiao
study d i d not e x i s t a f t e r the T a ' n g Hung ( Mtfi) • In i t , there was the gene-
 824/Lin
c
alogy section which divided genealogy i n
six kinds. It i s not u n t i l the e d i t i n g
of the Sze Ku Chuen Shu ( 0 J $ £ : f | ) in
the Ch'ing Dynasty thatg the Section of
Genealogy was c a n c e l l e d . Thus, we know
that genealogy study d i d not cease to
e x i s t a f t e r the Ta'ng Dynasty, but was
only neglected.
From the Ta'ng Dynasty onward, genealogy
was neglected because during the Dynas-
t i e s of the North and South S t a t e s
( S ^ b H ) government set up the Bureau of
Genealogy ( [ I f f / g ) . The Bureau c o l l e c -
ted a l l the genealogy of clans ( TK§# ) ,
and h i s t o r y of f a m i l i e s ( M r i k ) . Private
edited genealogies had to be sent to the
Bureau f o r i n v e s t i g a t i o n and i d e n t i f i c a -
t i o n , with the aid of government docu-
ments and books. Under the Nine-graded
Chung Cheng System of the C i v i l Service,
o f f i c i a l s were appointed to look a f t e r
the genealogies. They helped to decide
the standards f o r appointing o f f i c i a l s
and t h e i r promotion. Marriages could be
carried out i n accordance with the p o s i -
tion of the clans i n the society. Social
p o s i t i o n was j u s t i f i e d by the fame of
one's c l a n . Thus Chan Chun Sun
( ) sighed, "This i s why gene-
alogies are important i n the w o r l d . "
So, at that time, genealogies were edited
mainly f o r the royal f a m i l y , a c l a n , a
lineage, and o f f i c e r s and o f f i c i a l s of
the c i v i l s e r v i c e ; e . g . , O f f i c i a l Gene-
alogy of the Tang ( f t f f t t Ü ) of the
Latter Han ( ) Dynasty, and Genealogy
of the f a m i l i e s of Governor L i u of the
Wing Chuen D i s t r i c t ( W W M W ^ Í t l L W ) •
However, there were more clan genealogies
(see below), but they were not so impor-
tant as before.
A f t e r the Ta'ng Dynasty, the p o s i t i o n of
genealogy was lowered, and l o c a l h i s t o r y
records took i t s p o s i t i o n . A c t u a l l y both
genealogy and l o c a l h i s t o r y are records.
Both are l o c a l h i s t o r i c a l m a t e r i a l s , and
can be used as supplementary materials
f o r the h i s t o r y of a country. Their
materials can be used to correct errors
in history. Thus, i t w i l l be more prac-
t i c a l and s e n s i b l e i f we can study
Chinese h i s t o r y with the aid of genealogy
3
and l o c a l h i s t o r y , e s p e c i a l l y i n studying
s o c i a l h i s t o r y , economic h i s t o r y , and
culture.
Local H i s t o r y originated i n the h i s t o r y
of a p l a c e . 2,500 years ago, China
already had the h i s t o r y of a nation and
the h i s t o r y of s t a t e s . Then t h i s cate-
gory was divided into two branches: h i s -
tory and geography. For the h i s t o r y
topic, The S p r i n g and Autumn Annals
( #£Ji ) recorded both personal a f f a i r s
and h i s t o r i c a l f a c t s . There are also
maps and i l l u s t r a t i o n s ( | H g ) which
emphasized the recording of f a c t s on land
and p r o d u c t s . During the e a r l y Han
D y n a s t y , about 2,100 y e a r s ago, the
e a r l i e s t l o c a l h i s t o r y record c a l l e d the
Yuet Chuet Shu ( Sffilt ) was com-
pleted. It recorded personal a f f a i r s ,
the land of Wu-yuet ( PcíÉ ) , f a c t s about
Emperor King Ping ( f i | f ï ) and Lord Chun
Sun ( # E p i O , as well as products (record
on the purchasing of c e r e a l s ) . However,
the book has more h i s t o r i c a l facts than
geographical d e s c r i p t i o n s . Later, there
i s the Wah Yeung Kok Chih ( J&, )
which consists of twelve chapters. Chap-
ters 1 to 4 are about T e r r i t o r y , Chapters
5 to 11 describes Local Worthies, Chapter
12, though having the t i t l e Chih (•§•), i s
also a chapter of biographies. It lacks
descriptions of l o c a l products. Thus,
Lau Chi K i (gij£ng|) commented that i t had
been developed from l o c a l h i s t o r y into
geography. Some scholars of modern times
think that these two books are the oldest^
l o c a l h i s t o r y records known to e x i s t .
However, Chang Hok Shing ( ^ | | ! $ ) thought
that they were d i f f e r e n t , though they had
the same t i t l e .
Wong Yung ( 3 E l f ) thought that old Chinese
l o c a l h i s t o r y records can be c l a s s i f i e d
into two kinds:
1. Records which generally have descrip-
tions but no maps.
2. Maps and i l l u s t r a t i o n s which pos-
sess both maps and d e s c r i p t i o n s .
Those l o c a l h i s t o r y records which had
d e s c r i p t i o n but no maps were at f i r s t
the h i s t o r i c a l record of a region,
824/Lin 4
•191
l i k e r e c o r d s of t e r r i t o r y , and natives there. The book consists of
records of s p e c i a l products. After three chapters, with descriptions and
the Sung Dynasty, maps and i l l u s t r a - maps of 44 s t a t e s . It gave great
0
tions and l o c a l h i s t o r y ^jd-S began h e l p when c a r r y i n g out s t r a t e g i c
recording l o c a l worthies. Then i t movements i n the western region dur-
went on d e v e l o p i n g and f i n a l l y i n g the S u i and T a ' n g D y n a s t i e s .
resulted i n the l o c a l h i s t o r i e s we Notable map and geography records at
have today. that time are the f o r t y - e i g h t chap-
ters of the Maps and Records of the
A c t u a l l y , l o c a l h i s t o r i c a l records have Western Regions ( H ^ í ï / f e , ) by Hui
existed since the Ta'ng Dynasty, or even King Chung ( fFifei? ), the Map of
e a r l i e r . During the Dynasties of Wei and the Western Regions ( ) by
Chin ( Ü I E J ) , books recording the t e r r i - Wong Chung Y u i ( ï , Ê i ) , the Map of
tory and l o c a l products of a region i n - the Extreme West (^ffiSïfil ) by Yuen
creased i n number. For example, i n the Sin ( 7C *|L " ) , the ten chapters
Chun Dynasty, l o c a l h i s t o r y of outstand- of the Map of C e n t r a l I n d i a
ing importance were Records of the Sub- ( ) by Wong Yuen Chak
1 8

prefectures of Kow Kong ( ijgJzliJ'HIB ) by ( ), and the Map of the

Wong Fan ( 3: ÏË ) and Records on E x t r e m e West of the T a ' n g Dynasty
Canton ( ]g ffl ffi ) by Ku Mei ( f Ü j ) and
Pui Yuen ( M &\ ) • However, they were
(m mmm 5 by Tin LO ( ra^ ).
Some of the maps and charts were
very b r i e f . During the Ta'ng Dynasty,
drawn to provide f o r easy control
the Koot Tay Chih ( ) of Lee Tai
over the conquered lands. Thus, the
( $ Ü ) described the mountains and r i v e r s
greater the success of m i l i t a r y move-
of the prefectures and subprefectures of
ments, the r i c h e r i n geography mate-
C h i n a , s i n c e the S p r i n g and Autumn
r i a l s , the more important became the
period. It consists of 550 chapters. It
state. This encouraged the develop-
i s more detailed but s t i l l contains i n -
ment of geography records.
formation on geography. The D e s c r i p t i o n
of P r o v i n c e s , P r e f e c t u r e s and the B a r - 2. Relationship to Taxation: In the
b a r i a n s o f t h e P a s t and P r e s e n t Ta'ng Dynasty, each prefecture and
J ^ ^ m m å U m % m 5 by Ka Darm (Rjjjfc) subprefecture c a r r i e d out a by-census
recorded f a c t s about a region i n d e t a i l . y e a r l y ^ ^ a n d a census every t h r e e
Thus, i n the King Chik Chi (g$$/£) of the years. These are used as a
Sui Shu ( fåff ) , there i s a geography standard f o r t a x a t i o n . The f i f t y
section. At the same time, the Ta'ng chapters of the Maps and Records of
government ordered that each prefecture Provinces and Prefectures of the Time
or subprefecture should edit i t s maps and^ of Yuan Ho ( ) by Lee
w a s
i l l u s t r a t i o n s once every three years. Kat Po ( $pfT€ ) compiled
Private records were also abundant. This according to the information from the
encouraged the development of geography census report of the country i n the
i n the Sui and the Ta'ng Dynasties. Yuan Ho era ( 7CfPHI+?f ) . It had
a r e c o r d of the p o p u l a t i o n and
The development of Geography during the products of a l l the provinces and
above-mentioned p e r i o d might have the p r e f e c t u r e s . Population and products
following reasons: were recorded i n o t h e r maps and
geography records, records of l o c a l
1. Relationship with Strategy: During products ( ) and records of a
the Sui ( f f k ) Dynasty, Pui K u i region ( ). These records a l l
( | t t g ) followed Emperor Yung have a r e l a t i o n s h i p with the taxation
to Cheung Y i k ( SIJS ) . He compiled of a country.
the book c a l l e d Maps and Records of
the Western Regions ( tgffijy^ ) w i t h 3. Relationship with Communications: In
the oral materials provided by the the T a ' n g D y n a s t y , the system o f
824/Lin
c
courier service ( H P $ J 3 i ) was of
p a r t i c u l a r importance. There were
posthouse,S, throughout the whole
country. There were courier
highways ( gpig ) j o i n i n g the^twenty-
six m i l i t a r y bases ( m ) . When
Tai Chung ( i : ^ ) was on the way to
conquer the country of L i u ( ) , he
sent messages back to the c a p i t a l by
couriers. An o f f i c i a l c a l l e d Chik
Fong Long Chung ( fê^gpf ) of the
M i l i t a r y Department ( i ^ f f i ) of the
Imperial Government ( i f ^ l & J f f ) w
responsible to look a f t e r the maps,
and r e c o r d the d i s t a n c e s o f the
courier highways. He also looked
a f t e r the maps and geography records
which were sent from other subprefec-
tures and d i s t r i c t s to the govern-
ment. In a d d i t i o n , maps of the whole
country, like^^lap of the Ten Regions
( "hiSB )» Map of China and the
Foreign Lands ( ^ r t ^ H H )» D i s -
t r i b u t i o n of P r o v i n c e s , Prefectures
and F o r e i g n Lands i n the Pa&t and
Present ( g ^ F l P I l l E Í B f H ) , also
have a r e l a t i o n s h i p with communica-
tions .
In the Ta'ng Dynasty, there were l o t s of
geography records and maps. Most of them
were of the whole country. Regional
geography and regional maps were scanty.
A c c o r d i n g to the s t a t i s t i c s made by
Professor Sadao Aoyama ( ^ [ i i S U f S c t t ) °f
Japan, there were only recorded about one
hundred r e g i o n a l maps and geography
records, mainly of the regions of Hopei
( Mit ) , Yuen Chow ( fjtW ) , Suchow
( M'M ) , the Southeri^-Region ( ) and
Szechuan ( 23III ). A f t e r the Sung
Dynasty, regional geographical records
suddenly i n c r e a s e d i n number. This
finally2»|eveloped into l o c a l history
records.
The c o n t e n t s o f the Local History
Records, generally include materials on
local worthies, t e r r i t o r y , climate,
events, the l o c a l economy, l i t e r a t u r e and
miscellaneous items; using K i n To Lam On
Chih ( féjIffiSfife) by Chau Chung of
the Sung Dynasty as an example: this
book c o n s i s t s of t h r e e c h a p t e r s w i t h
s i x t y - t h r e e subtopics. Chapter one i s
divided into twenty-five subtopics,
mainly of geography records. There are
records o f o f f i c i a l b u i l d i n g s and
o f f i c e s , and m i l i t a r y camps and barracks.
Chapter two c o n s i s t s o f items l i k e
boundary changes, customs, territories
and land and water communication, which
are m a i n l y geography r e c o r d s . Also,
economic r e c o r d s on p o p u l a t i o n , l o c a l
products and t a x a t i o n can be f o u n d .
Chapter t h r e e c o n s i s t s o f r e c o r d s on
a s
l o c a l worthies, government o f f i c i a l s and
o f f i c e r s and t h e i r deeds.
From the Sung Dynasty onward, a l l l o c a l
h i s t o r y records f o l l o w t h i s l i s t of con-
t e n t s , which have three p r i n c i p a l charac-
teristics:
1. There are more descriptions on the
geographical condition of a r e g i o n .
2. There are records on the deeds of the
l o c a l worthies i n a region and t h e i r
l i t e r a t u r e . Events of the region are
also recorded.
3. They are e s p e c i a l l y r i c h i n records
on i n v e s t i g a t i o n and on o r a l mate-
r i a l s . Thus, i t i s a combination of
h i s t o r y and geography.
At that time, the scope of the l o c a l h i s -
tory records expanded. There may be over
one hundred subtopics; but a l l of them
f o l l o w the main contents of the Sung
period. Thus, l o c a l h i s t o r y has been
separated from geography since the Sung
Dynasty. Table 1 (at the end of the
paper) shows the trend of development of
local history.
During the Sung Dynasty, geography was
developed i n t o l o c a l h i s t o r y . More
g e o g r a p h i c a l r e c o r d s were completed.
This was due to the following reasons:
1. Relationship 2gto the u n i f i c a t i o n of
the country: In the s i x t h year of
Kai Po ( ) [973], Lo Tor Sun
( Ê t ^ M ) was on an embassy to Kiang
Nam ( £Lfå ) , t r y i n g to get the maps
and r e c o r d s of the d i s t r i c t , and
824/Lin
c
f a c t s on the geographical condition
of the nineteen subprefectures. The
materials he got were used i n the
preparations f o r conquering Kiang
Nam. L a t e r , he ordered the e d i t i n g
of maps and r e c o r d s o f ^ H the
r e g i o n s i n the c o u n t r y . This
encouraged the development of
geography.
2. Relationship with the e d i t i n g of the
Encyclopedias: During the early Sung
Dynasty, the government compiled the
four famous encyclopedias, namely T a i
Ping Yu Lam ( )> T a
8i
Kwong K i ( ic^PSSE ) , Chak Fu Yuen
Kwai ( f S J f r x H ) and Man Yuen Ying Wah
( Í ^ E ^ ^ P ) - Books were c o l l e c t e d f o r
r e f e r e n c e , among them many o l d
geography records. From these r e f e r -
ence m a t e r i a l s , many l o c a l h i s t o r y
records were w r i t t e n . For example:
a. The 200 chapters of the Records
of the Peaceful World ( A ^ f g ^ f f i )
was w r i t t e n by Lok Shi ( ) p r i n t i n g methods developed and im-
with reference to the a r t i c l e s
w r i t t e n by Ka Darm ( W t t ) and Lee
Kat Po ( $ ^ T # -
b. The ten chapters of the Records
of the Nine D i s t r i c t s i n the Time
of Yuen Fung ( Æ M A ^ Æ ^ ) was
w r i t t e n by Wong Chuen with
reference to the Map of the Ten
Regions ( +31 IS )•
c. The t h i r t y - e i g h t c h a p t e r s of
Records of T e r r i t o r y ( é f j f e f f i f S )
was w r i t t e n by Au Yeung Man
( IX fiêfe ) with reference to Yu
Kung ( ^ J Í ) .
During the Dynasty of the Southern Sung,
the Record on Famous Places of the T e r r i -
tory (efi-tfeffiP ) , which consists of 200
chapters, was compiled by Wong Cheong Chi
( )• It i s a book with very
r i c h materials on h i s t o r y and geography.
Later, there was the seventy chapters of
the Fong Yu Shing Lam ( b y Chuk
Mu ( U B )• Though t h i s i s a
geographical record of the southern Sung
Time, i t has d e t a i l e d records on famous
places and h i s t o r i c a l r e l i c s , poems, and
introductory a r t i c l e s . They enlarged the
contents of materials on a region and
thus formed a content f o r l o c a l h i s t o r y
records.
3. Relationship with emphasis on l i t e r -
ature: During the Sung Dynasty, the
l i t e r a r y s p i r i t was i n f u l l f l o w e r .
S c h o l a r s and s t u d e n t s wrote many
articles. Those of outstanding im-
portance are the f o r t y chapters of
Maps and I l l u s t r a t i o n s on an Embassy
p i n
to Korea ( ^ ^ M M M & ) by Tsui King
( fèts ); the two chapters of Records
b C h i u
of the Foreigners ( f g | g ± ) ?
Yu Koot ( tøiftii. ) ; the ten chap-
ters of Ling Ngoi Doy Darp ( j R f t r ø )
by Chau Hui F a i ( fg£IË ) 5 and the one
chapter of Kwai Hoi Yu Hang Chih
( B l t ó by Fan Shing T a i (mfóýz) •
Their authors recorded what they had
seen and what they had heard when
they v i s i t e d these lands. Besides,
proved, and book publishing became
easier. Thus, the number of books
increased at that time. The s p i r i t
of the w r i t i n g of geographical a r t i -
cles f l o u r i s h e d . The a r t i c l e s were
then improved, and l o t s of l o c a l
materials were added. These f i n a l l y
developed into l o c a l h i s t o r y records.
The Tai Ping Yu Lam ( ) of the
e a r l y Sung Dynasty i l l u s t r a t e s the spread
of a v a i l a b l e m a t e r i a l s . It was compiled
with the use of 256 reference books. Of
these, t h i r t y - s i x were maps and i l l u s -
t r a t i o n s , and the rest were l o c a l records
( |2 ) . These records stressed l o c a l
worthies, l o c a l customs, l o c a l products,
famous places, h i s t o r i c r e l i c s , and m i s -
cellaneous m a t e r i a l s . Books of l o c a l
h i s t o r y records which e x i s t t i l l today
are abundant, even i n comparison with the
Ta'ng Dynasty. According to s t a t i s t i c s ,
there are t h i r t y - f i v e kinds (545 chap-
ters) of l o c a l h i s t o r y records of the
Sung Dynasty. Up to the Ming Dynasty,
l o c a l h i s t o r y records developed into d i f -
ferent kinds of records. Table 2 shows
the pattern of t h i s development.
 824/Lin
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Local h i s t o r y records were abundant i n
the dynasties of Ming and Ching. There
are three reasons f o r t h e i r development:
1. During the Ming Dynasty, besides the
h i s t o r y of the country, there were
r e c o r d s ^ o f the p r o v i n c e s and the
cities. Because of the invasion of
the Mongols and the Wo Kau (the
Japanese wanderers), maps and i l l u s -
trations on f r o n t i e r defenses were
many. For example, the Maps and
I l l u s t r a t i o n s of the Ridges and the
Seas ( ) by Y i u Yu ( ftg ) ,
Maps and I l l u s t r a t i o n s on Proposed
Coastal Defenses ( % U W M ) by Wu
Chung Hin ( M'm'É ) , Maps and
I l l u s t r a t i o n s on the Nine Frontiers
( hy an unknown person; and
the Maps and I l l u s t r a t i o n s on the
Southern F r o n t i e r ( g j f t H g g ) by Ng
Kwok Tze ( )• Besides
these books, there were many private
and p u b l i c e d i t e d l o c a l history
records. This was because of the
l i n g e r i n g l i t e r a r y s p i r i t of the l a t e
Sung Dynasty.
2. The encouragement of the famous Ching
h i s t o r i a n , Cheong Hok Shing ( ^ j p | $ ) .
Cheong advocated the setting of a
department of l o c a l h i s t o r y record i n
every d i s t r i c t . He expanded the
scope of l o c a l h i s t o r y record, put
forward the s t y l e of the e d i t i n g of
such record, and himself edited the
Record of Wo Chau ( ) , Record
of Wing Ching D i s t r i c t ( * j f ) | i ± ) ,
Record of Tod Chau ( M W M ) , and
Provincial Record of Hupei
( )W4fcaÆ )• L a t e r , scholars
followed his s t y l e and many l o c a l
h i s t o r y records were produced.
3. The encouragement of the government:
During the e a r l y Ch'ing Dynasty, the
Record of the United China ( — ) ,
the H i s t o r y o f the Ming Dynasty
( ) and the Sze Fu Chuen Shu
( E 3 0 £ i í ) were e d i t e d . Orders were
given to a l l d i s t r i c t s asking them to
send their l o c a l h i s t o r y records to
the imperial government. Officials
and o f f i c e r s o f a r e g i o n became
7
famous w i t h the compilation of such
records. This promoted the develop-
ment of l o c a l h i s t o r y record.
Summary
Genealogy and l o c a l h i s t o r y record are
the best-known regional h i s t o r i c a l mate-
rials. They started about 2,500 years
ago. Genealogy f l o u r i s h e d i n the Chin
( g ) and the North and South Dynasties
(265-589), but was neglected during the
Ta'ng Dynasty. From that time, genealogy
has concentrated on f a m i l y genealogy, and
of course, these possess a l o t of v a l u -
able materials (see below).
On the other hand, the l o c a l h i s t o r y
record which also started 2,500 years
ago, l a t e r developed into the h i s t o r y of
a country and maps and records. With the
appearance of the Yuet Chuet Shu ( @$&(ï)
and Wah Yeung Kok Chih ( |g&§[Ii/£ )> l o t s
of geographical materials were put into
the l o c a l h i s t o r y records. Thus, there
i s a geography section i n the King Chik
Chi ( ftjf£ ) of Sui Shu ( f ^ m ) . In
the Sung Dynasty (960-1279), from the
records of geography, the s t y l e of l o c a l
h i s t o r y r e c o r d s was formed. These
f l o u r i s h e d during the Dynasties of Ming
and Ching.
Thus, the time of Sui and Ta'ng Dynasties
was the turning point of Genealogy and
Local H i s t o r y Records: one declined i n
s c h o l a r l y and governmental esteem, and
the other f l o u r i s h e d . But each has a
great value i n research on Chinese H i s -
tory, e s p e c i a l l y f o r the h i s t o r y of a
region.
II. THE VALUE OF THE AMALGAMATED STUDY
OF GENEALOGIES WITH LOCAL HISTORICAL
RECORDS (FANG CHIH)
As stated above, a f t e r the Ta'ng Dynasty,
genealogy did not receive a high valua-
t i o n from the government and society.
But China was a nation with a settled
a g r i c u l t u r a l b a s i s and a n c e s t r y was
s p e c i a l l y emphasized among her people.
So the compilation of genealogy was s t i l l
824/Lin 8
c

popular to a degree. In the l a s t phase records i s smaller. They p r o v i d e

of the Sung, 170 items amounting to 2 , 4 ^
chapters were i n various c o l l e c t i o n s .
In the Ming Dynasty, according to the
catalog made by Chiao Hung ( %ip>\ ) , there
were X^O items amounting to 2,769 chap-
ters. At the present time, no family
r e c o r d s compiled p r i o r to the Yuan
Dynasty are now a v a i l a b l e . According to
Professor Taga A k i g o r o ' s ( ) tained i n the genealogies.
researches, Sin-an Tai Chu Chih
( ffi&Mim ) edited by Chen Loh ( gggg )
of the Yuan Dynasty and Sin-an Hsiu Ning
L i n g Nam Chang S h i h Hui Tung Pu
( ^^mmm^mm ) edited by w
Kung ( £ E # ) and Wang Sai ( Ï I ) of the
Chia Ching ( j|gjf ) period in the Ming
Dynasty are the most a n c i e n t f a m i l y
records preserved on e a r t h . A l l those
works now i n the archives were compiled
and e d i t e d by persons i n the Ming
Dynasty, the Ching and the modem times,
and their quantity and d i s t r i b u t i o n are
as f o l l o w s :
38
1,228 t i t l e s i n Japan
1,058 t i t l e ^ i n the United States
of America
753 title^g i n the Peoples' Republic
of China
More than 400 t i t l e s i n the Fung
Ping Shan L i b r a r y of the U n i v e r s i t y
of Hong Kong
42
Hundreds of t i t l e s i n Taiwan
d e s c r i p t i o n s of f a c t s such as the migra^
t i o n and influence of a c e r t a i n c l a n ,
t h e i r ^ u l t u r a l changes and l o c a l develop-
ment , t h e i r family^ education and ge-
netic r e l a t i o n s h i p s , and ^gheir s o c i a l
economy and r i t u a l records. Materials
concerning the i n t e r f l o w of culture be-
tween China and the West^are also con-
As to Fang Chih, t h e i r quantity i s at
present f a r more abundant than genealo-
gies. In the f i r s t phase of the Ta'ng,
i n the catalog of books of geographical
ang records, there are recorded 139 items of
1,433 chapters, whereas items of gene-
a l o g i c a l records amounted to only f o r t y -
one of 360 chapters. U n t i l the l a s t
phase of the Sung, the quantity of books
i n the category of Fang Chih was morj
than those of genealogies by ten times.
In the Ming period, Fang Chih were very
common. According to the catalog made by
Chiao Hung, they ,-^otaled 623 items of
9,388 c h a p t e r s , but genealogical
records amounted to not^more than 190
items of 2,769 chapters. At present,
the c o l l e c t i o n of Fang Chih i n the
a r c h i v e s o f a l l u n i v e r s i t i e s and l i -
b r a r i e s i n the world amount to almost ten
thousand t i t l e s t o t a l l i n g approximately
eighty thousand chapters and d i s t r i b u t e d
as f o l l o w s :
Nearly ten thousand i n ^ a p a n , among
them 549 Ming editions

It i s not s u r p r i s i n g that many items i n More than three thousand in the

the above-mentioned c o l l e c t i o n s are United States of America
i d e n t i c a l and the actual quantity i s not
so p l e n t i f u l as the t o t a l f i g u r e s seem to Over s i x thousand^in the Peoples'
show. Republic of China

A f t e r the Ta'ng the genealogies compiled More than nine hundred i n the Fung
were mainly family records. It i s o b v i - Ping Shan L i b r a r y of the U n i v e r s i t y
ous that general genealogy and lineage of Hong Kong
records have a wider scope. What they
record are the f a c t s about the o r i g i n , Approximately eight hundred in
the blood r e l a t i o n s h i p , and the d i s t r i - Taiwan
bution of descendants of a c e r t a i n c l a n .
These materials are of higher v a l u e . On About ,4gro thousand i n France and
the other hand, the scope of f a m i l y Canada
824/Lin
c
The value of Fang Chih i s that they pre-
serve materials about various aspects of
the development of a c e r t a i n d i s t r i c t .
When a person's deeds are a great c o n t r i -
bution to the nation and when materials
are of great importance to the country,
they are recorded i n the national h i s -
t o r y . Where p e r s o n a l i t i e s and f a c t s have
an influence on a c e r t a i n d i s t r i c t only
these are of lesser importance and are
recorded i n Fang Chih.
Thus Fang Chih can serve as a supplement
to national h i s t o r y . The former may also
correct certain errors i n h i s t o r i c a l
f a c t s i n the l a t t e r . That i s why Tsak
Hsuan Yun ( H S U ) pointed out.gthat
there are s i x values i n Fang Chih, and
Fu Chun Lun ( $Jgffe ) thought of another
four, w h i l s t Chu Sih Chia ( ) very wide-ranging record. But gene-
indicated that there are a l o t of s c i e n -
t i f i c materials i n Fang Chih^which can be
used i n a new type of study.
In the comparison of Fang Chih with gene-
alogies we can f i n d that:
1. The quantity of Fang Chih i s f a r
g r e a t e r than t h a t of g e n e a l o g i e s .
The main reason i s that i n the Ching
Dynasty the p r e f e c t u a l governments
had often ordered a new compilation
of the Fang Chih of t h e i r d i s t r i c t s
at an i n t e r v a l of a few decades. In
the i n t e r v a l between e d i t i o n s , new
p e r s o n a l i t i e s emerged and economic
conditions were changed. For gene-
a l o g i e s , however, unless there was a
migration of the clan or a f t e r a
period of over a hundred years, a new
e d i t i o n was not necessary.
2. Fang Chih were compiled at the ex-
pense of the l o c a l government, who
employed scholars f o r the purpose.
Take Huang Cho's ( í f f e ) e d i t i o n of
Kwangtung Tung Chih ( R j l f S í É ) i n
1558 as an example. The editor i n
c h a r g e , Huang Cho, was a famous
scholar. There i s a biography of him
i n the Ming Yu Hsueh An ( B£jflf||^ ) .
His a s s i s t a n t s , such as Au Tai Yum
( R^Cf£ ) , were also renowned
scholars of the time. So t h e i r work
was c o n s i d e r e d a m a s t e r p i e c e f o r
ages. Genealogy, f o r the reason that
i t described the development and h i s -
tory of a c e r t a i n c l a n , was compiled
by people i n the clan o n l y . The
r e s u l t of t h e i r compilations was, i n
most cases, i n no way comparable with
that of Fang Chih. So i n general,
the value of Fang Chih i s greater.
3. As to the scope of t h e i r contents,
Fang Chih contains records of p o l i -
t i c s , economics, c u l t u r e , m i l i t a r y
a f f a i r s , public r e l a t i o n s h i p s , com-
munications, l o c a l constructions,
t r a d i t i o n a l habits and customs, per-
s o n a l i t i e s , l o c a l products, and the
l i k e . The categories can e a s i l y run
to a hundred items, and constitute a
alogies t e l l only the development,
regional d i s t r i b u t i o n , biographies of
p e r s o n a l i t i e s , and regulations im-
posed and enacted i n the c l a n . Their
scope i s narrower and simpler. Their
quantity i s thus smaller.
4. In the compilation of a Fang Chih,
the authors c o l l e c t , by interviews
and actual v i s i t s to places, numerous
l o c a l l i t e r a t u r e such as w r i t i n g s i n
memory of a person or an i n c i d e n t ,
and also f o l k t a l e s . So we can f i n d
i n a Fang Chih materials derived from
genealogies such as biographies, e p i -
taphs, rock carvings, and i n s c r i p -
t i o n s i n temples and ancestral
shrines. On the contrary, we can
seldom f i n d i n a genealogy materials
derived from the Fang Chih.
5. Genealogies emphasize the consecu-
tiveness of generations i n a family
but not the idea of chronology. For
every person recorded a reader can
f i n d from the genealogy the names of
his ancestors, his wives, his sons
and grandsons, h i s brothers, s i s t e r s ,
and cousins. We can also f i n d a
d e s c r i p t i o n of the great deeds he
performed and even the s i t e of h i s
tomb. But i t i s a p i t y that we can-
not always f i n d h i s dates of b i r t h
and death. So i n i n v e s t i g a t i n g a
824/Lin 10

person recorded i n the genealogy, one Han peoples. The Han people were
can hardly confirm his chronology; f i n a l l y v i c t o r i o u s and made the Yao
and even the chronological proofs to districts prefectures u
$£ e r
e t n

some i n c i d e n t s are not i n d i c a t e d . government of t h e i r empire.

The s i t u a t i o n i n Fang C h i h i s a
l i t t l e better. In the section of
Main Events, the year was sure to be 2. In 1971, I extended my study of l o c a l
marked down. In the section Tables h i s t o r y by using materials from Fang
of Examination Successes, the dynasty Chih and genealogies to trace the
was c l e a r l y recorded t h e r e i n . But i t pioneer history of Kwangtung
i s most regrettable to f i n d that i n Province. In my paper "Lady Chiao
the s e c t i o n of B i o g r a p h i e s exact Kuo of Sui Dynasty, her S i n i c i z a -
dates were often omitted. This i s a t i o n and Influence" ( B u l l e t i n of the
great drawback to our study. I n s t i t u t e of H i s t o r y and P h i l o l o g y ,
Academia S i n i c a , V o l . 43, Part 2 ) , my
Nevertheless, genealogies and Fang Chih main sources were "Lineage Record of
are both valuable source materials f o r Sin Shih i n Ling Nam" ( m W ^ ^ M )
s o c i a l h i s t o r i e s . Thé study of Fang Chih by Sin Pao Kan ( ) , 1910,
i s pinpointed on the d i s t r i c t s while the Yuan Ho Hsing Chuan ( yt^at&^ ) by
study of genealogy i s p i n p o i n t e d on L i n Pao ( ) , Shi Hsien Shih Chu
personalities. Of course, some other Yen Hsing L u i P i e n j S g f t K a í r S Í i )
aspects of s o c i a l a c t i v i t i e s are also by Chang Ting ( Í Í A Ë ) , Wan Hsing
included. So the amalgamated study of Tung Pu ( g & j f ê l g ) by Ling T i Chi
these two sources r e s u l t s i n a more ( gliÉÍÍJ ) , Kwangtung Tung Chih
extensive and intensive understanding of by Yuan Yuan ( f a i t )> t h e

Chinese s o c i e t y . I have been paying Kwang Hsu e d i t i o n of Kao Chow Fu Chih

close attention to the study of l o c a l
h i s t o r y f o r more than ten years, taking
Fang Chih i n the f i r s t instance and then
entering into the study of genealogies.
It came out that:
1. By u t i l i z i n g the two hundred Fang
Chih of the three provinces of Hunan
( MM ) , Kwangsi ( Jgffi ) , and
Kwangtung ( ) which I acquired
from the United States of America i n
1970, I wrote "A C h r o n o l o g i c a l
Account of Yao U p r i s i n g s i n Sung
P e r i o d " ( p u b l i s h e d i n "Essays i n
Chinese Studies presented to
P r o f e s s o r Lo H s i a n g - l i n on h i s
r e t i r e m e n t from the U n i v e r s i t y of
Hong Kong"). In t h i s work I pointed
out with materials derived from Fang
Chih and standard dynastic h i s t o r i e s ,
t h a t the r e g i o n s of the west of
Hunan, the northeast of Kwangtung,
and at the borders of Hunan and
Kwangtung, and Kwangtung w i t h Kwangsi
were a l l Yao d i s t r i c t s i n the Sung
period, and that t h e r e a f t e r , there
were c o n f l i c t s between the Yao and
( (flffltft/cf. )> and Mow Ming Hsien Chih
( Bc^éåiÆ ). By comparing these
w i t h m a t e r i a l s from the standard
Dynastic h i s t o r i e s , i t was seen that
i n the period of the Sui and the
Ta'ng, the d i f f u s i o n of Han culture
to Kwangtung was f i r s t started when
lady Chiao Kuo ( | | , g ) surrendered to
the Sui and her land was thus c i v i l -
ized by the Han. Then i n the Ta'ng,
Kwangtung was d i v i d e d i n t o e i g h t
prefectures under the government of
the empire. (Figure 1 at end of
paper.)
3. In 1979, I p u b l i s h e d a paper i n
Essays f o r the Tenth Anniversary of
the H i s t o r i c a l Archives Commission of
the Kuomintang, Academia H i s t o r i c a .
I t i s e n t i t l e d "A Research into the
Portuguese Stay i n Hong Kong during
the 16th Century." My main sources
were the Fang Chih compiled i n the
Ming and the Ching periods together
with the genealogies of some of the
p r e s e n t i n h a b i t a n t s i n r u r a l Hong
Kong. It i s found that:
824/Lin
c
a. The f i r s t Sine—Portuguese war
took place i n the year 1521 and
not 1523 as recorded i n Ming Shi
< W$L )«
b. The place of c o n f l i c t was i n the
v i c i n i t y of Hong Kong and not i n
the D i s t r i c t of Hsin Hui ( $ f £ )
as recorded i n Ming S h i .
c. Lampacao, the biggest Portuguese
trading center i n China i n the
16th Century, was located, by my
i n v e s t i g a t i o n , i n the west of
Lantau Island of Hong Kong.
These papers are my primary studies into
l o c a l h i s t o r y using source materials from
Fang Chih and genealogies. The conclu-
sions of the f i r s t two papers serve as
supplements to the national h i s t o r y while
11
the t h i r d corrects an error i n i t . At
p r e s e n t , I have begun a w i d e - r a n g i n g
study of the h i s t o r y of Hong Kong before
B r i t i s h c o l o n i z a t i o n with the c o l l a b o r a -
t i o n of Mr. Siu Kwok-kin and Mr. Tsang
Yat-mun. Our source m a t e r i a l s are
c h i e f l y genealogies of the l o c a l i n h a b i t -
ants and the Fang Chih of many d i s t r i c t s
i n Kwangtung province. We agree that
there are fewer records of areas where
the c u l t u r a l standard i s lower, and that
many new discoveries w i l l be acquired by
an intensive i n v e s t i g a t i o n of the gene-
alogies and Fang Chih. Of course, some
of those neglected materials concerning
the s o c i a l , economical, and geographical
aspects of h i g h l y - c i v i l i z e d areas can be
traced from Fang Chih and genealogies.
So we are convinced that the amalgamated
study of these two sources i s an impor-
tant means to achieve the f u l l study of
local history.
824/Lin
c

ti
S* t o
o
1-1

i1
Vi
O
fa O

Í»í 3 - "
O C
824/Lin
c

(Imperial
Government) Record of a United
Maps and Record of the ~* China -
Illustrations Peaceful World

Record on Famous
General Record
Places of the Ter-
r i t o r y ^ tJ*4t,l^ General Record of Sze Chuan
(V^fatr by Ngai Pok YulMfcfe»

Provincial Record &lLr

(Regional)
Record of Kwangtung Prov-
Sze Ming Chih *>*^tr
ince itfclfcL- by Hu*j C K o ^ i t
Record of Wu District4$$»
Record of Lam On $KÁ~% Record of Prefectures Ærf&tr

Record of the Mu Kung Dis-

t r i c t SC*6$iírby Kang Hoi

Record of Rural D i s t r i c t it) *-tr

Record of Ku So Region * t ^ t ,
by Wong Ngo i %

Record of Capitals and Cities

Record of Relics of Bin King

Record of Miscellaneous Mat-

erials «Ct3r

Record of Lo Ful Shan ^ t»

byHitang C\no^<^-

Ta» ng Sung Ming

 824/Lin 15
c

NOTES

^Chapter 3 of The Genealogist's Encyclopedia by Leslie G. Pine (David and

Charles, Newton Abbot, 1969) stated that genealogy has existed i n Europe since 1100
A.D.
7
The e a r l i e s t known Genealogies were T i Hai (ijjfgg ) and Hsi Ben ( ^tír^;) of the
Rites of the Chau Period ( Jjjft ) ; and the Table of the Three Generations ( H f t ^ ; ^ )
of the Record of H i s t o r y ( ).
3
Pages 17-21 of A Study of Chinese Genealogy (1971) by Professor Lo
Hsiang-lin.
4
According to the genealogy of the Lee Family ( ^ g ^ f g ) , kept i n the Fung
Ping Shan L i b r a r y , U n i v e r s i t y of Hong Kong, i t i s recorded that t h e i r ancestor was the
o f t n e
son of Emperor Chiu Shuen (Bg S ^ ) Ta'ng Dynasty. They f l e d to the south.
However there i s no proof. Pu L a i ( fg#|J ) of So Shun (JjcitjJ ) recorded, "From the
d e c l i n a t i o n of the Tang Dynasty ( i t should be the beginning of the Ta'ng Dynasty),
genealogical records ceased to e x i s t . O f f i c i a l s , scholars, and ordinary people had no
records. Even the nobles and the slaves, the r i c h and the poor, had no record of
their ancestors. Thus the record of genealogy f a i l e d to e x i s t . "
5
Chapter 25, A B r i e f Introduction of the Clans and Lineages ( ftl^Bg/f: ) of
Tung Chih ( ü ± ) by Cheng Chiao (jgffig ) .

6
Pages 56-57, Chung Kok Si Pu Muk Luk Hok ( f O ^ g ^ ) by Chang Hok Sing
( iPHS ) , Commercial Press L t d .
7
Genealogy Item (ggjggg) of Ngai Man Chih ( g £ ± ) of the H i s t o r y of the Sung
Dynasty ( ).
g
The s i x kinds of genealogies are Genealogy of the Emperors ( ï f r ^ ) , Genealogy
of the Royal Families (J蒣 ) , General Genealogy of the Nations ( fUlf ) , Genealogy of
the Tones ( a l l f ) , Genealogy of the Provinces ( f$|g ) , and Genealogy of Families
( M u m ) ' Altogether, there are 170 volumes i n c l u d i n g 2,411 chapters of genealogies i n
the Tung Chih ( 3 § ± ) .
9_
The General Introduction of the H i s t o r y Section of Sze Fu Chung Muk Tai Y i u
( H0$S@fiiil ) recorded, "In the past, there was the Genealogy Section. However,
a f t e r the Ta'ng Dynasty, genealogy ceased to e x i s t : Genealogies of the Emperors were
not known to the p u b l i c , Genealogies of the Families were not sent to the government.
Since the item existed i n name only, i t was then c a n c e l l e d . "
10
See Chapter 8 of Chik Chai Shu Muk K a i T a i ( Ü L ^ H g S ü ) hy Chan Chun Sun
( WU$k ) , and K a i Tai ( ) of Hsing Yuan Yuen Pu ( jÊÍRMIt ) by Cheung Kau
Ling ( i S ^ t n ).
11
Page 7 of Introduction to L o c a l H i s t o r y Records of China ( f H ^ ^ ^ J H B ) by
Fu Chun Lun ( f#$ifí% ) , Commercial Press L t d . , Taiwan, states that Yuet Chuet Shu
( i S f ê ü ) was the f i r s t l o c a l h i s t o r y record. Page 1 of the Introduction noted that
Wah Yeung Kok Chih ( ^ H H I Æ ) was an example of an early l o c a l h i s t o r y record. Page 8
o f
A Study of L o c a l H i s t o r y Record ( ^ ^ ^ ) by Lee Tai Fan ( ) recorded, "In the
past, the best known record i s Wah Yeung Kok C h i h . "
824/Lin 16
c

M i s c e l l a n e o u s ( ffijg ) of Sze Hau Sik L a i ( £ # P $ J ) i n Cheung Sze Wai Shu

( m&mm ).
13
Pages 129 and 214 of A H i s t o r y of Geography i n China ( f H U È ï I ^ S t ) by Wong
Yung ( ), Commercial Press L t d .
14
Pages 589 and 593 of the Research i n t o Ancient Chinese L o c a l H i s t o r y Records
( tpMïïJjM^) by Cheung Kwok Kam ( S i S ^ ) , Ding Man Book C o . , Taiwan.
15
P a g e 122, Chik Fong Long Chung ( fê^SPf) of the M i l i t a r y Department ( ft oft )
i n Chapter 5 of the S i x Codes of the Ta'ng Dynasty ( ^ J S T / N ^ ) stated, "Pay a t t e n t i o n
to the map of the whole country. . . . maps should be sent to the Imperial Court once
every three years. When foreigners came to the c a p i t a l , o f f i c i a l s of the Hung Lo Chi
( M^F ) would ask them f o r the topography and customs of t h e i r c o u n t r i e s . The
materials were put on record and sent to the Imperial Court." A f t e r the reign of Sun
Chung ( ) , these were sent to the court once every f i v e years. See also Chapter
59, Chik Fong Long Chung ( Ü ^ g f l f p ) of Ta'ng Wui Y i u ( ).
16
Chapter 73, An S i To Wu Fu ( $ H i $ H t f f ) of Ta'ng Hui Y i u ( J * # f í ) , and notes
on Ngai Man Chih ( i$Tj£0 of the New History of the Ta'ng Dynasty ( f i J S t i ) .

•^Chapter 15, Map of the Western Region ( g g ^ g ] ) of Yuk Hoi (fggg) by Wong Ying
Lun ( £ J i l t )•
18
Record of A Description of Precious Old Drawings ( ^ ^ ^ . i i - f t ^ f H ) i n Records
of Famous Drawings i n a l l Dynasties ( S l f t ^ ê w f f l ) [from page 30 o f A H i s t o r y of
Geography i n China ( c p S % f f i ^ 5 & ) by Wong Yung ( £ * ) ] .
19 ) of Yuk
Chapter 16, Map of the Extreme West i n the Ta'ng Dynasty ( Jgg^
Hoi ( 3íïS ) by Wong Ying Lun ( ÏJSHH ) .
20
Chapter 85 of Ta'ng Hui Yiu ( J§^^)
21 M f r jjtt
The Introduction of the Maps and Records of Provinces and Prefectures of the
m a
Time of Yuan Ho ( jt^üMWtMM )> P S omitted, Ngai Man Book Press L t d . , Taiwan,
s t a t e s , "The aim of the book i s to d i v i d e the land into p o l i t i c a l regions f o r
i d e n t i f i c a t i o n , appoint o f f i c i a l s to r u l e the l a n d , to develop settlements, to
increase t a x a t i o n , and to produce things as r e q u i r e d . " I t i s also recorded,
"Previously, the Census Report of the Country i n the Time of Yuan Ho (xfPIIIIft p|$) was
sent to the court and the property and wealth of the f a m i l i e s were reported. Then the
edit of the maps and Records of Provinces and Prefectures of the Time of Yuan Ho
( x W S R S f - B * )» with i t s aim of d i v i d i n g the country into prefectures was accepted
by the Imperial Court."
22
C h a p t e r 26, Kwun Y i k Tze B i k K i ( I g P f ë S E ) i n the Record of L i u Chung Yuen
( WMjtM ) recorded, "People from f o r e i g n countries and barbarians from the
four corners can use the highways of the whole country to come into the kingdom. The
transportation of t r i b u t e and taxes, and the passage of those who hold government
posts i n the c a p i t a l can take place on the h i g h w a y s . . . . Thus the System of Courier
Service was widespread."
23
Chapter 6, Penal Laws ( fflffl, ) of the S i x Codes of the Ta'ng Dynasty
recorded, " M i l i t a r y bases, outside the c a p i t a l , with courier highways binding them to
824/Lin 17
c

a l l around, are the most important. (Note: there are s i x military bases of this
kind. Other grades of m i l i t a r y base are also situated on highways.)
24
Chapter 61, Courier Service ( H P ) of the Ta'ng Hui Y i u ( H H l * )•
25
The Map of the Ten Regions ( - p ü B j ) edited i n the fourth year of Cheung On
( J í S r H ^ )» that i n the t h i r d year of K a i Yuen ( Ü 7 Ê H ^ ) [see Ngai Man Chih
1
( ffi^C* ) of the New History of the Ta'ng Dynasty ( f f Ü * ) and the Ngai Man Chih
( o f the Tung Chih ( 3 ife ) ] , the Map of Prefectures of the Ten Regions
(+3Ë:H1i$[H ) [ i t i s the same as the Map of the Ten Regions i n the Time of Yuan Ho
( 7 C Í P - h j l B ) as recorded i n the Hin Chung Pun K i ( H T K Ý I B ) of the Old H i s t o r y of the
Ta'ng Dynasty ( filUfi ) ] , and Map of the Ten Regions i n the Time of Ching Yuan
( ^ X + a Í B l ) which was discovered i n Tun Huang ( ffc'Jfl ) , P e l l i o t no. 2522.
26
These two maps and i l l u s t r a t i o n s were edited by Ka Darm ( ) • In the Ngai
Man Chih ( ® ^ ± ) of the New H i s t o r y of the Ta'ng Dynasty ( f r J l r l t )» the Wang Wah Tze
Tak K i ( JÈ ¥ E3 iÊ fB ) by Ka Darm was suspected to be the Description of
Provinces, Prefectures and Foreign Lands i n the Past and Present ( ^ f t l $ m j H £ r a ! Í j i í ) •
Ng Shing Chi ( ) edited i t into the Ta'ng Ka Darm K i P i n Chau Yup Tze Y i To L i
Hau Sut ( i S H t t E & i W Á r a H & Í P f l g ) Man Hoi P u b l i s h e r , Taiwan.
27
See pages 452-453 of Professor Sadao Aoyama ( # |JL|AË3ÉfSí£f)'s The Research of
Communication, G e o g r a p h i c a l Records and Maps i n t h e Time o f T a ' n g and Sung
T h i s
( l i 3 ^ f t © S Ü £ i È l £ i t e B © é F ^ )• records information as f o l l o w s : The Hope i Record
( N=ltfB ) included those of Ki-chow ( m ^ B ) by K i u Tarn ( f P ) , Yip Shing (#}#sE )
by Lau Kung Y u i ( ) , Hsu T i ) by Lau Fong ( t ø f ), Shun Tao ( ^ i $ f £ ),
San Sing ( gf Jfcgg ) by Shum Ah Chi ( gfcgg^ ) , and K i n On ( £ ) by Siu Tze Hai
( j f f ? M ) . The Yuen Chow Record ( fji'lMB ) included those of Wu Kwun ( M f r ø S Æ ; ) by
Wong Chunk K i n ( £ M ) , Wu Hing ( R J l & £ ) by Cheung Man Kwai ( ) , Wu Hing
( PcPJÈfB) by Ngan Chun Hing ( ), Wu Ti ( ^Mï ) by Luk Kwong Mei ( ),
Tung Kiang ( M Ï Ï M ) by Lee Chak Yu ( ) , Sheung Min ( M ^ S B ) hy Ng Chung Ching
( UiïÉMO, Sheung Chung ( fflfPsi ) by Cheung Wai ( fflfè ) , and Y i u Chow ( W M B ) by Wong
Tak L i n ( BEfêJl ) . The Sucbow Record ( K ' M B ) included those of Tung Tao ( ^CfEfB )
[one by Chang Sai Lung ( ipt&PÉ ) and another by Wai K i ( ) ] , Yeung Shing
( l i M f B ) , the Two C a p i t a l s (FfiMfríB ) by Wai Shuet (%V& ) , and Lung Yau (PH^IB ) .
Record of the South ( ) included those of the New and Old Kau Kiang
( 7 L 0 1 f T « i i ) by Cheung Yung ( S § ) , Chiu Chow ( 'MB ) , Poyang ( # H E ) by Tsui
Charm ( & M ) , Kwan Chung ( H f f B ) by Lam Shui ( ) , Wu Hang ($^£fcftlS) by Shum
Sheung ( ) , and Ning Ling ( WMZ ) by Wai Miu ( S I S ) . The Szechuan Record
( V3)\\B ) includes those of Shing Chow ( tícfflE ) by Lee Yun Sut ( $ C Ï ) , Szechuan
IB ) by Chang Wai ( S 8^ ) , and Chengtu ( j&fjSIB ) by Lo Kau ( * * ) •
28
Before the Sung Dynasty, Maps and Illustrations and Records of Local History
were separated, but they have the same importance. There was no fixed style for their
description. After the Sung Dynasty Fang Chih included maps at the beginning, and
records followed but was more important than the former. These included items on
mountains and rivers, boundaries, c i t y walls and moats, m i l i t a r y camps and barracks,
o f f i c i a l buildings and offices, land and water communication ( t e r r i t o r y ) , boundary
changes, great events (time), local customs, famous places, h i s t o r i c a l sites (events),
o f f i c i a l s , examinations, biographies (human), tributes, local products, taxation
(economics), etc. Thus, Wong Yung (3E1Í ) said, "Its pattern started from the Sung
Dynasty" (p. 214 of A History of Geography i n China).
824/Lin 18
c

29
R
Record of the Peaceful World ( A ^ F S ^ I t í ) i the Geography Section ( j ^ g m ) of
h a d
Tze Fu Chuen Shu Chung Muk Tai Y i u ( H Ø ^ ^ ^ g J I g ) stated, "When Tai Chung ( ^ ^ )
conquered the lands of the Mun ([fg]) and the Yuet ( ) , and took over North Han (jHtt)»
Lok Shi ( ) gathered the maps and i l l u s t r a t i o n s and traced the o r i g i n of the Mun
and the Yuet. He completed the Record of the Peaceful World with records of the East
C a p i t a l (Kaifeng) and the surrounding regions ( 0 f § ) . "

Chapter 14 of Yuk Hoi ( =gjg ) recorded the Maps and I l l u s t r a t i o n s of the K a i

a n d
Po Period ( HASH® )• In the Periods of King Tak ( J t f ë ) Cheong Fu ( fêft)
[1004-1016], many maps and i l l u s t r a t i o n s were edited (chapters 14-15). There i s a
detailed record i n the 1566 chapters of the maps and i l l u s t r a t i o n s of the Cheong Fu
Prefecture ( # # * H * * B & ) by Lee Chung Ngok ( ? £ % m ) .
31 IB j) by Wu Sin Lun
Chapters 1-4 of the Siu Shut Shan Fong P i t Chung (/>fg|i|J
( tiiï'PM ) , Shanghai Chung Hwa Book Co. L t d .
32 b
Pages 6-9 of Sung Yuan Fang Chih Chuen K i Sok Yan ( 5 ^ x ^ Æ i # E ^ ^ I ) y Chu
Tze Ka ( ^ ± ^ ) states that there are 25 books including 545 chapters of Fang Chih of
the Sung Dynasty. However, the f o l l o w i n g ten books are omitted:

a . Forty-two chapters of Shaam Saan Chih ( = | J j ± ) of the Shuen Hei (gee)

Period [by Leung Hak Ka ( )]•

b . Eight chapters of Kam Shui Chih G^foK^ ) of the S i u Ting ( ) Period

[by Sheung Tong ( % % ) ] •

c. Three chapters of Lo Shan K i (Jh (Jjfg ) [by Chan Hsing Yu ( § f l l £ p )]

d. One chapter of Chik Chung Shan Chih ( ^ f ë i i l ^ . ) [by Ngai Sau Yeuk

e. Twenty chapters of Cheung On Chih ( g ^ , ^ ) [by Sung Mun Kau ( 5|=g£;£ )]

f . Ten chapters of Yung Luk (?g$$ [by Ching Tai Cheong ( g ^ H )].

g . Six chapters of Tung Siu Tao Chih ( J)ij#HÆ; ) [by Tang Muk (f&tør )] .

(Reference to these seven books can be found i n the S i Fu Muk Luk)

h . S i x chapters of Lum On Chih ( & ) of the Shuen Yau ( ?f & ) Period [by
Sze Ngok ( Í6 $4 )] •
i . Three chapters of Nam Ngok Chung Chih ( jfjjft&È ) [by Chan Tin Fu
( K f f l * >]•
(The above r e f e r to S i Fu Mi Sau Shu Muk [ H f l i ^ i j ^ g ])
f t h e 113111
j . T h i r t y chapters of Pe Ning Chih ( ) ° Shuen (fiEff. ) Period
[by Sze Lun Chi ( SfctË/È)] • This r e f e r s to Ku Y i Tong Tai But ( Ü ^ H Ï f i ) .

Thus t o t a l l y , there should be a further t h i r t y - f i v e books i n 674 chapters.

33 jgc ) i n the Man L i k Mun Shing Yuen

Introduction by Cheung Bong Ching (
Chih ( I R I T I S ).
824/Lin 19
c

Sin Pun Shu Shut Chong Shu Chih ( W^^MMtÈlfr ) by Ting Bing ( T p l ) > Kwong
Man Book Co. L t d . , Taiwan.
35
Chapter 13 of General Study of Chinese Local H i s t o r y ( ^ ^ Ü ^ ) by Fu Chun
Lun ( fïfígfiti), Commercial Press L t d . , Taiwan.
36
Based on the figures i n the section Y i Wen Lueh ( gj£;B§ ) [Chapter 66], i n
Tung Chih those of

a . Imperial Generations comprised nineteen items of seventy-three chapters;

b . Royal Kinships comprised twenty items of 153 chapters;

c . General Genealogy comprised f o r t y - t h r e e items of 1,074 chapters;

d . Records arranged i n Phonological Order included eight items of f i f t y - e i g h t
chapters;

e. P r e f e c t u a l Kinships included twelve items of 849 chapters;

f . Family Records included s i x t y - e i g h t items of 205 chapters.

37
We f i n d by r e f e r r i n g to Chapter 3 of Record of C l a s s i c s i n National H i s t o r y
( m^MMfc ) (Yueh Ya Tang series [ ]) by Chiao Hung, there were the
following books:

a . Imperial Generations comprising nineteen items of f i f t y - n i n e chapters;

b . Royal Kinships with twenty-three items of 163 chapters;

c . General Genealogy with 51 items of 1,404 chapters;

d . Records arranged i n Phonological Order comprised nine items of sixty-three

chapters;

e. P r e f e c t u a l Kinships comprised twelve items of 847 chapters;

f . Family Records comprised seventy-six items of 233 chapters.

38
Page 58, Taga Akigoro, The Study of Genealogies (Toyo Bunko, 1961).
39
From Ibid., pp. 370-450, there are 926 items i n Columbia University and seven
items i n Harvard-Yenching Institute, but Professor Lo Hsiang-lin recorded that there
are 125 items i n the l a t t e r (A Study of Chinese Genealogy, 1961, pp. 191-210).
40
I t i s stated i n The Study of Genealogies (pp. 355-452) that there are about
500 genealogies i n the archives of seven main l i b r a r i e s i n the Peoples' Republic o f
China. But to t h i s quantity, A Study of Chinese Genealogy (pp. 172-189) added the 253
items c o l l e c t e d by the Kwangtung P r o v i n c i a l L i b r a r y . Most of these are genealogies of
the inhabitants of Kwangtung.
41
I t i s stated in A Study of Chinese Genealogy (pp. 211-240) that there are 105
genealogies kept in Fung Ping Shan Library, University of Hong Kong, most of which are
xerox copies of manuscript records from Kwangtung and Hong Kong. Since 1971, the year
824/Lin 20
c

when the book was published, to the present, the collection work of the Fung Ping Shan
Library has continued. Moreover, the Genealogical Society of Utah and The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been further increased through the kind donation
of microfilm copies of their recent acquisitions. There are now 225 genealogies
together with 177 cataloged microfilm copies, and nearly a hundred reels more not yet
cataloged.
42
In Taiwan most genealogies are i n the archives at Fu Ssu-nien Library of the
Academia Sinica, Central Library, National Palace Museum, and Academia Historica of
the Republic of China. In the catalog compiled by Academia Historica of the Republic
of China i n 1975, there are over eighty genealogies. Most of them are new printings
of old publications. Catalogs i n other Taiwan archives have not yet been seen. I t i s
estimated that there must be hundreds i n other collections.
43
Professor Lo H s i a n g - l i n wrote his Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Family Background,
Commercial Press, Chungking, 1942, w i t h materials from the Genealogy of the Sun Clan
i n Tsz Chin.
Professor Lo H s i a n g - l i n ' s Introduction to the O r i g i n of Hakka, Hsi Shan
L i b r a r y , Canton, 1933, i s a t y p i c a l example. And my student Mr. Pan Chi-chung's The
Evacuation P o l i c y i n E a r l y C h ' i n g and i t s Relations w i t h Hong Kong (B.A. thesis sub-
mitted to the U n i v e r s i t y of Hong Kong, 1978) i s a work based on i n v e s t i g a t i o n into
source materials from l o c a l genealogies and Fang Chih. It proved that the distance of
f i f t y l i ( g ) f o r evacuation as stated i n the h i s t o r i c a l records d i d not match the
f a c t s at that time. And the mass immigration of Hakka into Hong Kong a f t e r the
evacuation had a great influence there.
45 ''. jiátiÁíL
Pun Kwang-tan ( $§;)£J3 ) c o l l e c t e d the family records of a l l clans i n Chia
Hsing, Chekiang Province, and made a synthesis w i t h that of some actors' a n c e s t r i e s .
His r e s u l t was Eminent Clans of Chia Hsing i n the Ming and the C h ' i n g , Commercial
Press, 1947. Wang Sih discovered, i n his paper Ancient and Honourable Han Families i n
the C h ' i n g , Hsueh Ssu ( j g j g ) Bi-Monthly, V o l . I I I , nos. 1 and 2, Chengtu, 1943, that
Ch'en of Hai Ning was o r i g i n a l l y a poor small clan but a f t e r making a marriage
r e l a t i o n s h i p with the i n t e l l e c t u a l Kao f a m i l y , many eminent persons and o f f i c i a l s were
born of Ch'en i n a period of three hundred years. This was the e f f e c t of genetics and
family education. His source materials were derived mainly from genealogies.
4 6
I n part 3 of The Study of Genealogies, i t i s stated that there are rules f o r
public cemeteries, household i n s t r u c t i o n s , f a m i l y r u l e s , c l a n schools, and worshipping
r i t e s included i n many genealogies.
47
A Study of P ' u Shou-keng, I n s t i t u t e of Chinese C u l t u r e , 1959, by Professor Lo
Hsiang-lin as w e l l as his other three papers i n A Study of Chinese Genealogy, pp.
75-157, were w r i t t e n with materials mainly derived from genealogies.
48
T h e part on geography was newly cataloged i n the section of Record of
C l a s s i c s , Chapter 33, i n Sui Shu. Books recorded i n t h i s part were mainly d i s t r i c t
records. Although genealogies were at t h e i r peak, t h e i r quantity was s t i l l not equal
to that of geography.
49 *JMSL JnjifÉágj
In the section of Record of L i t e r a r y Works, Chapter 157, i n Sung S h i , i t i s
found that the t i t l e s of books on geography amount to 407 items of 5195 chapters,
while those of genealogical records amount to only 110 items of 437 chapters.
824/Lin 21
c

5 0
In Chapter 3 of Kuo Shi Ching Chi Chih ( zt ) books were divided into
the following categories:

a . Geography: F i f t y - s e v e n items of 3599 chapters;

b. C a p i t a l s and Palaces: Seventy-four items of 619 chapters;

c. P r e f e c t u r e s : 167 items of 2239 chapters;

d. A t l a s e s : Forty-two items of 1766 chapters;

e. Local Products: Twenty-three items of 259 chapters;

f . Rivers and Streams: Forty-two items of 193 chapters;

g. Famous Mountains and Caves: Sixty-seven items of 214 chapters;

h . Audience with the Court: F o r t y - s i x items of 141 chapters;

i . Travels and Services: Forty-eight items of 133 chapters;

j . Barbarians: F i f t y - s e v e n items of 227 chapters.

These ten categories were i d e n t i c a l with those found i n the Fang Chih of
the Ming p e r i o d .

"'''"See note 37.

52
Based upon the statistics of Zhu Shi J i a , Fu Chun Lun said (An Introduction
to Chinese Fang Chih, p. 82) there were totally some 5000 Fang Chih in the world. But
his book was published in 1966. In 1979, Professor Sung Shee ( 5£>$& ) cited the
statistics of the Diet Library i n Japan in his paper "A Discussion on the Chinese
Local History and i t s Spread to other Libraries of the World" (published in Essays for
the 10th Anniversary of the Historical Archives Commission of Kuomintang, 1979) that
there are over ten thousand microfilms of d i s t r i c t records i n the fourteen units i n
Japan.
53
In A Bibliography of Ming Fang Chih i n Japan" (1971) by Yama ne Yukio
( iliH^^ ) i t i s stated there are:
a. Fifty-one items of North Chihli;

b. 132 items for South Chihli;

c. Thirty-five items for Shantung;

d. Thirty-nine items for Honan;

e. Forty-two items for Shensi;

f. Twenty-six items for Chiangsi;

g. Thirty-nine items for Hupei and Hunan;

824/Lin 22
c

h . S i x t y - f i v e items f o r Chikiang;

i . F o r t y - f i v e items f o r Fukien;

j . Twenty-four items f o r Kwangtung;

k. Four items f o r Yunan;

1. Seven items f o r Kwangsi;

m. Three items f o r Kweichow.

54
I t i s shown i n the Index of Local H i s t o r i e s i n the L i b r a r y of Congress
of the U . S . A . , 1942, that there were 2939 Fang Chih of 56989 chapters i n that l i b r a r y .
According to Professor Sung Shee's record, there were 3509 items i n 1957. There were
also:
2977 items i n Harvard U n i v e r s i t y ;
1560 items i n Coüumbia U n i v e r s i t y ;
1543 items i n Chicago U n i v e r s i t y (According to Professor P i n t - t i Ho's record
i n 1969; there are now 1762 items there);
883 items i n Washington U n i v e r s i t y ( S e a t t l e ) ;
405 items i n Yale U n i v e r s i t y ;
372 items i n Michigan U n i v e r s i t y ;
166 items i n Princeton U n i v e r s i t y .

^^Zhu Shi J i a said i n his paper "An Elementary Introduction to Chinese

Gazetteers" (WenXien, V o l . 1, 1979) that there are approximately:

6000 items i n B e i j i n g L i b r a r y ;
5000 items i n Shanghai L i b r a r y ;
4000 items i n Nanjing L i b r a r y .

Of course, some must be i d e n t i c a l .

5 6
B y the end of August 1978 there were 894 Fang Chih cataloged i n Fung Ping
Shan L i b r a r y . More than a hundred items have been added i n these two years. Most of
them are new p r i n t i n g s of old Fang Chih. Few are rare e d i t i o n s .
5 7
I n 1967, Ch'ang P i - t e k and Ch'iao Yien-kuan recorded that there were 464 Fang
Chih c o l l e c t e d i n Taiwan. Together with the 200 rare Fang Chih of the former Peking
Library now i n the L i b r a r y of Congress, U . S . A . there are roughly seven hundred. 765
items of new r e p r i n t s of old Fang Chih are recorded i n the bibliography published by
Academia H i s t o r i c a , 1965. (Rare editions are not included.)
58
P r o f e s s o r Yves Hervouet ( MfåBJ ) of P a r i s U n i v e r s i t y compiled "The
Bibliography of Chinese Fang Chih i n a l l L i b r a r i e s i n Europe" i n 1957. He points out
that there are 2590 Chinese Fang Chih i n Europe, but a f t e r taking away i d e n t i c a l
e d i t i o n s , there remain 1434 items. The c o l l e c t i o n i n the U n i v e r s i t y of B r i t i s h
Columbia i s the most p l e n t i f u l i n Canada. But they are s t i l l not cataloged.
59 3a£ -,;jjf«'r. JSStttïiAü.
See Preface to "A D r a f t of I n v e s t i g a t i o n into Fang Chih" by Tsak Hsuan-yun.
824/Lin 23
c

See chapter 5 i n An Introduction to Chinese Fang Chih by Fu Chun-lun.

See Zhu Shi J i a , "An Elementary Introduction to Chinese Gazetteers," Wen

Xian, Vol. 1, 1979.
62
Herald J . Wiens studied the migration of peoples and their condition of
development by using this method. But i t i s a pity that he had acquired l i t t l e
material from Fang Chih. (Han Chinese Expansion i n South China, the Shoe String Press
Inc., 1967.) ~~~" " ~
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Genealogical Research
in the Absence of Written
Records:
The Case of the Ainus,
the
Aborigines of Japan
Russell N, Horiuchi,
Annette A. Horiuchi
Series 825
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE ABSENCE
OF WRITTEN RECORDS:
THE CASE OF THE AINUS,
THE ABORIGINES OF JAPAN

Russell N. Horiuchi and Annette A. Horiuchi

Russell N. Horiuchi. Born i n Hawaii. Resides i n Orem, Utah. Professor of geography,

Brigham Young University. Ph.D. University of Washington. Author, lecturer.

Annette Aiko Horiuchi. Born i n Japan. Resides i n Orem, Utah. Part-time faculty,
Brigham Young University. M.A. ( a r t ) , Brigham Young University. A r t i s t .

A. INTRODUCTION American Indians, and such, have some

The challenge of tracing family roots and
extracting names from existing records
can be a source of great excitement and
gratification. As interconnecting
linkages are established through the
compilation of names and dates there
emerges a greater appreciation of our
forefathers. The past becomes closer and
more meaningful.
Perhaps i t i s no accident that i n nearly
a l l great religions of the world, the
interrelationship of people and families
with the past i s an integral part of
their theology. Indeed, there i s an
unexplained emotional and deep-seated
feeling in each of us in wanting to know
more about our ancestors. There may be
those that disclaim any such feelings or
inclinations, yet they are very careful
i n s e l e c t i n g t h e i r associates or i n
choosing spouses for themselves as well
as approving partners for t h e i r o f f -
spring .
While examining musty archival records
may prove to be a formidable task, anyone
endeavoring to trace his lineage can feel
fortunate when there are written records
to f a l l back on. Those whose ancestors
l e f t no account of themselves because of
the lack of a s c r i p t , such as the
numerous African t r i b a l groupings, the
obvious problems i n tracing their family
connections. For many there i s absolute-
l y nothing that can be done i n obtaining
names, and their heritage must remain
e s s e n t i a l l y a mystery and l e f t to
conjecture. Yet i t i s not always a
foregone conclusion that things must
remain completely in the dark. The case
of the Ainus of Japan might offer a
glimmer of hope to some that are willing
to extend themselves a b i t .
B. THE AINUS OF JAPAN
Pressed into a few small enclaves in the
northernmost Japanese main i s l a n d of
Hokkaido are remnants of what i s referred
to as the Ainu people. They are descen-
dants of the early inhabitants of the
Japanese archipelago, who closely resem-
bled the earliest neolithic inhabitants
that were widespread not only In the
islands but throughout parts of northern
Europe and Asia.
The origin of the Ainu people i s not
clear. They are generally classified as
caucasoid i n contrast to the Japanese,
who are essentially mongoloid. They had
no w r i t t e n s c r i p t , and thus l e f t no
historical records penned i n their own
language. What historical records that
do exist relative to these people are
found i n early Japanese writings and some
 Horiuchi/825
descriptive accounts of early Christian
missionaries who had contacts with them.
The a v a i l a b l e Japanese documents have
often been less than complimentary and
referred to the Ainus in a number of
euphemistic terms that meant "bar-
barians." As such, much of what was
written was distorted and not necessarily
reliable. By the time more scholarly
studies were undertaken, the Ainus were
already on an irreversible course towards
extinction as a separate and distinct
people.
In the developmental process and with the
consolidation of p o l i t i c a l power i n
Japan, the aboriginal Ainus were on the
receiving end of some cruel and, perhaps,
f a t a l blows. Constant skirmishes,
diseases contracted from the advancing
Japanese, and being constantly pressed
northward into harsher environmental
s e t t i n g s took t h e i r t o l l . Their
population diminished, and as they were
assimilated into the dominant Japanese
society, dilution of blood took place
through intermarriages. Today, there
remain only a p i t i f u l l y small number of
pure-blooded Ainus, who have l i t t l e hope
of maintaining t h e i r i d e n t i t y much
longer.
The f u l l extent and scope of the tragedy
of these people w i l l remain part of the
unknown past. They l e f t behind no
c i t i e s , no edifices, and only a small
amount of arts and crafts found mostly i n
museums. Their huts were made from
natural and largely unprocessed materials
e a s i l y susceptible to the process of
weathering. Perhaps i t could be said
that the contribution of the Ainus was so
insignificant that i t may have been just
as well to allow them to quietly pass
into oblivion. Yet, they too are part of
the human race and were more than simply
a group of people that impeded the
development and u n i f i c a t i o n of the
Japanese islands.
For those who have ancestral linkages
with these people, much of their r e l a -
tionship with their forebears must remain
a void. Yet i t i s d i f f i c u l t to suppress
2
the thought processes that may e l i c i t
such questions as "Who am I?" or "Who
were my ancestors?" Indeed, i t would be
d i f f i c u l t to ignore the t o t a l i t y of one's
inheritance from the past.
However, where could the progeny of these
nearly extinct people start in tracing
t h e i r lineage? The p o s s i b i l i t y of
obtaining names of t h e i r progenitors
would indeed be d i f f i c u l t since they l e f t
no written records of themselves. It i s
true that some insight could be obtained
from a study of ruins and artifacts that
have been preserved, but no names would
l i k e l y be available. However, for some
extinct or nearly extinct people, the
written records of others might offer a
p o s s i b i l i t y . Thus, a good starting point
for the Ainu progeny would be to look
into available Japanese records.
C. TYPES OF JAPANESE RECORDS
When the Japanese moved into Hokkaido,
they classified the Ainus as Japanese
supposedly without any d i s t i n c t i o n s .
Governmental a u t h o r i t i e s registered
families and developed a registry for the
Ainus similar to the ones that the rest
of the Japanese had. This i s perhaps the
best information source that i s available
to those of Ainu ancestry. An example of
the type of accessible family record can
be seen i n figures 1 and 2.
While the records of one's direct an-
cestors are readily available to him i n
governmental o f f i c e s that were not
ravaged by f i r e during World War I I , care
must be exercised i n properly extracting
the information contained therein. In
many instances the governmental o f f i c i a l s
simply gave the phonetic equivalent of
Ainu names and rendered them i n Japanese.
Others were given Japanese surnames more
or less a r b i t r a r i l y , and this could make
identification a b i t confusing. The need
for proper identification to correlate
with proper family lines and addresses
becomes evident.
It i s well to indicate that none of these
records go back into antiquity. They are
a l l basically of the post-Meiji period
Horiuchi/825
and generally cover the period from just
prior to 1900 to the present. Anything
before that date i s very limited or non-
existent. At best, these records could
help an individual go back to perhaps
three or four generations. In areas
where f i r e ravaged the archives, loss of
records would severely l i m i t the
a v a i l a b i l i t y of information.
Other than the family records gathered by
the Japanese government during the
p o s t - M e i j i period, very few o f f i c i a l
compilations on Ainu families have been
made. For a l l practical purposes one may
say that these are nonexistent.
With o f f i c i a l governmental documents
quickly dried up, what are the p o s s i b i l i -
ties of nonofficial and nongovernmental
records? Fortunately, something i s
a v a i l a b l e from these sources. Many
Buddhist temples keep a record of those
who pass away. These death records are
called kakochSs, and are f a i r l y common
and accessible. They generally l i s t the
names of the deceased and the date of
death. Such l i s t s also contain the new
or special names that are ceremonially
conferred on the deceased. Usually the
records begin with the new or special
names (kaimyös) which are then followed
by the given names of the individuals and
dates of death. (See figures 3 and 4.)
Since no addresses are listed beyond the
aforementioned information, the use of
such records may prove to be problemati-
cal in tracing ancestral roots. Unless
one knew what he was looking for, and was
knowledgeable as to what the register
contained, the information would be
largely meaningless. Since these records
are highly localized and found i n close
proximity to the domicile of the
deceased, this could be helpful. Thus
anyone who knew the whereabouts of the
village or had an address, could find
temple death records helpful. Normally
the records are kept by the priest, and
he i s often i n a p o s i t i o n to give
additional information.
While such records are obviously helpful,
care, again, must be u t i l i z e d . In most
3
villages there were families and extended
f a m i l i e s with s i m i l a r surnames, thus
making linkages unclear. I t could be
d i f f i c u l t to determine who belonged to
which family. Hence, while these records
may be h e l p f u l , there are obvious
limitations.
Most of the Buddhist temples are self-
contained, individualized, and indepen-
dent in their operation. Much depended
on how the resident priest and his staff
handled the records. Some of these
records were meticulously and carefully
compiled and preserved, while others are
spotty and incomplete. Moreover, many of
the buildings that may have contained
records were frequently lost through the
ravages of f i r e . Additionally, even i f
records were available, these were not
the easiest set of documents from which
to structure one's lineage. Perhaps i t
is well to mention that the Ainus had
their own indigenous religion and most
were not Buddhists.
Grave markers could be used to correlate
information, but unfortunately for the
Ainus, their grave markers were made out
of wood that decomposed rapidly in the
damp climate. Such being the case, when
grave markers are available these w i l l
usually be of recent origin and therefore
not of significant help i n learning about
the past.
From the foregoing, i t is rather evident
that available documentation i s limited,
and this i s compounded by the lack of
c l a r i t y i n o u t l i n i n g lineages through
clearly defined linkages. Indeed, Ainu
progeny do not have any easy path to
traverse in gathering information about
their ancestors.
D. AINU RESOURCES
The emphasis on written records as an
i n i t i a l step i s l o g i c a l , and the next
best procedure i s to look at what the .
people themselves possessed. Such things
as memories and recollections of older
surviving people or traditions as found
in oral histories can be most useful.
 Horiuchi/825
The Ainus have endeavored to perpetuate
their traditions through oral recitation.
Selected people were trained to memorize
the names of ancestors, s i g n i f i c a n t
experiences of the t r i b e , and other
important events. Frequently village or
t r i b a l leaders, shamans, and priests were
given the responsibility of learning the
t r a d i t i o n s as part of r i t u a l s and
religious ceremonies.
The Ainus had a rather involved oral
h i s t o r y c o l l e c t i v e l y c a l l e d yukaras.
These came in the form of descriptive
poetry, stories, or a long compendium of
names and f a c t s . They contained
folklore, history, philosophy, scripture,
and even codes of conduct. They had
strong ceremonial and religious overtones
and were not meant to be heard with
pleasure but with reverence and belief.
The importance of yukaras in religious
ceremonies was very evident. The prayer-
giver would begin by introducing himself
as a descendant of some dozen to two
dozen of his ancestors, and then appeal
to the gods to hear his prayer. After
this recitation of names, there was a
systematic procedure of f i r s t calling on
the lesser gods of water, f i r e , and the
natural deities with a request that they
carry the s u p p l i c a t i o n to higher
echelons.
Since there were many occasions for
ceremonies and religious r i t u a l s , yukaras
containing names of progenitors were
frequently mentioned. While sacred, the
chants were not secret, and people were
relatively familiar with their meaning
and significance. In addition to the
sacred yukaras, various feats of ances-
t r a l heroes were recited. While a few
names were mentioned, the emphasis was on
the heroes and their accomplishments. A
father or mother or grandparents often
related parts of their tradition to their
children during the long winter nights.
Some of the oral traditions were long and
contained over 10,000 lines and took the
better part of an evening or even several
days to recite. Chanters had to spend a
considerable amount of time in going over
and practicing the lines, and i n the
absence of any written outline to follow,
their fluency and familiarity came only
through constant practice and repetition.
The memory of many of these c^hanters was
said to have been remarkable.
While the yukaras are definitely a source
of information, the limitations are again
rather obvious. Since the Ainus were i n
the twilight of their existence as a
viable group, those who were trained i n
r e c i t i n g these chants have a l l but
disappeared. Some belated efforts have
been made by the Japanese government and
private foundations to record a number of
these yukaras. While some of these may
be kept for posterity, the overwhelming
number have been irretrievably lost. No
more chanters are being trained, nor are
there any more a l i v e to convey the
information and do the training.
Only a small portion of these yukaras may
actually be useful in helping to compile
genealogical records. However, through
what i s available, a good insight can be
gained relative to the feelings, hopes,
thoughts, and such of the Ainus. It
becomes obvious that the people endured
much as they waged what was to become a
hopeless struggle to maintain t h e i r
identity.
In addition to their yukaras the Ainus
had identifying markings called itoppas
(see figure 6). These were of two types
called kamui itoppa (mark of god) and
ekashi i^oppa (mark of p a t r i l i n e a l
descent). These were somewhat related
to a family crest or a family seal. They
were considered to be sacred, with deep
r e l i g i o u s s i g n i f i c a n c e , and were kept
hidden and were not for public display.
The itoppas were, kept within the inner
family c i r c l e s , and the Ainus have been
exceedingly reluctant to reveal much
about them.
The Ainus used the kamui itoppas on items
used in religious ceremonies. While many
of the rituals were common among the
various units, each family grouping had
i t s own style. There were subtle but
distinctive differentiations that showed
Horiuchi/825
discernible characteristics of the group
and even of the geographical setting.
These itoppas were essentially whittled
sticks with each having i t s own signi-
ficance .
The ekashi itoppa (mark of patrilineal
descent) i s of greater significance i n
showing lineal descent. The term ekashi
meant older or regpected one and referred
to the ancestor. I t i s thought that
this patrilineal mark originated f a i r l y
recently, to offset the problems asso-
ciated with dispersal of the people. As
long as the Ainus lived in clusters of
small villages consisting of ten families
or so, identification was rather easy.
Because the society was p a t r i l i n e a l , the
male stayed within the v i l l a g e , and new
family units began with brides coming
from neighboring v i l l a g e s . When the
numbers became too large, a branch would
develop a new l o c a t i o n and s t a r t a
village. I t was systematic w i t h
well-established linkages.
However, as the Wajins (Japanese) pressed
against the Ainus and compelled them to
move and r e l o c a t e , the problem of
identification became more d i f f i c u l t . To
adjust to t h i s s i t u a t i o n , the Ainus
developed the idea of shiroshi. The term
is closely related to the Japanese term
of shirushi, which means a mark or a
sign. By this means blood lines and
linkages were preserved among the family
and extended family members.
As members of families moved away from
the villages (kotan) they took with them
the ekashi itoppa. Ultimately the only
identifying family linkage was by means
of these markers. With low movement and
circulation among the people, memories
fade and old acquaintanceships are lost.
However, once the identifying itoppas are
shown the old linkages are q u i c k l y
recognized.
The sacredness and secret nature of these
itoppas prevented any widespread u t i l i z a -
tion as a means of identification. Only
on special occasions such as marriage and
funerals would these identifying marks be
shown, partly i n terms of keeping blood
5
lines d i s t i n c t . Consequently, accessi-
b i l i t y to these markings for genealogical
purposes would be limited.
While there are other less-known ways of
possible i d e n t i f i c a t i o n through such
things as other special markings, i t i s
obvious that the remaining options and
avenues for any kind of sustained
development of a family tree must quickly
come to an end for the Ainus. Names
simply would not be readily available.
Yet one may say that what i s available i s
better than nothing at a l l , and this may
be of some consolation to the Ainu
progeny who have a deep-seated feeling of
wanting to know about their roots.
No amount of lamentation and regret can
change the situation. When there i s no
written script, there can be no written
records i n their own language l e f t by the
people past and gone. The "knowing who"
among the ancestors must be l e f t a blank,
yet the doors of "knowing about" are wide
open. So i t i s with the Ainus. There i s
no record written in the hands of the
Ainus, but they have l e f t many imprints
that can help to reveal much about these
people who f e l l prey to an invading
civilization.
Structuring the past from bits of infor-
mation here and there and making analyses
and relationships can be very revealing
and a satisfying experience. While names
may not be forthcoming, there are ways to
s i f t and assemble information to get a
mosaic pattern of the people from the
past. The Ainu progeny as well as others
whose ancestors l e f t them no w r i t t e n
record of the past can make an effort to
"know about" their people, and thereby
gain a great appreciation of what their
forebears were l i k e and what they
contributed to their legacy.
E. LINKAGES TO THE PAST THROUGH ARTS AND
DESIGN CRAFTS
Like a l l other groups of people, with or
without a written language, the Ainus
developed and had their own distinctive
art designs and creations as well as
those influenced by the i n - f l o w from
Horiuchi/825
other cultures. There are sufficient
examples of a r t i f a c t s i n museums and
other collections that could be the basis
for a study that may ultimately shed
considerable light on the ancestral past.
While there are many possible areas and
segments of Ainu art and i t s designs that
could be explored, the scope of this
study would preclude too broad a
coverage. Consequently, only those
patterns that are found on the wearing
apparel of the people w i l l be considered,
and then only i n a l i m i t e d way.
Moreover, by an examination of these
designs, an e f f o r t w i l l be made to
develop some insight into the background
and l i f e of a r a p i d l y disappearing
people.
To begin w i t h , a b i t of speculative
reflection can perhaps help us i n gaining
a reasonably good idea as to the develop-
mental pattern of Ainu designs. The long
winter-enforced leisure could have caused
the Ainus to s i t around the fireplace and
work on their a r t i s t i c creations. In the
process, they must have had ample time
and opportunity to r e f l e c t on t h e i r
concerns of l i f e , and for this, their
arts and crafts provide evidence.
Exactly when the Ainus began to incor-
porate a r t i s t i c designs on their wearing
apparel i s not known. I t may be quite
possible that this practice began with a
desire to add beauty to what they had.
I t may have developed from simple
representations, w i t h n a t u r a l and
symbolic things becoming gradually
intertwined. Moreover, there i s good
evidence that t h e i r art and designs
really reflected their inner thoughts and
feelings.
A quick look at the patterns on their
clothing immediately shows a noticeable
lack of the picturesque and c o l o r f u l
designs. Few, i f any, of their works
suggest m i r t h , joy, and pleasure.
Indeed, the Ainus reflected none of the
extravagant and colorful designs found on
Japanese kimonos (see f i g u r e 7 ) .
Overall, the Ainus emphasized the more
somber, or what may be depicted as the
6
dull and conservative (shibui).
Perhaps the constant harassment and wars
i n f l i c t e d by the Wajins (Japanese) over a
span of several centuries, and the fact
that these people were s t i l l i n the
neolithic state of development, did not
permit them to stabilize and develop more
of what they were capable of doing.
Moreover, being driven into harsher and
more northerly climates where the problem
of survival became more d i f f i c u l t had i t s
impact. They simply did not have the
kind of time cushion and resources to
work with. Consequently, the Ainus did
not have anything comparable to some of
the more advanced c i v i l i z a t i o n s . Their
designs were largely freehand and im-
precise. Their symmetry was not always
perfect—and at times almost crude. Yet
there i s that unmistakable distinctive-
ness of t h e i r a r t , which conveys a
message that i s very touching to say the
least.
F. BASIC AINU DESIGN PATTERNS
Ainu art design has eight basic patterns
that are discernible, and possibly one
other which i s b a s i c a l l y p o s i t i o n a l .
While these patterns are not necessarily
unique to them, the designs and their
usages, together with their significance,
must be considered to be peculiarly their
own. The following are the basic design
patterns that the Ainus have u t i l i z e d i n
their creations:
1. Pointed thorn design (Aiushi)
2. Whorl design (Moreu)
3. Angular strip block design (Irikumi)
4. Cross design (Jumonji)
5. God's eyes design (Kamino-me)
6. Animal design (Dobutsu)
7. Plant design (Shokubutsu)
8. Heart-shaped design (Hato)
9. Over-the-shoulder pattern (Katajo)
Horiuchi/825
The pointed thorn design can be said to
be the most characteristic and basic of
the patterns. The widespread u t i l i z a t i o n
of this design suggests i t s importance.
No matter how varied the combinations,
the pointed thorn was generally included.
Somehow or other this specific design
pattern was considered to have magical
charm i n warding off e v i l . How and why
this type of design was purported to have
supernatural q u a l i t i e s can be r e a d i l y
deduced. (See figures 8 and 9 f o r
examples of the pointed thorn design.)
The belief in magic was strongly imbedded
i n the thought processes of these
neolithic people. Signs for good health,
successful hunting, p r o t e c t i o n from
danger, and warding off e v i l were very
prevalent. The pointed thorn was
symbolic of prickly thorns that could
e l i c i t pain when puncturing. I t was
something that you kept away from; the
hope was to use this symbol to help keep
away e v i l and e v i l s p i r i t s .
While not exactly alike, the holly leaves
represent a similar pattern. Experience
indicated that a holly bush or tree was
not the most comfortable item to be
entangled i n . The pinpricks were i r r i -
tating, and the message was clear: Stay
away from the thorns! The thornlike
edges were a reminder to move softly and
slowly and away.
Some observers have speculated that in
the weaving of baskets, sharp corners
were developed, and the outline of such a
pattern evolved into the pointed thorn
design. Others have surmised that the
pointed designs were generally i n t e r -
connected to a form of netlike character-
i s t i c s . A net in turn impeded movement
of f i s h and animals ensnared i n i t .
Hence the thorn pattern could be symbolic
of having interdicting qualities against
intrusion by undesirable things. Regard-
less of what possible explanation can be
given for i t s origin, the Ainus have
u t i l i z e d the thorn pattern for the
purpose of warding off e v i l .
When smallpox was introduced among the
Ainus through Japanese contacts, i t
7
threatened to develop into an epidemic.
The frightened Ainus placed a net across
roads, junctions, and i n the entryway to
t h e i r huts. Perhaps such b a r r i e r s ,
p a r t i c u l a r l y on the roads, acted as
boundary lines beyond which the infected
or noninfected outsiders did not dare to
cross without an invitation to do so. As
such, much of the spread of the infection
was curtailed, thus lending credence to
the beliefs of the Ainus.
The whorl design was commonly used.
However, the significance of this type of
pattern was not clear. Some considera-
tion may be given to the idea that the
pattern was similar to the eddies of
flowing streams. The quiet w h i r l i n g
movement was thought to convey a feeling
of t r a n q u i l l i t y . Some have explained the
whorl pattern as being similar to a type
of clam desired by the natives, and the
design was said to give a feeling of
rhythm and smoothness of movement. (See
f i g u r e s 10-13 for examples of t h i s
pattern.)
The angular block pattern was geometric
in design. This type of pattern along
with the thorn design was the most
popular, in terms of u t i l i z a t i o n , but i t s
s i g n i f i c a n c e beyond the decorative
characteristic was unclear. I t may have
been borrowed from other cultures, and It
could have been t h e i r own u n i l a t e r a l
creation and development. This i s a
familiar type of design frequently seen
i n Greek vases or ceramic pieces of tljig
Ch'in Dynasty (221-206 B.C.) i n China.
However, while similar i n the angular
block characteristic, there are
noticeable differences. The Greek design
has a continuous pattern without any
break. In the Chinese design the line i s
broken as i s that of the Ainus. (See
figure 14 for examples of the above.)
The cross design was observed i n 1620 by
Diego Carvalho, a Portuguese missionary,
on the garments of Ainu men and women.
He sojourned among the Ainus for a month
and noticed many things s t r i k i n g l y
similar to Christian practices. He saw
native burials and f e l t that the vestiges
of the old traditions were reminiscent of
Horiuchi/825
the period of St. Thomas. Whether the
cross design was reflective of an early
C h r i s t i a n connection i s d i f f i c u l t to
prove. I t could have been a simple
unilateral and independent development.
Yet i t must be observed that there are
many p r a c t i c e s and customs among the
Ainus that run a very close parallel to
what has been t r a d i t i o n a l C h r i s t i a n
practice. Perhaps the Ainus are remnants
of an anciently dispersed B i b l i c a l people
as Father Diego Carvalho f e l t . On the
other hand the Ainus may have simply used
the design l i k e a plus mark used in
mathematics and not as a cross. The
C h r i s t i a n cross generally showed a
noticeably longer vertical line than the
horizontal l i n e . (See figure 15 for an
example of the cross pattern.)
The God's eyes design is basically
symbolic. While a normal eye i s not
portrayed, a s l i g h t s t r e t c h of the
imagination could give the impression
that the eyes are evident i n the pattern.
The eyes are watchful—alert to the pos-
sible approach of e v i l . Since the back-
side was most exposed to surreptitious
encroachment of e v i l s p i r i t s and danger,
the two large God's eyes designs have
always been located on the back. (See
figure 15.)
The animal symbol pattern i s considered
to be a more recent development. The
u t i l i z a t i o n of animal symbols was not too
prevalent on the e a r l i e s t garments
available for study, but animal symbols
were frequently used on those of more
recent periods. The animals were not
portrayed i n a recognizable manner. Some
symbolic or representative aspect that
specified or represented the animal was
used. Instead of drawing the whole bear,
the claw or foot was used to represent
the whole. To represent a fish only the
fins were used. (See figures 16-17.)
Plant design patterns have been u t i l i z e d
on clothing, but the Ainus most often
carved these on utensils. Since the
Ainus were not sedentary and agricultur-
ists until more recently, after contacts
and control by the Japanese, they did not
develop the kind of a f f i n i t y that the
8
Japanese conquerors had for p l a n t s .
Eating mostly meat and f i s h , together
with whatever berries or other plant l i f e
they could obtain, they did not emphasize
anything as being special or sacred. By
way of contrast, the Japanese had a
special thing about rice and used flowers
and other items in their design. The
Imperial Household crest is a
chrysanthemum, and others have used
various flowers and plants, but the Ainus
had nothing similar to these.
The heart-shaped pattern i s labeled such
because of the s i m i l a r i t y to the
valentine heart. While no explanatory
reference i s available on the meaning and
significance of the heart-shaped design,
i t has occurred frequently enough to
indicate some degree of importance. The
pattern at times seems rather crude, and
may not be the heart that i s understood
to mean courage, love, and bravery. I t
may i n i t i a l l y have been patterned after
some type of leaves or may have been
simply a concocted design. The leaves of
the linden tree have a heart-shaped
characteristic, and such things may have
been u t i l i z e d . (See figure 18.)
The shoulder-top design may not logically
be classified as a distinctive design.
This i s a pattern that emphasized
location rather than the design i t s e l f .
It was a type of ornamentation that was
placed on the shoulders of garments worn
by headmen and chiefs of villages. There
was a definite religious or shamanistic
overtone involved. The characteristic
thing about this shoulder-top pattern was
that i t included a round mirrorlike glass
or some shiny reflective metal at times.
The materials u t i l i z e d were not local and
natural, and were obviously brought in
from the outside. Based on evidences
found elsewhere, this type of artifact
seemed to have been most prevalent i n
Siberia and was thought to have been
introduced from China. Carvings and
etchings found along the Yenisei Paver
v a l l e y i n S i b e r i a show d i s t i n c t i v e
shoulder-top ornaments.
Since the headman or possibly a shaman
u t i l i z e d this, the shoulder-top pattern
Horiuchi/825
may have symbolized communication with
the outside. At the same time i t was
also considered to be protective of one's
inner s p i r i t . (See figure 19.)
The foregoing basic designs and patterns
were used as a foundation, and many
different combinations and adaptations
were made i n developing desired
creations.
It should be noted here that within the
Ainu community, there were no specialists
or artists so designated to work on these
creations. Inasmuch as a large cross
section of the family members were
involved i n art work, particularly during
the long enforced winter "hibernation"
period, the level of craftsmanship was
not always of the highest quality and
standard. With almost universal house-
hold p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n development and
working of designs and patterns, there
emerged a few households that evidenced
talents i n this area of pattern-making.
However, since there was not a regular
apprenticetype system i n "learning the
trade" there was a lack of continuity of
fine workmanship within any one family or
group.
G. COLOR PATTERNS
A quick observation of Ainu artwork
reflects a rather subdued and somewhat
d u l l c o l o r a t i o n . When compared with
Japanese and Chinese artwork with their
colorful hues, Ainu art was generally
plain and lacking in brightness. It was
almost devoid of red, yellow, and such
other pigmentation that might imply joy,
gaiety, v i t a l i t y , and pleasure. Instead,
brown, black, tan, and dark blue
dominated their work.
H. INFERENCES ABOUT AINU LIFE FROM
DESIGN PATTERNS
It has often been said that art i s often
reflective of the thoughts and feelings
of the people involved and to some degree
mirrors their l i f e pattern. While there
is a universal desire for beauty, there
is no question that art i s not always for
display purposes alone. The often hidden
9
significance can be far more important
than the outward manifestation of beauty.
Symmetry i n design and conventionalism
may be pleasant to view, but this may be
a misreading of what was really intended.
While the Ainus have not l e f t t h e i r
posterity a written script, they have
unmistakably l e f t a meaningful legacy of
the past In their artifacts. If Ainu
progeny can look at the work of their
ancestors and really endeavor to seek the
information and knowledge contained
therein, a mosaic pattern of what the
past was l i k e for their people can take
form.
1. L i f e was a constant struggle for
existence with very l i t t l e room for joy
and merrymaking.
One can easily draw the conclusion that
Ainu art and i t s designs generally
reflected a somber mood and one largely
devoid of any hedonistic or joyous
aspects. This can be seen i n the absence
of the u t i l i z a t i o n of bright and l i v e l y
colors, which could mean that the sparse-
ness of resources i n their environmental
setting made l i f e d i f f i c u l t . Further-
more, the various protective symbolisms
in their design reinforce the idea of
constant threat to their well-being and
survival.
This emphasis on protective symbolism may
be considered normal and natural i n view
of the circumstances under which the
Ainus had to l i v e . They were oppressed,
they were driven to the harsh and
undesirable areas i n higher latitudes,
and their condition was never meant to
engender a good l i f e . The island of
Hokkaido experiences long winters with
dampness and heavy snowfall i n many
areas. The geography i s h o s t i l e ,
although i t offers some sustenance i n the
form of fish and game.
The use of animal symbolism perhaps
reflected the paucity of their setting
and consequently their great dependence
on hunting. In singling out the bear and
salmon, the Ainus made known t h e i r
dependence and appreciation of what
Horiuchi/825
nature offered them. As such, the Ainus
can be said to have had a sense of
appreciation for what they received from
nature. The absence of f e r t i l i t y symbols
indicated that the Ainus were almost
s t r i c t l y hunters and gatherers and not
sedentary agriculturists. Scarcity of
game simply meant hard times.
The fact that the bear was the most
important animal to the people was rather
easily understandable. In terms of size
and amount of meat, the bear surpassed
a l l other available game. I t supplied
quantities of animal f a t , very c r i t i c a l
in colder climates, and was even a source
of warm clothing. when the margin for
survival was so small, i t was no wonder
that the bear came i n for s p e c i a l
consideration. Thus i t was considered to
be sacred, a g i f t from heaven and even a
r e i n c a r n a t i o n of god. This heavy
emphasis and dependency on t h i s one
animal again indicates that l i f e was not
easy.
Along with the bear, the frequent use of
the fish symbol has a meaningful and
plausible explanation. The Ainus were i n
salmon country, and i t i s not d i f f i c u l t
to visualize what a spawn-run of salmon
could mean to these people. I t was a
much awaited event, and a busy time for
smoke-curing of fish for the winter cache
of food. This was a time of harvest and
abundance, and i t may have been one of
the few moments i n the l i f e of the Ainus
when some amount of joy and squeals of
delight f i l l e d the a i r for the villagers.
The salmon was a heaven-sent g i f t from
the gods. Yet, even i n the midst of this
special bounty, i t i s d i f f i c u l t to escape
the feeling that the sustaining of l i f e
was far from easy.
2. Geography had a strong impact on the
l i f e of the people.
There i s no question about the close
interconnecting links between art design
and the context in which the Ainu people
lived. Through the kind of materials
used, the kind of pattern emphasized, and
frequency of usages, one can obtain clues
as to where a group lived. Users of the
10
fish f i n motif obviously lived i n the
proximity of r i v e r s i n which salmon
spawning runs occurred. People l i v i n g i n
valleys and f o o t h i l l areas would be more
concerned with the bear. Those close to
the marshland areas would l i k e l y be
concentrating on the larger game birds
l i v i n g i n that kind of habitat. The
information as to geographical location
of the designers was frequently built
into the artwork consciously or
unconsciously.
Even the type of coloring used i n the
artwork t e l l s more than one would
normally expect. The basic pigments had
to come from somewhere. Black was,
perhaps, one of the easiest to obtain.
The bark of the white birch was burned to
make carbon black. This was then used as
a dye. Another source of black was the
bark of the walnut tree which was boiled
to produce the pigment. White was
obtained from calcium deposits or chalky
ground. Blue color was obtained from
clay. Red was obtained from the bark of
the black alder tree. Other methods used
in obtaining coloring were pulverizing
fruits and squeezing the juices, boiling
the stems of grasses to dilute out the
colors, or squee^j ng out the pigments
from the flowers. A l l the sources of
pigmentation had a geographic distribu-
tional pattern, and knowing what was used
meant the possibility of deducing the
l o c a t i o n a l r e l a t i o n s h i p of people and
things. Moreover, here again the limited
kinds of pigmentation simply meant the
lack of a resource i n Hokkaido, and this,
in turn, interrelates to the matter of
survival within an unfavorable setting.
3. Life pattern of the people.
Further scrutiny of different designs and
combination of designs shows quite a high
degree of d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n , subtle or
otherwise. This suggests a relatively
low level of circulation and movement
among the people, giving rise to a high
degree of localization of patterns. Low
circulation and movement and localization
mean a rural base devoid of urbanization,
and thus one would expect no more than a
series or cluster of villages. Moreover,
Horiuchi/825
i t i s reasonable to assume that these
villages could not be so large that they
exceeded the capacity of the land to
sustain l i f e at the hunting and gathering
stage of human development. This further
meant an inadequate or nonexistent
transportation and communication system
beyond simple foot paths.
Because of this low level of movement,
localization of design pattern makes i t
possible to make l o c a t i o n a l r e l a t i o n -
ships. (See figures 20-21.)
I. CONCLUSION
The foregoing i s a small sample of what
can be done In endeavoring to restructure
what went on in the past. Without any
written records a reasonably good insight
can be gained by the Ainu progeny as has
been done. Moreover, in the case of the
Ainus, much of what has been structured
by making relationships and inferences
can be confirmed or substantiated by
looking into the writing of the Japanese
and others who had dealings with the
Ainus or who studied about them.
While i t i s recognized that there are
p i t f a l l s in the approach described, i t i s
not the intent to properly document or
get foolproof accuracy that can withstand
the scrutiny of scholarly critique. The
purpose i s for Ainu progeny to get a
reasonably good picture of and even a
"gut-feeling" about their heritage.
For the Ainu progeny, an effort to piece
together whatever information is
a v a i l a b l e to them may r e s u l t i n a
deep-seated feeling and perhaps
melancholia about the l i f e and tragedy of
their people. Yet there w i l l be room for
pride and appreciation for the people
that survived for so long under rather
d i f f i c u l t conditions. While there are
11
s t i l l remnants of their people l e f t , they
can c o l l e c t information and learn to
appreciate the kind of determination and
resilience of these people who are part
of their heritage.
While there may be appreciation of this
heritage, the Ainu progeny may reflect i n
a manner similar to that of the late
curator of the S h i r a o i Art Museum,
Professor Takemori, who said:
I am one of the few remaining
full-blooded Ainus. With
increasing intermixing with the
dominant Japanese c u l t u r e , our
people w i l l be less and l e s s
concerned with their own heritage.
The Ainus w i l l become a legend
remaining only i n books and
museums.
On the other hand the progeny may react
as did Professor Takakura, the foremost
Japanese scholar on the Ainus, who said:
I f e l t anger at the fact that
during my youth i t appeared that
nothing was done to improve the l o t
of the Ainus.
Whatever the feeling that may be elicited
in studying about the Ainus, few can
remain impassive and unmoved. Regardless
of how one may react, there i s always the
need to know what gnaws inside nearly a l l
of us who are concerned about our
heritage.
Again, for those who want to know and
whose people l e f t no written records,
there i s a way to start to find out. No
matter how small, how thin or tenuous,
the links to the heritage of the past are
there. If i t i s not possible to know
"who they were," i t i s not impossible to
"know about them."
Horiuchi/825 12

NOTES

'"George B. Sansom, Japan: A Short Cultural History (New York: Appleton-

Century-Crofts, 1943), pp. l-TT
2
Kyosuke Kindaichi, Ainu Life and Legends (Tokyo: Japanese Government R a i l -
ways, 1941), p. 58.
3
Neil G. Munro, Ainu Creed and Cult (New York: Columbia University Press,
1963), p. 10.
4
Takemitsu Natori, Hokkaido senshi j i d a i (Sapporo: Sapporo Hoso, n.d.), pp.
48-49.
5
Ibid.

^Hiromichi Kono, Ainu no inaushiroshi, v o l . 49, no. 1 (Tokyo: Jinruigaku

Zasshi, 1934), p. 20.

Natori, Hokkaido senshi j i d a i , pp. 48-49.

g
Sueo Sugiyama, Ainu monyo kaisetsu (Sapporo: Imai Sapporo Shiten, 1944), pp.
4-7.
9
p. 85.
Genzo Sarashina, Rekishi to minzoku Ainu (Tokyo: Shakai Shiso sha, 1968),
1969), p. 4.
^Kozuo Kosugi, Nihon no monyo: kigen to rekishi (Tokyo: Shakai Shiso sha,
'"'"Sakuzaemon Kodama, Edo j i d a i shoki no Ainu fukushoku no kenkyu (Sapporo:
1965), p. 10.
12
Fukuhei Takabeya, "Ainu fukushoku monyo no kenkyu," Hoppo bunka kenkyu hokoku
(1942), vols. 5-6, p. 1.
13
Annette A. Horiuchi, "Ainu Monyo: A Study of Ainu Art and I t s Designs" (M.A.
thesis, Brigham Young University, 1976), p. 58. (Personal interview.)
14
Shinichiro Takakura, The Ainu of Northern Japan: A Study i n Conquest and
Acculturation, trans. John A. Harrison (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical
Society, 1960), p. 5.
Horiuchi/825 13

Figure 1. Family register

Figure 2. Family register

fa*
Horiuchi/825 15

7
Tja.

w 7X1
OD

1 ^ S ^ f ^ *.V •* i
— tl
i

•Í g

«.„.:•-*t.

Figure 3. Kakachö"

I
Horiuchi/825

1 é ïi írLW^J^
0 1^*1 ^Ljf
/j- Mr /^r /^r /^- ^

1r> Irí ^ in itf -gT

-±- -dr -fc- -èr r b -fc- -f*

§4 VT li- B 'f T ft a f T

* 4 5 7
i
> 7J > / -f

Figure 4. Kakacho
Horiuchi/825

Okinawa

Figure 5. The Japanese Archipelago

Figure 6. Itoppas
Horiuchi/825

Japanese kixoono monyo

Source, Design sketched from an actual kimono

Figure 7. Japanese kimono monyo

Source: Design actually sketched from a kimono

Horiuchi/825 20

Figure 8. Basic Aiushi design

Source: Sakuzaemon Kodama, Ainu no ifuku to monyo

Horiuchi/825

E5ÜSH]
Ccmblnation and modification of the Alushl pattern

Source. Kosugl Kazuo. Nihon no monyo: klgen to r e k i s h i .

Figure 9. Combination and modification of the pointed thorn pattern

Source: Kazuo Kosugi, Nihon no monyo: kigen to rekishi

Horiuchi/825

(a) Ara moreu <b) Uren moreu

(e) Uren moreu

Whorl monyo - Moreu modification

Source. Takabeya Fukuhei. Ainu fukushoku monyo no kenkyu.

Figure 10. Whorl pattern

Source: Fukuhei Takabeya, Ainu fukushoku monyo no kenkyu

Horiuchi/825 23

Combination or modification of the Moreu (Whirl Design)

Source. Kosugi Kazuo. Nihon no monyo: kigen to r e k i s h i .

Figure 11. Combination or modification of the Moreu (whorl design)

Source: Kazuo Kosugi, Nihon no monyo: kigen to rekishi

Horiuchi/825 24

Amur whorl monyo

Source. Kosugi Kazuo. Nihon no monyo: kigen to rekishi.

Figure 12. Amur whorl monyo

Source: Kazuo Kosugi, Nihon no monyo: kigen to rekishi

Horiuchi/825

(a) Ara shlcke uren

Ü C
(b) Uren shlcke unu
moreu moreu

(c) Shlckeu alushl ara (d) Uren shlckeu alushi

moreu moreu

(e) Shlckeunu moreu

Moreu modifications

Source. Takabeya Fukuhei. Ainu fukushoku monyo no kenkyu.

Figure 13. Moreu modifications

Source: Fukuhei Takabeya, Ainu fukushoku monyo no kenkyu

Horiuchi/825 26

(c) Ainu

Angular-block geometric pattern or Irikumi monyo.

Source. Kosugi Kazuo. Nihon no monyo: kigen to rekishi.
Horiuchi/825

(b) Jumonji monyo

(Cross pattern design)

Kaminame and Jumonji patterns

Figure 15. Kaminome and Jumonji patterns

Horiuchi/825

Figure 16. The bear symbol design

Source: Hokkaido Shinbun, January 14, 1972

Horiuchi/825

Fish f i n design
Source. Hayashi Kingo. Ainu mokki monyo no kigen n i tsulte.

Figure 17. Fish f i n design

Source: Kingo Hayashi, Ainu mokki monyo no kigen n i tsuite

 30
Horiuchi/825

(c) Hatp gata

Heart-shaped patterns

Source. Kodama Sakuzaemon. Ainu no lfuku to monyo.

Figure 18. Heart-shaped patterns

Source: Sakuzaemon Kodama, Ainu no ifuku to monyo

Horiuchi/825 31

Katajo mon or shoulder design

Source. Kodama Sakuzaemon. Edo j i d a i shoki no Ainu
fukushoku no kenkyu.

Figure 19. Katajo mon or shoulder design

Source: Sakuzaemon Kodama, Edo j i d a i shoki no Ainu fukushoku no kenkyu

 Examples of l o c a l design pattern

Source. Takabeya Fukuhei. Ainu fukushoku monyo no kenkyu.

Figure 20. Examples of local design pattern

Source: Fukuhei Takabeya, Ainu fukushoku monyo no kenkyu

Figure 21. Hokkaido: Some kotan areas
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Using Family Linkages

to Reconstruct an
Isolated
Japanese Village's
History
Norio Fujiki
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 USING FAMILY LINKAGES TO RECONSTRUCT THE HISTORY OF AN ISOLATED JAPANESE VILLAGE

Norio F u j i k i

Born in Japan. Resides i n Kasugai, Japan. Head, Department of Genetics and

Epidemiology, Institute for Developmental Research, Aichi Prefectural Colony. M.D.,
Ph.D. (medicine), Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine. Lecturer, author, editor.
In collaboration with Kazuo Mano, Shinji Azuma, Kenji Hayashi, and Akio Kudo.

RECONSTRUCTING PEDIGREES deaths, marriages, divorces, and adop-

A pedigree i s defined as a table or l i s t
of i n d i v i d u a l s known to be r e l a t e d
through descent or marriage. There are
two basic ways to reconstruct pedigrees:
the conventional one i s to obtain infor-
mation on a l l relatives by questioning
individuals, starting with one's parents
and siblings and tracing lines back to
a l l known ancestors; the second method
requires several kinds of documentary
f i l e s for a community covering a long
period of time.
In European countries, church records and
several other documents, such as mar-
riage, b i r t h , and death c e r t i f i c a t e s , are
available. Since each document always
contains some minimal identifying infor-
mation, i t i s possible to l i n k a l l
records belonging to the same individual
and, subsequently, a l l individuals be-
longing to the same family.
tions) , in a prescribed sequence i n rela-
tionship to the family head. Because
these records cover more than 100 years,
a pedigree can be reconstructed without
resorting to direct interviews.
Our respected mentor, the late Professor
Taku Komai, stated, i n the forward of his
book Genetic Studies on Inbreeding In
Some Japanese Populations, the urgency of
studying consanguinity (descent from a
common ancestor) i n order to c l a r i f y the
genetic characteristics of human popula-
tions, which have recently been subjected
to Increased environmental pollution and
nuclear contamination. Of course, the
study of isolated communities i s a con-
venient way to approach such studies. In
isolated communities, with their higher
frequency of consanguineous marriages,
the harmful effects of such marriages are
more readily manifested i n the autosomal
recessive genes of affected individuals.

Pedigree reconstruction i n Japan i s a far Japan has an elevated consanguinity rate

simpler matter because of the advantages
of the family or household r e g i s t e r
(koseki) i n linking families. The koseki
records record v i t a l events i n the lives
of family members (such as b i r t h s ,
on accout of the nature of the tradi-
tional Japanese family system, low out-
migration, and a high f e r t i l i t y rate i n
geographically i s o l a t e d communities.
Its extensive system of family registra-

This work was supported i n part by a research grant from the Japanese Ministry of
Education and, previously, by grants from the Japanese committee of the International
Biological Program, the U.S. Public Health Service, and the World Health Organization.
We also wish to extend our appreciation to the Japanese Ministry of Justice for
permission to use the koseki (family or household registers) as well as to local
authorities who cooperated with us i n this project. We also wish to thank Dr. I .
Nishigaki, Mr. T. Itoh, Miss R. Tsukahara, Mrs. M. Adachi, and Mrs. K. Ohtani of the
Department of Genetics and Epidemiology, Institute for Developmental Research, for
their collaboration and suggestions i n preparing this manuscript.
Fujiki/826
tion, dating from 1872, makes i t easier
to study this consanguinity.
We began our studies of consanguinity i n
1958 and have investigated^ three island
and six inland communities. This paper
describes b r i e f l y the manual procedures
we used to reconstruct family pedigrees
i n these i s o l a t e d communities using
koseki, or family registers. I t also
outlines a preliminary attempt to develop
a computerization procedure using a
markcard system. Finally, i t presents
some additional biologically and socio-
l o g i c a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t observations on
consanguinity.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Juminhyo
The resident card of juminhyo contains
basic data i n a form convenient for i n -
vestigation (see f i g . 1). Every contem-
porary inhabitant i s r e g i s t e r e d on a
resident card, which Lists the name and
address of the head of the household, the
individual's name, his date of b i r t h , and
his relationship to the family head.
A contemporary couple registered on a
resident card can be regarded as a
nuclear family unit i n the community.
Therefore, couples are the basic unit i n
the composition of the pedigree chart.
Since resident cards do not include i n -
formation on deceased persons and out-
migrants, their application for family
genetics studies i s rather l i m i t e d .
Identifying the ancestors of a female i s
p a r t i c u l a r l y d i f f i c u l t because of the
lack of precise information about the
maiden names of married women and their
families.
Genkoseki
The genkoseki (present family register;
see f i g . 2) i s more complete and reliable
than the resident card because i t l i s t s
persons no longer i n the community. I t
gives the name and address of the head of
the family or hittosha ( f i r s t one enter-
ed); the names of the parents; dates and
places of birth, marriage, and death;
2
family relationships and other informa-
tion on the spouse and various other
family members. I t i s , therefore, pos-
sible to compile a pedigree chart from
the genkoseki that shows three genera-
t i o n s — t h e couple, t h e i r parents, and
t h e i r c h i l d r e n both a l i v e and dead.
Because persons can appear on more than
one pedigree chart, i t i s necessary to
check entries carefully.
Joseki
The joseki i s an inactive register on
which a l l individuals have been crossed
o f f , due to death, marriage, adoption, or
other changes. I t also includes the date
and place of death, as well as the date,
place and reason f o r out-migration.
Follow-up studies of migration can be
done because the descendants of a person
who out-migrated may come back into the
original population, especially i f i t i s
an isolated community.
Harakoseki
The name harakoseki refers to the old
registration f i l e dating from the 1880s
to 1946. When more detailed information
about the ascendant generation i s needed,
i t i s often necessary to locate copies of
the harakoseki. Identifying an individ-
ual i n the harakoseki i s often very d i f -
f i c u l t because of the tremendous number
of couples related to present inhabi-
tants, confusion due to the surnames, and
problems of invasion of privacy (since
many of the harakoseki include a status
or class designation).
Jinshin Koseki
The j i n s h i n koseki are the r e s t r i c t e d
older family registers, which began i n
1872 and continued to about 1886. They
are kept i n some village offices or i n
the local offices of the Ministry of
Justice. They show not only the family
composition, but also the number of
fields and cattle owned by each family.
This allows us to know a family's socio-
economic status at the time the record
was made. The jinshin koseki extends the
pedigree and allows for more complete
Fujiki/826
examination of h i s t o r i c a l populations
(see, for example, f i g . 3 and table 1).
Kakocho and Other Documents
The Buddhist temples in Japan by tradi-
tion maintain registers known as kakocho
(death r e g i s t e r s ) , which are d i s t i n c t
from the koseki and provide a further
source of information about the family i n
question. However, with the kakocho i t
i s only possible to trace back through
the male l i n e . The kakocho can be used
only as an accessory to the koseki rec-
ords because of the limited information
they provide. By themselves, they are
too unreliable for a biological study.
OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES
The Overall Pedigree
The information on the koseki record of
each household i s transcribed onto a
blank sheet, showing the person and his
parents, siblings, and children, together
with the name of the head of house and
the koseki number. I t i s similar to a
family tree and includes as many rela-
t i v e s as p o s s i b l e . The old koseki
records included many family subunits on
one f i l e , but recent koseki tend to show
only a nuclear family, distributing data
over several f i l e s . However, these f i l e s
are numbered in order, so one can easily
trace a family to the other f i l e s through
the numbers. These other f i l e s also
include persons who have moved or died,
so i t i s possible to trace back from the
koseki records to the joseki and the
harakoseki (see f i g . 4).
Next, pedigree sheets with the same sur-
name are connected v e r t i c a l l y , tracing a
single family unit, and then horizon-
t a l l y , connecting a l l family units with
the same parents and culminating in the
compilation of of an overall pedigree.
In t h i s way, a l l blood r e l a t i o n s h i p s
between i n d i v i d u a l s , i n c l u d i n g those
deceased, can be ascertained, resulting
in a population three or four times as
numerous as the present population.
Information on migration and other data
in a pedigree are useful i n considering
3
sociocultural factors. Naturally, the
compilation of the pedigree i s quite
laborious and time-consuming in a large
population.
Dismembered Retrospective Pedigrees
Let us turn now to the appropriate proce-
dures for compiling pedigrees of samples
from isolated populations. Consanguine-
ous marriages—that i s , marriages between
individuals related to each other—are
not commonly encountered i n the general
population. However, such marriages are
often found in isolated populations, and
a common ancestor more than four or five
generations removed can easily be missed
i f follow-up i s u n s a t i s f a c t o r y . The
degree of inbreeding i n an isolated popu-
lation may be satisfactorily approximated
by applying the path coefficient method
to a pedigree diagram carefully compiled
and verified using information obtained
from different sources.
To compile a dismembered retrospective
pedigree, we start with the current gen-
eration and follow common^ ancestors back
to previous generations. A pedigree
chart of five or more generations can be
compiled through this procedure, a f o l -
lows: First we see whether the same i n -
dividual i s registered as an ancestor
common to both the husband and wife. If
a certain individual happens to be found
in two or more places i n the same pedi-
gree chart, the couple i s consanguineous.
This procedure i s indispensable for de-
termining the number and kind of consan-
guineous marriages occurring i n the pop-
ulation surveyed. I t offers valuable
information for a variety of uses, such
as calculating the mean inbreeding co-
efficient for the population, classifying
families into male-dependent types and
female-dependent types, and showing con-
nections for sociological studies (see
f i g . 5).
Our object i s isolated communities, which
have high rates of consanguineous mar-
riages, rather small populations, a small
amount of matrimonial migration, and
rather high f e r t i l i t y . The basic data
are chiefly drawn from o f f i c i a l records—
Fujiki/826
the juminhyo, genkoseki, j o s e k i , and
harakoseki—which are sufficiently r e l i -
able and uniform to be v a l i d .
Our purpose i s to investigate biological
and sociological characteristics of iso-
lated communities. Consequently, we
designed and revised the pedigree chart
so as to make the best use of the data
for our purposes.
PEDIGREE STUDY OF A HEREDITARY DISEASE
We used the pedigree charts to study
Laurence-Moon-Biedl syndrome, a rare
autosomal recessive disease, discovered
in a certain isolated community. The
pedigree chart was used i n analyzing the
spread of the disease among family mem-
bers over generations.
We discovered two cases of the disease i n
this isolated community which consists of
686 inhabitants i n 152 households. The
disease i s so rare that the fact that two
cases were found in the same isolated
community suggests that the gene respons-
ible for this disease probably had been
preserved a long time, concealed i n a
heterozygous carrier from generation to
generation and manifested only i n the
offspring of a consanguineous marriage.
In fact, the patients were cousins—their
fathers were brothers. But that was not
the only way they were related. Although
the parents of both patients realized
that they were a l l related to each other,
none of them could explain exactly the
complex relationship that linked them.
As long as we looked for their ancestors
on a pedigree chart containing only data
from the genkoseki, we could conclude on
the basis of surnames that they possibly
had a common ancestor, but we could not
identify such an individual with certain-
ty. However, when we inserted i n the
pedigree chart two of the ascendants
drawn directly from the harakoseki, i t
was clear that the patients' great-great-
grandparents were brothers (see f i g . 6).
As a result, we could be sure that both
patients descended from the same ancestor
on both t h e i r paternal and maternal
lines.
4
We then made an entire pedigree of one
line descending from the common ancestor.
This chart c l a r i f i e d the following
points: that the patients were cousins,
that they were daughters of consanguine-
ous couples ( f i r s t cousins, and second
cousins once removed, respectively), that
they inherited the adverse gene from a
common ancestor four or five generations
previous, and that no less than nine
people, including five carriers, had the
adverse gene i n the contemporary popula-
tion. Of the twenty-three persons
indicated i n the figure, eleven are dead
and twelve are currently alive.
The investigative process began with the
identification of the eleven dead persons
in the pedigree charts derived from the
harakoseki, since the harakoseki and the
joseki give us the most information.
We designed an identification card to
reduce the amount of work and thereby
prevent errors and unnecessary d u p l i -
cation (see f i g . 7). Fundamental items
included on an identification card were
the following: the identification number
in the registration f i l e ; the person's
f u l l name, Including maiden name, and
date of birth; and the names and identi-
fication numbers of the parents. Every
card was classified according to surname.
If a person had two or more surnames be-
cause of marriage or adoption, we identi-
fied and classified him i n the appropri-
ate position. The number of cards auto-
matically showed the number of individ-
uals appearing on the f i n a l pedigree
chart. The pedigree chart expanded ver-
t i c a l l y with ease since the relation be-
tween parents and children was definite.
In practice there were various factors
which made double registration l i k e l y and
made the procedure troublesome. For
example, individuals with the same f u l l
name were l i k e l y to occur frequently i n
old isolated communities, since the range
of surnames was limited; the name of the
same person could be expressed i n d i f -
ferent ways, since the writing i s not
consistent i n handwritten documents. Old
handwritten documents are sometimes dif-
f i c u l t to read because the writing does
Fujiki/826
not indicate how names are to be pro-
nounced .
To make registration more precise, we
made copies of an identification card for
each category, such as maiden name, birth
date, and birthplace. By checking these
cards, we succeeded in identifying most
of the individuals, except those born
outside of the community, that Is, des-
cendants of out-migrants. We then drew
up a pedigree chart (see f i g . 8).
This chart consists of 337 persons. Of
these, 151 (68 male and 83 female) are
presently l i v i n g i n t h i s population.
This i s equal to 22 percent of the com-
munity's present population. In other
words, 1 out of every 5 inhabitants has a
common ancestor within a seven-generation
period. This dramatizes the isolation of
this community very impressively. In
this pedigree chart, consanguinity can be
proved i n eleven couples (five sets of
f i r s t cousins, two of second cousins once
removed, three of third cousins, and one
couple that were both f i r s t and second
cousins). Twenty-five consanguineous
children are mentioned; twelve of them
including the two patients, are s t i l l
l i v i n g i n this community.
We calculated the probability of a heter-
ozygous carrier in this community to be
32.39 adverse genes i n the present popu-
lation (out of a total of 674 genes),
based on the assumption that Hardy-
Weinberg's equilibrium has been estab-
lished i n this population. Making use of
Dahlberg's formula, we figured the gene
frequence as 0.0008092 and the expected
number of patients as 0.551, \rtiich are
not s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r e n t from the
observed values.
PEDIGREE STUDY IN A WHOLE ISOLATED
COMMUNITY
The method we used to study pedigrees i n
an entire isolated community i s called
the dismembered retrospective approach by
Yanase. From the data obtained, we
calculated the various consanguinity
rates, the mean inbreeding coefficients,
etc. (see table 2 and f i g s . 9 and 10).
5
In each community surveyed, values of
consanguinity ranged from 8.6 to 58.0
percent for small populations, those of
100 to 3,000. Almost half were mar-
riages between f i r s t cousins. Among 156
couples who lived i n village T, there
were 63 cases where one spouse had moved
i n from a neighboring v i l l a g e . Of these
couples, we ascertained that 11 (17 per-
cent) were consanguineous by tracing
their ancestry back through their koseki
records at t h e i r o r i g i n a l residences.
This means that the sibs of a person had
moved away at one time and married
neighboring villagers. Their children
had later come back to marry cousins.
The mean inbreeding coefficients for a l l
inhabitants including an individual of
F = 0, who i s the product of a marriage
between unrelated persons, was h i g h —
0.00480-0.02427. The highest value, for
village A, indicates that a l l villagers
share on the average the same amount of
blood from a common ancestor i n the
great-grandparent generation. The values
for the inbreeding c o e f f i c i e n t s are
s l i g h t l y higher than the rate of consan-
guinity because of the characteristics of
isolated communities which demonstrate
higher frequencies for complicated con-
sanguineous relationships (see f i g . 11).
There i s considerable evidence to show
that the four types of f i r s t cousin
marriages do not occur at random. The
most common marriages i n general popu-
lations i n Japan are between a woman's
son and her sister's or her brother's
daughter. This could be predicted from
the prevalence of arranged marriages i n
Japan. In some villages we find that the
marriage of a man's son with his sister's
daughter i s common (see table 3).
After World War I I people migrated much
more readily to find marriage partners
because of the development of the trans-
p o r t a t i o n system and urbanization of
rural areas. The Island populations,
however, show a rather slower breakdown
of their isolation than inland popula-
tions . The breakdown i n i s o l a t i o n
parallels neither the increased distances
people traveled to find a spouse nor the
Fujiki/826
decreased consanguinity rates and i n -
breeding coefficients. For example, i n
v i l l a g e T, the values for consanguinity
increased after the construction of a dam
and an electric power station had brought
about t r a f f i c improvements and industri-
alization. Apparently the couples who
moved out were not so closely related to
each other, while the couples who re-
mained showed a much higher rate of con-
sanguinity because they were forced to
marry with the remaining relatives, even
though they did not necessarily want to
(see table 4).
COMPUTERIZATION OF PEDIGREE DATA
A system for linking koseki records by
computers using markcards i s being
developed at the Tokyo Science College
Computer Center. The modern computer,
with i t s high-speed processing and huge
storage capacity, can be used to f a c i l i -
tate the operation. Population data have
been collected and markcarded for a gen-
etic study, with the information trans-
cribed either directly from the koseki
records or i n d i r e c t l y from pedigree
charts. The data include names of i n d i -
viduals, their dates and places of b i r t h ,
the names of their brothers and sisters,
and comparable information for both
parents, as well as the dates and places
of marriage, divorce, adoption, and
death. This system has many merits, as
described below:
1. Information can be placed on
markcard without any s p e c i a l
equipment, wherever data are
available.
2. Confidential information can be
indicated by codes i n colored
pencil so that private informa-
tion cannot be transcribed onto
the magnetic tape.
3. Geneticists can keep original
cards with confidential items
for identification, and mathe-
maticians can work with mag-
netic tape to carry out com-
puter a n a l y s i s . Therefore,
close cooperation between two
6
groups i s achieved.
We make every effort to do the following:
1. To use one face of an IBM
eighty d i g i t card, which i s
universally compatible with
every type of equipment.
2. To include the number and sign
and simple drawn figures.
3. To organize the pedigree after
simple arrangement of the
cards.
Thus, when basic data are prepared for
input into a large-scale computer, we
have these advantages:
1. The data are easily understood
and available for general use.
2. They are easily transferred to
other computers by small modi-
fications of the data cards,
using Fortran language.
3. I t i s easier to make logical
checks even though a number of
steps are required.
4. I t i s easier to reconstitute
t h i s data to other forms
suitable for statistical
analysis after inputting a l o t
of data.
In isolated populations, pedigrees are
quite complicated, and there are large
numbers of consanguineous marriages.
Therefore, we designed a card called an
isolate card, which i s somewhat different
from usual markcards for genetic study;
i t combines family card, pedigree card,
common I n d i v i d u a l card, s i b l i n g card,
individual card, and s t i l l b i r t h card (see
f i g . 12).
We fashioned this isolate card for the
study of village T, which i s composed of
243 inhabitants (119 male, 124 female) i n
97 households at present. These data had
already been transcribed into our pedi-
gree charts, which d e t a i l information
Fujiki/826
about a couple, their children, parents,
grandparents, and great-grandparents on
both sides of the family, and include
names and dates and places of b i r t h ,
death, etc. Of course some individuals
are found on several other pedigree
charts, so multiple cards existed.
Before starting the computer analysis, we
checked for failures, mistakes, or l o g i -
cal errors for each card and cross-
checked f o r mistakes i n e d i t i n g each
family unit. However, this checking was
very d i f f i c u l t to do by computer because
of Chinese characters or old-fashioned
Japanese characters, called manyo-kana-
mojl, in old koseki records, therefore,
i t was necessary to recheck the birth and
death data after they had been listed by
computer.
It took two minutes per card to enter
data onto markcards, and i t took f i f t y
minutes to markcard one pedigree chart,
which included on the average, twenty-
three persons. I t required 160 hours for
three students to enter the data for
1,432 inhabitants onto 4,332 sheets for
190 pedigrees. After the markcards had
been transferred onto magnetic tape
through markcard reader, computer
analysis only required about two minutes.
Information on markcards was transferred
to a dual code on magnetic tapes, then
reconciled with items and information
transferred to decimal code, and stored
as a record f i l e on magnetic tape. After
this procedure, we rechecked for errors
i n t h i s information. I t took f i v e
minutes of C.P.U. time using an IBM
370/138. Of 4,332 sheets, 1,432 sheets
represented d i f f e r e n t , actual Inhabi-
tants, the remaining 2,900 sheets were
multiples of sheets for the actual inhab-
itants. The 1,432 inhabitants appeared
an average of four times each. Sixty
percent of them appeared twice, and one
person appeared ninety-seven time, the
maximum number.
The error rate for a l l Information was
0.5 to 0.8 percent; 66 percent of those
errors occurred at the time of marking.
The remaining errors were found at the
time of the logical check of the computer
7
program and at the time of inspection
after rearranging the order of birth and
death dates (see table 5).
The outcome of this experiment indicates
that our computer program can detect with
great success about two-thirds to three-
fourths of a l l errors i n the making. For
errors which are overlooked by a logical
check through the computer, i t Is most
convenient to make multiple basic sta-
t i s t i c tables and f i n a l l y to standardize
the input information of the markcard
system. In addition, i t i s necessary to
do the following:
1. Design the card according to
the order i n which items are
transcribed and correct the
program errors.
2. Use symbols for the names and
addresses, or computerize the
Chinese characters on the cards
by transcribing directly from
the koseki records, not from
the pedigree charts.
3. Obtain trained operators f o r
transcribing markcards. They
should be acquainted with human
genetics and should have much
experience working on pedigree
studies.
4. Improve the modulation of the
data check program, and also
consider a procedure f o r
detecting e r r o r s . Thirty
percent of the errors are s t i l l
undetectable even a f t e r the
logical check by the computer.
In conclusion a routine procedure for
drawing pedigree charts or a multiple
procedure for drawing s t a t i s t i c a l tables
could be developed through such basic
experiments.
FURTHER APPLICATIONS OF PEDIGREE STUDIES
TO GENETIC STUDIES
Many reports on the estimation of i n -
breeding c o e f f i c i e n t s have been pub-
l i s h e d , using the koseki records as
Fujiki/826
sources of information as previously
described. However, i t i s almost im-
possible to ascertain completely remote
consanguinity and to trace traits back to
old villagers in these pedigree studies.
A l t e r n a t i v e methods are the k i n s h i p
bioassay method (phenotype and mating
type), in which the inbreeding coeffi-
cient i s estimated as a deviation from
the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium; a method
based on gene frequency among hetero-
genous populations; and the method by
which the c o e f f i c i e n t of k i n s h i p i s
estimated by distance and isonomy. It
is obvious that this model should be
applied to a large population. However,
i t i s almost impossible to check the
family records and c o l l e c t the blood
samples of a large population. We have
deemed i t permissible to calculate the
inbreeding coefficients from phenotype,
even i n our small populations, when there
i s s u f f i c i e n t agreement with Hardy-
Weinberg' s equilibrium.
For example, the mean inbreeding coef-
ficient in the small, isolated village A
has been estimated from the pedigree
study as 0.02427, by the pheonotype
bioassay as 0.05135, and by the gene
frequency method as 0.05897. The latter
two values are almost twice that of the
pedigree study. A low estimate from the
pedigree study i s a t t r i b u t e d to the
inevitable loss of remote Inbreeding data
and tö the incomplete ascertainment of
inbreeding i n older persons. High
estimates from the bioassay and gene
frequency methods may be attributed to
sampling errors and undetected technical
d i f f i c u l t i e s . The population size i s so
small that whole samples are used to
estimate the inbreeding coefficient with-
out regard to the relatedness of the
Individuals. The true estimate might be
in the range between 0.02427 and 0.05897
(see f i g . 13).
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF CONSANGUINITY
We would like to describe briefly here
the biological effects of consanguinity.
On the average, family sizes of consan-
guineous and nonconsanguineous unions are
not very different, although the phenom-
8
ena of reproductive compensation, report-
ed by Neel and Schuil i n their Hirado
study, i s evident i n some of our surveyed
areas. There i s an indication that the
higher infant mortality rate in consan-
guineous marriages results i n an increase
i n the number of children; that i s , that
consanguineous parents produce more c h i l -
dren to compensate for the early death of
homozygous diseased Infants. The lethal
equivalent accounting for infant mortal-
i t y during the f i r s t year, i s 0.26 per
gamete and 0.50 per zygote, which are
lower values than those obtained by
Yanase, Neel, and S c h u i l . Moreover,
inbreeding appears to depress by 0.5 to
2.0 percent values related to anthro-
pometric data. I t i s interesting to note
that inbreeding depression seems to occur
more strongly in the less closely related
populations of island N than i n the more
closely related populations of island M,
emphasizing the d i f f e r e n t genetic and
environmental factors i n each population.
However, the e f f e c t of inbreeding on
mortality i s unexpectedly low. This may
be the result of the small sample size.
Harmful genes that are markedly depressed
may appear i n endogenous marriages only
over long periods or i n disadvantageous
environments. The s l i g h t difference
between the consanguineous and nonconsan-
guineous group could also explain the low
effect of inbreeding on mortality. The
nonconsanguineous group i s not exactly
the same as F = 0. The fact that an
unrelated ancestor i s not F = 0, i s
noticed i n the previous discussion on
estimating the inbreeding c o e f f i c i e n t
using the gene frequency of polymorphic
traits.
Often i n isolated communities there may
be clustering of a very rare anomaly, or
two or more anomalies may coexist i n the
same individual or i n related individ-
uals. Many genes responsible for such
congenital anomalies are maintained i n
high frequency by the force of equilib-
rium with respect ot selection and mu-
tation, gene flow, and consanguinity i n
the isolated communities. Such gene l o c i
show increased homozygocity due to con-
sanguineous marriages and disturbed
Fujiki/826
developmental homeostasis. In fact, a
c l u s t e r of hereditary diseases and
congenital malformations in the highly
inbred villages of Shiiba and Kuroshima
was reported by Yanase and Schuil. How-
ever, with few exceptions our surveyed
populations did not have multiple occur-
rences of hereditary diseases due to high
consanguinity. The reasons probably are
the small sample size, genetic d r i f t , the
disappearance of the harmful gene through
selection in a closed community over a
long period, as well as founders' effect.
P a r a l l e l with our population genetic
study, we performed a medical survey for
anemia, hypertension, and diabetes i n
low-medical-care rural areas. We also
did genetic studies of as many poly-
morphic t r a i t s as possible, using blood
samples to c l a r i f y the genetic disease
susceptibility. Such a study of poly-
morphism not only contributes greatly to
our knowledge of the genetic character-
i s t i c s of the individuals and populations
in question, but also c l a r i f i e s the rela-
tionships between structure and function
and provides information on evolutionary
changes in protein molecules. Further-
more, such studies illuminate the role of
polymorphic traits in disease suscepti-
b i l i t y and are useful i n linkage analysis
using gene-mapping techniques.
Our survey of genetic polymorphisms i n -
cludes such polymorphisms as ABO, MN, and
Rh blood types; AK, Dia, GOT, GPT, AcP,
ADA, EsD, 6PGD, and PGM red c e l l enzyme
types; as well as Hp, Tf, Gc, and Crp
serum protein types; and estimates of
their gene frequencies (see tables 6 and
7).
Our isolated populations show values of
gene frequencies different from those i n
neighboring populations, because of d i f -
ferences in their geographic distribu-
tion, the adaptability for environmental
agents, and the high degrees of isolation
and consanguinity, as well as the small
sample size genetic d r i f t , and founders'
effect. Among the general population,
the gene frequency i s c o n t r o l l e d by
mutation and selection, and rather small,
abrupt changes may be seen. However,
among isolated communities the presence
of genetic d r i f t means that chance epi-
demics, famine and flood can cause abrupt
changes In gene frequency. The limited
number of people who immigrate into such
small Isolated communities and the con-
stant, highly inbred population structure
have contributed to the present gene
frequency.
SOCIOCULTURAL OBSERVATIONS ON
CONSANGUINITY
The mating patterns in human populations
reflect the social structure and directly
influence the gene pool of a group. The
practice of consanguineous marriages i n
Japan, I n d i a , and other countries i s
linked with each country's history, geo-
graphy, and tradition. I t i s aj.go i n f l u -
enced by socioeconomic factors.
Japan i s geographically isolated. The
surrounding seas and ocean provide a
natural isolation from Asian countries;
and steep mountains create small, iso-
l a t e d , inbred compartments throughout
Japan, each with i t s own characteristic
culture and unique gene pool. People in
most of th isolated communities and, to
some extent, i n less isolated rural areas
in mountains or on islands, live in semi-
isolation or complete isolation in clear-
l y defined demographic areas. With lim-
ited emigration and no immigration, geo-
graphic isolation i s the key factor i n
the development of inbred groups.
In such f i n i t e and isolated communities,
consanguineous marriages occur randomly,
depending on the number of males a v a i l -
able. This has been seen among the Hopi
Indians, the Amish, and natives of the
islands of Tristan da Cunha. Because of
the tradition of family names in t r i b a l
and caste groups i n India and Japan, the
surname method described by Yasuda can
provide and excellent target group for
the study of random consanguineous mar-
riages and their effects. Many important
historical events are the result of wars
and natural calamities, such as f i r e s ,
famines, and floods. These events lead
to emigration and immigration, resulting
in fission and fusion, which i n turn lead
Fujiki/826
to further inbreeding. The genetic d i -
versity amoung these inbred groups can be
studied by genetic distance.
The P a r s i s , Muslims, C h r i s t i a n s , and
other biologically diversified religious
sects have created s o c i a l l y i s o l a t i n g
circumstances r e s u l t i n g i n inbreeding
such as i n Kuroshima and Hirado i n Japan,
where Buddhists were i s o l a t e d from
Catholics or Kakure (hidden Christians)
even though they lived on such a small
island.
Sometimes lesser but nonetheless import-
ant considerations enter into the selec-
tion of a mate. For example, one might
avoid marrying into a family with a his-
tory of certain diseases l i k e leprosy, or
he might avoid individuals of a certain
parish.
Long p e r s i s t i n g p r a c t i c e s of consan-
guinity i n southern India are mainly due
to s o c i o c u l t u r a l f a c t o r s rather than
geographical f a c t o r s or h i s t o r i c a l
events. Vedic subunits r e s t r i c t the
choice of mates to persons within the
group and preferably to cousins. In
r e l i g i o u s and occupational castes of
r u r a l and semiurban areas, mostly i n
southern India, cross-cousin marriages
are also preferred. Other important
reasons for consanguineous marriages are
to minimize economic i n s t a b i l i t y , to
avoid a dowry, to keep the inheritance of
property w i t h i n the f a m i l y , and to
maintain kinship bonds. Group solidarity
i n the villages and the perpetuation of
the joint family system for
s o c i o r e l i g i o u s reasons also a f f e c t
consanguineous marriage patterns. The
prohibition of village exogamy also leads
to some degree of inbreeding.
In such highly stabilized communities,
residents are closely related because of
endogamy and l i m i t e d l i v i n g spaces.
There i s consequently a higher sense of
community r e s p o n s i b i l i t y to maintain
t r a d i t i o n a l ceremonies and customs.
Exclusion of strangers (outsiders or
neighbors) Is much more evident when the
fishing and lumber industries are stable
and economically independent. When they
10
are s e l f - s u f f i c i e n t , consanguinity i s
more common.
In Japanese fishing and farming villages
the degree of consanguineous marriages
are expressed roughly by the degree of
endogamy. Socioeconomic and c u l t u r a l
factors strongly influence marriage prac-
tices i n these rural areas. However, i n
urban areas consanguineous marriages are
made by individuals who can choose their
marriage partners independently.
There are a number of considerations i n
miaikekkon (arranged marriages), as
stated by Neel and Schuil. F i r s t , u n t i l
such time as a younger son can afford to
establish a branch household or, i n the
case of an eldest son, u n t i l the parents
die, the newly married couple resides
with the husband's family. Tradition
dictates that the wife be subservient to
her mother-in-law as long as the latter
survives or as long as the couple resides
with the husband's parents. I t helps to
maintain a peaceful home under these c i r -
cumstances i f the bride i s of a known
disposition and has been born and reared
i n an environment similar to that of the
groom's family. Second, the economic
status of each family i s important.
Giftgiving i n Japan i s reciprocated, and
consequently families are often obliged
to undertake an onerous burden i n order
to give impressive g i f t s . I t i s general-
l y considered best, therefore, to arrange
marriages between families of approxi-
mately equal economic levels.
It Is customary i n Japan, particularly i n
the rural areas, for family holdings to
be used collectively by the sons and
daughters so long as their father sur-
vives . Upon his death the family proper-
ty may or may not be divided, but i n
either event at least the homestead pro-
perty passes to the eldest son—not so
much to him as an individual but as the
representative of the family. If the
property i s subdivided, an e f f e c t i v e
means of restoring the property to some-
thing approaching i t s former size i s for
the grandchildren to marry one another.
The data from Ichiba show further reasons
for people to marry relatives, namely
Fujiki/826
geographic considerations, the desire to
solve economic problems or to expand the
c i r c l e of relatives, and the fact that
prospective mates would know each other
well.
The most common explanation—geographic
reasons—frequently, but not necessarily,
implies geographic proximity. I t has
been repeatedly shown i n this regard that
the marriage c i r c l e i s smaller for
consanguineous marriages than f o r
nonconsanguineous marriages. Because of
the precedence established by parents,
the children of consanguineous couples
may marry relatives twice as frequently
as do the children of nonconsanguineous
couples. This tendency has long prevail-
ed i n certain of the military and royal
families i n Japan, as well as in the
rural areas. The tendency may lead to
higher inbreeding levels i n the offspring
of consanguineous unions than would be
estimated from the parental relationship
alone.
While i t has been surmised that isolated
communities are disappearing rapidly, our
data suggest that in some instances this
may not be so. Besides geographical
factors, the factors which have led to or
perpetuated i s o l a t i o n are r e l i g i o u s ,
economic, s o c i a l , and, i n the past,
p o l i t i c a l , as i n the emergence of various
Heike villages. These are villages of
fugitive warriors who lived i n secret,
geographically isolated communities in
order to escape from the hostile govern-
ment. These villagers such as those
found in village A, are proud of their
royal blood. Other v i l l a g e r s , such as
those i n village K, do not want to marry
outsiders or neighboring v i l l a g e r s
because they want to keep secret their
own techniques for papermaking.
RECENT TRENDS THROUGHOUT JAPAN
The decrease in the occurrence of mar-
riages between cousins and the drop i n
inbreeding rates are related to an
increased literacy level, occupational
mobility, industrialization, rural devel-
opment, the breakdown of joint families,
redistribution of land and property, and
il
the increased knowledge of the genetic
consequences of inbreeding.
Imaizumi reported that the frequency of
consanguineous marriages i n Japan has
rapidly decreased, from 16.25 percent for
couples married on 1 June 1947 or earlier
to 3.3 percent for those married between
2 June 1967 and 1 June 1972. The fre-
quency of marriages between f i r s t cousins
dropped from 7.19 percen^ to 0.89 percent
during the same period. This tendency
was foreseen by Matsunaga i n 1966. He
pointed out that a decrease i n potential-
l y marriageable r e l a t i v e s due to an
observed rapid reduction i n the average
family size on one hand, and a modern
trend toward the breakdown of isolated
areas on the other hand, should i n the
near future r e s u l t i n a s i g n i f i c a n t
reduction i n the frequency of consan-
guineous marriages i n Japan. Tanaka
reported that the number of marriageable
f i r s t cousins of the opposite sex for
each individual had been as many as ten
or twelve for each grandchild of women
born during the period of 1840-89.
This number has begun to decrease only
recently. Thus, the reduction i n family
s i z e , as recommended i n the revised
National Eugenics Law and Family Planning
Program, has not played a major role i n
the recent decrease i n consanguinity but
may promote i t i n the near future.
The abrupt reduction of consanguinity may
also be ascribed to the following
factors:
1. Modern transportation f a c i l i -
ties have begun breaking down
the geographical barriers that
had isolated populations in the
past.
2. Industrialization has promoted
migration, especially of young,
unmarried people, from a l l over
the country to large c i t i e s
where they have a chance to
become acquainted. The remark-
able increase in the number of
college or university students
has a similar effect.
Fujiki/826
3. A l l hygiene textbooks include a
d e s c r i p t i o n of the adverse
effects of consanguineous mar-
riages on offspring. This i n -
formation has become common
knowledge of younger people
educated by these textbooks.
SUMMARY
It i s clear that It takes a lot of time
and energy to make complete pedigree
charts for an entire village manually.
Basic data must be combined, rearranged,
and unified to form a nucleus. Some
methods of checking for errors can be
introduced, but i t i s inevitable that
12
important parts of the method depend upon
the memory of the operator. Relation-
ships can only be established s a t i s -
factorily when vague descriptions found
in different documents are reconstructed
i n the mind. We have introduced here
case studies to show how pedigree charts
can be applied to a genetic study.
Exact pedigrees can be u t i l i z e d i n
various f i e l d s . Pedigree charts can
provide very valuable data not only for
biological studies but also for socio-
logical studies. Therefore, we should do
our best to invent computer procedures
for drawing up precise pedigree charts.
Fujiki/826 13

F i g . 1. Sample of juminhyo (resident card)

Jumir.-H.yp if- U íf II if Hi
»II
Hi
k
ii
(*!»
vjy MM. Numbe r
Household Chie R e l a t i e ft
ümne !~ Birth Date

.Former Address w i t h i n the C i t y «,'Movein D B R e g . Date,; .'I'M

. . ..Present Address. / o ¥-CC /

.yy g" Notice;
)b

Permanent A d d r e s s ( H o n s e k i ) Head.

fiKtW-fMII
j i M o ^ e i ^ e ,

hi XMM1HII
(Vvi'it) JlrJfe
XftAflll
<tfiii.lt> *1È • l i « DUC

_• KI.iB_fP_.-4-.

I hereby c e r t i f y t h a t the above s t a t e m e n t s a r e c o r r e c t

In every r e s p e c t s .

June 28. 1980. S i g n a t u r e o f Mayor o f K a s u g a i City.

c CD^- b lá ÉÉR»©®* t TO íe o c ci * Hifi f 5 o
%

RB*
Lill
Fujiki/826 14

Fig. 2. Sample of koseki (family or household register)

FULL NAME of •''•.'»

r PERMANENT . ADDRESS HOUSEHOLD CHIEF ,
esgsa «ÍB «t «6 a- *tø* * e K * , :•*„•v.*:--; O
i •
I
S%fc£^Íé & Í H - i j « ^ *«»tfïg.mr» DATE" <, ORIGIN of thi. DOCUMENT.' M

•Hl RELATION to PARENTS ;

r
r
i

:
... .
• —• : • T' "" " • "
...... .BIRTH. DATE./ BIRTH-PLACE / .NAME OF NOTIFINQ PERSON / DATS . * J - ^ L » . ^ . ^ , - *

' Of, REGISTRATION / .STAMP o f RECORDER';"' .

.->-. *. ;
;., v — f •->
' ^ . . v ^ ^ .
7 ' •:
>
;>
i;
,\
< Iftj . ;••*»>
: l\J -
;
MOTHER'S-NAME' . ' I
w. ^ -,

, ? , i,
f r i & <í *^S®*SýfëM? *x £ r<«;• _ ' !!vlC j'.^ rÍt''' i 4"^'• l
B
31 ^feiíMM.*í4:.*-*J*.^9;lí*í.*i»^ 5j?X.P-**.*< vrv].
. A----? - c - x u — - 4 ..-.v........... .f..ií..'?c».:-ï.".-.V
NAME of SPOUSE '/ REASON of OUT-HIGHATION (MARRIAGE) / ' : J",^
. .RATE of NOTICE /. NEW ADDRESS /. STAMP of RECORDER.. '
' •• >t *\ '••. '* '. V *' . .
*• *° . . . ......,»
•*' ''.* •.*•". „ •**
i, . .

^ ' ,j •' fi •'" . ' ' ' .• • ,••

1—u.
B««B¥^Ín«»«44«^i«*$T*KnííJ^OftCFfia^
; «tÉíK O *t * * V* »o mm a SS #* è'icV-K Ü * n « I^

1
« " 'r ^: •'••« ' • . '. . '-V ;: Ar?.^ &U~~il.llZ.Zsi
— f

* : "*.' *—sáaai
Fujiki/826 15

Fig. 3. Reconstruction of Kurodani Village pedigree

Fujiki/826 16

•
Fig. 5. Sample pedigree chart

< e g
at s
a j e o <~ 3"! 00« auå
i I
5
•H=Z
S«
*_ <-*H,w _r*s o: <o x as
S «. c

•
«; «• * E
* u «
ctrti w
«:
* K s
s ^ 'B u
E- E
r o.
Ur' 1^

«• »
M i **B $*z * S?
=; «• «
«- U «
*H *! a __*H « 33
w „ ^ m; jfr ^
s
EH
ia- U 4rl
£~
t. «• £1 41 K 31
1<JI<5
«: * *
.c # u *
u « w a < z
u o
•a
J3
5;fr il *'
01
in «I- «I-
3
O 1<I K J
X =: * *
» u «
tn *. a

« z
H O
* * x '
EH ss h y g
* • O
* u #
«f w s

* »
»«s F-<Ï
=: * * 5 * i i tf

«;«• «
«• <J «
w te a
x cr w
cg
EH

* *
<
IS
Q

Cd CU pr
* U -w
* »i a 2r
gT-KSI-KS a
w m: * g g V K ^ a ft
g * u 4H x

* *
2 * K 33
«• v m M

«: * S
li U «
*H *; a
«I 4H
Fujiki/826 17

Fig. 6. The spread of disease among descendants of a couple

6@Y.O. +óá(á)v.H

m a I e
female

• o •
LM Q | carrier

© patient

-f- dead

* either one of the couple was carrier

Fujiki/826

:
i •'!' •
-NO.- i n REGISTRATION ~ ~ :
... i—:-., s -
.• j . - —••-•]-: - . i- "'
• FAMILY NAME (MAIDEN) - FIRST NAME •—.—- SEX !-•

ï4h ^mJföM) 4*>_

/5* -€t_a o
DATE

<r-DEATH DATE

277 Ute J857 i •

NO. i n RESIDENT CARD NO. i n PEDIGREE CHART

I ••
:L. RELATION t o the r e l a t i n g PARENT
;•' \ (D =s daughter, S = son ) I •
Fujiki/826 19

Fig. 8. The descendants of the patients' common ancestors

•
mate female

• O

ot
alive inside the island
dead or alive outside the island
patient
Fujiki/826 20

•:**
Fig. 9. Sample of completed pedigree chart

0 SK « « Cd
Q
a< c
W li i
sV- * H S3
s
IH
n tS a-c «
« SS . <
<3s
« K
ml -i e * S
ar- H ax m »
te -fel £ SS
SS
«3
f
e
» s
w
K
V SB
SS *
ss e
s8* i
K Eh ie 1 i CS c
I
4
O
n
* *. K
KII«I
* U tf
tf B s
i<r-
•5
»Tf
Sr
.er
«? * *
# U tf » <J *H 00
« Ï a :y «l K a
<ü? n; Sr 3?
Sr U «I
: 1 BI KI Ü Jrl K 33

j, * Ü a
«V.
Tf* # g
8 ^
% il S At
•JI I—

O
*r U
tf K
tf
B K 7

K
»
#
*
u
K
fi
tf
a
'3
•KS

» t/i.
5
iSfc
f i*s r-cs
•z »
#
tf
U
*:
e
tf
a |L
B 1
tf K 9
9 ^

Sr ^5
* *
CCL
=: # «
* v tf
tf K a =3 •i % '
sk i#•i tf* «I Sr ^ B;
-Si ** K
^
iH £ S Sr i l ^ «9
Ö ir! K 33
"^- -u
«i 6 a
Fujiki/826 21
Fujiki/826

Fig. 12. Sample isolated card

-•A; •
is

FULL NAME No FATHER'S NAME MOTHER'S NAME

Sim ti JE C S H
rer—r r
!fl •<04 M M w
>o »o 4 0 ' cM 1 1 «0 4 4 4 SO 4 dS|O 4 43ÍH 4 4313
0444 44 S044MÍ I) 4 44 t0 44 a na
44444 444 44 3]44 «444 tf _45)44 ï0S44
-044 444 44 i044 i 4 44 »04144 W 4 S3
444444 [044^0 444 $44 444
44 44 4 044 ttf 5 ifl44S,4
44444 [0444 44 44 0J4 ÖÉD4 SO 44
MM I

44L0-4
44444 44*8 3) 4 4 44 44 3
44444' 44!4 44 JÖ44 D 4 a
044 SD44 a
I I I I I I I I I I' I I I I I I i I l l l I I 11° I I U m l U - L L I ' - U , ! - ! , ! !

- -
NO." o f F A M I L Y ' NO. b f FATHER DATE o f MARRIAGE ~7 DISEASES BIRTH DATE
j o f PARENTS
Fujiki/826

Table 1. Consanguinity Rate Corrected by Jinshin Koseki

Table I. Consanguinity Rale Corrected by Jinshin Koseki

Number of Couples Number of Inbred

Based on Couples Based on Consanguinity
Rate Based on Corrected
Generation Present Jinshin . Present Jinshin _ . Present Rate
l o , a l
Koseki Koseki 1 0 t a l
Koseki Koseki Koseki

I 19 7 26 0 0 0 0% 0%

11 52 3 55 0 0 0 0 0
:
III 54 1 55 I
laf ill 1.8 5.5
0 9.5 9.5
IV
V
63
58
0
0
63
58
6
7 1
Is 8 12.1 13.8
0 15.0 15.0
VI 20 0 20 3
IB
Total 266 11 277 17 Bf: 20 6.1 7.2
 Fujiki/826 26

Table 2. Consanguinity Bates and Mean Inbreeding Coefficients in Isolates

Table 2. Consanguinity Rates and Mean Inbreeding Coefficients In Isolates

Mean Inbreeding C o e f f i c i e
Inbred Inbred 1n 1 «ÏP Othsr
Area Population Couple Couple Ra te J. • JL
M a r i t a l Unit Sib Unit

M II 1975 517 92 17.8 52 13 15 14 0.00771 0.00506

Is U 737 192 46 24.0 23 9 4 12 0.01165 0.01164
N M 1191 340 52 15.3 23 8 11 6 0.00620 0.00536
Is 648 175 15 8.6 7 2 2 4 0.00304 0.00480
0 Is. 686 286 82 28.7 40 11 19 12 0.01135 0.01065
Mi Vill. 161 54 14 25.9 7 0 2 6 0.01125 0.01770
K Ku 243 85 8 9.4 5 3 0 0 0.00489 0.0072b
Vill. Ok 136 48 16 33.3 6 6 2 2 0.01628 0.01462
Ar, Vill. 181 69 40 58.0 13 9 11 7 0.01881 0.02427
Mu Vill. 235 83 29 34.9 6 3 10 11 0.00901 0.00519
Az Vill. 251 95 20 21.1 13 3 1 5 0.01053 0.00915
To Vill. 245 156 48 30.8 • 20 12 11 5 0.00807 0.00736
Fujiki/826 27

Table 3. Subtypes of F i r s t Marriages and F

Subtype 1 C Total
F'
Couple Couple
Area Fr FM MF 1MM -
7 9 51 517 0.0097
M H 10 25
5 13 25 192 0.0052
Is. U 2 5
6 27 340' 0.0139
N M 7 9 5
7 175 0.0039
Is. K 1 4

9 15
2 0

11 40
i 286 0.0072
0 Is. 5
2 7 54 0.0058
Mi Vill. 1 1 3
0.0083
K Ku 3 1 OH 0 5 83
48 0.0104
Vill Ok 2 1 wÊÊ 1
IÉ 1
Ar Vill. 1 5 i 5 E 12 69
0.0118
83 0.0045
Mu V i l l . 2 0 2 X
95 0.0092
Az V i l l . 2 4 M i 11
0.0104
4 6 3 19 156
To V i l l . 6
Fujiki/826 28

Table 4. Chronological Change of Consanguinity

Consanguin i t y Rate' (%) Mean Inbreeding C o e f f i c i e n t

Are 1925^44 1945-64 1925-44 1945-64
M H 13.7 18.2 0.0085 0.0076
Is U 23.2 24 .0 0.0179 0.0136
N M 18.0 15.9 \ 0.0022 0.0032
Is K 8.5 7.0 0.0032 0.0014
0 Is 35.7 28.0 0.0085 0.0125
Mi V i l l 27.5 28.5 0.0192 0.0056
K Ku 13.2 12.0 0.0073 0.0039
Vill Ok 30.0 32.0 0.0158 0.0168
Ar V i l l 60.0 58.0 0.0234 0.0313
Mu V i l l 34 .4 38.5 0.0098 0.0076
Az V i l l 22.0 20.8 0.0193 0.0217
To V i l l 24.4 52 .6 0.0098 0.0208
Fujiki/826

Table 5. Summary of Markcard Errors

Item Program Check Inspection Total

f a i l u r e mistake other f a i l u r e mistake program .
other check Pi n s e c t i
°"
Family # 7 7
Individual # e 8 2 14 18 14
Same
14 17 0
Individual
Same Number 1 2 1 24 4 24

F/M unclear 1 2 1 3 1
F/M
1 2 1 3 1
not descrive
Marriagg
Date 5 1 2 7 8 7
Unclear 9 1 10 0

Stillhirth 2+220
INfl 2+220 1

Sex 5 fiÉÉ 5 2
Date of
Birth
Year 1 5 14 6 14
Month 20 11 20 •1
Unclear 2 0 2
Date of
Death
Year 6 0 6
Month 3 0 3
Unclear 13 8 13 8
300 329
Total 13 16 0 104 0 101
(80+220) (109+220)
 Fujiki/826 30

Table 6. Gene Frequencies of Polymorphic Traits in Isolates (I)

—Blood Groups and Serum Protein Types—

""\Traits ABO MN Ml Hp Tf Gc
Area \- I A
I B
1° G M
c N
D d HP 1
HP 2
Tf D
Go 1
Go 4

M Is. 0.246 0.178 0.553 0.533 0.467 ---

N Is. 0.220 0.205 0.597 0.547 0.453 -— ___ _ -_.
0 Is. 0.333 0.170 0.479 0.672 0.328 (407) (3) C. 383 0.617 (250) (1) 0.619 0.381
Mi V i l l . 0.285 0.457 0.258 ___
K Vill. 0.243 0.187 0.675 0.613 0.387 ( 73) (0) 0.205 0.795 (142) (0)
Ar Vill. 0.317 0.198 0.485 0.278 0.722 ( 90) (0) 0.117 0.8S2 ( 89) ...
(1)
Mu Vill. 0.365 0.137 0.498 0.517 0.483 (149) (0) 0.212* 0.788* (121) —
(0)
Az Vill. 0.337 0.154 0.509 0.524 0.476 (143) (0) 0.298 0.702 (115) _ _ _ ._-
(0)
To Vill. 0.224 0.227 0.549 0.586 0.414 (185) (0) 0.170 0.830 0.907 0.093
K i n k i Area 0.278 0.182 0.540 0.558 0.442 0.965 0.035
i 0.279 0.721 0.988 0.012 0.737 0.263
) ; Observed No.
* ; Variant
 Fujiki/826 31

Table 7. Gene Frequencies of Polymorphic Traits i n Isolates (II)

—Red Cell Enzyme Types—

s ACF PGMi G6PD 6PGD ADA EsD GPT

P b
PGM 1
PGM 2
PGMJ B +
B" PGD A
PGD C
ADA 1
ADA 2
EsD 1
EsD 2
Gpt 1
Gpt 2

--- — —
0.181 0.819 (112) (Oj (112) (0) 0.993 0.007

0.079 0.921 0.851 0.149 0.000 ( 73) (0) ( 72) (1)

0.219 0.781 0.856 0.144 0.000 ( 90) 1
(0) (990) (0) —- —
0.156 0.844 0.829 0.171 0.000 (149) (0) (149) (0) ---
0.231 0.829 0.930 0.070 0;000 (143) (0) (143) (0)
0.235 0.765 0.704 0.261 0.035* (112) (0) (112) (0) 0.986 0.014 0.638 0.362 0. 667* 0.333*
i 0.210 0.790 0.772 0.217 0.011 1.000 0.915 0.085 0.972 0.028 0.649 0.351 0.623 0.377

To V i l l . I AX 1 (185) , GOT 1 (184) 2-1 (1) , Dia 1 (185)

(. ) ; Observed No.
* i Variant
Fujiki/826 32

NOTES

Komai, T . , and Tanaka, K . , eds. Genetic studies on inbreeding i n some

Japanese populations. See also Jap. J . Human Genet. 17:87-248, 319-66, 18:20-38.
1972.
2
Schuil, W.J., and Neel, J.V. The effects of inbreeding on Japanese children.
Harper and Row. 1965.
3
F u j i k i , N., et a l . A study of inbreeding i n some isolated populations. Jap.
J. Human Genet. 12:105-25. 1968.
4
Yanase, T. The use of the Japanese family register for genetic study. In
Proceedings of the seminar on the use of v i t a l and health s t a t i s t i c s for genetic and
radiation studies. W.H.O., ed. 119-33. United Nations. 1962.
^Mano, K., et a l . Two cases of Laurence-Moon-Biedl syndrome found i n an
isolated community. Jap. J . Const. Med. 43:110-22. 1979. (In Japanese.)

^ F u j i k i , N. and Nishigaki, I . Consanguinity and polymorphism i n an isolated

community. Jap. J . Const. Med. 44:25-50. 1980. (In Japanese.)

^Kudo, A., et a l . Methodology on information processing and collecting for

genetic diseases using pedigrees. Report on formation processes of the informtion
system and study on organization of s c i e n t i f i c Information. C-14:l-17. 1979. (In
Japanese.)
g
Yamamoto, M., et a l . Inbreeding coefficients i n Arihara village, from
pedigree study, phenotype and mating frequencies and correlations methods. Jap. J .
Human Genet. 19:217-27. 1974.
9
F u j i k i , N., and Yamamoto, M. Breeding structure and consanguinity i n
isolated populations. In Adaptability i n Japanese. Yoshimura, H., ed. 269-94.
Kodansha. 1970. (In Japanese.)
10
Shirai, Y., et a l . Studies on inbreeding ( I I ) : Sociopsychological analyses
on inbreeding. Gendai Igaku. 23:53-58. 1975. (In Japanese.)
^Imaizumi, Y., Shinozaki, N., and Aoki, H. Inbreeding i n Japan: Results of a
nationwide study. Jap. J . Human Genet. 20:91-107. 1975.
12
Tanaka, K., and Tanimura, M. Familial accumulations of consanguineous
marriages. Jap. J . Human Genet. 22:251-59. 1977.
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Women and Traditiona

Sources
Panel
June-ho Song [Mod.],
Ted A, Telford,
Mark Peterson
Senes 831
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 WOMEN AND TRADITIONAL SOURCES
CHINESE CLAN GENEALOGIES: TRACING THE FEMALE LINE

Ted A. Telford

Born i n Utah. Resides i n S a l t Lake C i t y , Utah. A c q u i s i t i o n s p e c i a l i s t , Genealogical

Society of Utah. M.A. (Asian s t u d i e s ) , Brigham Young U n i v e r s i t y .

Use of Chinese clan genealogies as a generally i n f e r i o r p o s i t i o n of women i n

source f o r the h i s t o r y of women i s always
problematical, p r i m a r i l y because clan or
lineage records are i n one sense the
o f f i c i a l documents of the t r a d i t i o n a l
Chinese patriarchy. Descent in
t r a d i t i o n a l Chinese society was reckoned
s t r i c t l y i n p a t r i l i n e a l terms, and
subsequently women f i n d a place i n the
genealogies only as wives and mothers.
The t r a d i t i o n a l i d e a l o f the " t h r e e
dependencies" (HÍÍÉ) stripped women of a l l
autonomy, and obedience was r e q u i r e d
f i r s t to a woman's f a t h e r and o l d e r
brother during childhood; then to her
husband during marriage; ajid f i n a l l y to
her son during widowhood. This i d e a l
l i k e l y was not always the case i n
p r a c t i c e , but the clan genealogies as
documents chiefly concerned with
p a t r i l i n e a l descent l i n e s tend to obscure
the r e a l i t i e s where the i d e a l perhaps did
not h o l d . I t has been suggested that
the status of women t y p i c a l of the l a s t
800 or 900 years of Chinese h i s t o r y can
be traced to the development of an urban
c u l t u r e during the Sung period and the
r i s e of new-Confucianism as a dominant
philosophy. Various c o n t r o l mechanisms
such as f o o t - b i n d i n g , emphasis on female
c h a s t i t y and v i r g i n i t y , as w e l l as
r e s t r i c t i o n s on widow r e m a r r i a g e and
ownership and inheritance of property can
be traced to the same p e r i o d . It i s
generally agreed that precedents of s t y l e
and content t y p i c a l of the records we now
r e f e r to as "clan genealogies" were also
formulated and set by such well-known
Sung neo-CoD.fucianists as Ou-Yang Hsiu
and Su Hsün. I t would be no surprise i f
genealogies compiled by men educated i n
the neo-Confucian t r a d i t i o n r e f l e c t e d the
t r a d i t i o n a l Chinese society through the
p r a c t i c e of incomplete recording of v i t a l
data. Such recording practices often
r e f l e c t m o r a l judgements on female
b e h a v i o r d e v i a t i n g from e s t a b l i s h e d
c o n v e n t i o n s i n the best t r a d i t i o n o f
Confucian "praise and blame" h i s t o r i o -
graphy. In f a c t , t h i s i s exactly what
most c l a n g e n e a l o g i e s have done, f o r
example, w i t h remarried widows, and t h i s
accounts f o r many of the d i f f i c u l t i e s
encountered i n r e c o n s t i t u t i n g female
b i r t h s i n t o t h e i r f a m i l i e s of n a t i v i t y
and i n c o n n e c t i n g and t r a c i n g female
descent l i n e s i n the male-oriented
genealogies. By the same token, i t would
be no surprise to f i n d women becoming
more prominent and more f u l l y recorded i n
recent e d i t i o n s of many genealogies as
the status o f women became more
e g a l i t a r i a n with the d i s i n t e g r a t i o n of
t r a d i t i o n a l society and the clan system
in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth c e n t u r i e s . This i s i n f a c t
the s i t u a t i o n with many recent editions
of l i n e a g e g e n e a l o g i e s o r i g i n a t i n g i n
many parts of China. In general, what
information i s or i s not recorded about
women i n the genealogies i s not e n t i r e l y
a r e s u l t of ignorance on the part of the
c o m p i l e r s , but i s a r e f l e c t i o n of
conscious editorial decisions to
eliminate c e r t a i n kinds of information,
or to s t r i k e names from the genealogy
a l t o g e t h e r to express d i s a p p r o v a l f o r
conduct not conforming to new-Confucian
moral standards. This gWas as true f o r
men as i t was f o r women.
That women are i m p e r f e c t l y recorded i n
c l a n genealogies was not, of course, a
831a/Telford
concern from the point of view of the
compilers. I t only becomes a problem
when r e s e a r c h e r s are i n t e r e s t e d in
r e c o n s t i t u t i o n studies i n demography or
interested i n m a t r i l i n e a l descent as w e l l
as p a t r i l i n e a l descent as family
h i s t o r i a n s and genealogists are here i n
the U n i t e d S t a t e s . S i n c e women i n
t r a d i t i o n a l Chinese society had status
only as they were connected or related to
a male, so i n the genealogies, connec-
tions among genealogies can be made only
i f seme information i s given about the
woman's husband, and/or f a t h e r . Without
t h i s c r u c i a l piece of information—the
f u l l name of a man related to the woman
e i t h e r by p a r e n t a g e , s i b l i n g s h i p , or
marriage—links between clan or lineage
r e c o r d s cannot be made, and female
descent l i n e s cannot be traced. The
q u e s t i o n t h i s paper a s k s , t h e n , i s ,
"Under what c o n d i t i o n s i s i n f o r m a t i o n
about male r e l a t i v e s or spouses of female
c h i l d r e n included i n the genealogies?"
E s s e n t i a l l y , the p r o b a b i l i t y t h a t a
particular woman w i l l have enough
information recorded about her and her
male r e l a t i v e s to l i n k them to another
c l a n genealogy depends f i r s t on the
r e c o r d i n g p r a c t i c e s of the p a r t i c u l a r
l i n e a g e ; second, on the time p e r i o d
involved; and t h i r d , on the status or
p o s i t i o n of the p a r t i c u l a r woman i n
question.
RECORDING PRACTICES
In a word, there i s a tremendous variety
of information on women i n the lineage
genealogies. The specific rules that may
apply to any given genealogy are usually
spelled out in detail in a "notes" ( j ^ j )
section at the beginning of the genea-
logy. At the extreme, some genealogies
do not even include the surname of women
marrying into the lineage, but these are
relatively rare and include no more than
3 percent o^f a l l c u r r e n t l y a v a i l a b l e
genealogies. Virtually a l l genealogies
include the surnames of in-marrying
women, but beyond t h i s the v a r i e t y
increases tremendously. Some genealogies
record birth dates of wives, but give no
mention of female children; others record
2
numbers of female children born, but not
the names of their spouses; s t i l l others
record the names of remarried widows, but
only i f they l e f t sons with the lineage.
The combinations are endless, but there
i s a large proportion of a l l clan
genealogies that include b i r t h dates,
place of origin, and name of father for
most women marrying into the lineage.
Many of these same genealogies also
include female birth order and name and
place of origin of husbands for married
female children. At the other extreme,
some genealogies even include birth dates
for female children, but these are a tiny
proportion of the t o t a l , and number less
than 1 percent. Again, inclusion or
non-inclusion of v i t a l and other data
about women was l a r g e l y a matter of
editorial decisions based on precedents
and rules established by the editors who
f i r s t compiled the genealogy. Because of
the need to exchange the "eight
characters" (/VjO referring to the birth
dates of prospective marriage partners as
an essential part of most betrothals and
marriages, i t i s certain that birth dates
of female^ c h i l d r e n were known and
recorded; however, these have been
systematically edited out of virtually
a l l lineage genealogies.
Even though any given genealogy i s l i k e l y
to include various amounts of information
about women, there are more general
patterns that distinguish the genealogies
o r i g i n a t i n g i n one area from those
produced by lineages i n another area. In
general, women i n northern genealogies
have much less information recorded than
women i n southern genealogies as the
included table shows. Table 1 (at the
end of the paper) shows what kinds of
information about women i s included: (1)
whether daughters are mentioned even i f
only by number; (2) whether there i s
information on the daughter's spouses;
and (3) whether there i s some information
on the origin of wives marrying into the
lineage, either by place of origin and/or
father's f u l l name. Numbers in the table
refer to t o t a l percentages of the
genealogies from a given province that do
include such information. The sampling
of over 900 genealogies involved here
831a/Telford
r e p r e s e n t s n e a r l y 30 p e r c e n t of a l l
lineage genealogies a v a i l a b l e i n p u b l i c
c o l l e c t i o n s around the w o r l d . In a word,
except f o r a few provinces f o r which only
a s m a l l number o f g e n e a l o g i e s are
a v a i l a b l e f o r comparison, t h i s table
r e f l e c t s the general recording practices
c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of Chinese l i n e a g e s by
province. A given genealogy was counted
as having women's o r i g i n s recorded, f o r
example, i f i t appeared that most of the
women i n the genealogy have that type of
information included. No genealogy
i n c l u d e s such i n f o r m a t i o n f o r every
woman, and very few make no reference
whatsoever to any woman's o r i g i n . Even
g e n e a l o g i e s t h a t do not r e c o r d d a t a
r e g a r d i n g women's o r i g i n s w i l l almost
always give the name of a woman's f a t h e r
i f he were e s p e c i a l l y w e l l - k n o w n or
famous. The same holds true f o r other
classes of information about women i n the
genealogies included i n Table 1.
There are a few anomalies i n the table
that contradict the general north-south
d i s t i n c t i o n that has already been made,
the most s i g n i f i c a n t one b e i n g the
northeastern provinces of Liaoning and
K i r i n and the North China province of
Honan. Most of the genealogies a v a i l a b l e
from these three provinces date from the
Ching period (1644-1912), and as w i l l be
shown l a t e r , information on women tends
to be more completely recorded f o r l a t e r
time periods. In a d d i t i o n , a number of
these g e n e a l o g i e s are f o r S i n i c i z e d
Manchu lineages, and there are i n d i c a -
tions that the p o s i t i o n of Manchu women,
who did not bind t h e i r f e e t , was somewhat
d i f f e r e n t than f o r women i n the m a j o r i t y
Chinese population.
The other important d e v i a t i o n from what
we would expect to f i n d given the o v e r a l l
percentage f o r Kwangtung genealogies i s
the low percentages f o r g e n e a l o g i e s
o r i g i n a t i n g i n Hong Kong and i t s New
Territories. Hong Kong and the New
T e r r i t o r i e s was o r i g i n a l l y part of Pao-an
d i s t r i c t ( J t ^ f ö ) , and t h i s d i f f e r e n c e
points to one aspect of geographic v a r i a -
t i o n that i s l a r g e l y obscured by the data
i n Table 1 that looks at p r o v i n c e - l e v e l
aggregations. There i s a great deal of
3
v a r i a t i o n between the kinds of informa-
t i o n recorded i n smaller geographic
d i v i s i o n s such as d i s t r i c t s and even
v i l l a g e s , as w e l l as v a r i a t i o n s f r o m
l i n e a g e ^to lineage in the same
vicinity. As w i l l be shown l a t e r ,
segments w i t h i n a lineage o f t e n reside i n
d i f f e r e n t v i l l a g e s and may have d i f f e r e n t
recording practices. Pao-an as a
d i s t r i c t i n general does not record much
information on women, and the genealogies
from the part of Pao-an which remained
w i t h i n Chinese j u r i s d i c i t o n show the same
pattern. In f a c t , the genealogies from
P a o - a n , and p o s s i b l y o t h e r similar
d i s t r i c t s , have tended to lower the
o v e r a l l average f o r Kwangtung Province as
a whole because many have been c o l l e c t e d
and are a v a i l a b l e from Pao-an. Other
d i s t r i c t s such as Chung-shan ( Hp Ü4 )
Hsin-hui ( an W ) and other P e a r l Paver
Delta d i s t r i c t s have exceptionally good
genealogies, but have been averaged i n
with the other d i s t r i c t s to produce a
f a i r l y low o v e r a l l average f o r the
province.
In any event, one should be prepared to
f i n d v a r i a t i o n s among the g e n e a l o g i e s
from d i f f e r e n t d i s t r i c t s and lineages i n
each province. This s i t u a t i o n may be due
to the general economic s i t u a t i o n that
p r e v a i l s i n a given area, at least i n
part. I t i s known that many parts of
Pao-an were considered r e l a t i v e l y poor,
while the provinces of the lower Yangtze
( K i a n g s u , C h e k i a n g , A n h w e i ) , where a
large proportion of the genealogies have
good information on women, were among the
most prosperous and d e n s e l y p o p u l a t e d
provinces of China. Lineages w i t h
surplus resources that could be devoted
to such a c t i v i t i e s as c o m p i l a t i o n o f
genealogies might e a s i l y be expected to
devote more space to what they saw as the
" n o n - e s s e n t i a l " r e c o r d i n g of women.
Lineages i n poorer d i s t r i c t s might be
able to a l l o c a t e only enough resources to
record the bare essentials—male descent
l i n e s of the l i n e a g e . Again as noted
e a r l i e r , the status of women may have
varied from area to area and from group
to group, and t h i s i s probably the major
f a c t o r i n d i f f e r e n t i a l r e c o r d i n g of
female data rather than r e l a t i v e poverty
831a/Telford
or p r o s p e r i t y . Poorer r u r a l groups may
have valued women more f o r the e s s e n t i a l
labor they could provide, and thus would
have been less l i k e l y to hobble t h e i r
mobility and p r o d u c t i v i t y by such
measures as f o o t - b i n d i n g , and t h i s may be
r e f l e c t e d i n t h e i r genealogies.
TIME PERIOD
While lineages can trace their lines of
descent i n many cases to high antiquity
and the legendary Five Emperors
(B.C. 2852-2255), or to various royal
houses of the Shang (B.C. 1766-1154),
Chou (B.C. 1122-255), or to noble
m i n i s t e r i a l f a m i l i e s of the Tang
(A.D. 618-905), i t i s a rare genealogy
indeed that contains v i t a l data for men
before the Sung (A.D. 960-1280). Equally
rare are genealogies that record complete
information on women before the Sung.
Given the wide variation among lineages
and geographic areas, the only general
rule i s that the closer i n time to the
present, the more complete w i l l be the
data on women. This i s due i n part to
the changing status of women, but depends
more directly on the date of the f i r s t
compilation or recension of the gene-
alogy. Clan genealogies are, as
already noted, basically an invention of
the Sung period, and some lineage gene-
alogies are the product of a dozen or
more recensions^spaced over a period of
700-800 years. In such genealogies
that established e a r l y precedents for
complete recording of female data, there
i s a wealth of information on women that
stretches back a thousand years. More
common, however, are lineage genealogies
i n i t i a l l y compiled i n the l a t e Ming
(A.D. 1368-1628) or early Ching periods
that include much information on women
beginning about the time of the
genealogy's i n i t i a l compilation, but more
sparse information for females prior to
that date. This i s understandable since
the compilers would have had to
reconstruct the clan's ancestry using
limited source materials such as grave
markers, ancestral tablets, and perhaps a
few handwritten family genealogies or
registers that may have been kept by
4
c e r t a i n f a m i l i e s or segments of the
lineage with sufficient education to do
so. This i n i t i a l compilation i s crucial
in that the act i t s e l f often i s what
creates the lineage as a separate group
and defines i t s membership. The
process of compiling the genealogy and
identifying a " f i r s t ancestor" ( fêíH )
or progenitor of the lineage determined
i t s scope, size, and membership, as well
as established precedents which
subsequent editors followed. The date of
i n i t i a l compilation can usually be found
by examining the prefaces and
introductory material usually included i n
the genealogies. Failing that, one can
use the time at which v i t a l dates for men
and women become generally recorded for
most clansmen i n the genealogy, provided
the lineage records t h i s type of
information as a general practice.
The f o l l o w i n g table i l l u s t r a t e s how
information on women tends to be more
completely recorded as we come down i n
time to the point where at the end of the
Ching period, a large majority of
genealogies record information about
women. Percentages for each time period
are cumulative, since once a genealogy
begins recording a c e r t a i n type of
information i t i s extremely uncommon for
later editions of the genealogy to delete
i t by a general change i n the rules of
recording. Table 2 (at the end of the
paper) presents only data on the
recording of v i t a l dates for wives, but
the other types of information presented
i n Table 1, such as percentage of
genealogies with more and more gene-
alogies including such information as we
come forward i n time. As Table 2 shows,
by the end of the Ching period most
genealogies, that i s 73.8 percent,
include complete v i t a l information for
wives, but there i s again, considerable
variation among geographic areas.
THE POSITION OR STATUS OF PARTICULAR
WOMEN
Given a particular genealogy that records
complete information on women and i s
relatively accurate and close i n time,

831a/Telford
f u l l information on individual women w i l l
s t i l l tend to be excluded i f they belong
to c e r t a i n categories. F i r s t , i f a rates made remarriage a n e c e s s i t y ,
female child dies young, that i s before
betrothal or marriage, she i s almost
certain not to be entered i n the geneal-
ogy. At best she may be mentioned by
female b i r t h order accompanied by a
cryptic note that she "died young'Ulor
s
4 ). While exclusion of such female
children provides serious d i f f i c u l t i e s widowed early i n l i f e and honored i n
for anthropologists and demographers
attempting to reconstitute families for
study, they are not a concern of someone
tracing female descent lines since they
did not live long enough to marry, leave
the lineage, and bear children. On occa-
sion, a "child bride" marrying into a
lineage and then dying before an actual
marriage was consummated may be entitled
to a r i t u a l place i n the ancestral h a l l sons were old enough to work the land,
and i n the genealogy as a " f i r s t wife,"
but these situations are often hard to
identify since complete v i t a l data i s
often missing for such " f i r s t wives." On
the other hand, this lack of v i t a l data
on a f i r s t wife with no sons and complete
v i t a l data on a second wife with sons may
often serye to s i g n a l similar
situations.
The second category of women who did not
generally have enough information r e -
corded to link them with another geneal-
ogy are concubines. Concubines were
generally considered inferior i n status
and while a man may have had two or more
wives listed with complete data on the lineages. The relatively high status of
origins of each, a concubine of the same
man may not. There are, however, many
exceptions to this observation, and again
depending on the specific rules estab-
lished by the lineage, concubines may be
treated the same as any other wife.
Remarried widows constitute the third and
most important group of women who w i l l
almost never have information recorded
about them beyond a mention of their
surname and the fact that they remarried.
For at least the last thousand years, the remarried widows who may not have
ideal i n Chinese society was for widows
to remain " f a i t h f u l " to their deceased
husbands and not remarry. There i s much
evidence, however, that the r e a l i t i e s
P0GATELLO REGIONAL
GENEALOGICAL LIBRARY
were much different and sheer economics
of survival coupled with high mortality
e s p e c i a l l y f o r poorer f a m i l i e s with
l i t t l e or no property. Indications from
genealogies that c a r e f u l l y record a l l
remarriages out of the clan are that a
large majority of women widowed early i n
l i f e , sajf by the age of thirty, did
remarry. The "chaste widows" ( @5 f§ )
their old age by o f f i c i a l biographies i n
genealogies and local histories as well
as honorific arches constructed at the
entrance to their family compounds, were
clearly a tiny minority of a l l widowed
women, and i n a l l but a few cases were
f a i r l y well off. A woman whose husband
l e f t her with considerable property that
could at least be rented out even i f no
could well afford to avoid remarriage.
Even though lineage members were
obligated to support widows and children
of clansmen, the number of genealogies
with rules that enforced such behavior i s
an indication that support of widows was
problematic and had to be enforced.
There i s evidence that i n at least some
lineages remarriage of widows was
actually encouraged presumably to relieve
the lineage ^gf the economic burden that
they posed. Such remarried widows,
usually leaving sons with the father's
clan, would of necessity be forced to
arrange marriages of inferior status as
second wives or even concubines i n other
chaste widows as opposed to remarried
widows that was the ideal i n Confucian
society i s p e r f e c t l y mirrored i n the
lineage genealogies. Chaste widows are
almost always f u l l y recorded usually with
a special biography for the woman also
included; while out-marrying widows are
mentioned only by surname i f at a l l .
Furthermore, in-marrying widows from
other lineages are never, to my
knowledge, identified^as such, except i n
extraordinary cases. The status of
actually l e f t the lineage by remarriage
i s also i n question. Unfortunately,
genealogies are not l i k e l y to address
this situation directly, and I have never
831a/Telford
seen an example of a m a t r i l o c a l (or
uxorilocal) remarriage of a widow. A may have been kept from the early Ming as
woman whose husband may have l e f t her
with small children but also with at
least some property may have been forced
to find an u x o r i l o c a l husband from
outside the lineage to work the land and
support her family at least u n t i l her own
sons were old enough to do so. Even
temporary arrangements were not
unknown. Such situations may have been
f a i r l y common, and while treatment i n the
genealogies of such an event probably
varies from lineage to lineage, i t i s
l i k e l y that i t w i l l almyst never be
recorded i n the genealogy.
Up to this point I have made very general
statements about what kinds of
information i s l i k e l y to be found i n a
lineage genealogy for what general types
of women. But we should remember that
the crucial piece of information that
enables a researcher to link a specific
woman to another lineage record i s the
specific statement of her relationship
with a certain male, usually her husband
or father. By way of a more specific
examination of the topic I w i l l take a
single genealogy and analyze it
s t a t i s t i c a l l y for the information i t
contains on women. The Hsiang-shan
T'ieh-ch"eng Chgjig S h i h T s u - p ' u ,
published i n 1934, i s typical of many
printed genealogies i n that less than
half of the women included have enough
information to successfully link them to
another record. Other p r a c t i c a l
considerations have dictated my selection
of this particular genealogy for study,
among them i t s s i z e — o n l y four volumes
with some 1,700 women included; i t s
apparent high quality and completeness;
and i t s place of origin—Kwangtung's
Chung-shan d i s t r i c t , a d i s t r i c t to which
a significant number of Chinese-Americans
can trace their ancestry.
From information given i n the prefaces,
t h i s genealogy was f i r s t compiled i n
1780. The prefaces state that the
genealogy was f i r s t compiled about 1400
during the Ming, but also notes that only
"branch genealogies" ( ^ i£ §f X« existed
before the compilation of 1780. It i s
6
f a i r l y certain that while some records
evidenced by considerable vital
information for many persons born prior
to 1780, this genealogy for a l l intents
and purposes was f i r s t compiled as a
genealogy for the entire lineage in 1780.
Reading of various parts of the genealogy
leads us to believe that the Chang
lineage was known for a number of i t s
members being involved i n the o f f i c i a l
salt monopoly and trade, and evidently
several of i t s members became wealthy
enough at about this time to finance the
compilation and printing of the genealogy
and the construction or refurbishment of
elaborate ancestral halls. Subsequent
editions followed i n 1858 and again i n
1920 with the genealogy actually being
completed and printed in 1934.
Recensions of the genealogy were
therefore about seventy years apart. It
i s from about 1750, or very close to the
time of the f i r s t f u l l compilation, that
information on women begins to be more
complete. While only one-third of a l l
women i n the genealogy have f u l l names of
husbands and/or fathers, after 1800 more
than 80 percent of a l l women i n the
genealogy have such information. The
following i s a summary of the data found
on wives and female children as found i n
the Chang genealogy.
Remarried widows, c h i l d brides dying
young, and other types of poorly-recorded
women swell the percentages of women i n
the f i r s t two categories of wives; while
female children dying before marriage, i f
they are noted at a l l , w i l l be included
i n the f i r s t category of daughters. In
essence, less than one-third of either
wives or daughters even have the bare
minimum of information needed to link
them to another lineage record. Given
the a v a i l a b i l i t y of other lineage
records, not even a l l of this one-third
can be accurately l i n k e d to other
genealogies. Incorrect characters,
recording one type of personal name or
"style" ( s£ ) i n the woman's genealogy
f i r s t , and the tabooed personal name
( |$ ) i n the man's genealogy f i r s t makes
linkage sometimes uncertain, often hard
to make, and always very time-consuming.
831a/Telford
Discovery of such d i f f i c u l t i e s i n the
r e c o r d i n g of names was o n l y p o s s i b l e
since seme of the genealogies used to
l i n k daughters i n the Chang genealogy
also had information on t h e i r fathers i n
the genealogy where the Chang daughter
appears as a w i f e , but more of t h i s w i l l
be said l a t e r .
Again, Table 3 obscures d i f f e r e n c e s among
lineage segments by aggregating the data
f o r the whole l i n e a g e . Lineage segments
tended to l i v e i n d i f f e r e n t r e s i d e n t i a l
s e t t l e m e n t s , and the d i s t r i b u t i o n o f
f a m i l i e s recording more or less complete
i n f o r m a t i o n on women i s not e v e n l y
d i s t r i b u t e d a c r o s s l i n e a g e segments.
R e l a t i v e l y wealthy or poor r e s i d e n t i a l
segments can be i d e n t i f i e d by using the
percentage of "gentry" or upper class
husbands and the percentage of widows who
remarry r e s p e c t i v e l y as crude i n d i c a t o r s .
The Chang genealogy i n c l u d e s l i n e a g e
members residing in eleven areas
scattered around the whole d i s t r i c t of
Chung-shan and Macao, which l i e s at the
southern t i p of the d i s t r i c t . The
following table includes data only up to
about 1800 but i s i n d i c a t i v e of a general
pattern c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of t h i s genealogy,
namely, e c o n o m i c a l l y b e t t e r o f f areas
record more complete data about women
than poorer ones.
While some of the r e s i d e n t i a l segments
are so s m a l l as to make d e f i n i t i v e
conclusions u n r e l i a b l e , areas with larger
numbers of cases bear out the uneven
d i s t r i b u t i o n of information on women and
i t s c o r r e l a t i o n with uneven d i s t r i b u t i o n
of wealthy and poorer lineage members. A
comparison of two similarly-sized
segments, Yakang and Putzu, i l l u s t r a t e
the extremes that can be included i n the
same l i n e a g e . P u t z u has no g e n t r y
husbands, a very high rate of
widow-remarriage, almost no recording of
female c h i l d r e n , and nearly a l l wives
have some v i t a l i n f o r m a t i o n m i s s i n g .
Yakang, on the o t h e r hand, has an
extremely high concentration of gentry
husbands, a low percentage of remarried
widows, and has the most complete
recording of women and female c h i l d r e n of
any r e s i d e n t i a l segment i n the l i n e a g e .
7
The table also i l l u s t r a t e s why i t i s a
misnomer to speak of a "wealthy" or a
"poor" lineage or clan i n most cases. In
general, lineages have wealthy and poor
f a m i l i e s and segments, but i t is
inaccurate to speak of any lineage as a
whole being e i t h e r wealthy or poor.
RECORD LINKAGE
A c t u a l record linkage of female l i n e s
presents numerous problems, most of which
have already been dealt with i n d e t a i l .
The main problem, however, is
a v a i l a b i l i t y of lineage records. Given
t h a t o n l y a p o r t i o n o f any l i n e a g e
includes enough information on females to
l i n k them to another genealogy, and given
that the d i s t r i b u t i o n of t h i s information
i s uneven among r e s i d e n t i a l segments of a
l i n e a g e , then the c r u c i a l f a c t o r i s the
a v a i l a b i l i t y of genealogies f o r lineages
r e s i d i n g i n v i l l a g e s or areas where there
i s a good deal of information on women.
I t w i l l do us l i t t l e good to have a great
d e a l o f i n f o r m a t i o n , f o r example, on
females i n the Yakang area i f there are
no other genealogies a v a i l a b l e f o r the
lineages there that intermarry with each
other. My i n a b i l i t y to l i n k more than a
small proportion of even the one-third of
the women i n the Chang genealogy with
s u f f i c i e n t i n f o r m a t i o n to do so i s
l a r g e l y due to the lack of a v a i l a b l e
genealogies f o r the lineages with which
the Changs intermarried with more or l e s s
greater frequency.
Several surnames of in-marrying wives and
sons-in-law appear i n the Chang genealogy
with great frequency—various Cheng (Hf! )
Yang ( \% ) and Wu ( ^ ) lineages being
the most common. A t o t a l of some
forty-one d i f f e r e n t surnames appear, but
only about f i f t e e n of these have even a
s i n g l e lineage genealogy a v a i l a b l e . The
highest frequency of intermarriage
recorded i n the Chang genealogy was with
a Yang lineage i n Peishan ( lil # Ö ) >
but no genealogy i s a v a i l a b l e f o r t h i s
p a r t i c u l a r l i n e a g e . There are two other
g e n e a l o g i e s a v a i l a b l e f o r o t h e r Yang
lineages i n the d i s t r i c t , but they did
831a/Telford
not intermarry with the Changs, or at
least with this particular lineage of
Changs i n Chungshan. There are other
lineages with which intermarriage i s very
frequent, such as the Jungs of Nanping
( f pgg ), among others^ for which a
genealogy i s a v a i l a b l e . The large
segment of the Chang lineage living i n
Nanping intermarried often with the Jungs
also living in the Nanping area, and more
than 50 percent of a l l intermarriages be-
tween the Nanping segments of these two
lineages could be linked without d i f f i -
culty. Other lineages with fewer inter-
marriages with segments of the Chang l i n -
eage than the Jungs, but for which l i n -
eage genealogies are available include,
among several others, a Wei ( jf£ ) l i n -
eage, a Hsü ( ) lineage and a Ch'eng
( H ) lineage. A l l of the Wei, two-
thirds of the Hsü, and one-half of the
Ch'eng could be ljnked with their respec-
tive genealogies. My i n a b i l i t y to link
more of the women recorded i n the Chang
genealogy to those mentioned i n the Jung
and other genealogies could be due to
several factors. There may have been
segments of the Jung lineage not included
in the available Jung genealogy, or there
may have been Jungs i n the area that did
not belong to this particular Jung l i n -
eage. This i s probably not the case
because most of the names that could not
be located i n the Jung genealogy con-
tained the proper "generation name" com-
mon to several others that could be found
in the genealogy. I am inclined to
think the d i f f i c u l t y for the most part
l i e s in the incorrect recording of char-
acters of names and printers' errors. In
addition, the spatial organization of the
Jung genealogy i t s e l f accounts for my i n -
a b i l i t y to link a higher percentage of
the names i n the two genealogies by l i s t -
ing the man's tabooed personal name f i r s t
at the head of the printed columns, f o l -
lowed by the style. Jung lineage members
in the Chang genealogy are referred to
only by t h e i r s t y l e , and t h i s makes
searching the Jung genealogy, which i s
very large, extremely time-consuming and
inaccurate. A complete indexing of a l l
personal names in both genealogies would
f a c i l i t a t e matching of the two records,
and should result in record linkage of
8
more than 50 percent of the men' s names.
The other problem that arises i s the i n -
correctly written characters for names.
These occur with a lower frequency than
expected given the complexity of Chinese
characters and the relatively low level
of literacy characteristic of traditional
China, but with great enough frequency to
create^-a serious problem .in linking re-
cords. Many of the incorrect charac-
ters are probably homophones in the local
dialect as many of them are i n Mandarin,
and these constitute a problem i n record
linkage s i m i l a r to the v a r i a t i o n s i n
s p e l l i n g of names w e l l known to re-
searchers i n those cultures that use
phonetic alphabets and where literacy i s
less than universal. The problem of i n -
correct characters i s further complicated
by the fact that a man may have been
known by more than one style during the
course of his l i f e . If a l l of these are
not recorded i n the man's lineage gene-
alogy, i t may not be possible to link him
with his wife's lineage genealogy where
he may only be listed by the style he had
at the time of marriage.
CONCLUSION
In summary, whether any given Chinese
woman appearing i n a genealogy can be
s u c c e s s f u l l y linked to another record
depends on a number of factors. If she
comes from an area i n the lower Yangtze
provinces, from a lineage that records
complete information on women, from a
well-to-do segment of the lineage, a
widow who lived to a ripe old age and
never remarried, and who perhaps lived
toward the end of the Ching period, the
probability a linkage to another clan
record can be made i s extremely high. On
the other hand, i f the woman comes from
North China, from a poor segment of the
lineage and a remarried widow, the chance
a linkage can be made to another record
is near zero. Whether information on
females can be recovered through record
linkage i n order to r e c o n s t i t u t e
biological families for the purposes of
the anthropologist, family historian, or
demographer a l l depends on a number of
factors that r e f l e c t the v a r i e t y and
diversity of traditional Chinese society.
831a/Telford 9

Table 1. Percentages of Lineage Genealogies with Information on Women, by Province.

Type of No. V i t a l V i t a l Vital % With % With % With Total

Information Dates Dates for Dates Female Daughters Origin Number
Husbands for Children Spouse of in
Province Only Wives Wives Sample

Kiangsu 3.1 9.2 87.7 85.0 82.0 40.7 260

Chekiang 12.8 14.1 73.0 74.0 74.0 49.0 156

Anhwei 9.3 14.7 76.0 65.3 64.0 44.0 75

Kiangsi 16.6 83.4 70.8 66.7 45.8 24

Hupeh 10.3 89.7 34.5 31.0 13.8 29

Hunan 3.7 3.7 92.8 81.5 77.8 37.0 27

Fukien 22.2 3.7 74.1 51.8 51.8 40.7 27

Taiwan 14.7 8.8 76.5 46.0 32.3 29.4 34

Kwangtung 24.3 2.2 74.5 40.0 37.8 36.7 90

Hong Kong 53.1 3.1 43.8 12.5 3.1 32

Kwangsi 14.3 85.7 57.1 42.8 71.4 7

Kweichow 16.7 83.3 66.6 66.6 33.3 6

Szechwan 11.2 88.8 33.3 33.3 33.3 9

Hopeh 35.4 16.2 48.4 38.7 35.5 32.3 31

Honan 36.4 4.5 59.1 63.6 54.5 40.9 22

Shantung 66.7 2.8 30.5 19.4 16.7 22.2 36

Shansi 58.7 6.8 34.5 20.7 17.2 13.8 29

Shensi 83.3 16.7 9.1 9.1 9.1 6

Liaoning 20.0 13.3 66.7 73.3 73.3 60.0 15

K i r in 25.0 75.0 75.0 75.0 50.0 4

TOTAL 17.8 8.4 73.8 61.6 59.1 41.1 919

 831a/Telford 10

Table 2. Cumulative Percentages of Lineage Genealogies Including V i t a l Dates for

Wives, by Time Period, By Province.

Time Period

T'ang Sung Yuan Ming Chin

Province

Kiangsu — 10.0 14.2 59.2 87.7

Chekiang 1.3 9.0 17.3 52.5 73.0

Anhwei 1.3 4.0 13.3 57.3 76.0

Kiangsi 4.2 29.2 29.2 58.4 83.4

Hupeh — — 10.3 27.6 89.7

Hunan — 3.7 40.8 66.8 92.8

Fukien — — 3.7 51.8 74.1
Taiwan — — — 29.4 76.5
Kwangtung — 3.3 7.7 38.9 74.5
Hong Kong — — 3.1 18.8 43.8

Kwangsi — — — 28.6 85.7

Kweichow — — — 16.6 83.3

Szechwan — — — 11.1 88.8

Hopeh — — — 12.9 48.4

Honan — — — 13.6 59.1
Shantung — 2.8 2.8 11.1 30.5
Shansi — — — 13.8 34.5
Shensi — — — — 16.7
Liaoning — — — 20.0 66.7
Kirin — — — — 75.0
TOTAL .4 5.9 11.3 44.2 73.8
831a/Telford 11

Table 3. Women Recorded i n the Chang Lineage Genealogy, 1276-1920

WIVES (N 1049) DAUGHTERS (N 626)

No. Surname 3.7% Numbers Only 32.9%

Surname Only 59.8% Husband's Surname Only 16.9%
Surname and Place of Husband's Surname and Place
Origin 9.8% of Origin 19.8%
Father's F u l l Name 2.0% Husband's F u l l Name 5.6%
Father's F u l l Name and Husband's F u l l Name and
Place of Origin 24.7% Place of Origin 24.8%

Total 100.0% Total 100.0%

Table 4. Information Recorded on Women by Location, Chang Lineage

Genealogy, 1650-1800.

*% Families *% Wives Re- **% Re- %Gentry No. Wives No. Wives
Location Recording corded Both married Husbands with No
Female B i r t h , Death Widows
m Children
Births Dates Sample

Shiht'ou 52.7 49.5 16.1 1.1 12 431

P'ingfeng 59.1 72.7 3.4 0 29 7

Waipu 0.0 50.0 5.9 0 17 5

Nanping 47.7 80.0 9.6 3.4 94 29

Yakang 86.4 95.5 6.7 38.1 30 8

Putzu 5.9 11.8 20.7 0 29 12

Waichieh 10.3 55.2 12.8 0 39 10

Lientang 50.0 44.5 3.8 0 26 8

Macao 50.0 75.0 20.0 0 5 1

Nanlang 55.6 66.7 8.6 0 58 22

Tsoputou 60.0 100.0 0.0 0 8 3

Total 46.7 61.6 11.1 2.5 459 136

*These percentages do not include wives without children i n the calculation.

**This column i s a percentage of total wives, not just widowed women who remarry.
831a/Telford 12

NOTES

"Slaurice Freedman and other anthropologists have made valid distinctions

between clans and lineages. See Maurice Freedman. Chinese Lineage and Society:
Fukien and Kwangtung (New York, 1966), pp. 20-22. Distinctions notwithstanding,
throughout this paper I have used the terms clan and lineage interchangeably i n the
sense of a common descent group. Lineages were generally localized, and held some
corporate property, and i t i s certain that a vast majority of a l l extant genealogies
are lineage genealogies. A number of lineages i n the process of defining themselves
as "clan" that might share only a common surname and perhaps a genealogy but no other
corporate property such as ancestral estates and h a l l s , would do so by identifying an
early common progenitor and then patching together the various lineages with more or
less accurate generational links to form a more or less widely dispersed and vaguely
defined common descent group. In this paper the generalizations i n regard to the
content of Chinese genealogies have reference to the genealogies of localized lineages
and not to "clan" genealogies s t r i c t l y defined. Most "clan" genealogies are heavily
edited, often leaving only male descent lines as i n the Ou-yang Liu-tsung T'ung-p'u
;L934
mmrsmmm 17 m , M15 a76o) % , ss23 ( > M " edition.
Many recently published genealogies i n Taiwan are of this type and may lump together
dozens of lineages that share only a common surname without even an attempt to make
approximate generational linkages to form a common descent group. An example of this
type of "clan" genealogy would be the K'o-Ts'ai Shih Ta-tsu-p'u
P«-A$iit?-1 L'Si-,JvK60(1971) edition.
^Most works dealing with the legal and social position of women i n Chinese
society mention the "three dependencies." — $t i s variously referred to as the
"three subordinations," "thrice obeying" or the "three dependencies," as i n Johanna
Handlin, Lü K'uni's New Audience: The Influence of Women's Literacy on Sixteenth-
Century Thought," i n Margery Wolf and Roxanne Witke, ed., Women i n Chinese Society
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975), p. 13; T'ung-tsu Ch'ü, Law and Society
in Traditional China (Paris: Mouton, 1961), pp. 102-103; or Martin C. Yang. A
Chinese Village: Taitou, Shantung Province (New York: Columbia University Press,
1945), p. 59.

For specific cases of widows who managed their own affairs and who actually
won out in disputes with clansmen, see Hsien-chin Hu The Common Descent Group and Its
Functions (New York: The Viking Fund, 1948), Appendix 1, pp. 104-106. Also, for an
example of a widow who had control of her deceased husband's estate even though she
had a grown son, see Alan Richard Sweeten "Women and Law i n Rural China: Vignettes
from "Sectarian Cases" (Chiaoan i n Kiangsi, 1872-1878," i n Chi'ing-shih wen-t'i, Vol.
3, No. 10, November 1978, p. 57.
4
Handlin (1975), p. 14.

Hsiang-lin Lo. Chung-kuo tsu-p'u yen-chiu. 4" I (A Study of

Chinese Genealogies) (Hong Kong, 1970), pp. 19-21.

^The status of women i n Chinese society apparently began to change much

earlier than the nineteenth century, and Johanna Handlin notes that the spread of
female literacy, as an indicator of the improving position of women, began as early as
the sixteenth century. Handlin (1975), p. 38.
831a/Telford 13

^For example, the Yen-ling Ching-ts'un Wu shih tsung-p'u ÍÉlllf jtíftft^If ,

1 2 ^ , I^ÍP 4(1865) edition, for a Kiangsu lineage, includes v i t a l information
for males beginning with the Sung, wives' v i t a l dates beginning during the Yüan,
information on female children and their spouses during the Ming, and f i n a l l y origins
for wives during the Ching. More common, however, i s the pattern found i n the
P'i-ling Hsü shih tsung-p'u M M ^ Ü 42 & M 32(1906)
edition for another Kiangsu lineage. V i t a l dates for clansmen and their wives begin
during the Ming, while information on female children, their spouses and the origins
of wives begin during the Ching. Mary Rankin documents the changing status of women
during the Ching and points out that Kiangsu, Chekiang, Anhwei, and Kiangsi Provinces
(the Lower Yangtze River area), were early centers of the Chin period reaction to
neo-Donfucian "Sung Learning" and the genealogies from these areas are among those
having the most complete data on women of any area i n China. See: Mary B. Rankin,
"The Emergence of Women at the End of the Ch'ing" i n Wolfe and Witke (1975), p. 41.
g
Hui-chen Wang L i u . The Traditional Chinese Clan Rules (New York: J. J.
Augustin, 1959). Many references are made to deletion from the genealogy as a
punishment for various offenses, usually serious ones, for both men and women. These
include various kinds of mistreatment of children (p. 59); harboring criminal elements
within a clansman's house (p. 175); and matrilocal remarriage of a widow (p. 92).
9
This estimate of 3 percent i s based on a tabulation of a large sample of more
than 900 genealogies, more f u l l y detailed i n Tables 1 and 2 of this paper.
"^Hu notes that births of both male and female children were registered at the
ancestral h a l l , at least i n a temporary register i f not i n the f i n a l draft of the
genealogy. Hu (1949), p. 44.

''""'"This i s not hard to understand in view of the fact that certain lineage
groups or clans that might have differing recording practices, often dominated whole
villages and even some d i s t r i c t s by their sheer numbers. Hugh Baker points to the
Teng s ( 5p ) i n the New Territories as one such clan group, and others are not
d i f f i c u l t to find. See Hugh Baker. "The Five Great Clans of the New Territories," i n
Journal of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, 6 (1966).
12
The f i r s t edition of a clan genealogy usually involves the consolidation of
the records of residentially separate lineage segments, along with some kind of
standardization of recording practices based on specific rules. This appears to have
been the case with the Chang genealogy examined i n detail i n this paper and cited
below.
13
A good example of this would be the genealogy of a Huang lineage i n Kiangsi,
the ÏÏ.ÏÏ'È:mitmn&-\—g&ïtt , ,H i # » 25(1900) edition. The
progenitor of this lineage moved to Kiangsi during the Sung period, and the genealogy
included complete v i t a l dates for husbands and wives from the Sung on, with
information on female children, their spouses, and origins of wives beginning with the
Ching. The genealogy was i n i t s eleventh recension i n 1900, but the earliest dated
preface in the genealogy was one from the fourth recension dated 1608.
14
Johanna M. Meskill. "The Chinese Genealogy as a Research Source," i n
Maurice Freedman, Family and Kinship i n Chinese Society (Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 1970), p. 141.

See Hsiang-shan T'ieh-ch'eng Chang-shih tsu-p'u. § O j ^ ^ ^ f i ft M B , K # , f i l i

15

1 t ,S I 9 CTTlWTW~, " f f ] ! 23(1934) ft] . Herein cited as Chang

 831a/Telford 14

(1934). #1 page 273 notes the death of a thirteen year old bride who had no
children and whose husband subsequently remarried and bore sons. Identification of
similar situations in the Chang genealogy indicates that as many as 25 percent of a l l
childless marriages in the Chang lineage might f a l l into this category.

"^For the time period under study i n the Chang genealogy, only three cases of
specifically recognized "chaste widows" were found while forty-nine cases of remarried
widows were recorded.
1 7
L i u (1959), p. 90.
18
Jonathan Spence. The Death of Woman Wang (New York: The Viking Press,
1978), pp. 59-76. ~ ' ~ ~ "
19
In this example, from a lineage in Kwangtung, a widow who married into this
clan had a son only a few months after marriage, and alone with a second son from her
second husband, the two sons came to be the progenitors of major branches of the
lineage. Because of the implications to the male descent lines that tract themselves
to this remarried widow, the editors thought i t necessary to include an explanation of
the circumstances. See Huang-shih chia-ch'eng M f c M M , .^ÊIÊl^ , Jgjg
27(1846) edition, * 3, page 4B, 5A. Some genealogies note "early" or less than f u l l
term male births ( tB ) > many of which may be from remarried widows, as i n Chang,
%Ê 3, page 4A.
20
See Margery Wolf. Women and the Family i n Rural Taiwan (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1972), p. 19 and p. 201.
^ i - i u (1959), p. 92 notes a rule that requires exclusion from the ancestral
h a l l and the genealogy when a widow takes a second matrilocal husband.
22
P r e v i o u s l y c i t e d i n note 15.
23
Chang (1934), f j 1, page 1A.
24
Jung-shih p ' u - t i e h § ft i f Hg , 16 % , 18 (1929) e d i t i o n .
Included a t o t a l of nineteen cases.
25
Hsiang-shan T s ' u i - h u i Wei-shih c h i a - p ' u g t i l ^ i j j U f t % M , 12 , m. U 1
0909) e d i t i o n , with three cases; Ch'ien-shan Hsü-shih tsung-p'u ffjUjfèft^Rlf , 4,
# i l f c 2 # , 3Élt 10(1884) e d i t i o n , with three cases; and Ch'eng-shih t s u - p ' u g f t ^ f f 26
KÍ3L3 (1924) e d i t i o n , with four cases. -----
26
The Chang genealogy records the marriage of a woman from the Wei lineage of
Ch'ien-shan ( fij|i|j|:ft ) to a clansman l i v i n g i n Nan-p'ing. Chang (1934), ^ 3,
page 14B. The woman's father's name i s given as , however, i n the Wei
genealogy his name appears, and I assume correctly, as ilcïlf . Wei (1909), ^ 3,
page 65A. This i s only a slight variation of the characters involved, but other more
drastic examples are encountered that leave definite linkages in question. Another
case from a Ch'en genealogy, the Ya-kang Ch'en shih tsu-p'u 3f [SHIP i tftK i t ,
1 ^ , K i H 10(1921) edition, involves the name of a man who appears as ^ %
Ch'en (1921), page 18A. In the Chang genealogy he appears as ^ f f i . Chang (1934),
il, page 8A. The f i r s t character i n the name i s correct, being the generation name,
and no other individual by the name of ^."M appears i n the Ch'en genealogy. The
second, and different characters are probably homophones i n the local dialect, but
831a/Telford 15

additional information i s lacking i n both genealogies to confirm the identity of the

man even though a l l the v i t a l dates involved f i t and could be correct.
2 7
Ibid.
 WOMEN AND TRADITIONAL SOURCES:
SOURCES FOR GENEALOGIES FOR WOMEN IN KOREA

Mark Peterson

Born i n Utah. Resides i n Seoul, Korea. Executive director, Fulbright Commission i n

Korea. Ph.D. candidate, Harvard University. Author.

Korean society, l i k e other East Asian prominent ancestors, she w i l l respond by

societies, i s a patrilineal, patri-
archical society. Men are more important
than women. Parents desire to have a son
before they have a daughter. The
father-son relationship i s primary and
the son carries on the family l i n e , but
daughters are raised to be given to
another family i n marriage.
giving the names of her father's ances-
t o r s ; and more l i k e l y than not, any
ancestors on the mother's side w i l l be
unknown. I f any of the mother's ances-
tors are mentioned, ancestors of the
grandmother of her mother are certainly
unknown. Genealogy i s the domain of the
man.

Genealogical records are published by the Although the published genealogies

lineage organizations that are composed
entirely of men. I t i s widely assumed
that women are not recorded i n the gene-
alogical records. Whereas that assump-
tion has some v a l i d i t y , a closer exami-
nation of the source material reveals
that women are recorded, and pedigrees
can be traced through the woman's lines.
It Is much more d i f f i c u l t than tracing
male lines, but i t i s not impossible.
Women i n Korea, and elsewhere i n East
Asia, are i n somewhat of an analogous
situation to blacks i n the United States.
As far as genealogies are concerned, they
are assumed to be without roots. But i n
the way that Haley's Roots rocked the
United States by (a) showing us that a
sector of society assumed not to have
roots does, indeed, have roots, and by
(b) making the society face i t s history
of mistreatment of that sector of
society, the potential exists for a novel
based on the genealogy of a Korean woman
and her female ancestors to have an equal
impact on Korean society.
When one speaks of genealogy i n Korea,
one means f a t h e r , grandfather, great-
grandfather and other male ancestors.
When one asks a woman i f whe has any
contain the names of the men of the
lineage up through time i n d e t a i l , the
women are not without mention. Their
lines are not generally given; but the
name of the woman's father, i n the case
of a wife, and the husband, i n the case
of a daughter are recorded. Generally,
the father of the wife or the husband of
the daughter i s identified by lineage, as
well as by surname, and sometimes the
father and grandfather of the man are
given. There are many people with the
same Furname i n Korea: Kin, Y i and Pak
comprise 44 percent of today's popula-
tion. The Koreans, therefore, have
devised a system whereby lineages are
diffentiated by their pon'gwan, the place
of origin, e.g., the Kims of Andong, the
Kims of Kimhae, the Kims of Ch'ongp'ung.
In the Kimhae Kim lineage genealogy, the
daughter of Kim An-bok i s identified as
the woman who married Kim Chon of the
Andong Kim lineage. One then must
i d e n t i f y Kim Chon i n the Andong Kim
genealogy i n order to find more inform-
ation. I t may be d i f f i c u l t at times, but
i t i s not impossible.
Before we examine the types of sources
that are available, a couple of points
need to be made. The f i r s t i s to
831b/Peterson 2

emphasize the factor of social s t r a t i - examples. F i r s t , sons and daughters were

fication. In traditional times, there l i s t e d i n the order i n which they were
were three social classes, the aristo- born. If a daughter was born f i r s t , she
crats or yangban, the commoners, and the was recorded f i r s t . In later chokpo, a l l
slaves. The published genealogy was, by sons are l i s t e d f i r s t and then the
d e f i n i t i o n , a document of the a r i s - daughters are l i s t e d . Second, the
tocracy. There are numerous stories of posterity of daughters was recorded i n as
commoners or slaves trying to buy their much detail as that of the sons. Later
way into a lineage genealogy. The types chokpo recorded the posterity of sons
of documents that covered each of the only. Third, remarriage of women was
three classes were somewhat different. indicated by giving the names of both the
In general, yangban women were never f i r s t and second husband. Later chokpo
recorded by their own names, but rather never give indications that a woman has
they were l i s t e d by t h e i r husbands' remarried.
names. Commoner women were generally
treated i n a similar way with slight In other respects, the early chokpo have
differences i n appellation, Mrs. versus less information than the later editions.
Madam. But slave women were listed by The early chokpo basically give the names
given names, without surnames. and the relationships without any other
data. Later chokpo give birth and death
Another point to be emphasized i s the dates, career information, grave sites,
social change that radically transformed and other data. Chokpo, with the excep-
the Korean society i n the period roughly tion of a few that have been published i n
defined by the seventeenth century. As recent years, never give a woman's name,
we look at some documents below, some of but rather a wife i s l i s t e d by her
the aspects of the transition w i l l be father's name and a daughter i s listed by
illustrated. To summarize the major her husband's name. Many have lamented
factor as i t pertains to the genealogical the fact that Korean women's names do not
records of women, i t can be said that appear i n the historical sources, but
before the seventeenth century, women had t h e i r being labeled by e ither their
a more equal position i n society than father's or husband's names, i n fact,
a f t e r the t r a n s i t i o n a l period. For gives us more information than i f we had
example, daughters i n h e r i t e d property only their names. If a historical source
equally with sons i n the e a r l y Y i mentions Hong Sun-ae, we know one third
dynasty, up to the seventeenth century; as much as we would know i f i t mentions
but thereafter, daughters were excluded Madam Hong, the wife of Chong Tong-gil.
from inheritance. In the latter case, although we do not
know her own given name, we do know her
The most important source of genealogical surname; and i n addition, we know her
information on both men and men i s the husband's name and the r e l a t i o n s h i p
chokpo, the published lineage or clan between. For the genealogical researcher
genealogy. The genealogy, whether who searches for names and relationships,
labeled as a sebo, p'abo or chokpo, i s the identification of women comes with
basically the same thing. Early chokpo, the next step already built i n . Although
those published i n the f i f t e e n t h and the westerner may not be s t a t i s f i e d
sixteenth centuries, were different from recording a woman by the name of the
those published from the eighteenth father or husband, for the traditional
century on. The seventeenth century Korean, as well as for the modern gene-
editions show elements of the transition. alogist, the system has i t s advantages.
As f a r as women are concerned, the
e a r l i e r chokpo show that women were The important factor i s that the woman be
treated i n somewhat higher regard than i n identified i n the chokpo. Later chokpo
the later period. I f we examine the dropped the l i s t i n g of the posterity of
earliest known chokpo, the 1476 Andong the daughters and moved the record of the
Kwon-ssi Sebo, we can see several daughters to a position behind a l l the
831b/Peterson
sons, regardless of their ages. But at
least the record of the women i s covered
in many chokpo. Unfortunately, there are
some chokpo that have de-emphasized the
woman to the extent that daughters are
not l i s t e d , or are at least, underre-
ported i n the chokpo. There i s a very
recent trend i n some lineages, however,
to l i s t the daughters i n as much d e t a i l
as the sons, including their given names.
Since a chokpo gives a name and clan for
those with whom i t has a f f i n a l t i e s ,
e.g., the fathers of the wives and the
husbands of the daughters, i t i s then
possible to look up those individuals i n
their own chokpo for more information and
the tracing of the lineage.
The chokpo, i n spite of being far and
away the most important sources of
genealogical information, does omit data
and at times does not contain as much
information as some other sources. One
good supplement to the chokpo i s the
munjip, the "collected writings" of a
particular individual. Much of what i s
included i n the munjip i s not of any
genealogical importance, but the
biographies, eulogies and epitaphs are
extremely important. There are times
when data on family members or in-laws
are recorded In the munjip but are not
recorded i n the genealogy. Information
on daughters and children who die i n
childhood are often included i n the
munjip but omitted from the chokpo.
The above two documents, the chokpo and
the munjip, are almost entirely documents
of the yangban aristocratic class. The
hojok, census registers, recorded people
i n family units whether they were yangan,
commoner or slave. There are two types
of hojok document. One was the i n d i -
vidual hojok, a single sheet of paper
certified by the local government office
and kept by the family from one census to
the next. The other was the government's
copy which was a massive register into
which a l l the residents of the county
were recorded.
The family's copy l i s t s the household
head (usually, but not always, a male),
3
his sajo ( l i t e r a l l y the "four ancestors,"
father, grand father, grea t-grandfather
and maternal grandfather), his wife and
her sajo, any c h i l d r e n that are not
minors and the wives of sons who may be
married and s t i l l l i v i n g in the house-
hold. For each, the birth date and/or
age i s given. For in-laws, the pon'gwan,
c l a n seat or o r i g i n a l residence, i s
given. For yangban households which
owned slaves, the l i s t of slaves was also
w r i t t e n on the family's hojok copy.
Slaves were l i s t e d by name and age and by
a l i n k to one parent, usually the mother.
Slaves were slaves because at least one
of their parents was a slave. If both
parents were slaves or i f only the mother
was a slave, then the mother's name was
given. If the mother was a free woman
but the father was a slave, then the
father's name was given. A typical
l i s t i n g for a slave might say, "A male
slave, Maldong, age 24, the son of the
female slave Chagun'gae." Since the
hojok i s dated, we can approximate the
age of the mother so that i f we find
another female slave with the same name,
in the same county, i n the appropriate
time frame, then we can make genealogical
linkages.
The government' s copy of the ho jok
contains information on each household i n
the county, yangban, commoner, and slave.
As with the personal copy of the hojok,
the yangban were i d e n t i f i e d by the
l i s t i n g of the sajo and the slaves were
identified by one parent, usually the
mother. Commoners tended to be
identified by the father and sometimes by
more ancestors. The hojok i s one of the
best sources of genealogical information
on both men and women, but there are few
extensive holdings that are extant.
P r i v a t e household hojok documents are
rare, but occasionally collections that
span several generations turn up. The
government registers for the Taegu area
are the most extensive, but many more
have been destroyed than have survived.
Inheritance documents are somewhat
similar to hojok documents i n that they
record genealogical data about the
yangban and the slave c l a s s e s . The
831b/Peterson
yangban householder before his death, or
the s i b l i n g s a f t e r the death of the
parents, would divide the property. Most
inheritance documents date from before
the eighteenth century when the rule for
d i v i d i n g property was that sons and
daughters received equal shares. There
can be information about the yangban
family i n the inheritance document that
i s not found i n the chokpo.
The property of the yangban was basically
land and slaves. Like the hojok, the
inheritance documents l i s t slaves by
name, age, and the name of one parent.
As such, the only sources of genealogical
data on the slaves are the hojok and the
inheritance document. Since the connec-
tions between generations are based on
the women more often than the men for the
slave class, the hojok and the inheri-
tance document are important resources.
The o f f i c i a l and u n o f f i c i a l h i s t o r i e s
contain a certain amount of genealogical
data. The most prominent history i s the
Annals of the Y i Dynasty, the S i l l o k .
The o f f i c i a l history, not only recorded
the major events i n the kingdom and the
actions of the king and high government
o f f i c i a l s , but many minor events were
also recorded. Many of these pertained
to women. For example, instances of
t r i p l e t s being born were considered
unusual enough to warrant inclusion i n
the S i l l o k . Such cases often do not even
give the family name of the woman i n -
volved and consequently have no gene-
alogical value. There are other cases
where the woman i s identified by surname
and the name of either her husband or
father. The most common reason for a
woman to be mentioned i n the Sillok i s
when she has been nominated as a yollyo,
a f a i t h f u l w i f e , f o r whom the king
authorized the erection of a monument.
Monuments were built for three reasons,
f a i t h f u l wives, f i l i a l sons and loyal
subjects. Another historical source that
l i s t s those for whom monuments were b u i l t
was the local gazetteer. Those women
l i s t e d as "faithful wives" were iden-
t i f i e d by their own surname and the f u l l
name of t h e i r husband. Once again,
therefore, we have the name and rela-
tionship that w i l l help one to continue
his research.
A f i n a l category of document i n which one
can f i n d genealogical information for
women i s the category of government
documents, registers, and ledgers. One
example of this type of document i s the
adoption registers kept by the Board of
R i t u a l i n the Y i dynasty. In the
register reserved for yangban, i f a man
was deceased without having a son, the
wife could petition for a newphew to be
adopted. Her surname, and i n the early
period, a relative from her lineage was
l i s t e d as parties to the adoption. There
was also an adoption r e g i s t e r f o r
non-yangban, wherein women themselves
would adopt children, and the children
were occasionally female.
There are, of course, many other possible
sources of genealogical data about women.
Here, many of the major ones have been
o u t l i n e d but other sources are pos-
s i b i l i t i e s . The important point i s that
not only i s i t possible to conduct re-
search on women's genealogical relation-
ships, but that i f one intends to be
thorough, one must examine the sources of
genealogical information on women.
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

African Family History

through Oral Traditions
Donald R. Wright,
David Henige,
William F. Lye
Series 901
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 AFRICAN FAMILY HISTORY
THROUGH ORAL TRADITION - WEST AFRICA

Donald R. Wright

Born i n Indiana. Resides i n Homer, New York. Associate professor of history, State
University of New York College at Cottend. Ph.D. (African history), Indiana
Univer s i t y . Author.

In 1975, when I was collecting oral tra- A f t e r about f i v e months of seemingly

d i t i o n s along the north bank of the
Gambia River, I had an experience that
remains a vivid symbol of the d i f f i c u l -
ties one i s liable to encounter attempt-
ing to study family h i s t o r y i n West
Africa through oral traditions. For this
reason (and perhaps because I myself l i k e
to t e l l stories), my relating of the
experience should serve as an appropriate
i n t r o d u c t i o n to t h i s essay on the
subject.
My project was one that interested me
considerably. I was gathering and study-
ing information i n local oral traditions
to help me reconstruct the p o l i t i c a l and
economic history of Niumi, a precolonial
Mandinka state at the Gambia's mouth, and
the social history j>f the largest fami-
lies of the region. For several months
I had been collecting l i s t s of various
kinds, whether genealogies, records of
village heads, or l i s t s of Niumi's kings.
Typical of A f r i c a n h i s t o r i a n s of the
time, I was ^xcited by the kinglists i n
particular. Nearly every informant
recited an identical l i s t of the former
state's rulers. Seventy kings from seven
branches of three large clans supposedly
succeeded one another systematically.
Although many persons could recite the
l i s t for me, no one could t e l l me when
more than a few of the most recent rulers
lived and held office. Naturally, I was
eager to obtain such information. It
would allow me to establish a chronology
for my study and would be a beginning for
my understanding of the relationship of
people and events i n my family and state
history.
fruitless effort, I found an apparent
source f o r chronological information.
Unus J a t a , the only t r a d i t i o n a l h i s -
torian-musician-storyteller-entertainer
(commonly called griot i n West Africa)
s t i l l identified with and patronized by a
family i n Niumi, calmly told me he knew
how long each king had held office. He
had previously recited the kinglist for
me. Now a l l I had to do, i t seemed, was
to give him a name of a king and have him
t e l l me the length of the reign. I was
impressed, and so were the score or more
of villagers listening to us. We began:
"Mansa Andame," said I .
"Seventeen years," responded Jata.
"Mansa Waame," I said next.
"Twenty-nine years."
"Mansa Furu."
"Fourteen years."
And i n such fashion we proceeded through
the entire l i s t of seventy names i n the
order usually given. Jata spoke with the
greatest of confidence, sometimes knowing
the number of years, or sometimes days,
of a mansa's reign immediately and some-
times having to pause b r i e f l y to recol-
lect the exact length of time a p a r t i -
cular person was Muml's ruler. I was
excited. In fact, when we finished I
could not get back to my residence fast
enough to work through the recording and
by using simple addition and subtraction
determine a rough date f o r Niumi's
beginning as a viable state. To my
s u r p r i s e , upon subtracting the t o t a l
number of years of reign lengths from the
date of the death of the last king, which
901/Wright
I knew, I found that the f i r s t ruler of
Niumi took office within about a century
of the birth of Jesus Christ. From what
I already knew of Mandinka history, that
could not have been p o s s i b l e . Conse-
quently, I was less surprised to discover
1
that Jata s reign lengths for the half
dozen kings whose installation and demise
I could document were at wide variance
with what I knew.
I traveled back to Jata's village a week
after obtaining the information on reign
lengths. I told him I had experienced
some trouble with the information and I
asked i f he would go through the proce-
dure again. He was glad to oblige, so I
read through the l i s t and he provided
reign lengths as before. This time,
every piece of information relating to
a l l but four of the seventy names was
different from what he had provided me a
week earlier. It was brutally clear. He
was making up numbers of years or days
for each name as he went along and i t did
not bother him in the least that he had
given me different information on sepa-
rate occasions. Such was the difference
in our concepts of chronology, or his-
t o r i c a l accuracy, and the importance of
the information. I was collecting i t for
use i n my Western-style academic study of
the history of Niumi. He was making i t
up and reciting i t to impress his^patrons
and others l i v i n g in his v i l l a g e .
This i s perhaps an unnecessarily long
account of what was to me a frustrating
e x p e r i e n c e — I believe I s t i l l obtain
benefit from the catharsis—but i t serves
well here to emphasize a major point I
wish to make in this paper. That i s ,
simply, that there are clear limits to
the amount of success one can have
studying family history, or other aspects
of l i f e i n Africa i n the distant past,
through West A f r i c a n o r a l t r a d i t i o n s .
Furthermore, such study that i s possible
i s fraught with dangers of obtaining
misleading and downright i n c o r r e c t
information. Persons preparing to go to
West A f r i c a to study family h i s t o r y
should realize that oral traditions are
not kept and passed along for the sake of
maintaining a pure and accurate histor-
2
i c a l record. They should realize, too,
the West African oral historians do not
have the same concept of history, chron-
ology, and genealogy and the importance
of accuracy t h e r e i n , that western-
educated and trained historians do. In
these seemingly simple matters l i e the
most serious d i f f i c u l t i e s family h i s -
torians are l i k e l y to encounter i n West
Africa.
I believe there i s more value i n
considering the limits of studying family
h i s t o r y i n West A f r i c a through o r a l
traditions than i n my trying to excite
you over the less-than-real prospects of
finding your or someone else's roots over
there. As a consequence, what follows i s
not l i k e l y to give would-be historians
and genealogists interested i n West
African families an irrepressible urge to
rush off to the Senegambia to gather oral
data. I would be less than honest i f I
wrote such an essay. Yet, the prospects
for research i n family history i n the
Senegambia are not entirely bleak, and
this study may serve as a kind of guide
for conducting such research. Following
some b r i e f but necessary background
information on the Senegambia region and
on families, oral informants, and general
types of oral data i n existence there
today, I w i l l discuss a representative
sample of the most serious problems one
can encounter dealing with Senegambian
oral traditions. Then, rather than end
on a pessimistic note, I shall conclude
with some throughts on prospects for the
most f r u i t f u l kind of research i n family
history i n this West African region.
BACKGROUND: SENEGAMBIA AND THE SENEGAMBIA
FAMILY
Senegambia
Senegal and The Gambia are two countries
at the westernmost extension of con-
tinental Africa. Because the physical
geography of both countries i s homo-
geneous, because ethnic groups l i v i n g
there have similar cultures, and because
many of the same forces have influenced
901/Wright
a
the h i s t o r y of the peoples of these
countries, Africanists tend to speak of
Senegal and the Gambia as one region,
Senegambia.
Senegambia i s primarily r o l l i n g grass-
lands, drier i n the north toward the
Senegal River and wetter southward,
especially from the lower Gambia River on
toward the border between Senegal and
Guinea-Bissau. Traditionally, persons
l i v i n g i n the region were either pastor-
a l i s t s (in the drier areas) or agricul-
t u r a l i s t s ( i n the areas of greater
rainfall). The major ethnic groups
i n h a b i t i n g Senegambia are the Wolof,
a g r i c u l t u r a l i s t s , l i v i n g mostly i n
northern and c e n t r a l Senegal; the
Mandinka. Also a g r i c u l t u r a l i s t s ,
inhabiting the banks of the Gambia River
and inland areas to the east and
southeast of the river; and the Fulbe
(Gula, Fulani, Peuho), l i v i n g along the
Senegal River and scattered among
agriculturalists throughout the region,
where they practice pastoralism. There
are also significant numbers of Serer i n
the v i c i n i t y of the Sine and Saloum
Rivers north of the lower Gambia and Jola
south of the Gambia i n the lower
Caseamance region of Senegal.
Family i n Senegambia
The term family can be confusing when re-
ferring to related peoples i n Senegambia
because the seemingly simple word i n
English has several different meanings i n
this African context. Mandinka recognize
distinct levels of kinship t i e s , to any
of which the term family may apply.
P a t r i l i n e a l kinship i s the single most
important force uniting most Senegambian
peoples. Besides giving individuals the
basis for their own identity, kinship
unites individuals l i v i n g i n different
areas and provides the sense of collec-
t i v i t y that ties together^ people through-
out the entire region. The largest
commonly recognized descent groups, most
frequently c a l l e d clans, include a l l
persons with the same patronymic, who
3
trace their ancestry to the same person,
whether real or mythical. Ordinarily,
members of the same clan are of the same
ethnic group, but i n places where
intermarriage has brought widespread
ethnic mixing, Mandinka, Wolof, Fulbe,
and others share patronymics with persons
of d i f f e r e n t ethnic and l i n g u i s t i c
groups.
The geographically dispersed clans are
much too large and widespread to be
e f f e c t i v e s o c i a l u n i t s . The largest
e f f e c t i v e units e x i s t on the v i l l a g e
level and are made up of members of the
same lineage, who reside together i n a
section of the v i l l a g e . Mandinka (whom I
know best) commonly c a l l this unit a
kabila. Each k a b i l a has a leader,
usually the eldest male, who presides
over social and religious r i t e s , mediates
differences, and oversees collection and
redistribution of kabila resources.
Within the k a b i l a i s a subgroup of
genealogical brothers and their families,
and below that i s the minimal lineage,
the nuclear family, made up of a man, his
wife or wives, and t h e i r c h i l d r e n .
Normally i t was to the larger kabila that
slaves were bound and to which clients,
a r t i s a n s , and g r i o t s , were attached.
Both were regarded as assets of the
entire kabila.
To avoid confusion, persons studying
family history among Mandinka and ethnic
groups with s i m i l a r s o c i a l structures
must be aware of these differences i n
family structure. Of particular impor-
tance i s the difference i n l e v e l of
feelings of a f f i n i t y for members of one's
nuclear family and one's k a b i l a as
opposed to feelings for members of one's
clan. A person i s liable to l i v e his or
her entire l i f e i n constant relationships
with member of h i s kabila, but he might
never get to know nor even meet more than
a few members of his widely-dispersed
clan. S t i l l , clan identity i s important,
especially i n the historical sense, for
most kabila know clan history and con-
sider t h e i r o r i g i n s bound up i n the
origins of the clan.
901/Wright
SENEGAMBIAN ORAL TRADITIONS
The Informants
Individuals who w i l l recite oral tradi-
tions r e l a t i n g to family h i s t o r y i n
Senegambia f a l l not entirely neatly into
three groups: griots, family elders, and
Muslim c l e r i c s . These are a r t i f i c i a l
groups in part, because some griots and
Muslim clerics are indeed family elders,
but the differences among the groups
should be evident below. Informants from
each group can provide specific kinds of
information on family history.
Griots (in Mandinka, j a l i , sing.: j a l i u ,
p i . ) , the t r a d i t i o n a l Mandinka o r a l
historians, musicians, praise singers,
and story t e l l e r s , are by far the best
known conveyors of oral traditions i n
Senegambia, i f not in a l l of West Africa.
There were times in Mandinka society when
griots were p l e n t i f u l , when there were
praise singers attached as clients to
most prestigious families. It was the
role of the griot to remember and be able
to recite family histories, genealogies,
and family and individual praises, and to
entertain by performing music and t e l l i n g
stories. However, with the establishment
of colonial rule, the subsequent decline
of traditional ruling families as they
were replaced by B r i t i s h - or French-
appointed Chiefs, and the general trend
toward "modernization" that has been a
phenomenon of the twentieth century,
g r i o t s tended to lose t h e i r patrons.
Over the years many griots and would-be
griots had to turn to other means of
making their livelihood. Frequently this
came to be farming. Their plight i s
evident i n this typical griots lament,
recorded by Seni Darbo:
Give me a hoe and let me go and
farm, because I don't know who to
wait on now. The Europeans have
spoiled the world and the book has
now come to the front. I don't
know this chief; his father did
nothing; and he has done nothing.
I cannot perform for him because
you can't s e l l gold to a donkey.
The sun has become too hot, and I
don't see anybody now who can wipe
my tears away; so I'd better hold
tight to the hoe. On, the griot of
a poor man ^pr a miser i s a very
unhappy man!
Today there are few griots i n Senegambian
society compared to years past, and many
of the ones who remain true to their art
have become popular performers and gross
generalists in terms of their historical
repertoires. Finding a chosan griot—one
who s t i l l has the knowledge of "old
things" as griots once d i d — i s today a
d i f f i c u l t task.
Certain family elders, or even younger
family members who have an interest i n
the family's h i s t o r y , are frequently
better informants than g r i o t s . Most
kabila recognize one or two individual,
elder members who have reputations for
being the ones to consult for historical
information. These elders have listed to
stories and traditions about the family
throughout their l i v e s , and their inter-
est has prompted them to remember and to
become good tellers of the stories i n
their own rights. The memories^ of these
men, or extremely rarely women, have not
been trained to recall minute details,
genealogical l i s t s , and other information
that griots take pride i n being able to
recall and recite. Likewise, elders'
recitations are not always the smoothly-
flowing, organized accounts that griots
are wont to provide. But with simple
questioning from an interrogator, family
elders can recite valuable data on family
history.
In terms of oral hisory, Muslim clerics
are different from family elders i n the
kind of information they provide. Cler-
i c a l families exist scattered throughout
Senegambia. They can be of any one of
several ethnic groups. Their means of
economic livelihood i s moriya. Because
knowledge of the sources of their Islamic
learning i s important for their clients'
regard for their a b i l i t i e s and for their
reputations as teachers, Muslim clerics
are extremely careful to maintain gene-
a l o g i c a l data. Because c l e r i c s are
l i t e r a t e and have been for many years,
901/Wright
CK
their genealogical data can be extremely
accurate and can extend with accuracy
into the distant past. Elders i n c l e r i c a l
families are usually w i l l i n g to recount
genealogical information. A l s o , they
tend to know and to be willing to talk
about notable i n d i v i d u a l s i n t h e i r
ancestry, especially important teachers
and famous jihad leaders, better than
most elders know of their relatives from
a century or more ago.
The Oral Traditions
Like the informants, types of oral tradi-
tions i n Senegambia do not f a l l into neat
categories. In a single, oral narrative
one informant i s l i k e l y to recite infor-
mation that below I treat separately as
state or family history, genealogy, l i s t s
of some sort, praise names, and miscell-
aneous, informal information about
families other than his own. I deal with
them in this manner merely to provide an
idea of the variety of information extant
i n Senegambian o r a l t r a d i t i o n s that
relates to family history.
State histories are the primary province
of g r i o t s , normally the ones whose
ancestors were clients of the states'
ruling families or who themselves are
clients of descendants of these families
or other interested families l i v i n g i n
the areas once part of a precolonial
Senegambian state. Prior to the twen-
tieth century much of the Semegambian
region consisted of a number of tradi-
tional Mandinka, Wolof, or Fulbe states
of varying size and strength. Most of
these states were i n existence f o r
several centuries and most were ruled by
one or more powerful kabila. The his-
tories of how these kabila came to have
the r i g h t to r u l e t h e i r states were
important for the kabila to maintain to
provide the source for their legitimacy.
Now, although none of these states
exists, there i s considerable pride i n
past g l o r i e s , and g r i o t s and family
members s t i l l enjoy t e l l i n g and hearing
the histories of their states. State
histories normally consist of information
about the settlement and foundation of
5
the state. They are f u l l of folk motifs,
stereotypic phrases, and stories, that
t e l l more about the people's cosmology
than about actual events that happened i n
the state's history.
Family histories are similar i n format to
state histories. Indeed, family his-
tories of once-royal families are them-
selves state histories since they t e l l of
the family's settlement and acquisition
of authority i n the state. But there are
family histories i n greater or lesser
detail for nearly every kabila and cer-
tainly for every clan i n Senegambia, and
family elders are usually eager to re-
count tales of the family's migrations
and eventual settlement i n a particular
spot. Like state histories, these con-
tain a great deal of folklore and they
tend to identify families with an impor-
tant figure, legendary OE real, out of
the glorious past of the ethnic group.
Many griots, elders, and Muslim clerics
are able to recite genealogies of greater
or lesser length and veracity. Some
elders w i l l be able to begin with
themselves and trace genealogy i n the
male line back for several generations:
"My father was , my father's
father was ," and so on. Most
griots will recite genealogical
information about select f a m i l i e s i n
different ways, beginning with a distant
ancestor (" was the founder of
this clan. . .") and tracing sons of that
ancestor, and sons'sons, on to the
present. Most genealogies of griots that
I c o l l e c t e d , however, proved highly
unreliable. The genealogical l i n e s
i n v a r i a b l y were telescoped, seemingly
being more accurate and complete only on
the extreme ends, and as I note below,
griots' genealogies almost always were
maintained for p o l i t i c a l reasons. Muslim
clerics probably keep the most accurate
and complete genealogical data of a l l
informants, i n part because such i n
formation i s of special importance to
them and i n part because i n many cases
t h e i r ancestors were l i t e r a t e , taking
care to w r i t e down and pass alon^
documents relating to family history.
C l e r i c a l f a m i l i e s also keep documents
901/Wright
c a l l e d s i l s i l l a h , which are w r i t t e n
chains of Islamic learning, teachers and
students far into the past, some of which
involves genealogy since fathers ordin-
a r i l y taught sons and made special note
of i t . S t i l l , i n spite of this penchant
for thoroughness and accuracy, c l e r i c a l
genealogies remain subject to tampering.
There i s a great temptation to associate
one's c l e r i c a l lineage with one of the
great Islamic teachers of the Western
Sudan, even i f i t can only be done i n
contrived fashion.
Similar to the genealogical data one can
obtain i n Senegambia are l i s t s of rulers
and other persons who had p r i v i l e g e d
positions. Individuals residing i n most
of what were the precolonial Mandinka or
Wolof states can provide l i s t s of the
states^ rulers from far back into the
past. These l i s t s can be particularly
d i f f i c u l t to deal with, however, i n the
states where succession to kingship
rotated among several k a b i l a . These
l i s t s are v i t u a l l y impossible to combine
in one long l i s t of successive rulers.
In many villages, too, elders i n the
traditional family of the village head
w i l l recite l i s t s of headmen. Sometimes
these l i s t s have numbers of years of
kingship or village headship for each
i n d i v i d u a l , with varying degrees of
accuracy; most often they do not. Many
of these l i s t s are now written, though
the f a c t does not lend to them any
greater degree of a u t h e n t i c i t y than
remembered and recited l i s t s . There are
a number of reasons, as noted below, why
persons tamper with and a l t e r these
lists.
Griots frequently recite another form of
oral data, a praise saying or praise
song, told or sunj» to glorify an i n d i -
vidual or a clan. These praises can be
short—essentially a praise name—or they
can be a whole litany of praises that
continue on for several minutes. Praises
are c r y p t i c . Occasionally they w i l l
refer to some specific instance of past
heroism or glory, but far more frequently
they w i l l be devoid of meaning and
feeling to anyone besides the griot doing
the praising and the person or family
6
being praised. Trying to extract meaning
from praises i s practically a fruitless
task. ^gThe returns seldom equal the
effort.
Finally, there i s a great deal of what I
consider to be informal oral data i n
Senegambia relating to family history.
In this broad category I include that
body of information individuals tend to
know about persons and families other
than their own relatives. Often one w i l l
not know j u s t where he learned the
i n f o r m a t i o n — i t i s just known. Such
information might be likened to gossip,
though i t i s gossip about the past, and
i t can sometimes be as i n c i s i v e and
a s
factual Y ] gossip can be i n the
present.
PROBLEMS IN USING ORAL TRADITIONS TO
STUDY FAMILY HISTORY
Most major problems associated with the
use of Senegambian oral traditions for
the study of family history of family
history stem from the nature of the oral
data and from the concept of history held
by the people who recite them. One must
never f a i l to recognize that oral tradi-
tions are social documents. Every one i s
recited for a purpose; evern one plays a
role of one sort or another i n a society.
The purpose of reciting an oral tradition
may be a simple one, perhaps nothing more
than the informant's attempt to gain
prestige for himself or the acquire
money. However, the simplicity of the
purpose i n no way negates the potential
for confusion that can result from the
tradition. And frequently the purpose of
an oral recitation i s less obvious. Many
o r a l t r a d i t i o n s are maintained and
recited because they serve to vindicate a
family's privileged position i n a so-
ciety; and s t i l l others serve the purpose
of gaining increasing prestige for a clan
through recitation, factual or not, of
the past glories of i t s members. For a l l
these reasons, and more, oral traditions
are subject over time to alteration to
f i t their intended purposes.
901/Wright
n
Problems are associated also with the
fact that most Senegambians do not share
a western concept of historical develop-
ment. Rare i s the person in Senegambian
society who w i l l examine an oral tradi-
tion with c r i t i c a l judgement based upon
what most of us would consider to be
possible events in a general process of
history. When something r e c i t e d i s
accepted as historical truth (and r e c i -
tations by "those who know"—prominent
griots and elders with reputations for
their knowledge of the past—are almost
always so accepted), there i s no ques-
tioning of the v a l i d i t y of the statement,
no consideration of the possibility of
the happening described, and surprisingly
l i t t l e concern over conflicting testimony
from other persons. If this i s not
enough to cause consternation among
persons seeking evidence for family
history within oral recitations, i t i s
necessary to note that mythology i s a
component of oral traditions of equal
important to what Senegambians accept as
historical fact. Myth makes the history
more meaningful for Senegambians because
they understand the cosmology underlying
the myth. Western-trained historians and
genealogists do not have a similar view
of the world, so the mythology tends to
confuse rather than enlighten.
N a t u r a l l y , a l t e r a t i o n of an o r a l
tradition to make i t f i t a social or
p o l i t i c a l purpose, or i n c l u s i o n i n a
t r a d i t i o n of f i c t i t i o u s or mythical
information, e s p e c i a l l y when unrecog-
nized, can cause serious d i f f i c u l t y for
the i n d i v i d u a l t r y i n g to reconstruct
accurate family history.
Writing in generalities about d i f f i c u l -
ties in dealing with oral traditions may
not be as valuable, nor as interesting
reading, as w r i t i n g about selected,
s p e c i f i c , troublesome occurrences I
experienced while collecting oral data on
family history. I had a number of such:
the following can serve as examples.
One of the most interesting problems I
faced, and one that took me longest to
discover, had to do with a portion of a
large Senegambian clan whose members had
changed their traditions of origin for
7
what now c l e a n l y seem to have been
p o l i t i c a l ends. The state of niumi had
rotating kingship. Seven kabila of three
clans took turns providing the ruler of
the state i n a set pattern of rotation.
Three of these kabila were of the Sonko
clan. Today, unlike the other clans In
Niumi, the Sonko have a tradition of
o r i g i n that traces t h e i r ancestry to
members of a totally different ethnic
group, the Fulbe, and connects them to a
famous Fube warrior for the c e n t r a l
Senegal River valley in the distant past.
This i s odd, of course, since the Sonko
speak Mandinka, follow Mandinka social
customs, and for several centuries
participated in ruling a Mandinka state.
I f i r s t realized the Sonko i n Niumi had
purposefully forgotten t h e i r o r i g i n a l
tradition of origin and had adopted as
their own the major elements of another
from the Fulbe when I encountered two
records of the Sonko tradition, obtained
from Sonko i n Niumi i n the 1780s and
1870s. These accounts told a totally
different story from the one I recorded
in 1974. The old tradition tied the
Sonko to a pure Mandinka heritage. When
I then interviewd members of other
branches of the large Sonko clan l i v i n g
some distance from Niumi (who, inciden-
t a l l y , claimed the Sonko of Niumi as
their relatives), I recorded the Mandinka
version of the clan's origins—the same
story as told i n the old written accounts
from Niumi—rather than the new, Fulbe
version of the Niumi Sonko. If was clear
that some time after 1870 the Sonko of
Niumi had altered their tradition.
Why had Niumi's Sonko families done so?
Circumstantial evidence seems sufficient
to provide an answer. With the onset of
B r i t i s h colonial rule in the 1890s the
Sonko of Niumi, quickest to take advan-
tage of the rapidly changing situation,
became the single, e l i t e family in the
region. Sonko were the British-appointed
chiefs and many of the lesser "native"
officials. What before 1890 was a
p o l i t i c a l system that involved the shar-
ing of state leadership among several
families became after 1890 a system of
Sonko dominance of the local p o l i t i c a l
901/Wright
scene. Therefore, early in the twentieth
century the Sonko f e l t a need for a new
tradition of origin that would vidicate
their new, separate, exalted position.
They borrowed one recited widely i n the
Senegambia, the Fulbe tradition from the
middle Senegal. With many common folk
motifs and embellishments thrown i n , the
new tradition portrayed the Sonko as the
major element in making Niumi a viable
Mandinka state. Griots, family elders,
and other who heard the new oral tradi-
tion added It to their repertoires, so
that over a period of several decades the
new version replaced the old in a large
part of the lower Gambia as the
established tradition of origin of the
Niumi Sonko. No one i n this region today
questions the seeming inconsistency of
Fulbe sharing rule in a Mandinka state,
nor of Mandinka having Fulbe origins.
And one has to travel 150 miles away from
Niimi to hear the old, perhaps original,
version of Sonko origins.
Another problem I encountered involved an
elaborate genealogy and a dated kinglist
I obtained from a well-educated
h i s t o r i a n . E a r l y i n 1975 I made an
extended t r i p into Senegal, North of The
Gambia, to collect oral data among the
Wolof in the region of two precolonial
states, Sine and Saloum. I wanted to
know more about these states and I
recognized the value of interviewing
people not related to Niumi and Mandinka
about Niumi and Gambian Mandinka history.
In the town of Diakhao, one of the
traditional capitals of the former state
of Sine, I met Lat Grand Ndiaye, a
r e t i r e d o f f i c i a l i n the c o l o n i a l and
postcolonial administrations of Senegal.
Several people in the town had directed
me to him, identifying him as the best
informed individual on the history of
Sine and related matters. Ndiaye was
indeed a history buff. Throughout his
travels i n Senegal over four decades he
had made i t a point to listen to many
oral historians. By 1975 he thought he
knew most of what there was to know about
the history of his region. He narrated
his version of the early history of Sine,
then he answered questions I posed on a
variety of subjects.
Before the interview was over, he said he
had some written materials of possible
interest. One was a genealogy, which
traced matrilineally (as was the custom)
the line of ruling elites i n Sine from
the present back to the founder of the
lineage. The other was a l i s t of Sine's
rulers from the founding of the state
u n t i l 1969, when the last person in the
line of kings had died, with the dates
each had ruled. Ndiaye read the kinglist
and the dates into my microphone. Then
he graciously provided me with genealogy.
The original was written on what appeared
to be shelf paper, about two feet wide
and ten feet long. I spent over an hour,
crawling around on the floor of Ndiaye's
house, tracing the family tree of Sine's
ruling e l i t e .
It did not take me long to discern that a
least part of the genealogy was con-
trived. As I was copying, I recognized
the names of a number of persons straight
out of the mythology of the oral tradi-
tions of the region. Also, suspiciously
included on various limbs of the family
local tree were several of the most famous
Africans in the history of the Western
Sudan: Lat Dior, ruler of a neighboring
state and one of the most noted Sene-
galese resistance figures to the French
c o l o n i a l takeover; Sheikh Ahmad a l -
Tijani, the eighteenth-century Algerian
founder of a Muslim brotherhood now
prominent i n parts of West Africa; and
others. It seemed clear to me that to
increase the prominence of the lineage,
Ndiaye had added individuals some real
and some mythical, to the family tree.
It took me longer to discover anything
about the veracity of the k i n g l i s t . In
the summer of the same year I located a
few published and archival sources i n the
library of the University of Dakar and
the Senegal National Archives that
referred to specific rulers of Sine at
various times from the sixteenth to the
twentieth century. A l l of the rulers
mentioned i n the documents were included
i n Ndiay's l i s t , but discrepancies
appeared between his dates for their rule
and those determined by the dates of the
documents whose authors had visited Sine
901/Wright
and had recorded the names of the ruler
in power at the time. Ndiaye's l i s t ,
seemingly accurate to the year for the
twentieth century, grew less accurate as
i t stretched into the past. By the time
i t reached the sixteenth century, his
dates were inaccurate by over one hundred
years. The kinglist continued back to
the founder of Sine, the probably myth-
i c a l Masa Wali Dione. Ndiaye said his
reign began i n 1227, a date that would
make Sine one of the earliest states i n
Senegambia. This last fact almost surely
played a part in Ndiaye's efforts to date
the k i n g l i s t , however inaccurately.
S t i l l a third type of problem I met in my
work concerned the r e l a t i v e l y newly-
acquired reverence of griots and others
for the written word and the contamina-
tion of oral traditions by the inclusion
therein of information gained directly or
indirectly from books. Before my experi-
ence i n Senegambia, I thought the classic
attitude of griots, the supposed "masters
of the spoken word" to writing was that
expressed so elequently by Mamoudou
Kouyate, the Mandinka griot of Guinea,
who narrated the story of Sundiata that
D j i b r i l Niane subsequently published.
Kouyate said:
Other peoples use writing to record
the past, but this invention has
k i l l e d the faculty of memory among
them. They do not feel the past
any more, for writing lacks the
warmth of the human voice. With
them everybody thinks he knows,
whereas learning should be a
secret. The prophets did not write
and their words have been a l l the
more v i v i d as a r e s u l t . What
paltry learning i s t h a ^ which i s
congealed in dumb books.
Ironically, i t was Kemo Kuyate, a Gambian
Mandinka griot of the same clan, who i n
September of 1974, during my second
formal interview, displayed a different
a t t i t u d e toward h i s t o r y through docu-
ments. Kuyate began his narration for me
as follows:
What I know about Niumi and The
9
Gambia i s what I am going to t e l l
you here. There i s nothing that
matters i n t h i s world besides
teaching each other what we know.
One may know something; another may
desire to know i t ; and the f i r s t
would give i t to him. But what I
am going to give you now i s not
that which I have heard s i t t i n g
down while i t was told to me. I
have i t written on paper and I have
become someone who can read some-
thing written on paper and who can
write, too. What I have seen on
paper i s what I know, and I very
much^want to make i t known to
you.
Kuyate carried with him a sheaf of manu-
scripts which he referred to periodi-
c a l l y . When questioned too closely about
his information, he would extract one
manuscript from his stack, wave i t a-
round, and exclaim, " I t i s written here!"
Of course, the danger of the informant's
knowledge of and respect f o r w r i t t e n
materials i s i n the potential for getting
feedback—that i s , information obtained
from books—in the oral traitions. I
experienced t h i s , though not i n a
dramatic fashion. On one occasion, for
example, I spoke with a former D i s t r i c t
Chief, a well-educated man, about
participation of Gambians i n the Atlantic
slave trade. In his narrative he spoke
of the African side of the slave trade
and then he traced for me the slaves'
journeys to the New World, f i n a l l y
placing them i n the American South. He
concluded h i s n a r r a t i v e with some
descriptions of, and some questions for
me about, the conditions i n which the
descendants of these ^laves were living
in the Unites States. A l l of this was
oral data, though, obviously, i t was not
a l l information he had obtained through
traditional sources.
PROSPECTS FOR STUDYING FAMILY HISTORY
THROUGH ORAL TRADITIONS IN SENEGAMBIA
"So why bother?" you must want to ask at
this point. "Why, i f there are progres-
sively fewer traditionalists, i f those
901/Wright
traditions that do exist are becoming
increasingly corrupt, and i f indeed the
problems associated with studying family
history through oral traditions are many,
should I go to Senegambia and attempt
such study at a l l ? " Lest I end this es-
say on a note of pessimism, let me answer
this question, including i n my answer a
few ideas I have about how best to
prosecute such study from the s t a r t .
Then I shall not end up the great sour
note of t h i s otherwise harmonious
conference.
Stated simply, obstacles notwithstanding,
there remain kinds of data one can obtain
through oral traditions that can be of
immense value for the study of Senegam-
bian family history. Oral traditions may
be most valuable for western-trained
historian as general statements of pre-
c o l o n i a l A f r i c a n p o l i t i c a l or s o c i a l
structure and philosophy. As such, they
provide evidence of the nature and
importance of family structures and
family relationships. By studying family
structures and kinship and their impor-
tance on different levels to p o l i t i c a l
and social stability, and by charting
interfamily relationships into the past,
one can obtain a reasonable amount of
evidence upon which to draw conclusions
about Senegambian society i n the distant
past. Speaking from my own work, the
longer I study procolonial Senegambian
s o c i a l h i s t o r y , the more I become
convinced that understanding interfamily
relationships i s the master key that w i l l
unlock the door to understanding the
workings of Senegambian society. Ties of
marriage between specific lineages were
frequently continuing, sometimes to the
point of being institutionalized. These
types brought mutual obligations to the
families involved i n the relationships.
Families that married together not only
recognized an a f f i n i t y for one another,
but they relied upon one another i n time
of hardship and need, whether famine,
attack, or some sort or natural disaster.
Basic ties of kinship and these seemingly
informal family alliances were the v i t a l
ingredients to the maintenance of
p o l i t i c a l and social s t a b i l i t y . Because
they were so important to the social
10
structure of the various Senegambian
ethnic groups, family elders from most
lineages remember and can talk about the
bases and general patterns of these
relationships. Though t h i s i s not
n e c e s s a r i l y the kind of h i s t o r i c a l
information that i s most important i n
studying family history i n many western
countries, i t i s v i t a l for study of
family h i s t o r y i n t h i s West A f r i c a n
culture area. And i t s t i l l can be done.
Accepting the p o s s i b l i t y of studying
Senegambian family history through oral
traditions, the historian should bear i n
mind a few, simple guidelines. They
might save days of fruitless effort and
perhaps even years of frustration.
F i r s t , avoid a narrow focus. Searching
for the roots of a specific ancestor i s
an exercise i n f u t i l i t y i n almost every
instance. Attempting to study the his-
tory of a small lineage in a specific
region i s d i f f i c u l t , too. I believe one
might be best advised to focus study upon
one or several of the large clans exist-
ing i n Senegambia and sometimes stretch-
ing beyong the borders of the region,
taking special care to note formal and
informal relationships the clan's members
had with others. As one traces clan o r i -
gins, for which study oral data i s always
a v a i l a b l e , and charts lineage r e l a -
tionships within and without the clan,
information on s p e c i f i c lineages i n
particular locations w i l l become appar-
ent. So, too, w i l l opinions of some
lineages about the history of others, and
such data are important for comparative
purposes.
Second, interview widely. C o l l e c t i n g
oral data solely from members of the
lineage or clan i n question i s a metho-
dological mistake. Some of the most ac-
curate information available comes from
outsiders who know the informal oral tra-
d i t i o n s — t h e l o c a l scuttlebut of the
past, i f you care to c a l l i t that—about
the family i n question. In this regard,
there i s almost no end to the numbers of
sources one can use to study Senegambian
family history.
901/Wright
Third, remain mobile. It i s unfortunate
that there i s no institution similar to a
library or an archive where one can go
and i n a single location collect a l l the
oral data one wants. Related lineages of
large clans are scattered widely through-
out Senegambia. Traveling to the v i l -
lages where lineage members are located,
then to villages where families t r a d i -
tionally connected through marriage re-
side, and then to other places where
leads to good informants take you, i s
necessary for a thorough job.
Fourth, study oral traditions compara-
tively, with at least a normal amount of
a historian's skepticism. I t i s always
good policy to attempt to validate oral
information by getting other informants'
ideas about specific subjects. Also,
c e r t a i n a r c h i v a l sources and printed
works can help v a l i d a t e t r a d i t i o n a l
information. Europeans from various
countries were i n direct contact with
Senegambians from as early as the 1440s.
For some periods of time records are
voluminous. Some contain a surprising
11
number of names and other information
helpful to the student of family history.
F i f t h , and f i n a l l y , avoid getting dis-
couraged. Simply because this kind of
study presents unique problems should not
prohibit one from undertaking i t . As
many here know, studying family history
through documentary sources i n the United
States i s not always as simple and plea-
surable as going on a picnic to the
beach. Such sources can be as corrupted
and misleading as the most obscure oral
tradition. After a l l , though Richard M.
Nixon did not claim to be related to
Sheikh Tijani i n his Memoirs, neither did
he admit to attempting to obstruct jus-
tice. A l l historical study i s d i f f i c u l t ,
requiring serious questioning and skep-
t i c a l analysis of sources before one can
presume to approach historical accuracy.
Working with oral traditions i n Senegam-
bia i s no different. One can carry out
e f f e c t i v e study of family h i s t o r y i n
Senegambia using o r a l t r a d i t i o n s for
evidence. One can do i t best merely by
knowing the limitations of such study
from the beginning.
SENEGAMBIA
901/Wright 13

NOTES

* A Fulbright-Hays Fellowship sponsored my research i n The Gambia and Senegal, upon

which this essay i s based. I am grateful to the United States Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare for awarding me this fellowship. I am grateful, too, to B. K.
Sidibe, George Brooks, Binta Jammen, Momodou Gasama, and a host of individual Gambians
and Senegalese who lent me valuable assistance i n my research. Ellen M. Brickwedde
read this paper i n manuscript and made valuable comments.

^Jan Vansina, one of the acknowledged pioneers i n the historical use of

African oral data, defines oral traditions as follows: "Oral traditions consist of
a l l verbal testimonies which are reported statements concerning the past. This
definition implies that nothing but oral t r a d i t i o n — t h a t i s to say, statements either
spoken or sung—enter into consideration. . . .It further indicates that not a l l oral
sources are oral traditions, but only those which are reported statements—that i s ,
sources which have been transmitted from one person to another through the medium of
language. Eyewitness accounts, even when given orally, do not come withint the sphere
of tradition because they are not reported statements. Oral traditions exclusively
consist of hearsay accounts, that i s , testimonies that narrate an event which has not
been witnessed and remembered by the informant himself, but which he has learnt about
through heresay."

See Vansina, Oral Tradition: A Study i n Historical Methodology (Chicago, 1965), pp.
19-20.
2
I reported early conclusions from this research i n my doctoral dissertation,
"Niumi: A History of a Western Mandinka State Through the Eighteenth Century," Indiana
University, 1976.
3
For an informative a r t i c l e on orally-preserved kinglists and the decline of
the fadishness of their use to date the African past, see Joseph C. M i l l e r , "Kings,
L i s t s , and History i n Kasanje," History i n Africa: A Journal of Method, VT (1979), pp.
51-96.
4
I include this k i n g l i s t , as most often recited, with explanatory materials as
an appendix to my The Early History of Niumi: Settlement and Foundation of a Mandinka
State on the Gambia river (Athens, Ohio, 1977).
^The f i r s t dozen names on the kinglist are supposedly the names of women. I
believe they are what David Henige calls "spurinyms," which i n this case are names
formed from words whose meanings relatead to the early l i f e s t y l e of the people
inhabiting the region. See Henige, the Chronology of Oral Tradition (London, 1974),
pp. 46-48. Persons interested i n listening to this interview and others i n my
collection are welcome to do so. The recordings are located i n the Archives of
Traditional Music, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, and The Gambia Cultural
Archives, Old National Library, Banjul, The Gambia. For those unable to reach either
of these depositories, I have published edited transcriptions i n English of some of my
best interviews i n Oral Traditions From The Gambia, 2 vols., Volume I: Mandinka
Griots; Volume I I : Family Elders (Athens, Ohio: 1979 and forthcoming).

It i s l i k e l y , too, that Jata was reciting the information to impress me and

thereby to get me to pay him a substantial amount of money. Griots are notorious for
being a wily, mercenary l o t . Jata f i t the image.
901/Wright 14

7
General information on the family in Mandinka society can be found in Matt
Schaffer and Christine Cooper, Mandingo: The Ethnography of a West African Holy Land
(New York 1980), Chapter 3. For Wolof families see David P. Gamble, The Wolof of
Senegambia (London, 1957).
8
Seni Darbo, "A Griot's Self-Portrait: the Origins and role of the Griot in
Mandinka Society as Seen From Stories Told by Gambian Griots" Paper presented at the
Conference on Manding Studies, University of London, School of Oriental and African
Studies, 1972, p. 12.
9
When I entered a village I did not know well, I would ask residents of the
village whom I might best talk to about village history. On only two occasions out of
perhaps f i f t y I was directed to a woman. In each of these instances the woman was
greatly resepected for her age. Each of the two claimed to be nearly one hundred
years old.
10
A typical state history i s Unus Jata's account, which I recorded in
September, 1974. See my Oral Tradition From The Gambia, volume I , pp. 30ff.
1:L
See, for instance, the genealogy of Keba Sambu Janneh, an elder of a noted
Mandinka c l e r i c a l family, i n the second volume of my Oral Traditions From The Gambia.
12
F o r a short study of what seems to be a f a i r l y accurate kinglist see Jean
Boulegue, "Contribution a l a chronologie du royaume du Saloum," Bulletin de 1'Institut
fondamental d'Afrique Noire, Series B. XXVIII (1966), pp. 657-665. I include a few
kinglists in my Oral Traditions From The Gambia.
13
F o r a discussion of the d i f f i c u l t i e s trying to combine and make sense of
such a l i s t see the appendix to my Early History of Niumi.
1 4
I recorded a kinglist from a griot i n Saloum, which was almost identical
with the one Boulegue cites. See note 12, above. As far as I could t e l l , the dates
of the k i n g l i s t were accurate within a reasonable number of years. I recorded several
kinglists with dates that were obviously grossly inaccurate. See below for the
k i n g l i s t provided by Lat Grand Ndiaye.
15
F o r A typically cryptic praise, see the interview with Sherif Jabarteh in
Oral Traditions From The Gambia, Volume I , p. 118.
16
An anecdote might be appropriate to relate here. One afternoon I went to
the village of Essau, The Gambia, to watch a local cultural celebration. I was
sitting with about a dozen prominent men from the local area. A griot passed among
the group, singing praises for the men there assembled. Once each man heard the
praises of his family, he gave the griot a small amount of money. When the griot came
to me, he smiled and then launched into a general praise of the tubab, the white man,
for he know nothing else about me besides the fact that I was white. I laughed, and
so died he, but the message was clear: For money he would have sung my praises as
best he could, regardless of how much he would have had to make up.
1 7
1 listened to hours of formal traditions of origin of the Jammeh family of
Miumi before I began to take notice of what certain individuals told me about who the
Jammeh "really were." I was f i n a l l y able to interview a number of people, mostly
people other than the Jammeh, who were able to give me some idea of what they thought
of Jammeh origins. I used this information to piece together a reasonable story of
how the Jammeh came to live in the lower Gambia. See my Early History of Niumi,
901/Wright 15
ft

Chapter 2.
18
I encountered one entrepreneurial griot, Dembo Kanoute, who was trying to
market oral traditions as factual history i n Senegalese schools. Kanoute had traveled
to various West African countries, where hë had assiduously gathered traditions from
local oral historians. Upon returning' to Dakar, he used his knowledge to write a
"true" history of West ^Africa, which was actually whatever tales Kanoute wanted to
r e c i t e , transcribed and translated into French. His p u b l i c a t i o n , H i s t o i r e de
l'Afrique authentique, translated by Tidiane Sanogho and Ibrahima Diallo (Dakar,
1972), when presented (as i t was) as authentic history instead of as oral traditions,
contained some of the most gross factual errors ever put into print. Its potential
for misleading Senegalese students would be great, were the book ever accepted for use
in Senegal's schools.
19
I did encounter one f a i r l y l i v e l y , active dispute between two groups about
which version of an oral tradition was correct. One of the great mythical figures of
Niumi's history i s ) Samake Jammeh (or Samake Demba), the man who led other young
Mandinka men to Mali to gain permission to rule i n the lower Gambia from the king of
that formerly great Mandinka empire. Both the Jammeh family of Miumi and the Demba
family of Jokadu claim Samake as their ancestor. Establishment of such claim i s
important, because Samake's primacy i n Gambian Mandinka kingship lends a great deal of
prominence to his ancestors. Members of both families argue their respective cases
with a certain intensity.
20
For a complete study of the Sonko and the altering of their tradition of
origin see my "Koli Tengela i n Sonko Traditions of Origin: An Example of the Process
of Change in Mandinka Oral Tradition," History i n Africa, V (1978), pp. 257-271.
21
There are a number of other examples of instances where families purpose-
f u l l y altered their oral traditions. See, for example, P h i l l i p s Stevens, J r . , "The
Kisra Effect: A Problem i n the Interpretation of African Ethnohistorical Data," paper
presented at the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Philadelphia,
1972.
22
For the f u l l text of my interview with Lat Grand Ndiaye, see the second
volume of Oral Traditions From The Gambia.
23
D. T. Niane, Sundiatea: An Epic of Old Mali (London, 1965), p. 41.
24
Kemo Kuyate, interview, September 15, 1974, i n my Oral Traditions From The
Gambia, Volume I , p. 74. David Henige's "The Problem of Feedback in Oral Tradition:
four Fante Examples," paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the African Studies
Association, Denver, 1971, i s an interesting study of the "feedback" phenomenon.
25
Alhaji Landing Omar Sonko, oral interview, December 15, 1974.
26
The p o l i t i c a l and social s t a b i l i t y of the Gambia region and beyond i s a fact
that historians have sometimes ignored. J . M. Gray, in his A History of The Gambia
(London, 1940), pp. 327-328, writes that the Gambian Mandinka states ". . .lacked the
unity and s t a b i l i t y which really qualified a territory for the t i t l e of kingdom."
Gray likens the rulers of these states to "war lords, who rose and f e l l very often
with astonishing rapidity." Actually, nearly a l l of the Gambian states existed from
the beginning of the sixteenth century, some earlier, down to the time of the British
colonial takeover. Their s t a b i l i t y i n the face of the generally disturbing events of
the prime centures of slaving i n the Gambia i s startling. My work with Gambian oral
901/Wright 16

data suggest that i t was the social bonds of kinship more than anything else that lent
such p o l i t i c a l s t a b i l i t y to the entire region.
I
 AFRICAN FAMILY HISTORY THROUGH ORAL TRADITIONS:
David Henige
Born i n Ohio. Resides i n Madison, Wisconsin. A f r i c a n studies b i b l i o g r a p h e r , Memorial
L i b r a r y , U n i v e r s i t y of Wisconsin. Ph.D. ( h i s t o r y ) , U n i v e r s i t y of Wisconsin. Author,
teacher, e d i t o r .
In terms of h i s t o r i c a l experience as w e l l
as o f s o u r c e s , e a s t A f r i c a n a t u r a l l y
divides i t s e l f into two unequal zones.
The coast came into the o r b i t of Arabic
c u l t u r e and Arabic w r i t t e n sources as
early as the tenth century and we have at
l e a s t some information about many parts
of the coast f o r a l l periods since then.
The m a t e r i a l s we have i n c l u d e c o i n s ,
c h r o n i c l e s , and genealogies. While many
of these are e i t h e r f r a g m e n t a r y or
u n r e l i a b l e , or both, i n sum they put a
body o f evidence at the d i s p o s a l of
historians. More importantly, the data
are often demonstrably derived
independently.
For the vast i n t e r i o r of east A f r i c a the
picture is quite d i f f e r e n t , for this
region was one of the l a s t parts of the
i n h a b i t e d w o r l d to come w i t h i n the
purview of outside observation and, with
that, of w r i t t e n contemporary sources.
Only from 1880 to 1900 were Europeans
present there i n adequate strength and
with purposes consistent with recording
information on the past of the s o c i e t i e s
with whom they came into i n c r e a s i n g l y
close contact. The e a r l i e s t accounts we
have are those of European passers-by,
b e g i n n i n g i n the e a r l y 1860s and
continuing i n ever-increasing numbers f o r
the next t h i r t y years or so. I n e v i t a b l y
these are sketchy and often
contradictory; the e a r l i e s t t r a v e l e r s
such as John H . Speke, James Grant, and
Henry M. Sanley were f a r more interested
i n f l o r a and fauna, i n quaint customs, i n
missionary p o s s i b i l i t i e s , and i n securing
the somewhat problematical goodwill of
A f r i c a n leaders than they were i n
c o l l e c t i n g and r e c o r d i n g t r a d i t i o n s .
S t i l l , each o f these o b s e r v e r s and
EAST AFRICA
several others did c o l l e c t data which
have proved of some use to later
historians.
Beginning i n the l a t e 1870s missionaries
began to a r r i v e i n f o r c e , to be followed
in a decade or so by a l l the
accoutrements of c o l o n i a l r u l e . The new
observers came to stay and, as part of
staying, to l e a m more about a l l aspects
of the indigenous s o c i e t i e s . At f i r s t ,
though, the British and German
administrators were f a r too few and f a r
too preoccupied with conquest and i t s
aftermath to be much concerned with much
beyond d a y - t o - d a y e x i g e n c i e s . As a
r e s u l t our most valuable (and sometimes
most o v e r l o o k e d ) r e s o u r c e s are the
correspondence, d i a r i e s , and other
w r i t i n g s of the numerous m i s s i o n a r i e s ,
p a r t i c u l a r l y the White F a t h e r s and
members of the Church Missionary S o c i e t y .
One of the f i r s t necessary tasks of the
newly-arrived missionaries was to become
conversant i n the l o c a l vernaculars and
t h i s required compiling d i c t i o n a r i e s and
grammars. Doing this, in turn,
stimulated an i n t e r e s t i n the tales and
t r a d i t i o n s of the various groups.
Once c o l o n i a l r u l e had been e f f e c t i v e l y
imposed, even greater s t i m u l i to attempt
to remember and to use the past appeared.
Measures by c o l o n i a l governments to
establish intermediate African
authorities (later called Indirect Rule),
to d i s t r i b u t e l a n d i n new and o f t e n
unwelcome ways, and to educate at least a
t i n y p o r t i o n of the c o l o n i z e d , a l l
c o n t r i b u t e d to a growing i n t e r e s t i n
early A f r i c a n h i s t o r y on the part of both
the colonizers and the c o l o n i z e d . Very
l i t t l e of t h i s was, i t should be noted,
901b/Henlge
much Impelled by dispassionate scholarly
c u r i o s i t y , but was l a r g e l y enquiry
prompted by expediency. This led to a
kind of symbiotic historiography, through
which benefits were seen to (and indeed
did) accrue both to the colonial rulers
and to enterprising elements of African
societies.
This process can most clearly be observed
in the remarkable l i t e r a r y renascence i n
the kindgom of Buganda (in modern Uganda)
during the f i r s t quarter of this century.
When the Europeans came onto the scene,
Buganda was unmistakably the premier
state in the interlacustrine area. It
was also the p o l i t y which was most
receptive to Christianity, to literacy,
to colonial administrative techniques,
and generally to a l l things which
followed in the wake of colonial r u l e .
In many ways the Ganda b e n e f i t t e d
enormously from this a b i l i t y to play this
new game. Their already predominant
position was enhanced and strengthened so
that they became i n f l u e n t i a l over a
larger area than had ever been the case
during pre-colonial times.
To buttress t h i s new s t a t u s , there
developed a large quantity of Ganda
historiography, beginning as early as the
1890s and dominating the local l i t e r a r y
efforts of the period. The thrust of
this work was to show that Buganda had
not only been indisputably the most
powerful state in the area but also the
oldest, the most martial, and the best
organized. Among other things, t h i s
involved developing a royal genealogy and
history which extended back more than
twenty generations and was f i l l e d with
many details regarding the exploits of
Ganda r u l e r s . This historiography
implied (the Ganda were content to
leaving dating per se to outsiders, who
were not slow to provide i t ) a foundation
date for the kingdom i n the thirteenth or
fourteenth centuries. Nor of course was
this a l l . The Ganda admitted that at
f i r s t t h e i r kingdom was s m a l l , but
insisted that neighboring states were at
l e a s t as small or not yet even In
existence. Moreover, according to these
traditions Buganda began to expand almost
2
at once and continued to expand, with
only the one setback, u n t i l the British
arrived. In short Buganda was, by this
account, always the most powerful and the
most prestigious state i n the area so
that the Ganda quite clearly deserved the
important r o l e accorded them by the
British i n the colonial administration of
the Uganda Protectorate.
Naturally, other states in the area f e l t
constrained to develop a counter-
historiography i n order to seek a place
in the present sun by demonstrating that
they had occupied such a place in past
suns. Most prominent in this regard was
Bunyoro, to which even Ganda historians
usually a t t r i b u t e d c o e v a l i t y and an
earlier importance. Unfortunately, by
the late nineteenth century, Bunyoro had
f a l l e n on hard times and was much less
important than, though not subservient
to, Buganda. Early (1880-1930) Nyoro
attempts to provide a respectable past
were feeble failures when compared to the
success of s i m i l a r Ganda e f f o r t s .
However, i n the mid-1930s, the ruler of
Bunyoro published a lengthy and suitably
circumstantial account of his ancestors
in which he proved to his own
satisfaction that Bunyoro not only had an
eminent past but could remember i t in as
much detail as the Ganda seemed to be
able to remember theirs. In his account,
of course, the founder of the Bunyoro
kingdom was senior ( i f only slightly) to
the founder of Buganda and i t was only in
the nineteenth century that Bunyoro
surrendered pre-eminence to her r i v a l .
This new v i s i o n was embellished and
reinforced by later publications of Nyoro
authors and has taken its place in modern
interpretations of the region's earlier
history.
The literate e l i t e in some of the other
kingdoms in the area were a bit slower
off the mark but by the 1950s traditional
histories of Nkore, Karagwe, Kiziba, and
several of the Soga states had emerged,
i f sometimes i n only an inchoate form.
In order to provide themselves with
c r e d i b i l i t y , each of these emulated the
Nyoro example by being careful to orient
themselves to generally-accepted
901b/Henlge
information about t h e i r neighbors. A l l
this a c t i v i t y resulted i n a f a i r l y
coherent and ( a t l e a s t t e m p o r a r i l y )
s a t i s f y i n g l y persuasive body of evidence
to present to interested academic
Af r i c a n i s t s , who were beginning to appear
on the ground i n ever greater numbers.
At f i r s t these l a t t e r were s a t i s f i e d to
accept whatever information was provided
them and so welcomed these a c c o u n t s ,
collected what they thought were
s u p p o r t i n g d a t a , and wove them i n t o
comprehensive schemata which sought to
provide an agreed-upon framework which
would d e f i n e the bounds w i t h i n which
f u r t h e r research was to be c a r r i e d out.
T h i s d e v i c e worked f o r about f i f t e e n
years but then anthropologists began to
argue that many aspects of the t r a d i t i o n s
were more symbolic than f a c t u a l , while
same h i s t o r i a n s began to question the
provenance of the t r a d i t i o n s and to
wonder about the motives which engendered
them and the p e c u l i a r consistencies and
inconsistencies which suggested an undue
i n s p i r a t i o n from printed sources.
The issue remains moot, as i t always
must, since almost nothing c i r c u m s t a n t i a l
i s knowable about the past of the area
b e f o r e the a r r i v a l of the Europeans
because there is no demonstrably
independently-derived evidence a v a i l a b l e
to h i s t o r i a n s . Nor i s very much known
about the circumstances (much l e s s the
motives) under which the t r a d i t i o n s were
u l t i m a t e l y transmitted into t h e i r f i n a l
w r i t t e n form. But there seems to be some
probabilities. The t a p p i n g o f new
sources such as the missionary records,
and the evidence of radiocarbon dating
l a r g e l y condemn the t r a d i t i o n a l l y -
accepted view of the past o f the
i n t e r l a c u s t r i n e area i n s o f a r as they
r e l a t e to dating and to the course and
direction of specifically-recalled
events. For the moment, no more can be
s a i d than t h a t the movement i s f r o m
c e r t i t u d e to doubt.
Turning to other areas of east A f r i c a , we
see a s i m i l a r s i t u a t i o n . Like Buganda,
Rwanda was the most powerful kingdom i n
i t s region when the Europeans ( i n t h i s
3
case Germans) a r r i v e d at the end of the
nineteenth century. Again l i k e Buganda,
the official historiography which
developed i n Rwanda showed a continuous
succession of r u l e r s over nearly t h i r t y
g e n e r a t i o n s e x t e n d i n g ( i n t h i s case
l a r g e l y by dating provided by Rwandese)
a l l the way back to the tenth century!
This hypothesis, developed nearly f o r t y
years ago and assiduously propagated ever
s i n c e by l i t e r a t e r o y a l i s t s i n the
kingdom, was never accorded quite the
p a s s i v e acceptance g i v e n much of the
i n t e r l a c u s t r i n e historiography, but the
p r i n c i p l e s on which i t was based—
unmatchable Rwanda a n t i q u i t y and T u t s i
supremacy—were v i r t u a l l y unquestioned
d u r i n g the c o l o n i a l p e r i o d , though
p o l i t i c a l events s i n c e independence
(notably the a b o l i t i o n of the monarchy)
have shattered the l a t t e r , i f not the
former, assunption.
The concept o f Rwandan a n t i q u i t y and
e a r l y m i l i t a r y expansionism f e l l v i c t i m
to h i s t o r i a n s and a n t h r o p o l o g i s t s who
were more committed to d i s p a s s i o n a t e
e n q u i r y than to the f o r t u n e s of the
Rwanda royal l i n e . By using a v a r i e t y of
sources, these scholars have impeached
the o f f i c i a l historiography by showing
that most of Rwanda's expansion occurred
no e a r l i e r than the nineteenth century
and that the ethnic p u r i t y and d i r e c t
descent of the Rwanda r u l i n g classes were
equally m y t h i c a l .
Burundi, Rwanda's l a r g e r but less
important neighbor to the south, has a
l e s s impressive historiography but what
there i s developed i n what now must seem
predictable ways. The r u l e r s of Burundi
take four royal names i n succession so
that the f i f t h r u l e r i n any sequence has
the same name as the f i r s t , the s i x t h the
same as the second, and so on. Using
t h i s to best advantage, Rundi t r a d i t i o n s
simply doubled the number of royal cycles
so that eight r u l e r s were transformed to
sixteen i n no more than the proverbial
t r i c e . Again, recent work has shown that
t h i s occurred and, to some extent, how
and why.
For several reasons, of which the most
901b/Henige
important are the e c o l o g i c a l constraints
imposed by the h a b i t a t , l a r g e and
r e a s o n a b l y c e n t r a l i z e d s t a t e s d i d not
develop i n other parts of east A f r i c a .
In general these s o c i e t i e s are pastoral
since the environment does not permit the
p u r s u i t o f much a g r i c u l t u r e nor the
denser p o p u l a t i o n s t h a t would r e s u l t .
For two reasons we have much l e s s
i n f o r m a t i o n about the past o f these
societies. In the first place,
genealogical r e l a t i o n s h i p s are important
o n l y on a l a r g e r , n a t i o n a l level.
I n d i v i d u a l r e l a t i o n s h i p s beyond one or
two generations are simply not r e l e v a n t .
I n the second p l a c e , the colonial
administrators, who were so instrumental
i n creating and e l i c i t i n g concepts of the
past i n c e n t r a l i z e d A f r i c a n s o c i e t i e s ,
were much l e s s interested i n t h i s aspect
of p a s t o r a l s o c i e t i e s so t h a t the
o c c a s i o n s f o r i n v e s t i g a t i o n , or even
rumination, about the past were
s u b s t a n t i a l l y fewer.
In several s o c i e t i e s of northern Uganda,
which are neither pastoral nor
c e n t r a l i z e d , r e c e n t i n v e s t i g a t i o n has
uncovered t r a d i t i o n s which claim to reach
back two or three c e n t u r i e s . Of course
i t i s not known how r e l i a b l e these might
be. In some o f these areas s m a l l
kingdoms developed while i n others the
c l a n or k i n s h i p mode o f o r g a n i z a t i o n
prevailed.
Small states also developed i n the more
f a v o r a b l e e c o l o g i c a l niches of east
A f r i c a , p a r t i c u l a r l y i n the mountainous
or highland areas. For instance, several
small s t a t e s (or b e t t e r chiefdoms)
developed among the Pare. The
genealogies c o l l e c t e d f o r these suggest
that they might be several centuries o l d ,
but again i t must be kept i n mind that
there i s no corroborative evidence f o r
the accuracy of any of these m a t e r i a l s .
I f i t i s impossible (or at l e a s t unwise)
to attempt to construct reliable
genealogies f o r east A f r i c a f o r the more
remote p a s t , i t may prove e a s i e r to
e l i c i t information for later periods,
say, from the middle of the l a s t century.
I t i s not u n l i k e l y that anthropologists
interested i n k i n s h i p systems i n the area
have a l r e a d y done some work i n t h i s
r e g a r d but t h e i r g r e a t e r i n t e r e s t i n
models than i n events means that s p e c i f i c
i n d i v i d u a l s tend to be l e f t out of
w r i t t e n work i n favor of symbols.
However, a t l e a s t one h i s t o r i a n has
Interested h i m s e l f i n the d e t a i l e d
h i s t o r y of a s i n g l e v i l l a g e over the past
century and a quarter. This v i l l a g e ,
c a l l e d Bunafu, i s located i n Luuka, one
of the many Soga chiefdoms which existed
i n northeastern Uganda u n t i l r e c e n t l y .
Through extensive interviewing w i t h i n the
narrow ambit of Bunafu and its
surroundings, David W. Cohen (Womunafu's
Bunafu [Princeton: Princeton U n i v e r s i t y
Press, 1977]) was a b l e to c o l l e c t
information on several thousand
i n d i v i d u a l s who have l i v e d i n , or somehow
been connected w i t h , the v i l l a g e since
about 1870. Cohen's essay i n s o c i a l
h i s t o r y p o i n t s up the f r u i t s to be
g a t h e r e d by a d o p t i n g a modest but
comprehensive g o a l .
Of course there are other sources f o r
recent f a m i l y h i s t o r y i n east A f r i c a than
oral traditions. In some areas (again,
notably Buganda and other parts of Uganda
as w e l l as Rwanda), e c c l e s i a s t i c a l
records r e l a t i n g to baptisms, marriages,
and deaths can be of great value i n terms
of constructing s h a l l o w but broad
genealogies f o r parts of east A f r i c a .
U n l i k e o r a l t r a d i t i o n w h i c h , perhaps
because of i t s novelty, has c e r t a i n l y
been overused as a tool f o r recovering
the past, church records have not been
used very widely at a l l f o r determining
aspects of s o c i a l h i s t o r y . Perhaps as
many as f o r t y Catholic and Protestant
missionary groups served i n the area at
one time or another and most s t i l l do,
although to a l e s s e r extent than under
c o l o n i a l r u l e . For the most part records
of the kind which are of interest here
are kept at the l o c a l church or mission
s t a t i o n , although i n some cases they have
been transferred back to the metropolis
e i t h e r f o r safekeeping or because the
p a r t i c u l a r mission has l e f t the area.
D i s p a r i t i e s i n usage and nomenclature
present seme problems i n dealing with
901b/Henige
these materials but certainly no more so
than do the vagaries of recollection,
which have the added disadvantage of
being capable of no more than suspicion.
Very l i t t l e has yet been w r i t t e n
regarding either the extent or the
content of local mission records and i t
i s regrettably l i k e l y that few systematic
steps have been taken to preserve or to
make copies of them. For most
historians, other kinds of information
(diaries, ethnographic studies,
correspondence) are of more d i r e c t
relevance, but here too almost nothing
has been done to preserve and safeguard
these m a t e r i a l s , many of which have
already drifted into a kind of archival
terra incognita.
Finally there are the census and the
voting records. For the early colonial
period, census records are notoriously
unreliable and incomplete and of course
voting records are nonexistent. Even so,
such records of l a t e r provenance can
prove useful. For instance, a major
reinterpretation of the ethnic patterns
of the Rwanda past was based largely on
voting records of the 1960s. These
5
records are most important insofar as
they provide independent means of
v e r i f i c a t i o n , so important i n dealing
with cases (like east Africa) for which
the evidence i s so exiguous. Comparisons
of data i n one genre with those in one or
more others can show strengths and
weaknesses that may only be inferred from
one source alone.
This being so, i t seems appropriate to
close by decrying the lack of effort at
preservation which I mentioned above. Of
the thousands of tapes which have been
c o l l e c t e d i n the f i e l d s , only a few
hundred are accessible; many of the rest
are decaying as time passes and w i l l soon
be i n a c c e s s i b l e despite any belated
gestures of goodwill by the collector. A
similar condition applies, as noted, with
regard to more t r a d i t i o n a l a r c h i v a l
sources. In lamentable contrast to the
important work of the Pacific Manuscripts
Bureau for Oceania, no steps whatever
have been taken so far to ensure that
these a l l to ephemeral resources be
c o l l e c t e d , preserved, and made more
readily available to interested parties.
If this i s not done within the next
decade or so, i t w i l l simply be too late.
 AFRICAN FAMILY HISTORY THROUGH ORAL TRADITIONS: SOUTH AFRICA
William F. Lye
Born i n Canada. Resides i n Logan, Utah. Dean, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social
Sciences; Utah State University. Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles.
Author, teacher, lecturer.
The Black people of Southern A f r i c a
institutionalized practices which enabled
them to preserve their history through
the oral transmission of genealogies and
accounts of significant events,
particularly i n the rites of passage of
individual members of their societies.
While many of these practices have been
assaulted by the i n t r o d u c t i o n of
Christianity, formal schooling, and urban
l i v i n g , they remain i n force i n many
rural communities. People sensitive to
their heritage, both African and alien,
have addressed the changing circumstances
by collecting oral accounts i n writing,
much the way ancient sages did i n Israel,
India, or Japan. This process of writing
down o r a l accounts has continued f o r
nearly two hundred years. The
c o l l e c t i o n s provide an invaluable
supplement to what o r a l transmissions
s t i l l occur. This paper w i l l address
both sources of the traditions of the
South African people.
This paper w i l l f i r s t identify the major
peoples of the region and limit the scope
of i t s consideration. Then i t w i l l
describe the social practices pertaining
to the preservation of t r a d i t i o n .
L a s t l y , i t w i l l i d e n t i f y the major
classes of tradition and discuss their
uses and limitations.
THE PEOPLES OF SOUTHERN AFRICA
For the purposes of this study Southern
Africa w i l l include the lands south of
the Limpopo River; v i z . , the Republic of
South Africa and i t s autonomous
"homelands," Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho,
and Swaziland. The basic p r i n c i p l e s
discussed, however, apply equally to the
similar cultures of neighboring
countries, such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe,
Malawi, Angola, and beyond. (See map.)
Southern Africa i s occupied by several
distinct culture groups. Though this
study concentrates on the dominant one,
the others are briefly introduced here.
Most ancient i n their claim to the land
are the San and Khoi people, formerly
known as Bushmen and Hottentots. They
once dominated the entire region before
later arrivals crowded them out. The San
hunted for game while the Khoi grazed
sheep and goats on the grassy plains.
Today only a few thousand San survive on
the Kalahari Desert while equally few
Khoi descendants, intermixed with other
people, have become C h r i s t i a n i z e d ,
Europeanized urban workers under the name
"Cape Coloured."
More numerous are the aliens who came by
sea. These include the A f r i k a a n s -
speaking settlers from the Netherlands,
Germany, and France, who arrived i n the
sixteenth century, and the B r i t i s h
settlers of the nineteenth century. The
Afrikaners introduced African slaves from
t r o p i c a l lands and Asians from t h e i r
Spice Islands, and the British introduced
laborers from I n d i a . Though the
Europeans are p o l i t i c a l l y dominant, they
account for only 16 percent of the
population of the Republic of South
Africa. The slaves mainly fused with the
Khoi to form the Cape Coloured group,
though £he Indians remain a small
minority.
901c/Lye
Numerically dominant over the whole
region are the Bantu-speaking peoples.
They predominate i n every country,
counting for more than 75 percent of the
total. This group includes several
d i s t i n c t s u b d i v i s i o n s — t h e major ones
being 2the Nguni, Sotho, Tsonga, and
Venda. The Bantu-speaking societies a l l
developed early practices for the oral
transmission of their heritage. It i s
this group who w i l l be described in this
paper.
THE BANTU WAY OF LIFE
Even though each clan of Bantu speakers
had unique cultural features, and though
they are undergoing the pressures of
modernization, i t i s s t i l l possible to
identify salient features which widely
applied and which contributed to theij:
a b i l i t y to preserve t h e i r heritage.
Every Bantu society traditionally
supported i t s e l f by grazing animals and
c u l t i v a t i n g the s o i l . This economic
system dictated that they would l i v e i n
relatively small communities. In the
well-watered east, the Nguni dispersed
f a i r l y evenly across the land i n
i n d i v i d u a l homesteads c o n s i s t i n g of a
s i n g l e lineage of three to four
generations. On the drier plateau, the
Southern Sotho congregated i n small
villages based on clan ties. Further
west, where water was i n c r e a s i n g l y
scarce, the Tswana frequently b u i l t
larger v i l l a g e s around water sources,
with each clan occupying separate wards.
The residential a f f i l i a t i o n according to
clans l i n k e d together i n i n c r e a s i n g l y
larger u n i t s i n t o broader tribal
a f f i l i a t i o n s . The major Sotho clans, for
instance, traced their genealogy back to
a common origin i n the senior Hurutshe
clan. These elaborate genealogies were
preserved to j u s t i f y t h e i r i n t e r r e l a -
tionships, which were confirmed i n the
annual harvest r i t u a l of the Hurutshe.
Even though scholars have shown
conclusively that individual memberships
w i t h i n the Tswana clans are not as
uniform as these genealogies imply, the
people r e i n f o r c e t h e i r i d e n t i t y by
rituals.
2
R i t e s of naming, i n i t i a t i o n , and
marriage a l l reinforced kinship t i e s .
Naming, as i s common i n many cultures,
frequently r e c a l l e d the name of a
grandfather or other significant
ancestor. Even among Christians, this
practice i s common, i n addition to giving
a b i b l i c a l name.
The i n i t i a t i o n ceremony, once universal,
has been assaulted by pressures from the
churches and by extended absences of the
youths at schools. Nonetheless,
i n i t i a t i o n schools are s t i l l held, and,
in some cases, are enjoying a temporary
revival. The focus of the i n i t i a t i o n
ceremony i s the i n t e g r a t i o n of the
candidate into the broader clan. Family
ties are supplemented by new ties with
age-mates with whom the i n i t i a t e i s
circumcised.
Each clan was identified by a name which
distinguished them from a l l others.
Among the Sotho the clan names derived
from totem annimals or objects; among the
Nguni they derived from putative or real
ancestor/founders. The social
interaction of clans i s remembered i n
their traditions, and these are taught i n
the i n i t i a t i o n lodges. Since marriage
t i e s are e x p l i c i t l y defined i n the
different societies, clan relationships
are important i n these r i t u a l s . The
Nguni clans practice exogamy i n marriage,
the Sotho prefer cousin marriages. To
affect their preference, the families had
to maintain careful accounts of their
genealogies and their relationships with
their neighboring clans.
An important feature of the i n i t i a t i o n
ceremony and marriage ceremonies was the
singing of praise poems. These poems are
o r a l l y transmitted accounts of the
a c t i v i t i e s and genealogies of the chiefs
and heroes of the clans. Among the
Tswana, for instance, every youth was
required to compose and recite a poem
memorializing his ancestry and h i s
exploits before be could be initiated
into his age-set. Among the Zulu, an
individual had his praises sung by his
parents during his infancy, by his age
mates during his i n i t i a t i o n , and by his
901c/Lye
regimental companion^ as he earned
recognition i n battle. Often praises
earned by an individual would be sung at
his wedding to inform his in-laws of his
character. These praises would be
accompanied by praises of the clan in
general. Every Bantu-speaking society of
South A f r i c a practiced some form of
praise singing.
The most s i g n i f i c a n t praises were
composed by professionals, generally for
the chiefs. The poets were calLed Seroki
in Sotho, and Mmoki i n Tswana. Though
in earlier times the poems tended to
emphasize heroics in war, more recent
praises memorialize the experiences of
men leaving their village to work in the
white men's mines or c i t i e s , or even more
ordinary experiences. Though i n i t i a t i o n
schools are less common than they once
were, praises are s t i l l composed and
sung, p a r t i c u l a r l y i n honor of great
chiefs. Recent examples are praises of
Sobhuza I I , King of Swaziland, and
Moshoeshoe I I , King of Lesotho. The
flavor of Sobhuza's praise i s illustrated
in this verse:
They said Sobhuza would not clasp the
hand
of George King of England
But he clasped the hand with lightening
of heaven
Twice the heavens flashed
Within the palace of the English
They praise you with wonder
"This manhood, so great, whence did i t
come?"
Rock-thrush of Ngwane, f Mahlokohla,
0
You said you inherited i t from the navel,
Here, from Ndvungunge,
Here from Scmhlolo.
This verse memorializes the event of
Sobhuza v i s i t i n g England and being
received by the king. It also links him
with his Ngwane clan and his personal
genealogy. Similar emphasis on the royal
lineage of Moshoeshoe is revealed in this
verse of his praise:
The child well sired by Thesele
(Moshweshwe I ) ,
This child resembles the Chief Posholi,
3
He resembles Lekena and RaMahlolela,
He resembles the Repeater and
RaMathaleba,
He resembles G r i f f i t h and Lerotholi,
You're double-blooded, Mahoto's son
On the right you're Chief Sekonyela,
On the l e f t you're Mockhachane
Crocodile, govern your people with
warmth,
Govern with warmth your father's
people.
Again, this verse traces the genealogy of
the king through ordinary and honorific
names of h i s ancestors i n the royal
lineage, the Kwena (crocodile) clan.
The language used i n praises i s often
allegorical and archaic, and the events
mentioned i n older poems are long
forgotten; nonetheless, their
genelaogical information i s s t i l l useful.
Though modernization has undermined many
traditional practices, they s t i l l survive
in r u r a l areas. In a d d i t i o n , the
introduction of literacy has enabled the
t r a d i t i o n s to be preserved. Early
v i s i t o r s frequently found interest i n the
people they met. They recorded events
they observed, and often collected the
poems and stories they heard. While
these intruders can be accused of
undermining tradition, they also deserve
credit for preserving i n writing what
they observed. Their writings are a
worthy supplement and confirmation of
what i s s t i l l orally transmitted i n the
villages.
RECORDED VERSIONS OF AFRICAN HISTORY
E a r l i e s t v i s i t o r s reported what they
observed during their travels amidst the
African villages. Their writings began a
t r a d i t i o n which has blossomed into a
s i g n i f i c a n t record of the A f r i c a n
heritage. Four broad categories of
w r i t i n g s make t h e i r c o n t r i b u t i o n to
A f r i c a ' s heritage: the accounts of
t r a v e l l e r s i n which t h e i r current
observations are noted; vernacular
literature written by missionaries for
their African parishioners; the writings
901c/Lye
of African authors, in the vernacular or
i n t r a n s l a t i o n ; and the i n t e n t i o n a l
collections of tradition by amateur and
professional scholars. Each of these
types deserves to be i d e n t i f i e d and
evaluated.
TRAVELLERS' ACCOUNTS
Many intelligent and curious travellers
v i s i t e d South African villages from the
beginnings of European exploration. Our
earliest accounts of the southern Bantu
people derive from survivors of
shipwrecks off the southern and eastern
coast. These accounts confirm that
Tsonga people already l i v e d i n the
v i c i n i t y of Delagoa Bay by 1498; and
Nguni people occupied the south coast as
early as 1589, including specific clans
known today, such as tjje Xhosa, Mpondo,
Mpondomise, and Thembu. Nearly as soon
as the Cape Colony was founded,
t r a v e l l e r s began reporting about the
Sotho neople l i v i n g north of the Orange
River.
Extensive, thoughtful eyewitness accounts
began with a new class of travellers
during the nineteenth century. The
earliest such traveller among the Nguni
was Ludwig Alberti i n 1803. W. H. C.
Lichtenstein and W. J. Burchell wrote
extensive d e s c r i p t i o n s of the Tswana
people between 1807 and 1822. These
early travellers included sketches with
t h e i r w r i t i n g s to provide u s e f u l
descriptions of the material culture as
well as i£he n a r r a t i v e of their
activities. Of special interest i s
Andrew Smith, the surgeon of the colonial
forces, who travelled extensively on and
beyond the Cape frontier i n the 1820s and
30s. Because of h i s p r o f e s s i o n a l
training and his wide ranging interest i n
"natural h i s t o r y , " Smith c o l l e c t e d
observations about the fauna, f l o r a ,
geology, and meteorology of the land as
w e l l as ethnographic and h i s t o r i c a l
information of the people. His travels
took him through the Nguni villages along
the east coast to Zulu country, along the
west to the San and Khoi people at the
mouth of the Orange River, and, i n his
most extensive tour, through the entire
region between the Orange and the
Limpopop River just before the European
pioneer migration, the "Great Trek" of
the Afrikaners. His descriptions offer
the last view of the northern frontier
before i t was disturbed by European
seattlers and while i t was recovering
from the devastating wars triggered by
the rise of the Zulu kingdom. Because
his v i s i t was commissioned by the
colonial government and the merchants of
the Cape and included a team of a r t i s t s ,
surveyors, and other s c i e n t i s t s and
interpreters, he was able to v i s i t every
major chief of the north as far as the
Limpopo River. He kept extensive f i e l d
notes about p o l i t i c a l relationships, the
h i s t o r y of the c h i e f s , and their
genealogical l i n k s . He was the f i r s t
writer to record a praise poem. In some
respects, Smith was to Southern Africa
what Lewis and Clark were to the United
States.
Smith's most important contacts were the
missionaries who pioneered on the
frontier. Their personal memoirs and
reports to their societies provide a more
intimate record of l i f e among the
A f r i c a n s because of t h e i r f a m i l i a r i t y
with the language and the length of their
stay. The best w r i t i n g s provide
excellent d e s c r i p t i o n s of t r a d i t i o n a l
a c t i v i t i e s and h i s t o r i c a l narratives as
well as chronicling the daily events of
their lives among their charges.
Travellers' accounts, including those of
the missionaries, have severe limitations
because of the narrow range of their
contacts, their unfamiliarity with what
they observed, and their cultural bias.
M i s s i o n a r i e s overcame the b r e v i t y of
contact of other visitors but they often
had stronger prejudices against the
customs of their charges. Often the most
useful information derives from the
unpublished correspondence of the
missionaries rather than the published
memoirs which were intended to inspire
others to support the work of converting
the "heathens." Misison p e r i o d i c a l s
published i n Europe chronicle the work of
the missionaries often including useful
901c/Lye
descriptions of the people and,
o c c a s i o n a l l y , biographies of A f r i c a n
converts.
Vernacular Literature
Perhaps the most tangible contribution
the missionaries gave A f r i c a was i t s
school system and literacy. As
missionaries began laboring among the
Southern Bantu i n the nineteenth century,
their most pressing problems were the
diversity of languages and the absence of
writing. Pioneers addressed these
problems immediately, thus opening the
minds of the Africans to their teachings,
but also g i v i n g Europeans access to
Africa's heritage. Within two years of
the founding of missionary work among the
Tswana, James Read, a London missionary,
created a small speller. John Bennie, of
the Glasgow Society, devised the f i r s t
grammar of a Bantu tongue i n Xhosa i n
1826. He discovered the noun c l a s s
system and the tonal structure of Bantu
languages. The Wesleyan William Boyce
discovered the eughonic concord, unique
to Bantu grammar. Others followed i n
rapid succession, contribution grammars,
spellers, and primers i n many languages
of the region. Their l i t t l e schools
became networks tied together by their
d i f f e r e n t s o c i e t i e s and provided with
books form small presses. After the
basic primers and s p e l l e r s , the next
p u b l i c a t i o n s were r e l i g i o u s t e x t s ,
catechisms, and hymnals. In time, the
demands of their l i t e r a t e pupils expanded
to a wide v a r i e t y of l i t e r a t u r e .
Periodicals became an important means of
reporting the arrivals and departures of
missionaries, policy changes, l i s t s of
new converts and exconmunicants, and for
providing inspirational reading. Perhaps
the f i r s t vernacular paper was published
in Xhosa i n 1844. The oldest paper s t i l l
in publication i s Leselinyana l a Lesotho,
published by the E^ench Protestants i n
Lesotho since 1863.
Gradually, under wise leadership, these
papers began to expand t h e i r v i s i o n .
Editors often published short biographies
of their converts, which told of their
5
experiences before entering the church,
including genealogies. In a sense, these
biographies became a substitute or
supplement for the t r a d i t i o n a l praise
poems. Some of the editors used the
columns of the paper to report current
news, particularly during times of war on
t h e i r borders. They also published
accounts of the history of the people,
seme of which were later reprinted i n
small books for use i n the more advanced
classes i n their schools as well as for
general d i s t r i b u t i o n . A l l of these
sources supplement the oral traditions
which were s t i l l being preserved i n the
rituals of the people who lived beyond
the influence of the schools.
African Authors
In time, wise e d i t o r s opened t h e i r
columns to A f r i c a n w r i t e r s . The
c o n t r i b u t i o n of A f r i c a n authors adds
significantly to the oral tradition of
their kinsmen.
In the process of educating Africans i n
the mission schools, some pupils desired
to advance beyond what busy missionaries
could teach i n small r u r a l schools.
Select students were privileged to go to
more advanced schools. The sons of
chiefs were often selected to go to Cape
Town to study i n the white man's c i t y ,
but, more commonly, the missions
established t h e i r own higher schools.
The most famous was Lovedale Institution,
founded by Scottish missionaries i n the
eastern Cape. Students from a l l over
Southern and Eastern A f r i c a studied
there.
As Africans became l i t e r a t e , they also
became authors. Two sons of Moshoeshoe,
King of Lesotho, wrote essays during
their schooling at the Cape i n 1858. One
wrote a history of his people and the
other a b r i e f d e s c r i p t i o n of Sotho
customs. These vernacular essays are
preserved i n the South African Public
Library. Another son published a history
of his country for the English^magazine,
Cape Monthly Magazine, i n 1880.
By 1866 French missionaries began to
publish vernacular accounts of Sotho
history and culture written by Africans.
The most p r o l i f i c Sotho historian was
Azariel Sekese. He wrote several hundred
pieces for Leselinyana l a Lesotho between
1892 and 1925. Some of his writings
appeared i n small books i n c l u d i n g a
volume of Sotho customs^ and proverbs and
an allegorical story. Another Sotho
author who contributed much to the
preservation of Sotho tradition i s Z. D.
Mangoaela, whose Lithoko tsa Marena a
BaSotho, (Praises of the Basotho Chiefs),
preserves many of the praises of chiefs
of the formative period of the Sotho
nation, which would undoubtedly have been
lost by now had he not been encoujjgged to
do so by the French missionaries. This
l i t e r a r y t r a d i t i o n stimulated by the
French missionaries at the turn of the
century exceeded the production of any
other A f r i c a n c u l t u r e at the time.
Though the momentum could not be
sustained, a steady flow of h i s t o r i c a l
and imaginative literature issues from
Lesotho from the French P r o t e s t a n t ' s
press at Morija and from the younger
Catholic press at Mazenod.
The Tswana also evolved a l i t e r a r y
tradition. The Wesleyans and the London
Missionary Society established presses to
publish similar school works and church
literature as did the French Protestants.
Perhaps the greatest early author of the
Tswana was Sol T. Plaatje, who edited two
newspapers between 1904 and 1914 at
Mafeking and Kimberely. His secular
newspapers tended to emphasize p o l i t i c a l
issues of the urban p l i g h t of the
Faricans coming under European dominance.
Nonetheless, he contributed to the
preservation of the heritage of h i s
people by writing a collection of Tswana
proverbs and a novel of the period of the
Difaqane, the wars triggered by the Zulu,
called Mhudi: An Epic of SoutfajAfrican
Native L i f e a Hundred Years Ago.
A worthy seccessor of Plaatje was his
kinsman, S. M. Molema. D r . Molema
obtained his medieal education i n
Scotland and then returned to his
homeland where he practiced medicine and
promoted the p o l i t i c a l interests of his
people. His h i s t o r i c a l writings span
f o r t y - f i v e years of his l i f e and
memorialize not only the t r a d i t i o n a l
period, but also the period of European
contact i n which his people became
Influenced by Christianity. His three
h i s t o r i c a l works are invaluable sources
of the Tswana heritage: The Bantu: Past
and Present, Chief Moroka and Montshiwa:
Barolong Chief and Patriot.
The Nguni also generated scholars of
d i s t i n c t i o n . Perhaps the most important
pioneer was John Henderson Soga, who
wrote two extensive books on the history
and culture of the Xhosa; both of which
have been translated Into English under
tht t i t l e s The South-Eastern Bantu and
The Ama-Xosa: L i f e and Customs. This
brief survey only notices seme of the
more well-known of the writers among the
Africans. Many others also deserve to be
remembered.
Collections of Traditional History
Every branch of the Southern Bantu have
their traditions collected by amateur or
professional historians. This process of
c o l l e c t i n g began before a formal
d i s c i p l i n e of ethnohistory emerged.
Indeed, i t i s s t i l l i n i t s infancy i n
Africa; therefore, the quality of what
has been gathered varies widely.
Nonetheless, Africans and those who
appreciate their past owe a debt to the
pioneer amateur historians who dedicated
their free time to this work.
No c l e a r l i n e divides the early
travelers and missionaries from the class
of amateur collectors who followed them.
They b u i l t their work on the efforts of
their predecessors, such as the
missionary C a s a l l s , or the explorer
Smith, etc. More systematic collections
evolved from the permanent establishment
of European mission stations or
government offices i n African territory.
Such writers as D. F. Ellenberger of the
Parish Mission Society i n Lesotho, or his
son-in-law, J . C. MacGregor, a D i s t r i c t
Officer of the Basutoland administration,
901c/Lye
collected traditional histories
throughout their careers and published
them at the turn of the present century.
No scholar of Lesotho can ignore either
of t h e i r c o l l e c t i o n s : Ellenberger's
History of the Basuto; Ancient and^Modern
or MacGregor's Basuto Traditions.
Similar collections exist for the Naguni,
such as John A y l i f f and Joseph Whiteside,
The H i s t o r y of the Abambo, or W i l l i a m
Holden ^ The Past and Future of the K a f f i r
Races. Perhaps the most p r o l i f i c
collector of historical traditions of the
Zulu people was A. T. Bryant, whose Olden
Times i n Zululand and Natal and The Zulu
People plus other l i n g u i s t i c and
h i s t o r i c a l w r i t i n g s earned him a
doctorate of philosophy. Other
pioneers doubtlessly collected similar
work but never published i t . The recent
publication of an index to the papers of
James Stuart, who worked with the Zulu,
encourages the hop^, that others might
also come to l i g h t .
More r e c e n t l y , p r o f e s s i o n a l l y trained
scholars have begun to c o l l e c t
traditional histories. Anthropologists
led the way but h i s t o r i a n s have now
joined them. Isaac Schapera and N. J .
Van Warmelo established such high
standards of accuracy that they have
become a model for others to follow.
Schapera has written extensively about
the Tswana clans; Van Warmelo wrote many
accounts of Ndebele, Ngwane, Venda, Pedi,
and other Northern Sotho, and Tswana
groups. His annual publications for the
old Native A f f a i r s Department of the
Union of South Africa i s an nlnyaluable
source of traditional history. Many
younger scholars are adding to t h e i r
efforts today.
This brief summary of the four categories
of published traditions cannot do justice
to the volume of records which are
available to the researcher. The written
record thus preserves i n f a i t h f u l
accuracy what was reported over the past
two hundred years. Oral accounts of the
same era w i l l continue to fade from the
memories of Africans as they face newer
traumans i n their families and clans.
7
The sampling presented here i s intended
only to suggest the types and diversity
of sources of records which supplement
oral traditions today.
NEW SOURCES OF ORAL TRADITION
As traditional practices fade, Africans
continue to experience new incidents i n
their l i v e s . These also deserve to be
recorded. As with western cultures, as
Africans become l i t e r a t e , they tend to
disregard their personal experiences i n
favor of standard publications, such as
school books, newspapers, or government
publications. However, a new generation
of teachers i s opening new avenues for
preserving the experiences of the l i v i n g
genreation of Africans.
Most young people today obtain at least
some schooling. Most areas of South
A f r i c a can boast of more than f i f t y
percent l i t e r a c y , and the percent i s
generally higher and growing among the
young. High schools and even
universities now extend their
opportunities for education far beyond
minimal literacy i n Botswana, Swaziland,
Lesotho, and the "Homelands" of South
Africa. A new generation of trained
scholars i s emerging among t h e i r
graduates. With professional training i n
the methodology of history, and with kin
t i e s with the people, and complete
fluency i n the vernacular language, a new
age of history may well emerge, even
while the sources of early tradition are
fading from the memory of l i v i n g
generations.
An i l l u s t r a t i o n of how this can work i s
the case of Mosebi Damane, a Sotho
historian who obtained his education i n
Europe. As a teacher i n the high school
i n the royal v i l l a g e of Matsleng i n
Lesotho, he was commissioned by the king
to interview his elderly maternal kinsmen
whom the king brought down from the h i l l
country. Damane c o l l e c t e d extensive
records of these Tlokwa people, a clan
whom Moshoeshoe conquered and
incorporated into h i s kingdom i n the
nineteenth century and established i n the
901c/Lye
remote h i l l country. Daman now teaches
at the National University of Lesotho and
can share h i s knowledge and more
importantly, his methodology with young
students.
A l l over the region secondary teachers
are using projects i n t h e i r h i s t o r y
classes i n which they assign t h e i r
students to gather stories from their
grandparents. The collection of these
stories w i l l became invaluable additions
of more personal accounts to supplement
the formal histories of the text books.
Excellent results from similar projects
have been reported in Malawi and Kenya.
A new kind of secular publication i s
supplementing the older mission papers
and government documents. These
seim-popular magazines bring together the
buff with the historians i n exploring a l l
facets of the country. Lesotho and
Botswana Notes and Records are successful
examples. They w i l l undoubtedly become
increasingly important repositories of a
new generation of traditions.
THE USES AND LIMITATIONS OF TRADITIONAL
HISTORY
A l l of the sources of history mentioned
in this paper form but a fragmentary
record of the many separate clans which
dwelt i n South Africa. Some clans are
more f u l l y considered than others. Those
which suffered defeat in early wars may
have completely faded from memory, while
the victors rose i n importance. Those
who resided on the pathway of the alien
explorers or who accepted missionaries
gained attention at the expense of more
remote communities. Those who received
l i t e r a t e v i s i t o r s were assured of at
least some attention i n written accounts.
Those remote from t r a v e l e r s persisted
more f a i t h f u l l y i n the t r a d i t i o n a l
rituals, thus preserving their history i n
a very different way.
In South Africa written sources are more
generally available than i n any other
region of the continent because colonial
settlements intruded there earlier than
elsewhere. The Portuguese maintained
tenuous contact i n Angola and Mozambique
from the f i f t e e n t h and sixteenth
centuries; the Dutch settled the Cape i n
the seventeenth; Protestant missionaries
blanketed the region during the
nineteenth. Few areas escaped contact
with the trekking Boers.
Both the remembered oral traditions and
the written records emphasized chiefs and
occasional heroes. The personal praises
of the i n i t i a t i o n lodges rarely survived.
Nonetheless, since the segmentary
division of clans and lineages tended to
decentralize the i n i t i a t i o n schools, many
lesser chiefs and headmen were
memorialized i n praises and genealogies
along with those of the paramount chiefs.
The accuracy of o r a l l y transmitted
histories and genealogies must also be
questioned. Events are rarely dated,
even i n general terms, and numbers are
impossible to verify. The tendency i s to
attribute the date of an event to that of
a major natural phenomenon, such as an
e c l i p s e . The process of telescoping
events i s also common. As genealogies
became cumbersome, lesser figures drop
out to reduce the l i s t to a reasonable
length. Those chiefs who contributed
major events to the h i s t o r y of the
community, such as the founder of the
lineage, the chief who migrated to the
new land, or the individual who fought
off the enemy, w i l l always be remembered,
but chiefs whose reigns were uneventful
w i l l be forgotten. I f this practice were
repeated every few generations, the clan
would have only a symbolic remembrance of
the past. Intentional telescoping occurs
by the elders of some clans to assit
their youths i n learning their history.
Genealogies i n which this occurs may have
been written down by an early v i s i t o r
only to have a l a t e r i n v e s t i g a t o r
confused by the changes.
By practice, scholars should trust only
the most recent generations as being
remembered accurately, the more distant
ones being suspect. whenever possible,
genealogies should be confirmed by
independent evidence, such as cross
901c/Lye
references to neighbors with whcm the
genealogy i s linked by incident or
marriage. Literate accounts of specific
events, such as the a r r i v a l of an
explorer, or a battle, provide excellent
confirmations.
A problem with traditional history i s the
intrusion of Christianity. Because the
missionaries deplored many A f r i c a n
practices, such as polygamy, Christian
recorders have distorted their past. I f
the account was reported seme time ago,
there i s l i t t l e opportunity now to verify
i t . A classic example of the problem i s
the history of the Xhosa by J . H. Soga,
mentioned above. While he describes the
immediate history of h i s people
a u t h e n t i c a l l y , he t i e s t h e i r ancestry
9
back to B i b l i c a l origins. This type of
problem reminds one of the Americans who
eagerly trace t h e i r ancestry back to
European royalty so that they can claim
descendancy from the royal line of Jacob.
Traditional history has long existed i n
the villages of Southern Africa. Today,
because of the introduction of literacy
and alien influences, i t i s decreasing.
Nonetheless, i t i s s t i l l possible to
gather exciting and reliable accounts of
contemporary generations. I t i s also
possible to tract the past through oral
accounts and through a wide variety of
written sources which have accumulated
for nearly two hundred years. Taken
together, the oral and written sources
give the Bantu speaking peoples of
Southern Africa a rich cultural heritage.
901c/Lye 11

NOTES

^ o r general information of the early peoples see Isaac Schapera, The Khoisan
Peoples of South Africa (London, 1930). For their transition to a modern, Cape
Coloured people, see J . S. Marias, The Cape Coloured People (1652-1937) (London, 1939)
and W. H. Macmillan, Cape Coloured Question (London, 1927).
2
A good, brief introduction to the immigrant cultures Is found i n C. W. de
Kiewiet, A History of South Africa; Social and Economic (Oxford, 1941). The slaves
from the Indies who have retained a distinctive culture are described i n I . D. du
Plessis, The Cape Malays (Cape Town, 1944).
3
The main divisions of the Bantu-speaking peoples i s as follows:
Primary Division Sub-group Individual polities Area
(examples only)

Nguni Northern Zulu East Coast

Swazi

Ndebele Interior Plateau

& Zimbabwe

Southern Xhosa South east

Coast
Thembu

Mpondo, etc.

Sotho Tswana Hurutshe Botswana and

Bophuthatswana
Ngwato, etc.

So. Sotho Kwena Lesotho

Orange Free
Tlokwa, etc. State

No. Sotho Pedi Transvaal

Tsonga (Shangane) Transvaal,

Mozambique
Venda Transvaal,

Lemba Transvaal

Ovambo Namibia

Herero Namibia

Many ethnographies describe specific groups. Of general use i s I . Schapera

( e d . ) , The Bantu-speaking Tribes of South A f r i c a (London, 1937) and W. D.
Hammond-Tooke (ed.) The Bantu-speaking Peoples of Southern A f r i c a (London, 1974).
901c/Lye 12

5
Isaac Schapera, Praise Poems of Tswana Chiefs (Oxford, 1965), p. 2.
6
James Stuart, c i t e d i n E i l e e n J . K r i g e , The S o c i a l System of the Zulu
(London, 1936), p. 113.
7
M. Damane and P. B. Sanders, Lithoko; Sotho Praise Poems (Oxford, 1974), p.
24; I . Schapera, Praise Poems, p . 5.
8
H i l d a Kuper, Sobhuza I I ; Ngwenyama and King of Swaziland (New York, 1978), p.
15.
Q
M. Damane and P. B. Sanders, Lithoko, pp. 268-69.
10
Monica Wilson, "The Thousand Years Before Van Riebeeck," Raymond Dart
Lectures, Lecture 6 (Johannesburg, 1970), p. 2.

"^Christopher Saunders, "Early Knowledge of the Sotho: Seventeenth and

Eighteenth Century Accounts of the Tswana," Quarterly B u l l e t i n of the South African
Library, 20 (1966) p. 62.
12
Ludwig A l b e r t i , Account of the Tribal L i f e and Customs of the Xhosa i n 1807,
trans, by William Fehr (Capt Town, 1968); W. H. C. Lichtenstein, About the Bechuanas,
trans, by 0. H. Spohr (Cape Town, 1973) and Travels i n Southern Africa i n 1803, 1804,
1805, 1806, trans, by Arme Plumptre (Cape Town; 2 vols, 1928, 1930); and W. J .
Burchell Travels i n the Interior of Southern A f r i c a , ed. I . Schapera, 2 vols. (London,
1953).
13
His published accounts include Andrew Smith's Journal, ed. W. F. Lye (Cape
Town, 1975) and the Diary of Dr. Andrew Smith, ed. Percival R. Kirby, 2 vols. (Cape
Town, 1939, 1940).
14
Some examples are Eugene C a s i l i s , The Basutos, trans., (London, 1861) and My
L i f e i n Basutoland, trans, by J . B r i e r l e y (London, 1889); David Livingstone,
Missionary Travels and Researches i n South Africa (London, 1857); John Campbell,
Travels i n South Africa (London, 1815) and Travels Second Journey, 2 vols. (London,
1822).
i.e., The Missionary Herald of the American Board of Commissioners, Journal
des Missions Evangeliques of the Paris Evangelical Mission Society.

^Dictionray of South African Biography, W. J . deKock, ed. (Cape Town, 1967),

pp: 68, 109-110.
17
R. H. W. Shepherd, Lovedale, South Africa; 1824-1955 (Lovedale, 1971), p.
150; William F. Lye and Colin Murray, The Southern Sotho and Tswana People: The
Constancy of Change (Cape Town, 1980).
18
Nehemiah Mosehesh, "A L i t t l e Light from Basutoland," Cape Monthly Magazine,
2 (1880): 221-23, 280-92. Reference to T l a l i and Tsekelo i s i n Lye and Murray.
19
A. Sekese, Mekgwa Íe Maele a Basotho (Customs and Proverbs of the Sotho)
(Marija, Lesotho, 1908); Pitso ya Dinonyana (Morija, Lesotho, date unknown).
20
Z. D. Mangoaela, Lithoko tsa Marena a Basotho (Morija, Lesotho, reprinted
1965). " ' ' ~ "~"
901c/Lye 13

21
Sol T. Plaatje, Mhudi; an Epic of South African native L i f e a Hundred Years
Ago (Lovedale, 1930).
22
S. M. Molema, The Bantu: Past and Present (Edinburgh, 1920); Chief Moroka
(Cape Town, 1951); Montshiwa: Barolong Chief and Patriot, 1815-1896 (Cape Town,
1966).
23
J . H. Soga, The South-Eastern Bantu (Johannesburg, 1930); The Ama-Xosa:
L i f e and Customs (Lovedale, n.d.).
24
D. F. Ellenberger, History of the Basuto; Ancient and Modern, trans. J . C.
MacGregor (London, 1912); J . C. MacGregor, Basuto Traditions (Cape Town, 1905).
25 •St'
J . A y l i f f and J . Whiteside, History of the Abambo (Butterworth, 1912);
William C. Holden, The Past and Future of the K a f f i r Races (London, 1866).
26
A. T. Bryant, A History of the Zulu and Neighbouring Tribes (Cape Town,
1964); Olden Times i n Zululand and Natal (London, 1929); The Zulu People
(Pietermaritzburg, 1949).
27
This has recently been published by University of Witwatersrand Press i n
Johannesburg. I do not have the publication details.
28
Schapera has been cited above. See also his edited collection of vernacular
histories of Tswana clans: Ditisafalo tsa Merafe BaTswana (Lovedale, 1940). N. J . van
Warmelo has numerous publications. The most pertinent are Contributions towards Venda
History, Religion and Tribal Ritual (Pretoria, 1950); History of Matiwane and the
Amangwane Tribe as Told as Msebenzi to His Kinsman Albert Hlongwane (Pretoria, 1938);
and Transvaal Ndebele Texts (Pretoria, 1930). Special mention should be made of the
History of Amangwane for the methodology used. Van Warmelo published the original
vernacular text with the translation across the page. He footnotes a l l explanatory
details at the botton of each page, and then he appended documentary records of
confirmatory evidence.
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

African Families:
Black and White
Quintard Taylor,
Ronald G. Coleman,
R. T. J. Lombard
X Series 902
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 AFRICAN FAMILIES, BLACK AND WHITE
SLAVE FAMILY LIFE ON THE FAZENDA AND PLANTATION:
A COMPARISON OF BRAZIL AND THE UNITED STATES, 1750-1850*

Quintard Taylor, J r .

Born i n Tennessee. Resides i n San Luis Obispo, California. Assistant professor of

history, California Polytechnic State University. Ph.D. (history), University of
Minnesota. Author, lecturer, teacher.

Over the past fifteen years the black
family has been the topic of considerable
debate among historians, sociologists,
and governmental planners. That debate
has centered on the disorganization of
the contemporary black family and pro-
grams to strengthen i t to survive in the
modern "post-industrial" society. While
a discussion of the contemporary Afro-
American family i s beyond the scope of
this paper, we should focus on a c r i t i c a l
aspect of the debate, the origin of black
family disorganization in slavery.
Since much of the debate has centered on
the negative effect of American slavery,
i t would be helpful to re-examine that
view i n light of newly found evidence.
By extending t h i s study to include
B r a z i l , we examine the only other nation
in the Western Hemisphere with an ex-
tensive slavery system. An analysis of
the Brazilian slave family and i t s rami-
fications on contemporary Brazilian soci-
ety should further our understanding of
the impact of the "peculiar institution"
on family l i f e among a l l persons of
African descent.
There i s another reason for examining
servile families. A study of family
s t r u c t u r e , values, and s u r v i v a l under
slavery, the most perverse of conditions,
should help us understand the centrality
of families i n preserving our societies,
our culture, and our physical existence.
The existence of some type of family
structure without the p o s i t i v e r e i n -
forcement of legal or religious authority
as apparently occurred i n both North
American and Brazilian slavery, reflects
the strong desire, perhaps the social and
psychological necessity, of kinship
support networks, regardless of social,
economic or p o l i t i c a l circumstances.
The slave systems of B r a z i l and the
United States evolved i n response to
labor demands for emerging p l a n t a t i o n
economies. Sugar was the chief crop of
colonial Brazil. In 1532 sugar
plantations or fazendas were established
by the f i r s t permanent settlers. Six
years later Africans were imported from
Angola to^ replace Amerindians as slave
laborers. Once established, the slave
trade f l o u r i s h e d across the South
Atlantic. By 1600 there were an
estimated 100,000 slaves in Brazil and by
1700, 600,000. The f i r s t o f f i c i a l census
in 1798 showed 1,010,000 whites (33.7
percent); 406,000 free blacks (13.5
percent); and 1,582,000 slaves (52.8
percent). Black slaves remained the
majority of the B r a z i l i a n population
throughout „ the C o l o n i a l Period
(1500-1822).
Between 1550 and 1690 most B r a z i l i a n
slaves resided on sugar fazendas of
Maranhgo, Pernambuco and Bahia provinces
i n Northeast B r a z i l and the southern

*I would like to express my appreciation to Joao Reis and Paulo Albuquerque who
translated Portuguese sources for this paper and Mrs. Rebecca Powell for tabulating
s t a t i s t i c a l data and typing the manuscript.
902a/Taylor
province of Rio de J a n e i r o . They planted
and harvested sugar cane and cotton as
w e l l as food crops f o r l o c a l (fazenda)
consumption. The t y p i c a l estates
comprised the f a z e n d e i r o , h i s f a m i l y ,
f i f t e e n to twenty Portuguese overseers
and t e c h n i c i a n s and a p p r o x i m a t e l y 100
s l a v e s , and were u s u a l l y s e l f - s u f f i c i e n t
economic u n i t s .
In the 1820s coffee replaced sugar as
Brazil's dominant e x p o r t . Coffee
p r o d u c t i o n caused a s h i f t i n fazenda
c a p i t a l , managerial e x p e r t i s e , and
t e c h n o l o g y from the n o r t h e a s t to the
south, mainly three provinces—Sao^ Paulo,
Minas Gerais and Rio de J a n e i r o . When
B r a z i l outlawed the T r a n s - A t l a n t i c slave
trade i n 1851, c o f f e e fazendeiros
increasingly looked to the northeast f o r
t h e i r supply of l a b o r . Beginning i n 1852
"convoys" of slaves organized by slave
peddlers traveled to the South where they
were sold at "exaggerated p r i c e s . " By
1874, over h a l f the slaves were located
i n the three coffee-growing provinces,
while only one-third of B r a z i l ' s slaves
remained i n the Northeast.
The a b o l i t i o n of B r a z i l i a n slavery
underwent a slow and, at times, e r r a t i c
course. Termination of slave importation
i n 1851 was the f i r s t major step toward
abolition. In the 1860s, p a r t i a l l y i n
response to the U . S . C i v i l War and
mounting world opinion against slavery,
the government took other a n t i - s l a v e r y
measures. Six thousand bondsmen who had
volunteered to f i g h t i n the B r a z i l i a n
army during the Paraguayan War,
1865-1870, were granted freedom. Their
f a m i l i e s were i n c l u d e d i n t h i s mass
manumission and thus approximately 20,000
slaves were f r e e d . Henceforth, any slave
serving i n the army was granted freedom,
together with h i s immediate f a m i l y . An
1869 law p r o h i b i t e d the s a l e of a
husband, w i f e , and minor c h i l d r e n to
separate buyers. In 1871 the National
L e g i s l a t u r e passed the R i o - B r a n c o Law
which declared a l l c h i l d r e n bom of slave
mothers to be free a f t e r 1871. Another
law that year compelled masters to accept
self-purchase of the slave at h i s market
p r i c e . In 1885 the l e g i s l a t u r e enacted a
statute which l i b e r a t e d a l l slaves over
sixty-five. This act a f f e c t e d 120,000
slaves. F i n a l l y , on 13 May 1888, the
B r a z i l i a n Parliament passed the L e i Aurea
(Golden Law) which immediately freed the
remaining 700,000 B r a z i l i a n s l a v e s . Thus
B r a z i l became the l a s t nation i n the
Western Jlemisphere to o f f i c i a l l y abolish
slavery.
B r i t i s h N o r t h American s l a v e r y began
rather inconspicuously with the a r r i v a l
of "20 negars" at the Jamestown, V i r g i n i a
Colony i n 1619. Slavery grew slowly at
f i r s t because the E n g l i s h , unlike the
Portuguese, had neither an established
system of domestic slavery nor extensive
contact with Africa or Africans.
However, by 1660, when i t became apparent
that Indian labor would not be s u f f i c i e n t
f o r the p l a n t a t i o n s , c o l o n i s t s quickly
f i l l e d t h e i r labor needs with imported
A f r i c a n s l a v e s . V i r g i n i a , the oldest and
largest English colony, led the way. In
1708 her p o p u l a t i o n i n c l u d e d 18,000
whites and 12,000 black slaves. But by
1756 the numbers were 173,316 whites and
120,156 blacks, with the latter
outnumbering w h i t e s i n many c o a s t a l
counties. Other B r i t i s h colonies had
s i m i l a r though s m a l l e r p o p u l a t i o n s .
Maryland's population i n 1850 comprised
100,000 whites and 40,000 black slaves.
Georgia i n 1773 had 18,000 whites and
15,000 b l a c k s . In South Carolina the
A f r i c a n p o p u l a t i o n exceeded the w h i t e
population from the beginning of
settlement. In 1715 there were 10,500
blacks and 6,250 whites; and by 175,6,
90,000 black slaves and 40,000 whites.
Unlike B r a z i l i a n slaves, Afro-American
s l a v e s never c o n s t i t u t e d an o v e r a l l
majority. In 1700 the slave population
of E n g l i s h North America numbered 28,000
(11.2 percent) i n a t o t a l population of
1,200,000. During the f i r s t census i n
1790, 700,000 black slaves constituted 18
percent of tgie n a t i o n ' s population of
four m i l l i o n .
Throughout the c o l o n i a l p e r i o d s l a v e s
were most frequently found on the coastal
tobacco and r i c e p l a n t a t i o n s of the
southern c o l o n i e s . However, with the
902a/Taylor 3

invention of the cotton g i n i n 1793 and or i n few instances, d i r e c t l y from the

the removal of Indian t r i b e s along the North.
southern frontier, cotton replaced
tobacco and rice <as the major While B r a z i l moved slowly and cautiously
a g r i c u l t u r a l product. The r i s e of to eradicate slavery, the American C i v i l
cotton plantations led to a s h i f t of War abruptly ended the "peculiar
planter technology and expertise from the i n s t i t u t i o n " by 1865. The slave
coastal states into the Southwest importation ban was the f i r s t step, but
(Alabama, M i s s i s s i p p i , L o u i s i a n a and i t had l i t t l e d i r e c t consequence on
Arkansas). I t also led to a r i s e i n American bondsmen, as slave b i r t h s amply
black s l a v e r y . Louisiana's slave provided a d d i t i o n a l labor f o r the
population increased from 70,000 i n 1820 expanding p l a n t a t i o n s . An a n t e b e l l u m
to 330,000 i n 1860; M i s s i s s i p p i ' s s e r v i l e a b o l i t i o n i s t movement e x i s t e d i n the
population grew i n the same period from North; i t comprised a small but vocal
32,000 to 436,000 and A r k a n s a s ' f r o m element of the free population.
1,600 to 111,000. The A f r o - A m e r i c a n U l t i m a t e l y emancipation would come during
slave population of 700,000 i n 1790 had the C i v i l War, as much a consequence of
grown to 4,000,000 i n 1860. m i l i t a r y expediency as of humanitarian
concern f o r the welfare of the slaves.
While the rapid growth of the s e r v i l e
p o p u l a t i o n s i n B r a z i l and the U n i t e d U n t i l r e c e n t l y most h i s t o r i a n s and
States appear quite s i m i l a r , the f a c t o r s s o c i o l o g i s t s have viewed s l a v e r y as
accounting f o r t h e i r increases are destructive o r , at l e a s t , d i s r u p t i v e of
radically different. The growth o f Afro-American family l i f e . Some, i n -
B r a z i l ' s s l a v e p o p u l a t i o n was almost c l u d i n g the s o c i o l o g i s t E . F r a n k l i n
t o t a l l y the r e s u l t of slave importations F r a z i e r , and h i s t o r i a n s Kenneth Stampp
from A f r i c a that continued unabated u n t i l and Stanley E l k i n s have suggested that
1850. Between 1538 and 1850 B r a z i l slave family d i s o r g a n i z a t i o n established
r e c e i v e d n e a r l y 3.6 m i l l i o n A f r i c a n s . a pattern that has existed to t h i s day.
B r i t i s h North America, i n sharp contrast, Daniel P a t r i c k Moynihan d i r e c t l y linked
received approximately 453,000 A f r i c a n s contemporary family disorganization with
with v i r t u a l l y a l l a r r i v i n g during the slavery i n his governmental study, the
c o l o n i a l period before the U . S . slave c o n t r o v e r s i a l "Moynihan Report" f o r the
importation ban of 1808 took e f f e c t . The Lyndon Johnson Administration i n 1965.
b u l k of the U . S . growth was due to He s a i d , "American slavery was profoundly
natural increase. In f a c t , the U . S . d i f f e r e n t f r o m , and i n i t s l a s t i n g
South was the only slaveholding region i n effects on i n d i v i d u a l s and their
the Western Hemisphere to h^ve a c h i l d r e n , indescribably worse than, any
self-reproducing slave population. recorded servitude, ancient or modern.
The slave was t o t a l l y removed from the
The m a j o r i t y of b l a c k s l a v e s i n the p r o t e c t i o n of organized society . . . his
United States l i v e d on cotton plantations c h i l d r e n could be sold . "
where they were responsible f o r p l a n t i n g ,
c u l t i v a t i n g , and harvesting various crops In contrast, Moynihan, E l k i n s and others
under the supervision of the planter or lauded the B r a z i l i a n slavery system f o r
h i s overseer. The average cotton p l a n t a - i t s humaneness to the bondsmen and i t s
t i o n comprised approximately 200 acres protection of slave marriage. Y e t , many
and t h i r t y to s i x t y slaves, much smaller B r a z i l i a n w r i t e r s argued that the slave
than the B r a z i l i a n fazenda. Only a min- family was a nonentity i n B r a z i l as w e l l .
o r i t y of the U . S . plantations were as Perdigao Malheiro, one of the e a r l i e s t
s e l f - s u f f i c i e n t as their Brazilian h i s t o r i a n s of B r a z i l i a n slavery, wrote i n
counterparts. The t y p i c a l North American 1866 that the black f a m i l y "had been
planter purchased his food supply from destroyed by s l a v e r y . " G i l b e r t o Freyre,
surrounding small farmers and tools and a leading B r a z i l i a n s o c i o l o g i s t , wrote i n
equipment from the merchants i n the area 1946: "The masters of these s l a v e s
902a/Taylor
favored family breakup to augment the
number of crias and thus, increase the
herd. . . .
In 1965 another Brazilian sociologist,
Florestan Fernandes, linked slave family
i n s t a b i l i t y to contemporary family
disorganization. He said, "This lack of
a developed or complete family under
slavery . . . handicapped the Negro once
slavery was ended. In the competitive,
individualistic environment of the c i t y
the family was a basic necessity.^. His
lack of i t was truly catastrophic."
The intellectual parameters were set. In
both Brazil and the United States servile
families were thought to be nonexistent
or, at the very least, tenuous. Yet
recent evidence shows that slaves in both
s o c i e t i e s went to great lengths to
maintain familial structures that emerged
from each system s u r p r i s i n g l y i n t a c t .
This s i t u a t i o n resulted not from any
institutional safeguards, as argued by
Elkins, Moynihan and others, but from the
herculean e f f o r t s of the slaves
themselves.
The problem in previous examinations of
slave families has been the tendency of
most social scientists to view only the
evidence that reinforced or reflected the
modern concept of a legally recognized
monagamous marriage and a nuclear family
structure. Slavery, whether in Brazil or
i n the United States, allowed these
patterns only with the greatest
difficulty. Thus, i t became necessary
for Afro-Brazilians or Afro-Americans to
create matrimonial or familial patterns
that would survive slavery. These
patterns could either be extensions of
African family systems, abridgements of
European systems or, most frequently, a
combination of the two.
Historians John Blassingame and George
Rawick, i n recent studies of American
slavery, have pointed to the "creativity"
employed by slaves in maintaining their
families. They argued that marriage vows
or familial obligations that evolved over
time i n the slave quarters were
considered sacrosanct to the bondsmen
regardless of the opinions of the owners
or legal authorities. Said Rawick:
The fact that the slaves were not
legally married is no more
significant than the fact that the
Sioux Indians in 1840 had children
born of parents not legally married
by the laws of the United States. No
serious anthropologist would assume
that there i s any meaning or
significance in declaring that Sioux
children were 'born out of wedlock'
or that there were no ' o f f i c i a l
marriages' among the Sioux. Instead,
they have described the Sioux kinship
system and marriage customs i n
relationship to an understanding of
the t o t a l i t y of Sioux r e a l i j y , not in
reference to non-Sioux law.
Let us now examine the various categories
that c o n s t i t u t e family existence i n
B r a z i l i a n and North American slavery,
i n c l u d i n g marriage, family size and
structure, and the role of children and
extended family networks. We should also
devote a t t e n t i o n to slave a t t i t u d e s
toward family units and discuss the role
of f a m i l i e s i n transmitting c u l t u r a l
values. F i n a l l y , we should look at
outside or i n s t i t u t i o n a l factors that
affected familial development in the two
slave societies. These factors w i l l be
emphasized last, precisely because they
have received such inordinate attention
o r
in P ^ discussions of slave family
life.
Courtship and marriage were significant
rites of passage for many Afro-American
and A f r o - B r a z i l i a n slaves. In both
societies the process began earlier for
women. While men probably married in
their mid-to-late twenties, women usually
married i n t h e i r late teens. Men
initiated the courtship. They typically
searched for wives, v i s i t i n g neighboring
fazendas or plantations and often found a
wife near home, but not necessarily on
the same plantation. The courtship, i f
successful, usually ended in
marriage—either a "Christian" ceremony
or one of a^variety of modified African
ceremonies.
902a/Taylor
Marriage was the f i r s t step i n family
formation. Here a man and woman
established a s p e c i a l mutual bond, a
socially sanctioned relationship ( i n the
minds of the slaves, i f not the owners)
that provided f o r structured sexual
contact and the birth of progeny. A
variety of marriage arrangements evolved.
In some settings men developed kinship
relationships with specific slave women,
but did not live with them. I f there
were c h i l d r e n , they resided with the
mother. In other instances the male
entered into nuptial relationships with a
number of women, sometimes sharing the
same living quarters, although i n most
occasions they did not. There was also
the temporary or passing union; i n Brazil
i t was called the amazia, where male and
female slaves resided b r i e f l y together.
If children resulted from this encounter,
they remained with the mother. In other
socially-recognized marriage settings the
father and mother lived under the same
roof, usually with the children. This
was the marriage type most l i k e the
European-American kinship pattern and, as
slavery evolved into the nineteenth
century, became by far the most common
pattern in both Brazil and the United
20
States.
Just as a number of marriage types
existed, slaves originated or supported a
variety of ceremonies to i n i t i a t e nuptial
arrangements. In the United States
ceremonies included "Christian" marriages
by white or slave preachers, p u b l i c
announcement by the male that he was
formally taking a wife, or a prearranged
agreement (with the owner's permission)
between a male and female slave to begin
"keeping house" on a certain day.
In some instances West African cultural
practices determined the marriage
ceremony, particularly i n the eighteenth
century. One ceremony frequently
observed i n Maryland and Virginia appears
to have originated i n Guinea . In this
instance the man publicly presented the
woman a brass ring. If she accepted, she
became h i s wife. However, when she
considered the marriage contract no
longer binding, she would return the
22
ring. Another example of West African
survivals evolved i n Georgia during the
e a r l y nineteenth century. The male
suitor visited the cabin of the woman he
desired, roasted peanuts i n the ashes,
placed them on a stool between her and
himself and, while eating, proposed
marriage. I f the woman agreed, the
couple went to his cabin immediately and
were regarded as man and wife. By far
the most common p r a c t i c e i n the
nineteenth century was "jumping the
broom." This ceremony was frequently
reported throughout the South. In some
instances the broom was placed on the
ground; on other occasions, i t was held
about a foot above ^ i e ground by a close
friend or relative.
There was much less v a r i e t y i n the
marriage ceremonies u t i l i z e d by Brazilian
slaves. About one i n every four slave
marriages was performed i n the Catholic
church, a much higher percentage than i n
the United States. In the sertao, or
back country, African marriage ceremonies
persisted. The ceremony usually included
the male suitor presenting a sculptured
f i g u r e or ring to a female. Her
acceptance i n i t i a t e d the marriage.
However, most Brazilian slave unions were
Amasiado, or common-law marriages. They
were initiated simply by couples choosing
to live together and publicly announcing
their decision i n the slave quarters.
Slave marriage "legality" simply was not
an issue i n B r a z i l , just as i t was not a
factor in the United States. While some
Brazilian slaveholders paid pseudo-homage
to the s a n c t i t y of slave marriage,
especially i f performed i n or sanctioned
by the C a t h o l i c church, these
"religiously recognized marriages'^ were
given l i t t l e actual consideration. The
"validity" of slave marriages was not
determined by i t s legal standing i n the
eyes of the whites, but by i t s acceptance
as a normal and even desirable
relationship i n the eyes of the slaves.
In this milieu the frequency of marriage
should be considered more important than
i t s legal foundation. Available evidence
in both Brazil and the United States
indicates a strong desire of slaves to
902a/Taylor
enter marriage arrangements. The servile
population of one coffee fazenda i n Sao
Paulo Province comprised 138 slaves,
sixteen years and older i n 1822.
Twenty-three percent of the males and 64
percent of the females were listed as
married that year. On the immense
Fazenda Santa Cruz i n Rio de Janeiro
Province i n 1791, 59 percent of the adult
males were married, while the
corresponding figures for females was 47
percent. The o f f i c i a l Brazilian census
of the slaves in May, 1888, on the eve of
a b o l i t i o n , showed 15 percent of the
Brazilian slaves were married. In Sao
Paulo Province, 26 percent of the slaves
were married. These figures were high
considering both the interregional slave
trade which encouraged family breakup and
the efforts of fazendeiros to block slave
marriage after 1869 when the government
declared^^he separation of married slaves
illegal.
Greater instances of marriage were noted
i n the Freedmen's Bureau records of
Virginia during the immediate post-Civil
War Period. Over 2,800 slave marriages
were recorded i n three Virginia
counties—Montgomery, York and Princess
Anne. Since 12 percent of the Montgomery
county slave adults l i v e d as s i n g l e
persons and 10 percent of the Princess
Anne blacks were s i n g l e , the vast
majority of black slaves, just before the
war, were i n family units. Similar data
for the frequency of slave marriages was
revealed i n the Bureau's records f o r
North Carolina, Mississippi, and
Louisiana.
The duration of slave marriages i s
another indication of the nature of the
family under slavery. Freedmen's Bureau
records revealed that 31 percent of the
slave marriages registered by the Bureau
in Nelson County, Virginia, i n 1865 had
existed more than twenty years. In Rock-
bridge County the figure was 33 percent.
Moreover, another 24 percent of the mar-
riages i n Nelson County and 18 percent of
the marriages i n Rockbridge County lasted
between ten and nineteen years. Eight
Nelson County slave couples h^d lived
together more than f i f t y years.
6
North Carolina data shows the Virginia
County figures were not i s o l a t e d
examples. Slave marriages lasting more
than twenty years constituted 38 percent
of the total marriages i n Hyde County, 46
percent i n Halifax County, and 49 percent
in Currituck County. Unlike the Virginia
counties with a relatively sparse slave
population, these three North Carolina
counties were i r ^ the heart of the
plantation region.
Unfortunately, there i s no comparable
data on the length of A f r o - B r a z i l i a n
slave marriages. However, other evidence
concerning slave marriage may shed some
l i g h t on t h i s question. Divorce or
separation seems to have been infrequent
on both the Fazenda Santa Cruz and in Rio
Claro County, areas for which we have
detailed s t a t i s t i c s . Divorce rates for
the Fazenda Santa Cruz averaged 2
percent, while i n Rio Claro i t was 10
percent. Slaves whose marriages were
sanctioned by the Catholic church were
disallowed from divorcing or separating
from t h e i r spouses. Since about 25
percent of a l l slave marriages i n Brazil
were church sanctioned, this "coercive
f a c t o r " may have lengthened slave
marriages. Pessoals de Casa (house
servants) were more frequently married
than were f i e l d hands. I t i s quite
conceivable that their marriages lasted
for a number of years, unless interrupted
by the death or sale of a spouse.
Divorce existed among both Brazilian and
North American slaves. Although i t
occurred i n f r e q u e n t l y i n both s e r v i l e
communities, i t d i d allow slaves to
formally terminate unsuccessful mar-
riages. Like most types of slave
marriage, divorce was not recognized by
the owners but was a socially accepted
custom i n the quarters. In Brazil slave
marriages were dissolved when the two
partners publicly declared their incompa-
tibility and moved into separate
quarters. Much the same pattern existed
in the United States. However, i n two
instances ceremony was involved. In the
eighteenth century a marriage was dis-
solved when the wife returned the brass
ring or other present given to her by her
902a/Taylor
husband. In the nineteenth century the
husband and wife jumped backwajds over
the broom to d i s s o l v e marriage.
Although these r i t u a l s were s u r p r i s i n g l y
s i m p l e , s l a v e s d i d not take d i v o r c e
lightly. As s t a t e d e a r l i e r , o n l y 2
percent of the slave marriages on the
Fazenda Santa Cruz ended i n divorce or
separation. L i k e w i s e , the Freedmen's
Bureau l i s t e d only 4 percent of the 3,500
marriage dissolutions in three
M i s s i s s i p p i towns, Davis Bend, Natchez
and Vicksburg, the r e s u l t of d i v o r c e . Of
2,888 s l a v e unions i n s i x Tennessee,
M i s s i s s i p p i and Louisiana counties, 11
percent were dissolved by d i v o r c e .
The frequency of marriage d i s s o l u t i o n by
slaveholders also reflects family
stability. E l k i n s , Stampp and o t h e r
h i s t o r i a n s have c o r r e c t l y contended that
North America slave marriages could be
e a s i l y ended at the whims of the
slaveowners, but they have i n c o r r e c t l y
assumed that t h i s was common p r a c t i c e .
Freedmen's Bureau records of 2,888 slave
m a r r i a g e s f o r those s i x c o u n t i e s i n
Tennessee, M i s s i s s i p p i and L o u i s i a n a
r e v e a l t h a t marriage breakup due to
p l a n t e r s a l e or s e p a r a t i o n of s l a v e s
occurred i n only 32 percent of the slave
unions. Of approximately 3,500 marriage
d i s s o l u t i o n s i n the t h r e e M i s s i s s i p p i
communities, 35 percent were broken by
the sale of one of the spouses. This
compares w i t h 41 percent t h a t were
terminated by the death of one spouse or
4 percent ended by d e s e r t i o n . In s p i t e
of t h e i r a t t i t u d e s toward slave marriages
and t h e i r l e g a l " r i g h t " to d i s s o l v e them,
slaveowners did not separate a m a j o r i t y
of the slave couples.
Conversely, North American h i s t o r i a n s and
s o c i o l o g i s t s have pointed to the r o l e of
the Catholic church and the p a t e r n a l i s t i c
B r a z i l i a n society in preventing slave
marriage d i s s o l u t i o n s i n B r a z i l . Yet,
forced separation had been a f a c t o r i n
B r a z i l i a n slavery since i t s i n c e p t i o n .
For example, the Fazenda Santa Cruz i n
1781 reported approximately 20 percent of
the married slave women as separated from
t h e i r husbands. However, m a r r i a g e
M&
7
d i s s o l u t i o n i n c r e a s e d d r a m a t i c a l l y as
slavery was nearing i t s f i n a l years. The
i n t e r n a l slave trade was one reason f o r
the increase. As the coffee fazendas
expanded i n the South, male slaves from
the Northeast were transported into t h i s
r e g i o n , thus c r e a t i n g a c a t a s t r o p h i c
e f f e c t on f a m i l y s t a b i l i t y . In Rio Claro
County, Sao P a u l o i n t e r r e g i o n a l s l a v e
sales increased the "married" male slave
population without a corresponding
increase i n the female population. In
that county the percentage of married
male slaves l i v i n g away from t h e i r wives
increased from 4 percent i n 1835 to 25
percent i n 1872. The growing number of
married males i n Rio Claro r e f l e c t e d the
r i s i n g incidents of broken f a m i l i e s i n
the northeast.
A f r o - B r a z i l i a n and Afro-American slaves
created a number of family structures.
C l e a r l y the major p a t t e r n was the
monogamous, nuclear f a m i l y . This pattern
f r e q u e n t l y existed i n A f r i c a , as w e l l as
among the slaveowners. In those areas of
B r a z i l and the United States where the
sex r a t i o was nearly equal and where the
slave-dependent economies were neither
expanding nor d e c l i n i n g , the monogamous
pattern was overwhelmingly predominant.
Y e t , i n areas o f r a p i d economic and
demographic change a number of family
patterns evolved p a r a l l e l to the nuclear
family, including the matrifocal
(female-dominated, without husband)
household, the patrifocal
(male-dominated, without w i f e ) household,
the extended, intergenerational family
including uncles, aunts, i n one household
or involving a grandfather or grandmother
who heads a f a m i l y o f at l e a s t two
g e n e r a t i o n s , and f i n a l l y polygamy and
polyandry.
The m a t r i f o c a l household existed among
slave f a m i l i e s i n the United States and
B r a z i l , but i t was not dominant. Of
1,870 slave households i n three V i r g i n i a
c o u n t i e s , 18 p e r c e n t were m a t r i f o c a l .
Comparable d a t a was found f o r N o r t h
C a r o l i n a , M i s s i s s i p p i , L o u i s i a n a , and
Alabama slave f a m i l i e s . In B r a z i l the
evidence is more contradictory.
Jm
902a/Taylor
Matrifocal slave families of the Fazenda
Santa Cruz comprised only 24 percent of
the t o t a l households. However, i n
Vassouras, a coffee-producing county in
Sao Paulo Province, most of the slave
children were reported to have only one
parent, the mother. The differing situa-
tions may reflect the expansion of coffee
production. The Fazenda Santa Cruz was
surveyed i n 1791 when the economy was
relatively stable, while Vassouras County
was a region of rapidly expanding coffee
fazendas and i n that s e t t i n g broken
families would be far more frequent.
There were also patrifocal or single male
parent households i n both slave soci-
eties. On the Fazenda Santa Cruz appro-
ximately 6 percent of the households had
males as single parents. In Rio Claro
County in 1835, 4 percent of the adult
population comprised married males "with-
out partners." In V i r g i n i a counties
surveyed by the Freedmen's Bureau, 5
percent of the households were headed by
males without wives. These males main-
tained households without spouses i n part
due to the death of their wives, but
forcible separation was probably a factor
as well.
Intergenerational extended family
networks were also created by A f r o -
Brazilian and Afro-American slaves. On
the Fazenda Santa Cruz, 7 percent of the
households were extended; that i s , i n -
volved kin networks beyond the nuclear
family. While there i s no comparable
demographic data on a large scale from
North America, a 1931 study by an anthro-
pologist, Melville J. Herskovits, sup-
ports the argument for k i n networks.
Herskovits examined k i n s h i p patterns
among 539 Monroe County, M i s s i s s i p p i
blacks and found extensive familial t i e s .
One family kin system included 141 i n d i -
viduals. Virtually a l l of these kind of
r e l a t i o n s h i p s were traced back to
slavery. Recent studies of eighteenth
century Maryland slavery indicated that
extended slave families evolved with the
i n i t i a l arrival of Africans. Sales or
family dissolutions not involving long
distances (not beyond county boundaries),
8
f a c i l i t a t e d tfy^ eighteenth century
extended family.
Modified versions of African polygamy and
polyandry existed among the f i r s t black
arrivals i n the New World. In eighteenth
century Maryland and South Carolina,
recently arrived African males would, on
a few occasions, take more than one wife.
Polygamy existed on an even larger scale
i n B r a z i l , although given the higher
number of males, polyandry was probably
more frequent. In the B r a z i l i a n
Northeast a modified polygamy or
polyandry evolved when male and female
slaves frequently moved from one slave
quarter to another. The B r a z i l i a n
s o c i o l o g i s t René Ribeiro reported a
continuation of this practice into the
1940s i n Recife and among Maranhao
blacks. Here the husband had several
mates; the f i r s t was the "wife," and
others were "cheries." Each wife lived
in a separate compound and the husband
alternated between them. In the
Brazilian South the amazia evolved from
African polyandry with females being the
object of attention of a number of males.
This system evolved i n part because of
the vast numerical superiority of males
over females.
Children were an integral part of slave
family l i f e . They were not only the
b i o l o g i c a l o f f s p r i n g , but also an
emotional, cultural, and economic bond
between the husband and wife. Contrary
to popular b e l i e f , the average slave
household in Brazil and the United States
contained relatively few children. On
the Fazenda Santa Cruz and in Rio Claro
County, families averaged less than two
children. Slave reproduction rates in
Brazil had always been notoriously low
and were often cited for the continued
importation of Africans. Those low rates
resulted from the imbalance of males over
females throughout the three centuries of
Brazilian slavery, as well as epidemic
diseases, s t i l l b i r t h s , and abortions
r e s u l t i n g from excessive work or
punishment of the expectant mother and
inadequate clothing, food, and medical
care. Not surprisingly, only one of
902a/Taylor
every four slaves born on tJhe typical
fazenda survived to adulthood.
By contrast, slave births i n the United
States were more frequent and the
s u r v i v a l rates much greater. Most
plantation families averaged four to five
children. Birth rates were higher i n the
U.S. due to the balance i n the
male/female sex r a t i o . In a d d i t i o n ,
North American slaves' diet and medical
attention, while poor by white standards,
was better than that of their Brazilian
counterparts. Since North American
slaveholders imported fewer A f r i c a n
slaves than their Brazilian counterparts,
they had a "vested ^nterest" i n promoting
slave reproduction.
Most slave children lived i n their parent
households. On the Fazenda Santa Cruz
over 75 percent of the children grew up
with both a father and mother and for the
younger children (under ten) the figure
was 85 percent. Seventy-five percent of
the children of 1,870 Virginian marriages
lived i n two-parent households. Slave
f a m i l i e s r e a d i l y absorbed orphaned
children. Only 4 percent of the Fazenda
Santa Cruz children lived i n households
without either parent. However, they
were provided for by "surrogate" parents,
usually grandparents, aunts, uncles, or
other relatives.
North American slaves also took i n
"motherless" c h i l d r e n . Often e n t i r e
slave communities would absorb orphaned
c h i l d r e n into a generalized k i n s h i p
system. In B r a z i l compadrio or
godparenthood evolved where other adults,
either r e l a t i v e s or f r i e n d s , assumed
responsibility for a child i f he were
separated from his parents. While this
system was u s u a l l y associated with
B r a z i l i a n whites, bondsmen i n the
senzalas often became responsible f o r
children other than their own, especially
i f a slave union was forcibly broken.
The slave child, l i k e his parents, led a
precarious existence. He had no legal
rights and could be sold from his family.
Although abolitionists on both continents
pointed to child sales as one of the most
9
pernicious aspects of slavery,
governments took l i t t l e action to change
the situation. Louisiana passed a law i n
1829 to prohibit the sale of slave c h i l -
dren under the age of ten. Alabama and
Georgia made i t i l l e g a l to dissolve
inherited slave families, but these mea-
sures were only sporadically enforced.
Brazil i n 1869 also outlawed the sale of
slave children, but here as with other
laws, enthusiasm for enforcemen^did not
always match that for enactment.
Yet other factors inhibited the separa-
tion of slave children from their par-
ents. Any slave family breakup was
disruptive, but child sales were con-
sidered more so, as they might trigger
f l i g h t , r e b e l l i o u s n e s s , or melancholy
among the remaining slave family members.
In North America and to a lesser extent
in B r a z i l , religious or peer pressure
dissuaded many slaveholders from selling
young children. Sales of slave children
certainly occurred, but adult males would
be more frequent v i c t i m s of f o r c i b l e
separation than the mother or small
children.
Slave families i n Brazil and i n the U.S.
could not expect reinforcement from the
religious or legal institutions of either
society. North American Protestant
churches i n the slaveholding regions
refused to protect the sanctity of slave
unions. In 1856 a committee of the
Charleston, South C a r o l i n a , Baptist
Association agreed that slave marriages
had "certain limitations" and had to be
"the subject of special rules." Although
c a l l i n g the marriages "sacred and
binding," the committee made no objection
to the forcible separation of couples.
The Millstone (Georgia) Baptist church
was more concerned about separated slaves
remarrying than the separation i t s e l f .
The church declared married slaves
"separated by force" should be allowed to
"stay i n the^£hurch i f they take another
companion." Apparently, the only
sinful separation was one initiated by
slaves themselves.
The Brazilian Catholic church has usually
been lauded as a protector of slave
902a/Taylor
marriage. Yet there i s much evidence to
the contrary. While B r i z i l i a n churches
performed marriage ceremonies and those
ceremonies qualified as sacramental acts,
slaveowners were not legally or morally
bound to honor such unions. Neither the
Brazilian church as a whole, nor i n d i v i -
dual e c c l e s i a s t i c a l a u t h o r i t i e s were
w i l l i n g to intervene between the master
and his slave. Only i n 1885, three years
'before abolition, did the Archbishop of
Bahia rule that a master could neither
prevent his slave from marrying nor s e l l
him from his family.
Even at that late date, a slave could
marry without his owner's permission only
i f he could demonstrate " s u f f i c i e n t "
knowledge of C h r i s t i a n doctrine, the
obligations of holy matrimony, an/fø the
intention to stay married for l i f e .
The church, while encouraging matrimony
among slaves, i r o n i c a l l y maintained
requirements that discouraged slave
unions. The high marriage fees charged
by the priests (equal to three weeks'
wages for a freedman) discouraged formal
slave marriages. The church also issued
banns to determine i f prospective couples
were single and the female a virgin. The
banns had to be read publicly i n the home
community of the slaves. This was
impossible for slaves born i n Africa and
d i f f i c u l t for Brazilian-born slaves wjig
had been reared i n distant communities.
The legal systems of Brazil and the U.S.
did not protect slave families. Perdigao
Malheiro, the Brazilian historian, noted
in 1866 that legally " a l l rights were
denied slaves, a l l the sentiments, even
those of the family." Much the same s i t u -
ation prevailed i n North America. Thomas
R. R. Cobb, a Georgia legal authority,
wrote i n 1858, "The contract of marriage
not being recognized among ^slaves, none
of i t s consequences follow."
If the religious and legal institutions
could not protect slave marriages, did
slaveowners take i t upon themselves to
recognize the institution? The evidence
is contradictory. Most North American
planters i n f o r m a l l y recognized slave
10
unions and f a m i l i e s . These owners
encouraged marriage and family t i e s
because of a sense of moral obligation
and because i t produced offspring that
would become laborers and add to the
owner's wealth. But they also promoted
marriage as a means of social control. A
Louisiana plantation owner wrote i n the
1750s, " I t i s necessary that negroes have
wives you ought to know that nothing
attaches them so much to a plantation as
children." The same argument was made by
a Maryland planter one hundred years
later. He said, " I take care when my
wife goes North with the children to send
Lucy with her; her children are here and
I defy a l l the abolitionisms i n creation
to get her to stay North."
While some owners cared l i t t l e about
slave marriage beyond the children such
unions produced, others became immersed
i n the ceremony. In October, 1856,
Francis Terry Leak, a M i s s i s s i p p i
planter, asked his daughter to return
home from school to help plan a slave
wedding involving seven couples. That
ceremony was followed by a six-day feast
o m
i n which slaves and whites ^ 5
surrounding plantations were invited
Planter involvement continued after the
marriage of slaves. A Louisiana
plantation owner declared that adultery
was to be " i n v a r i a b l y punished." A
Georgian declared, " I never permit a
husband to abuse, strike or whip his
wife. . . . i f the wife teases an^
provokes him . . . she i s punished."
He granted divorce to married slaves only
after a month's notice and prohibited
remarriage unless a divorcee agreed to
receive twenty-five lashes.
B r a z i l i a n slaveholders exhibited a
notable indifference toward their slave
marriages. They did not adopt the
argument that family ties promoted social
control. Although fazendeiros were
repeatedly urged to encourage marriage
and thus increase the slave population,
they paid very l i t t l e heed. The
a v a i l a b i l i t y of slaves from the northeast
from Africa after 1851 accounts for much
of the lack of interest i n creating slave
902a/Taylor
families. In 1856, five years after the
c l o s i n g of the A f r i c a n slave trade,
fazendeiros offered this rationale for
not raising slaves: "One buys a negro
for 300 milreis, who harvests in the
course of the year 100 arrobas of coffee,
which produces a net profit at least
equal to the cost of the slave;
thereafter everything i s profit. It i s
not worth the trouble to raise children
who only after,.^sixteen years w i l l give
equal service."
Ironically, the 1869 act to prevent the
dissolution of slave marriages had the
unintentional effect of discouraging such
unions. Fazendeiros, fearing that they
could not s e l l members of a family to
different buyers, made i t d i f f i c u l t for
slaves to marry. This i s reflected i n
the sharp decrease i n marriages. In Rio
Claro County, Sao Paulo, 69 percent of
the females and 23 percent of the males
were married i n 1822. By 1872, even
though the slave population had increased
by 30 percent, only 8 percent of the
females and 7 percent of the males were
married. In May, 1888, on the eve of
emancipation, only 15 percent of a l l
B r a z i l i a n slaves were married, as
compared with the established 35,-nercent
to 40 percent in the early 1800s.
One reason often advanced for the paucity
of slave family l i f e was the alleged
d i s i n t e r e s t of slaves i n t h e i r k i n .
Gilberto Freyre wrote of mucamas—slave
mothers whose carelessness resulted i n
the death of their own children, but who
j e a l o u s l y guarded the i n f a n t s of the
fazendeiros. Maria Paes de Barros, the
daughter of a Rio Claro fazendeiro,
remembered how her mother, mistress of
the Fazenda Santa Antonio, chided slave
mothers for "permitting" their children
to die. The mothers were then obliged to
beg her pardon and promise to do better
with their next pregnancies {.^ This theme
was echoed in North America.
Yet slaves i n both s o c i e t i e s showed
tremendous affection for their spouses,
children, and relatives. Slave families
in Brazil and in the United States went
to great lengths to absorb orphaned
11
children. There were numerous examples
in both societies of slave runaways who
fled to rejoin departed family members.
In September, 1740, Robert Pringle, a
Charleston slaveholder placed a fourteen
year old slave g i r l on a ship bound for
Lisbon, Portugal. His reason for selling
her was her frequent "running off to join
her mother who lived on a plantation
twenty miles from town." In 1847 a
Georgia slave, Charles B a l l , escaped from
his plantation and traveled 1,000 miles
back to Maryland to rejoin his wife and
children. In Rio Claro i n 1885,
forty-seven slaves, at that point 1
percent of the county's slave population,
were fugitives suspected of running away
to join relatives.
Rather than being unconcerned about the
sale of their children, slave mothers
often flew into f i t s of rage at the
prospect of separation. When Jermain
Loguen's brothers and sisters were sold,
his mother was "taken into the room which
was used for weaving coarse cloth for the
negroes and fastened securely to the
loom, where she remained, raving and
moaning u n t i l morning." Moses Grandy
poignantly described the efforts of his
mother to prevent his sale. "My mother,
frantic with grief, resisted their taking
her child away; she was beaten and held
down; she fainted and when she came to
herself, her boy was gone. She made much
outcry, for which the master t^Lsd her to
a peach tree and flogged her."
In some instances slave concern for a
loved one would r e s u l t i n i n j u r y or
death. Josiah Henson told of h i s
father's experience following the rape of
his mother. " . . . I can remember the
appearance of my father one day with his
head bloody and his back lacerated . . .
his right ear had been cut off close to
h i s head, and he received a hundred
lashes on his back. He had beaten the
overseer for a b r u t a l assault on my
mother, and this was his punishment." On
the Fazenda Sao Roque a slave " l o s t
c o n t r o l " over h i s f e e l i n g s when the
overseer refused to stop beating h i s
wife. The slave ^seized a shotgun and
shot the overseer.
902a/Taylor
The most important function of a family
i s the transmitting of cultural,
s p i r i t u a l , or moral values through
generations. More than any other
institution, the family determines the
scope and character of succeeding
generations. The r o l e of the slave
family i n the development of character
and culture can be seen i n two areas: the
adjustment of the children to the slave
system and i n " b i c u l t u r a t i o n , " the
adoption of mainstream culture while
preserving aspects of African or, after
1800, "Creole" (Afro-American-Afro-
Brazilian) culture.
Servile parents played a c r i t i c a l role i n
helping their children adjust to their
status as slaves. This accommodation was
not meant to keep slaves d o c i l e or
passive, but parents f e l t a responsi-
b i l i t y to teach their children to cope
with the r e a l i t i e s of servile existence.
They guarded against the children openly
defying slaveowner orders or refusing to
take chastisement, while often covertly
informing them of ways to manipulate
situations to avoid punishment. Parents
trained their children to accept rather
than protest punishment of a loved one.
They also taught their children how to
"hold their tongue around white folks,"
e s p e c i a l l y on those plantations where
owners and overseers encourage^ slave
children to spy on their parents.
Slave parents provided t h e i r c h i l d r e n
with two modes of behavior that appeared
more contradictory than they a c t u a l l y
were. Outside the slave cabin children
saw their parents, and especially the
f a t h e r s , as submissive and obedient
servants. However, i n s i d e the slave
cabin they witnessed an entirely
d i f f e r e n t behavior, one i n v o l v i n g the
parents castigating the slaveholder and
the entire slave system for oppressing
their family. While some children may
have been confused by this ambivalent
behavior, others quickly detected that
the submission model was directed toward
avoiding a slaveholder punishment. Slave
parents did not enjoy this behavior, but
t h e i r c h i l d r e n recognized the dilemma
12
because they, upon reac^hpg adulthood,
adopted the same pattern.
Slave parents i n s t i l l e d a sense of
m o r a l i t y and duty i n t h e i r c h i l d r e n .
They taught them not to l i e or steal and
to show deference to elders. Deeply
religious slaves (many i n both Brazil and
the United States were devout Christians)
imparted spiritual principles as well.
In Brazil responsibility for religious
and moral instruction was shared between
the parents and padrinhos or godparents;
i n the United States, parents were
p r i m a r i l y responsible, although slave
m i n i s t e r s , and indeed the e n t i r e
p l a n t a t i g n slave community, often
assisted.
Perhaps the most important contribution
of the slave family was i t s promotion of
" b i c u l t u r a t i o n , " that i s , the process
where people learned to practice both
mainstream and ethnic culture. Slave
families allowed the distinct cultural
systems to emerge intertwined, rather
than mutually e x c l u s i v e . Numerous
examples of biculturation abound on both
continents. The modification or African
marriage r i t e s , the maintenance of
A f r i c a n words i n ' the Euro-American
language, the continuation of A f r i c a n
religious rituals and practices, often
alongside or intermixed with
Christianity, the preservation of African
cooking and dietary patterns of African
folklore, music and dance concepts—all
are evidence of a cultural duality i n the
slave community. B i c u l t u r a t i o n was
hardly unique to the slave community;
every ethnic group practiced i t to some
extent. But biculturation evolved among
slaves without institutional support and,
in most instances, in direct opposition
to the wishes of the planters. These
slave k i n networks f a c i l i t a t e d the
acculturation process, both i n acceptance
of mainstream b e l i e f s and vglues and
preservation of ethnic culture.
Many of our previous assumptions
concerning slave family disorganization
do not stand the l i g h t of c r i t i c a l
examination. Numerous social scientists
f a i l e d to recognize that slaves were
902a/Taylor 13

forced to create familial patterns that
provided v i t a l kinship support, but at
the same time did not threaten
slaveholder hegemony. Thus, while whites
often saw "jumping the broom" as "quaint"
but meaningless, slaves adopted i t as a
r i t u a l of marriage as s y m b o l i c a l l y
important i n their value system as a
church wedding ceremony was i n that of
the planters.
By the same token, social scientists,
convinced that the l e g a l l y recognized
"nuclear" family was the only authentic
model of healthy family s t r u c t u r e ,
searched diligently for examples during
slavery. When they could find few
(although i n many instances the searchers
were influenced by the belief that such
patterns did not exist), these social
scientists concluded that^slaves suffered
"family disorganization."
Slave families existed both i n Brazil and
in the United States to a far greater
extent than previously recognized. They
survived despite their lack of legal or
i n s t i t u t i o n a l support and, i n many
instances, i n s p i t e of slaveholder
indifference or opposition. They existed
because slaves desired them.
Bondsmen saw kinship as the principal way
of ordering relationships between i n d i v i -
duals. They valued these relationships
with blood or marriage r e l a t i v e s and
often extended them to include persons
outside those categories. Slaves also
took pride i n t h e i r c h i l d r e n and
protected their elders. They established
matrimonial r i t u a l s , kin networks, and
f a m i l i a l obligations that were respected
as devoutly as those outside the servile
community. Most importantly, bondsmen
transferred their cultural and s p i r i t u a l
values through the slave family to future
generations.

NOTES

"hï. Bradford Burns, A History of B r a z i l (New York: Columbia University Press,

1970) p. 23; Rolle E. Poppino, B r a z i l : The Land and People (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1968) pp. 45-46.
2
Dauril Alden, "The Population of Brazil i n the Late Eighteenth Century: A
Preliminary Survey," Hispanic American Historical Review 43:2 (May, 1963): 148;
Herbert S. Klein, "The Colored Freedmen i n Brazilian Slave Society," Journal of Social
History 3: ( F a l l , 1969) 35-36; Arthur Ramos, The Negro i n Brazil (Washington, D.C.:
Associated Publishers, 1939) pp. 17-18. For a discussion of the slave trade i n the
South Atlantic including i t s effects on both Portuguese West Africa (Angola) and
Portuguese America (Brazil) see Jose Honorio Rodrigues, Brazil and Africa (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1965) pp. 18-24.
Joao Pandiá Calogeras, A History of B r a z i l (Chapel H i l l : University of North
Carolina Press, 1939) pp. 22-23; Mary Wilhelmine Williams, "The Treatment of Negro
Slaves i n the Brazilian Empire: A Comparison with the United States of America,"
Journal of Negro History 30:3 (July, 1930): 322; Charles R. Boxer, The Golden Age of
B r a z i l , 1695-1750: Growing Pains of a Colonial Society (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1962) p. 175. See also pp. 183-184; Poppino, B r a z i l , pp. 54-55;
Burns, A History of B r a z i l , pp. 58-59.

The Brazilian government declared that from November 7, 1831, a l l slaves

902a/Taylor 14

entering Brazil would be immediately freed. Yet a l l indications point to an increase

in slave imports. In 1845, 19,453 slaves were imported. However, because of the
demands of coffee fazendeiros, that number grew to 56,000 i n 1847 and over 60,000 i n
1848. L e s l i e B e t h e l l , The A b o l i t i o n of the B r a z i l i a n Slave Trade (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1970) pp. 69-70. Robert Conrad, The Destruction of
Brazilian Slavery: 1850-1888 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972) pp.
22, 129. For a discussion of the passage of the 1831 law and i t s frequent violation
see Robert Conrad, "The Contraband Slave Trade to B r a z i l , 1831-1845," Hispanic
American Historical Review 49:4 (November, 1969): 618-619.
5
Stanley J. Stein, Vassouras: A Brazilian Coffee County, 1850-1890 (New York:
Atheneum Press, 1974) pp. 65-66, 72-73. Herbert S. Klein, "The Internal Slave Trade
in Nineteenth Century B r a z i l : A Study of Slave Importation into Rio de Janeiro i n
1852," Hispanic American Historical Review 51:4 (November, 1971): 567-568; Peter L.
Eisenberg, The Sugar Industry i n Pernambuco: Modernization Without Change, 1840-1910
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974) pp. 156-167; Conrad, Destruction of
Brazilian Slavery, p. 58.
6
I b i d . pp. 198-204, 227-229; Burns, A History of B r a z i l , pp. 188-190; Charles
H. Harding, Empire i n B r a z i l : A New World Experiment with Monarchy (New York: W. W.
Norton and Company, 1958) p. 94. For a discussion of Brazilian abolitionist activity
see Robert Brent Toplin, "Upheaval, Violence and the Abolition of Slavery i n Brazil:
The Case of Sao Paulo," Hispanic American Historical Review 49:4 (November, 1969):
640-643; Calogeras, A History of B r a z i l , pp. 220-227; 253-259.

Carl N. Degler, "Slavery and the Genesis of American Race Prejudice,"

Comparative Studies i n History and Society 2 (October, 1959): 49-54; John H. Franklin,
From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1980) pp. 54-58; Peter H. Wood, Black Majority: Negroes i n Colonial South Carolina
from 1670 Through the Stono Rebellion (New York: W. Norton and Company, 1974) pp.
131-134.
o
See Donald Robinson, Slavery i n the Structure of American P o l i t i c s : 1765-1820
(New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1979) p. 180; Gary B. Nash, Red, White and
Black: The Peoples of Early America (Englewood C l i f f s , N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974)
pp. 213, 261.
9
Douglass C. North, The Economic Growth of the United States: 1790-1860 (New
York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1966) pp. 52-53.
1 0
I b i d . , p. 129.

^Philip Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (Madison: University of

Wisconsin Press, 1969) pp. 49-75; see also Franklin W. Knight, The African Dimension
in Latin American Societies (New York: Mac Millan Publishing Company, 1974) pp.
46-47; Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom, p. 132.
12
Leslie Howard Owens, This Species of Property: Slave L i f e and Culture i n
the Old South (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976) pp. 19-20; Kenneth Stampp,
The Peculiar Institution: Slavery i n the Ante-Bellum South (New York: Vintage Books,
1956) pp. 34-38; Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom, pp. 136-139, 140-141.
13
For a discussion of the "Military Expendiency" of abolition see Mary Frances
Berry, Black Resistance, White Law: A History of Constitutional Racism i n America
(Englewood C l i f f s , N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971) pp. 82-84.
902a/Taylor 15

14 mki-JJt;
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action
(Office of Policy Planning and Research, United States Department of Labor, March,
1965) p. 15.
"^Agostinho Marquis Perdigao Malheiro, A Escravidao no B r a s i l Ensaio
Historico—Juridico-Social, 2 volumes (Rio de Janeiro! Typographia Nacional, 1866)
2:223, 229. Gilberto Freyre, The Masters and the Slaves: A Study i n the Development
of Brazilian C i v i l i z a t i o n (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946) pp. 278-279.

"^Florestan Fernandes, A Inegracao do negro na sociedade de classes, 2 volumes

(Sao Paulo: Dominus Editora, 1965): 1:152-154.

^George W. Rawick, The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, Vol. I

From Sundown to Sunup: The Making of the Black Community (Westport, Connecticut:
Greenwood Publishing Company, 1972) p. 89. See also: John Blassingame, The Slave
Community: Plantation L i f e i n the Ante-bellum South (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1972) p. 79.
18
Quite clearly quantitatively and qualitatively superior data exists on
slavery i n the United States. However, enough information i s a v a i l a b l e on
Afro-Brazilian slavery, especially i n the last hundred years, to make meaningful
comparisons. Three studies particularly useful are Stanley J. Stein, Vassouras: A
Brazilian Coffee County, 1850-1890 (New York: Atheneum Press, 1974); Warren Dean, Rio
Claro: A Brazilian Plantation System: 1820-1920 (Stanford, California, Stanford
University Press, 1976); and Richard Graham, "Slave Families on a Rural Estate in
Colonial B r a z i l , " Journal of Social History 9:3 (Spring, 1976). The f i r s t two studies
examine the plantation system i n the coffee growing regions of Rio de Janeiro and Sao
Paulo provinces during the nineteenth century, while the third focuses on a Jesuit
fazenda thirty-five miles west of the c i t y of Rio de Janeiro i n the last decade of the
eighteenth century. The major reinterpretative study of Afro-American slave families
i s Herbert G. Gutman's The Black Family i n Slavery and Freedom (New York: Vintage
Books, 1977), which i s based on extensive examination of eighteenth and nineteenth
century plantations and government records for much of the U.S. South.
19
A l l e n K u l i k o f f , "The B e g i n n i n g s of the A f r o - A m e r i c a n F a m i l y L i f e i n
Maryland," i n Aubrey C. Land, L o i s Green Carr and Edward C. Papenfuse, eds., Law,
S o c i e t y and P o l i t i c s i n E a r l y M a r y l a n d : E s s a y s i n Honor of M o r r i s Leon Radoff
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins U n i v e r s i t y Press, 1976) p. 187; W i l l i a m s , "The Negro
Slaves in the B r a z i l i a n Empire," p. 322.
20
See Melville J . Herskovits, "The Negro i n Bahia, B r a z i l : A Problem i n
Method," American S o c i o l o g i c a l Review 8:4 (August, 1943); 399; Graham, "Slave
Families": 382; Rawick, From Sundown to Sunup, p. 79; Stein Vassouras, pp. 155-156;
Blassingame, The Slave Community, pp. 77-80.
21
Eugene D. Genovese, R o l l , Jordan R o l l , the World the Slaves Made (New York:
Vintage Books, 1972) p. 476; Rawick, From Sundown to Sunup, pp. 80-88; Blassingame,
The Slave Community, pp. 86-87.
22
Gutman, The Black Family, p. 348. For additional discussion of African
marriage rituals i n the United States see Melville J. Herskovits, The Myth of the
Negro Past (Boston: Beacon Press, 1941) pp. 171-172.
23 MHaBp
Gutman, The Black Family, p. 348.
902a/Taylor 16

Rawick, From Sundown to Sunup, pp. 86-87. This marriage r i t u a l existed i n

West Africa from Guinea to the Ashanti Empire and was apparently introduced to a
number of areas i n the New World, including Brazil and the U.S. See Roger Bastide,
African Civilizations i n the New World (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1971) pp. 49,
57.
25
Dean, Rio Claro, pp. 77-78; Robert Conrad, "Nineteenth Century Brazilian
Slavery" i n Robert B. Toplin, ed., Slavery and Race Relations i n Latin America
(Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1974) pp. 162-163. For a discussion of the
amasiado union see Herskovits, "The Negro i n Bahia, Brazil," pp. 399-400.
2 6
C a r l N. Degler, "Slavery i n Brazil and the United States: An Essay in
Comparative History," American Historical Review 75:4 ( A p r i l , 1970) 1008-1009; Conrad,
"Nineteenth Century Brazilian Slavery," pp. 162-163. For a discussion of these
farcical mass baptisms see Donald Pierson, Negroes i n B r a z i l : A Study of Race Contact
at Bahia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942) p. 92; Boxer, Golden Age of
B r a z i l , P- 5.
27'Dean, Rio Claro, p. 78; Graham, "Slave Families," pp. 386-388.
T
See also
Conrad, The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, pp. 32-33, 298.
28,
Gutman, The Black Family, pp. 9-21.
29 Ibid., pp. 11-12.

30
Ibid., pp. 14-17.
31 Graham, "Slave Families,. p. 382; Dean, Rio Claro, pp. 77-79; Pierson,
Negroes i n B r a z i l , p. 159.
32 p. 382; Rawick, From Sundown to Sunup, p. 80;
Graham, "Slave Familes,
Gutman, The Black Family, p. 348.
33 Graham, "Slave Families," pp. 332, 390, 392; Gutman, The Black Family, p.
21; Blassingame, The Slave Community, p. 90.
34 T
Slavery: A Problem i n American Institutional and
See Stanley Elkins,
Intellectual Life (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958) p. 54; Stampp, The
Peculiar Institution, p 344. Elkins cites as proof of slave marriage instability the
case of Howard v. Howard, where a North Carolina judge wrote, "The relations between
slaves i s e s s e n t i a l l y d i f f e r e n t from that of man and wife joined i n lawful
wedlock . . . (for) with slaves i t may be dissolved at the pleasure of either party,
or by the sale of one or both, depending on the caprice of necessity of the owners."
See Howard v. Howard, 6 Jones N.C. 235 (December, 1858), quoted i n Helen T. Catterall,
Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie
Institution, 1926) Vol. I I . , p. 221.

Blassingame, The Slave Community, pp. 90-92. This i s not to say that
individual tragedies did not occur. Blassingame does mention instances where slave
couples were separated after twenty-five and forty-three years of marriage. See also:
Gutman, The Black Family, p. 21.
36,
'See Frank Tannenbaum, Slave and Citizen: The Negro i n the Americas (New
York: Vintage Books, 1946) pp. 98-99; Pierson, Negroes i n B r a z i l , p. 83. Mary W.
Williams stood alone among early North American historians in pointing to the lack of
902a/Taylor 17

legal protection afforded Afro-Brazilian slave marriages. She wrote i n 1930, "The
unity of the slave family was entirely unprotected by law during most of the slavery
era i n B r a z i l , and family groups were unhesitatingly broken up in disposing of Negroes
recently arrived from Africa." See: Williams, "Negro Slaves i n the Brazilian
Empire," p. 325.
37
Graham, "Slave Families," p. 390; Klein, "The Internal Slave Trade," pp.
567-568; Conrad, The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, p. 62; Dean, Rio Claro, p. 80;
Carl N. Degler, Neither Black Nor White: Slavery and Race Relations i n B r a z i l and the
United States (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1971) p. 75.
3 8
I b i d . , p. 78; Gutman, The Black Family, pp. 12-25; Graham, "Slave Families,"
pp. 388-389; Dean, Rio Claro, pp. 78-79.
39
See Klein, "The Internal Slave Trade," pp. 567-568; Degler, Neither Black
Nor White, p. 75; Conrad, The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, p. 62; Gutman, The
Black Family, pp. 11-18, 115-116; Stein, Vassouras, p. 155; Graham, "Slave Families,"
p. 386.
4 0
I b i d . , pp. 386-387; Gutman, The Black Family, p. 11.

^ K u l i k o f f , "The Beginnings of the Afro-American Family," pp. 177-178;

Herskovits, Myth of the Negro Past, p. 182. See also, Graham, "Slave Families," p.
386; Gutman, The Black Family, pp. 198-201, 345-347.

See Russell R. Menard, "The Maryland Slave Population, 1658 to 1730: A

Demographic Profile of Blacks i n Four Counties," William and Mary Quarterly 32
(January, 1975): 41; Kulikoff, "Beginnings of the Afro-American Family," p. 173;
Wood, Black Majority, pp. 139-141; Gutman, The Black Family, p. 331; Bastide, African
C i v i l i z a t i o n s , pp. 39-41. See also Herskovits, "The Negro i n Bahia, B r a z i l , " pp. 395,
399-401; and Stein, Vassouras, p. 155. Modified polygamy may have existed i n other
settings as well. R. R. Kent i n his study of Palmore, the largest of the Brazilian
quilombos or fugitive slave communities, found evidence of polygamy, particularly
among the leaders of this fugitive slave society. However, Stuart Schwartz found that
two hundred years later monogamous marriage patterns had evolved i n the eight
quilombos of Bahia. Donald Ramos, i n his study of marriage and family structure i n
the city of V i l a Rica, Minas Gerais, during the colonial era, found that mulatto and
blacks accounted for 89 percent of the female-headed households of that city. Since
they comprised 575 households with some 700 children and since there were seventy-nine
males to every one hundred females, quite possibly some form of modified polygamy
existed either among black male slaves or among Portuguese males. See R. R. Kent,
"Palmares: An African State i n B r a z i l , " Journal of African History 6:2 (1965):
161-175; Stuart B. Schwartz, "The Mocambo: Slave Resistance i n Colonial Bahia,"
Journal of Social History 3:4 (summer, 1970): 329; and Donald Ramos, "Marriage and the
Family i n Colonial V i l a Rica," Hispanic American Historical Review 55:2 (May, 1975);
219-221.
43
See Stuart B. Schwartz, "The Manumission of Slaves i n Colonial Brazil
Bahia, 1684-1745," Hispanic American Historical Review 54:4 (November, 1974): 634
Conrad, The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, pp. 24-25; Dean, Rio Claro, pp. 62-63;
-
Graham, "Slave Families," p. 386. See also Richard Graham, Brazilian Slavery
Re-Examined: A Review A r t i c l e , " Journal of Social History 3:4 (Summer, 1970): 448.
44
Gutman, The Black Family, pp. 114-116; Degler, "Slavery i n Brazil and the
United States," p. 1017; Blassingame, The Slave- Community, 77-78.
902a/Taylor 18

^See Kulikoff, "Beginnings of the Afro-American Family," p. 188; Graham,

"Slave Families," pp. 390-391; Gutman, The Black Family, pp. 10-11, 226-228; Stein,
Vassouras, pp. 148-149.
46
Degler, "Slavery i n Brazil and the United States," p. 1010.
7
^ See Edward W. Phifer, "Slavery i n Microcosm: Burke County, North Carolina,"
Journal of Southern History 28 (May, 1962): 155-156; Genovese, R o l l , Jordan R o l l , pp.
455-457; Degler, Neither Black Nor White, pp. 38-39.
48
Gutman, The Black Family, p. 287; Stampp, The Peculiar Institution, p. 345.
See also Phifer, "Slavery i n Microcosm," pp. 148-155.
49
Degler, "Slavery i n Brazil and the United Staes," pp. 1007-1008.
50,
Conrad, The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, p. 33; Ramos, "Marriage and
Family i n Colonial V i l a Rica," pp. 212-213.
^"Wlheiro, A Escravidåo no B r a s i l , pp. 14-15; Thomas R. R. Cobb, An Inquiry
into the Law of Slavery i n the United States of America (Philadelphia: T and J . W.
Johnson, 1858) p. 246.
52
See M. LePage DuPratz, History of Louisiana or of the Western Part of
Virginia and Carolina (New Orleans: J . S. W. Harmanson, 1947) p. 365; E. Franklin
Frazier, The Negro Family i n the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1938) p. 43.
53
Genovese, R o l l , Jordan R o l l , pp. 476-477.
54
Stampp, The P e c u l i a r I n s t i t u t i o n , p. 343. Eugene Genovese describes
slaveholder intervention into domestic affairs as an assertion of "paterfamilias"
where owners saw themselves as sole father of a family black and white. By
intervening directly into the slave family they further tightened control over the
entire slave community. Black men and women, for the most part, resented but could
not prevent the interference. Genovese, R o l l , Jordan R o l l , pp. 483-485.
"^Quoted i n Joaquin Nabuco, 0 Abolicionismo (14 volumes, Sao Paulo: Instituto
Progresso E d i t o r i a l , 1944-1949) VII, 89-90.
56
Herbert S. Klein, "The Colored Freedmen i n Brazil," pp. 42-43; Dean, Rio
Claro, p. 78; Stein, Vassouras, p. 156; Conrad, The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery,
p. 33; Conrad, "Nineteenth Century Brazilian Slavery," p. 165. The 1869 law was not
the only factor inhibiting slave unions. Fazendeiros also frequently broke slave
unions or prevented additional marriages i n response to the increasingly lucrative
internal slave trade. See Conrad, The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, pp. 33, 52,
62.
7
~* Freyre, The Masters and the Slaves, pp. 336-337; Dean, Rio Claro, p. 64;
Stampp, The Peculiar Institution, p. 346.
58 249; Frazier, The Negro Family, p. 49; Dean, Rio
Wood, Black Majority, p.
Claro, pp. 92-93^
902a/Taylor 19

Moses Grandy, Narrative of the L i f e of Moses Grandy: Late a Slave i n the

United States of America (Boston: 0. Johnson, 1844) p. 18; Frazier, The Negro Family,
p. 42.

Ibid., p. 48; Stein, Vassouras, p. 140. For additional discussion of slave

violence i n defense of their families see Genovese, R o l l , Jordan R o l l , pp. 484-485,
619; Frazier, The Negro Family, pp. 48-49; and Blassingame, The Slave Community, pp.
88-89, 99-102.
61
K u l i k o f f , "Beginnings of the Afro-American Slave Family," p. 175; Stein,
Vassouras, p. 150; Blassingame, The Slave Family, pp. 97-102.
6 2
I b i d . , p. 100.
6 3
I b i d . , pp. 98-99; Stein, Vassouras, p. 148.
6
^For Brazilian examples of "biculturation," see Rodrigues, B r a z i l and Africa,
pp. 44-50; Piersen, Negroes i n B r a z i l , pp. 90-107; and Ramos, The Negro i n B r a z i l ,
pp. 91ff. For North America see Wood, Black Majority, pp. 167-191; Lorrenzo Turner,
Africanisms i n the Gullah Dialect (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979) pp.
31-43; Lawrence W. Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk
Thought from Slavery to Freedom (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977) pp. 3-30;
and Ivan Van Sertima, "African Linguistic and Mythological Structures i n the New
World," i n Rhoda Goldstein, ed., Black L i f e and Culture i n the United States (New
York: Apollo Editions, 1971) pp. 12-35.
65
F o r an excellent discussion of why social scientists and particularly
historians have viewed the slave family as "dysfunctional" see Gutman, The Black
Family, pp. 303-320.
 AFRICAN FAMILIES BLACK AND WHITE:
Ronald G. Coleman
Born i n C a l i f o r n i a . Resides i n Carmichael, C a l i f o r n i a .
H i s t o r y , U n i v e r s i t y of Utah. Ph.D. ( h i s t o r y ) , U n i v e r s i t y of Utah. Author, l e c t u r e r .
One of the more rewarding aspects of
h i s t o r i c a l research i s to experience the
emergence of i n d i v i d u a l s and whole fami-
l i e s from a v a r i e t y of source m a t e r i a l s .
Such was the case i n my study of blacks
i n nineteenth-century Utah.
While black men such as James P . Beck-
worth and Jacob Dodson had t r a v e l e d
through Utah as members of t r a p p i n g
p a r t i e s and e x p l o r a t i o n e x p e d i t i o n s ,
permanent s e t t l e m e n t began w i t h the
a r r i v a l of the Mormons i n J u l y 1847.
Three black men rode the f i r s t Mormon
wagon t r a i n into the S a l t Lake v a l l e y ;
they and t h i r t y - n i n e white men comprised
the advance p a r t y of the f i r s t Utah
Mormon pioneers.
In addition to the three blacks of the
f i r s t company, a small number of l a t e r
pioneers were of A f r i c a n descent.
Several f r e e blacks were members of The
Church of J e s u s C h r i s t of L a t t e r - d a y
Saints and as such migrated to Utah.
Others were slaves of Mormons who had
l i v e d i n the South before j o i n i n g the
westward j o u r n e y , and s t i l l others
traveled to Utah only to f i l l the labor
needs of the transcontinental r a i l r o a d
that was completed at Promontory, Utah,
10 May 1869. The r a i l r o a d ' s completion
not only ended the pioneer era, but i t s
impact on the growth of towns, l i k e
Corinne, continued the small but steady
black migration. Some of the b l a c k
migrants came from the United States, and
others from England and Mixico as w e l l .
V a r i e d though t h e i r backgrounds and
motivations were, t h e i r r o l e as blacks
entering Mormon Utah was a common bond.
The majority of black pioneers who
BLACK FAMILY LIFE IN UTAH
I n s t r u c t o r , Department of
r e s i d e d i n Utah p r i o r t o 1865 were
slaves. However, the settlement of the
James family had provided Utah with a
f r e e black population from i t s beginning
i n 1847. Before they met i n Nauvoo,
Isaac and Jane James were members of the
IDS Church. Jane had l i v e d and worked i n
the home of Joseph and Emma Smith. A f t e r
S m i t h ' s death she r e s i d e d i n Brigham
Young's home, and during t h i s time she
married Isaac. Their family l e f t Nauvoo
with other Saints e a r l y i n 1846. At the
time of t h e i r departure, Jane was preg-
nant with her son S i l a s , who was born at
Hogg Creek, Iowa. The couple and t h e i r
two sons, Sylvester and S i l a s , traveled
to Utah with the I r a Eldridge company i n
1847.
In the spring of 1848 Isaac and Jane
became the parents of a daughter, Mary
Ann, who was the f i r s t black c h i l d born
i n Utah. Five more c h i l d r e n were added
to the family by 1860. Like many early
pioneers, the James family experienced
d i f f i c u l t times and sought a s s i s t a n c e
from more fortunate neighbors, a
consideration they returned by sharing
t h e i r l a t e r good fortune. Slowly the
f a m i l y ' s f i n a n c i a l status improved, and
by 1865, they were doing r e l a t i v e l y w e l l .
In a d d i t i o n to a land claim and home,
they owned household items and a small
number of l i v e s t o c k . Isaac l i s t e d
farming as his occupation, but between
1849 and 1851 he a l s o worked as a
coachman f o r Brigham Young. Sylvester
James was l i s t e d i n 1861 as a member of
the Nauvoo Legion and was i n possession
of h i s ten pounds of ammunition and
musket, an i n d i c a t i o n of i m p r o v i n g
treatment.

902b/Coleman
Further progress was demonstrated i n the
manumission of some s l a v e s and the
subsequent b i r t h of c h i l d r e n w h i c h
i n c r e a s e d the f r e e b l a c k p o p u l a t i o n .
James Valentine had ccme to Utah i n 1855
with W i l l i a m and T a l i t h a Dennis, and i n
1860 Valentine was freed and l i v e d i n
S a l t Lake County near Green F l a k e .
Green and Martha Flake were freed during
the 1850s, and by 1860 they were the
p a r e n t s of two c h i l d r e n , L u c i n d a and
Abraham. Martha's s i s t e r and mother,
along with two c h i l d r e n , were also f r e e
and r e s i d e d i n the home of James
Valentine.
Membership i n The Church of Jesus C h r i s t
of L a t t e r - d a y S a i n t s i n f l u e n c e d the
growth of Utah's f r e e black population.
E l i j a h Abel, his w i f e Mary Arm, and their,
three c h i l d r e n arrived i n Utah i n 1853.
E l i j a h was baptized i n September of 1832.
A f t e r a r r i v i n g i n Utah, Abel worked as a
c a r p e n t e r i n the LDS p u b l i c works
program. By 1860 two more c h i l d r e n were
b o r n , g i n c r e a s i n g the A b e l f a m i l y to
seven.
Federick Sion, a mulatto from England,
came to Utah i n 1862. Along with h i s
w i f e , E l l e n , and daughter, E l i z a , Sion
s a i l e d on the ship W i l l i a m Tapscott which
a r r i v e d i n New York i n June, 1862. The
family then made the journey to Utah and
s e t t l e d i n M i l l v i l l e where Sion continued
to work as a shoemaker. Three more
c h i l d r e n had been born by 1870. How-
ever, not everything favored the progress
of the black pioneer.
Discriminatory l e g i s l a t i o n i n the Utah
T e r r i t o r y against f r e e blacks was s i m i l a r
to l e g i s l a t i o n i n several of the midwes-
tern and western s t a t e s . Blacks were
prohibited from v o t i n g , s e r v i n g on
j u r i e s , being elected to the l e g i s l a t u r e ,
and serving i n the m i l i t i a . Unlike some
s t a t e s , Utah had no r e s t r i c t i o n s against
b l a c k s e t t l e m e n t i n the territory.
Schools were open to blacks and the r i g h t
of testimony i n c o u r t cases was not
challenged. Although Section Four of
U t a h ' s " A c t i n R e l a t i o n to S e r v i c e "
p r o h i b i t e d s e x u a l i n t e r c o u r s e between
whites and blacks, i t i s unclear whether
Sill
or not the law a p p l i e d to m a r r i e d
couples. There were mixed marriages i n
the t e r r i t o r y — f o r example.^Frederick
Sion's w i f e , E l l e n , was White.
The existence of mixed marriages did not
imply a l i b e r a l a t t i t u d e toward i n t e r -
r a c i a l contact between black males and
white females. In 1866 the body of Tom
Co lbo urn was found with his throat cut
ear to ear. Pinned to the body was a
sign s t a t i n g : "Notice to a l l Niggers!
Warning!! Leave white women alone!!!"
I t was suggested by some that the sign
was a dec^y from the r e a l motive f o r the
slaying. S t i l l the sign was i n d i c a t i v e
of sentiments on miscegenation. Preju-
dice against blacks i n the t e r r i t o r y was
not the exclusive monopoly of Mormons.
An examination of anti-Mormon newspapers,
The V a l l e y Tan and The U n i o n V e d e t t e ,
show antipathy towards blacks, r e f l e c t i n g
the g e n e r a l a t t i t u d e of many w h i t e s
throughout the United States.
The l a s t decade of the pioneer era pro-
duced several changes f o r Utah's black
population. In 1860 there were twenty-
n i n e s l a v e s i n the Utah T e r r i t o r y . 1
Utah slaves, like black bondsmen
throughout the c o u n t r y , gained t h e i r
freedom during the C i v i l War. The l e g a l
sanctions f o r slavery i n Utah ended i n
June of 1862. L e g i s l a t i o n passed i n the
United States Congress s t a t e : "From and
a f t e r the passage of t h i s act there s h a l l
be neither slavery or involuntary s e r v i -
tude i n any of the T e r r i t o r i e s of the
United States now e x i s t i n g , or which may
at anytime hereafter be formed or ac-
quired by the United States."
Upon l e a r n i n g of t h e i r freedom, some
former slaves l e f t the Utah T e r r i t o r y f o r
C a l i f o r n i a and other s t a t e s . The d i s -
criminatory legislation previously
r o m t n e
mentioned was r e p e a l e d ^ ter-
r i t o r i a l statues by 1867. Despite the
departure of some blacks, the t o t a l black
population increased ,fxom f i f t y - n i n e i n
1860 to 113 i n 1870. Those remaining
found that employment opportunities f o r
black workers were generally l i m i t e d to
menial occupations. Men worked p r i m a r i l y
as laborers; a few were employed as cooks
902b/Coleman
and w a i t e r s , carpenters and barbers.
Women ^t^ended to work i n domestic ser-
vices. The greatest effect on employ-
ment opportunity was yet to come.
The b u i l d i n g of the transcontinental
r a i l r o a d and the Utah Centrol had a
demographic impact on the t e r r i t o r y ' s
black population. In March of 1869, the
year of the joining of the r a i l s , Corinne
City i n Box Elder county was founded.
The city had a meteoric career as a
trading center. Its eighteen blacks gave
i t theg third largest black population i n
Utah. Blacks began to settle in Ogden
for the f i r s t time. The E l i j a h Abel
family, consisting of ten members, moved
to Ogden from Salt Lake City, and seven
members of the Lancaster family made up
another. Four other unattached blacks
brought the number of Blacks to twenty-
one .
Salt Lake County, however, continued to
have the largest number of black r e s i -
dents. Seven of the nine families i n the
county were pioneer families. The other
two families arrived i n the Utah T e r r i -
tory shorty after the completion of the
railraod. Although the nine families
lived in five different wards, within
these wards they lived r e l a t i v e l y close
to one another. A common bond appeared
to have existed for these pioneers. In
addition to sharing a common r a c i a l
background, for s^e the Mormon religion
was a major bond. Many of the families
be cam united by marriages throughout the
last decades of the nineteenth century
and into the flrsfø two decades of the
twentieth century.
During the four decades after the com-
pletion of the transcontinental railroad,
Utah's shite population increased signi-
ficantly. Although the proportion of
blacks to whites did not change consider-
ably, the number of blacks had increased
to more than f i v e hundred and was enough
by the 1890s to permit the development of
institutions within the black community.
While blacks resided in several counties,
the greatest number of them s t i l l were
found i n Salt Lake County. In addition
to being the capital as well as the
headquarters of the Mormon Church, Salt
Lake City was the economic center of the
region. Close proximity to mining sites
combined with i t s importance i n the
transportation network made the c i t y
attractive to newcomers. The stationing
of black troops at Fort Duchesne provide
Unitah County with the second largest
number of blacks i n 1890 and 1900. The
emergence of Ogden as a major railroad
center gave Weber County the second l a r -
gest black population in 1919.
As the number of residents increased
after 1890, several changes occurred in
the characteristics of the black popu-
lation. Although single male adults
outnumbered married males twenty-two to
f i f t e e n i n 1870 and t h i r t y - f i v e to
t h i r t y - t w o i n 1880, approximately 80
percent and 65 percent, respectively, of
the males during those decades lived i n
family households headed by males. Only
three families i n 1870 and eight i n 1880
were headed by females. While there were
more adult males ( f i f t e e n years and
older) than females within the popula-
tion, the sex ration was f a i r l y even with
forty men compared to thirty women in
1870, and fifty-two and forty-seven i n
1880. Among the single population i n
1870, males outnumered females t h i r t y -
three to sixteen and thirty-two to seven-
teen i n 1880. Perhaps the increased
proportion of single males to females
explains the growth i n the number of
black male-white female marriages.
According to the 1870 census, there was
only one black-white interracial
marriage. By 1880 the number nad
increased to eleven, eight of which
involved black males and white females.
Within the black population, c h i l d r e n
under the age of f i f t e e n comprised nearly
35 percent of the population i n 1870 and
1880. Less than 15 percent of the
children in 1880 had black and white
parents. In 1870 and 1880 more than 50
percent of the blacks listed their place
of birth outside the southern states.
Slightly more than 50 percent of these
i n d i v i d u a l ^ were born i n the Utah
Territory.
902b/Coleman
The s t a t i s t i c a l data i n the censuses of
1870 and 1880 point to a black population
that was family-oriented, thus providing
a certain amount of s t a b i l i t y among the
small population. this was particularly
true of Salt Lake County. The high
incidence of women and children i n the
community was uncommon to black settle-
ment in frontier communites. Nevada's
black population during this period was
predominantly male, and although the
number of family households had increased
since 1860, the majority of blacks did
not l i v e i n family u n i t s . Children
comprised less than 18 percent of the
population, and two-thirds of Nevada's
black residents were born i n the southern
states.
An explanation of why the two black
populations d i f f e r e d during a s i m i l a r
period can be found by comparing the
major impetus for settlement of the two
areas. Nevada, which was part of Utah
Territory u n t i l 1861, owed i t s growth and
development to the mining boom created by
the famous Comstock Lode i n western
Nevada. Almost overnight Virginia City
was crowded with people seeking their
fortunes i n mining or others seeking to
make a fortune from the miners. The
black population, like jQe white, was
dominated by adult males. Utah, on the
other hand, had contrasting appeal and
population.
Utah's settlement was spurred by the
Mormons' quest for refuge away from
non-Mormon influences. The settlement of
Utah was characterized by the transplan-
tation of entire families to the Utah
Territory. The family unit, with a major
emphasis placed upon a large number of
children, was important to ^he building
2
of Mormonism's newest Zion. I t would
appear that black Mormons also placed
major importance on the family. Though
i t i s d i f f i c u l t to identify each black
Mormon who appeared i n the 1870 and 1880
censuses, i t should be noted that a l l
blacks known to be IDS lived i n family
units. In 1870 E l i j a h Abel headed a
household that consisted of his wife,
Mary Arm and eight children, five of whom
were under fifteen years of age. Green
4
Glake appeared i n the 1880 census with
his wife^gMartha, three children, and a
grandson. Perhaps non-Mormon blacks
(particularly those living i n Salt Lake
County, some of whom were long-time
residents), who were married to black
Mormons or their descendants, found the
family-oriented emphasis appealing^ and
settled into similar relationships.
Several c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the black
population between 1890 and 1910 differed
from those previously described. Males
became a more predominant factor i n the
population. In 1890 there were 392 males
and 196 females. the 1900 census re-
ported 454 males compared to 218 females,
by 1910 the imbalance was reduced and the
census listed 691 males and 453 females.
Sixty-six percent of the males i n 1890
and 71 percent i n 1900 listed single as
their marital status. Among females 55
percent and 58 percent, r e s p e c t i v e l y ,
reported themselves as married. In 1910,
44 percent of the men listed themselves
as married and 61 percent of the females
were married. The number of children
declined i n the balck population of 1900
and 1910. Their numbers dropped to 20
percent and 15 percent, repectively, of
the total population. The percentage of
blacks who had been born i n southern
states increased to 40 percent i n 1890
and 53 percent i n 190^ before declining
to 35 percent i n 1910. Continued black
migration to Utah apparently caused the
change.
The military was a major influence on
further changes i n Utah's black popu-
lation. Between 1890 and 1900, members
of the Ninth Cavalry and Twenty-fourth
Infantry served at m i l i t a r y posts i n
Utah. In 1886, two troops of the Ninth
cavalry were sent to join four companies
from the Twenty-first Infantry in build-
ing and guarding a garrison on the Uintah
frontier The post was named Fort
3 1
Duchesne. According to the 1890 cen-
sus, 127 blacks were l i s t e d as residents
of Uintah County, the vast majortiy were
members of the Ninth Cavalry. Their
numbers increased to 214 i n 1900; a l l but
thirty were soldiers. At least 94 per-
cent of the troops at Fort Duchesne i n
902b/Coleman
1900 were single and 90 percent l i s t e d
southern states as t h e i r place of
Z
birth.
Approximately 475 members of the twenty-
fourth Infantry arrived at Salt Lake's
Fort Douglas in 1896. At least f i f t y of
the men were married and had children.
The addition of the military men and
their families had a major impact upon
the black population. Two hundred forty
of the 588 Blacks i n Utah lived i n Salt
Lake County in 1890. The a r r i v a l of the
s o l d i e r s and those accompanying them
probably doubled Utah's black population
while increasing Salt Lake County i n
1890. The arrival of the soldiers and
those accompanying them probably doubled
Utah's black population while increasing
Salt Lake County's black population
nearly 400 percent. The majority of the
soldiers were single and their presence
had a major impact on the sex ration,
particularly i n Salt Lake County. Be-
cause the twenty-fourth was stationed at
Fort douglas between 1896 and 1899, i t s
presence i s not reflected in the census,
thus leaving some conjecture as to i t s
imporatnce i n the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of
Utah's black population. The combined
numbers of black s o l d i e r s at Fort
Duchesne and Fort Douglas between 1896
and 1899 accounted for 50 percent of the
Blacks l i v i n g in the state. Although the
black population continued to grow after
the departure of the ninth Cavalry i n
1901, i t was not u n t i l 1910 that the
black population gained numbers compar-
able to^those when the soldiers were
present. However, the effect of the
military was s l i g h t l y less than that of
the railroads.
Few would disagree with the statement
that "the coming of the railroad unlocked
Utah, changing a desert vastness to a
national highway and a burgeoning econ-
omic r e g i o n . The emergence and
expansion of the transportation network
and the associated economic prosperity
affected the settlement of a occupational
opportunities for blacks between 1870 and
1910. Utah became a hub in the western
railroad system. In additon to the Union
Pacific and Central P a c i f i c , the Denver
and Rio Grande, Oregon Short Line and Los
Angeles-Salt Lake Railway connected Utah
with points i n the Northwest, California,
Wyoming, and Colorado. The railroads
used black employees of the Pullman
company as porters on the sleeping cars
and hired black cooks and waiters for
dining car services. These workers were
l i s t e d i n the servants and waiters
category of the federal census. In 1900
the servants and waiters c l a s s i f i c a t i o n
was second only to the military occupa-
tional category for Blacks in Utah. With
the removal of the last black soldiers,
servants and waiters once again became
the largest occupational group.
However, not a l l workers in this category
were employed by the railroads. This
category also included men and women who
worked i n the households of wealthy
f a m i l i e s and those persons who were
employed i n commercial establishments
such as hotels and restaurants. Unlike
almost any of the other occupational
groups, this category included a signi-
f i c a n t number of females as w e l l as
males. In 1910, 31 percent of the black
waiter-servant group were females. A
further breakdown of the category shows
that females comprised 65 percent of thos
categorized as servants, whereas 98
percen|gOf the waiter-waitress group were
males. Racial discrimination and the
lack of educational s k i l l s generally
l i m i t e d black Utahs to employment
opportunities i n the servant or laborer
categories. In this sense, the position
of black workers i n Utah was typical of
black workers i n Nevada ^-J-daho, Montana
and other western states.
Although Afro-Americans were generally
relegated to low-income jobs, and few
were able to apply their s k i l l s to such
occupations as dressmakers, carpenters,
barbers, and shoemakers. Some applied
t h e i f ø a g r i c u l t u r a l a b i l i t i e s to farm-
ing. Samuel Chambers was successful
enough to be able to support his family
with the money earned from products
raised on his small farm i n the M i l l
Creek Ward of southeastern S a l t Lake
County. Chambers was a former slave who
converted to the Mormon r e l i g i o n i n
902b/Coleman 6

Mississippi before the C i v i l War. In
1870, Chambers, his wife, Amanda, and a
son, Peter, were ready to journey to
Zion. Amanda's brother, Edward Leggroan,
and his family, consisting of his wife
and three small c h i l d r e n , joined the
chambers family and the group arrived i n
Salt Lake City i n April of 1870. Samuel
i n i t i a l l y found employment at a sawmill
in L i t t l e Cottonwood Canyon. By 1879 he
and his family had settled in M i l l Creek
and had become successful i n farming.
Specializing in produce, Samuel's s k i l l
in cultivating grapes, currant, and other
small f r u i t s were widely known and herwon
f i r s t prizes at several state f a i r s .
While Samuel Chambers appears to have
been the most prominent and prosperous
farmer during the era, other A f r o -
Americans pursued farming as an occupa-
tion. Edwin Woods homesteaded 160 acres
in the Holladay-Cottonwood area of Salt
Lake County. Woods, his wife, and six
c h i l d r e n were l i v i n g there i n 1880.
Woods might have encountered problems i n
that eighty acres of the land were lojjg
because of his failure to pay taxes.
Sylvester James was another black who
mainly farmed for a l i v i n g . He purchased
his land i n M i l l Creek from whites who
originally homesteaded part of the areas.
He later sold or gave some of the land to
his son, William who in turn gave a
four-acre plot to his uncle, Sylvester
Perkins. Perkins farmed this land as
well as some of the nearby property ^ |
this brother-in-law, Sylvester James.
For some Afro-Americans a g r i c u l t u r a l
labor continued to be a source of employ-
ment . Others found employement in the
l i v e s t o c k industry as r a i s e r s and
herders. Some, though, were drawn to the
frontier's more romantic occupation of
mining.
Thus i t i s that the black community
developed i n Utah. Families which had
come to Salt Lake for reasons similar to
those of Mormons developed along
comparable l i n e s . they shared the
migrations and the celebrations and have
emerged from the archives as distinct
persons and stories in the mosaic of
Utah's history.

NOTES

Henry J . Wolfinger, "A Test of Faith: Jane Elizabeth James and the Origins of
the Utah Black Community," Clark Knowton, ed., Social Accommodation i n Utah (Salt Lake
City: 1975), pp. 128-130, 152-155; Journal History Supplement, After the 31st of
December 1847; Fred Douglas Duehlmeler, "The 1847 Mormon Migration" (M.A. thesis,
University of Utah, 1977), p. 140.
2
I b i d . , pp. 128-130, 152-155; Journal History Supplement, 1847.
3
I b i d . , pp. 131-132, 144, 191; 1859 Federal Census, Utah; folk tradition
claims that John Freeman Bankhead was the f i r s t free black born i n Utah. A corn-
par i sion of census materials indicate that Bankhead was born after Mary Arm. He may
have been the f i r s t free-born black whose parents were former slaves. His mother,
Rose Crosby, was freed between 1852 and 1860.

^Ibid., pp. 132, 160; Frank Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah (Salt
Lake City: 1913), p. 85. Apparently the law prohibiting blacks from serving i n the
m i l i t i a was not always enforced.
902b/Coleman

Carter, Negro Pioneer, pp. 48-49; 1860 Federal Census, Utah Territory.

i860 Federal Census, Utah Territory.

^Information provided by Professor Newell Bringhurst.

8
Carpenters Shop Timebook, 1855-1856, IDS Archives; 1860 Federal Census, Utah.

"Pioneer Emigrants From Europe," microfilm, IDS Genealogical Society' 1870

Federal Census, Cache County, Utah.

^ " T e r r i t o r i a l Laws of Utah," Legislative Assembly, Acts, Resolutions and

Memorials (Salt Lake City: 1855); H. Jacque Voegeli, Free But not Equal: the Midwest
and the Negro During the C i v i l War (Chicago: 1967), pp. 1-12; Eugene H. Berwanger,
Western Anti-Negro Prejudice and the Slavery Extension Controversy (Urbana, I l l i n o i s :
1967), pp. 97-123.
11
1870 Federal Census, Cache County, Utah.
12
Harold Schindler, Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God; Son of Thunder (Salt
Lake City: 1966), pp. 341-342.
13
Eighth Census of the United States, p. 575.
14
George P. Sanger, ed., "The Statutes at Large," Treaties and Proclamations
of the United States of America from December 15, 1859, to March 3, 1863 (Boston:
1863), p. 432.
15
Broad Ax, March 25, 1899.

^See "Territorial Laws of Utah," Legislative Assembly, Acts, Resolutions and

Memorials (Salt Lake City: 1867).
17
E i g h t Census of the United States, p. 575; the 1870 Federal Census l i s t s a
black population of 118. Some blacks were counted twice; United States Bureau of the
Census. Nineth Census of the United States: 1870 Population (Washington: 1872), p. 67;
1870 Federal Census, Utah Territory, Salt Lake County.
18 T
Federal Census 1850, 1860, 1870, Utah Territory.
19
Ibid., 1870, Box Elder County, Utah.
20
Ibid., Weber County, Utah.
21
Ibid., Salt Lake County, Utah.
22
Ibid. Wards are a geographical designation of jurisdiction for Mormon
biships. In the nineteenth century ward designations also reflected p o l i t i c a l
precincts. James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, The Story of the Latter-day Saints
(Salt Lake City: 1976), p. 161; Wolfinger, "Jane Elizabeth James," pp. 142-145;
Carter, Negro Pioneer; Federal Census 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, Utah Territory.
23
Statistics based upon the United States Bureau of the Census, Seventh
through Thirteenth Census of the United States: Population.
902b/Coleman 8

24
Federal Census Schedules 1870, 1880 Utah Territory. Some persons listed as
black (mulattoes) i n the census were Polynesian and had a parent whose place of birth
was the Sandwich Islands. Others had a parent who listed India as their place of
birth. It appears that the black population was closer to 200 persons than to the 232
reported i n the 1880 census.
25 mtéwfflmF?
Ibid. Wolfinger, "Jane Elizabeth James," pp. 142-144. For information on
Blacks i n Nevada, see Elmer R. Rusco, "Good Time Coming?," on black Nevadans i n the
Nineteenth Century (Westport, Conn. Greenwood Press, 1975), pp. 129-131.
26
Rusco, "Good Time Coming?," pp. 123, 146-147.
27
Charles S. Peterson, Utah, A History (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1977),
pp. 50-51.
OQ
Federal Census 1870, 1880 Utah Territory.
29
For examples, see Wolfinger, "Jane Elizabeth James," pp. 142-144, f n . 62-64,
p. 166.
30
United States Bureau of the Census, Negro Population: 1790-1915 (Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1918, pp. 68,150, 152); Twelfth Census of the United
States: 1900 Special Reports Vol. I I (Washington, D.C. Government Printing Office,
1906) p. 96 Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910 Population, V o l . 3
(Washington, D. C : Government Printing Office, 1911).
31
Thomas Alexander and Leonard J . Arrington, "The Utah Military Froniter,
1872-1912, Frots Cameron, Thornburgh and Duchesne," Utah H i s t o r i c a l Quarterly 32
(1964): 343-344. ~
3?
George Ramjoue, "The Negro i n Utah: A Geographical Study i n Population"
(M.A. thesis, University of Utah, 1968), pp. 9-12; Federal Census 1900, State of Utah,
Unitah County.
3 3
S a l t Lake Tribune, October 16, 23, 24, 1896. For information on the
Twenty-fourth Infantry, see Michael J . Clark, "Improbable Ambassadors: Black Soldiers
of Fort Douglas, 1896-99," Utah Historical Quarterly 46 (1978): 288-289; Ramjoue, "The
Negro i n Utah," p. 9; Returns from United States Military Posts, Fort Douglas, October
1896.
34
Peterson, Utah, p. 68.
3 5
I b i d . , pp. 68-72; Robert G. Athearn, Union Pacific Country (Chicago: Rand
McNally & Co., 1971), pp. 211, 328-329; Salt Lake Tribune, January 1, 1897.
36
See Table I I I , Appendix A.
37
See Rusco, "Good Time Coming?," pp. 135-140 and Quintard Taylor, "Blacks i n
the Pacific Northwest: 1788-1970" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1977).
See Table I , Black Occupations i n the Pacific Northwest, 1900.
OQ

See Table I I I , Appendix A.

39

pp. 46-50.W i l l i a m G. Hartley, "Samuel D. Chambers," The Inprovement Era, Spring 1977,
 Stephen L. Carr, ed., Holladay-Cottonwood Places and Faces (Holladay, Utah:
Hollady-Cottonwood Heritage Committee, 1976), p. 32; Federal Census 1880, Utah
Territory.
41
Oral interview with Mary Lucille Perkins Bankhead, April 1974. Mrs.
Bankhead i s a descendant of black pioneers and s t i l l resides on the land given her
father by his nephew. See also, Wolfinger, "Jane Elizabeth James," p. 143.
 AFRICAN FAMILIES, BLACK AND WHITE: THE GREAT TREK IN SOUTH
AFRICA AND THE MORMON CROSSING OF THE PLAINS - A COMPARISON

R. T. J . Lombard

Born i n South Africa. Resides i n Pretoria, South Africa. Senior chief research
o f f i c e r , National Institute for Historical Research, Human Sciences Research Council
of South Africa. D. L i t t . et P h i l . , University of South Africa. Editor, author.

The other two papers read in this panel
concern the l i f e of blacks i n the
Americas. This paper, on the other hand,
primarily concerns the l i f e of whites i n
Africa, particularly the Afrikaner nation
at the southern point of Africa. In
order to make the history of the Afikaner
more r e a d i l y understandable to an
audience in Utah, I shall draw a few
comparisons between the Great Trek i n
South Africa and the Mormon crossing of
the plains in America. The emphasis,
however, w i l l be on the South African
history.
The Great Trek that occurred between the
years 1834-1854 was one of the
outstanding events i n the h i s t o r y of
South Africa, particularly in the history
of the Afrikaner nation. In this period
of twenty years, thousands of families
l e f t the Cape Colony to settle further
north beyond the sphere of B r i t i s h
influence. The Great Trek has been
called a r e v o l u t i o n that resulted i n
radical p o l i t i c a l , economical, social,
and cultural changes i n South Africa. I t
also had a disrupting effect on family
l i f e , posing particular problems for the
genealogical researcher in South Africa.
At the same time as the Great Trek i n
South Africa, a large scale migration of
people was also taking place i n North
America, namely the migration from east
and central North America to the Pacific
Ocean on the west coast. The trek i n
South A f r i c a resembled i t s American
counterpart in many ways. The transport
and arms of the trekkers were basically
the same, long distances were covered
over barren plains and high mountain
ranges, and many dangers had to be faced.
The principal difference between the two
migrations was that in America economics
was the major consideration, the
migration there took place on a much
larger scale, and the distances involved
were far greater. The trek i n South
Africa occurred mainly for p o l i t i c a l and
cultural reasons and the group of people
who participated formed a very close-knit
community.
In 1846, twelve years after the Great
Trek had started i n South Africa, the
Mormon crossing of the great plains began
in America. The causes of this trek
d i f f e r e d from those which caused the
general migration to the west and were
basically the same as those of the Great
Trek i n South Africa. Briefly, they can
be summarized as follows: F i r s t , both
groups of people had to contend with an
unsympathetic government that could not
provide the necessary protection for them
on a dangerous frontier. Second, both
groups were concerned with the
preservation of their own identity. The
Mormons established an even more
c l o s e l y - k n i t community than did the
Voortrekkers, whose leaders for instance
disagreed on their ultimate destination.
The Mormons, who lived mainly i n the
states of I l l i n o i s and Missouri on the
former western f r o n t i e r of the USA,
suffered constant persecution and
eventually decided to settle in an area
i n the west where no other whites were
l i v i n g or would want to l i v e . They
therefore chose to make their home in the
desolate Great Basin. Although they
never founded an independent state, they
902c/Lombard
were c o n t i n u a l l y harassed and even i n
Utah they were not l e f t undisturbed at
first.
The b e a r e r s o f w h i t e c i v i l i z a t i o n i n
A f r i c a , who had i n i t i a l l y s e t t l e d i n the
Cape, g r a d u a l l y moved f u r t h e r to the
n o r t h and to the e a s t , until in
approximately 1770 they came i n t o contact
with the black tribes who were migrating
southwards down the east coast of A f r i c a .
Clashes between the two groups were
i n e v i t a b l e as both were p r i m a r i l y c a t t l e
farmers and l a i d c l a i m to the same
grazing l a n d . Six devastating f r o n t i e r
wars were fought between 1779 and 1835
and the white farmers on the f r o n t i e r
c o n t i n u a l l y had to bear the brunt. The
c o l o n i a l governments at the Cape ( f i r s t
the Dutch and then the English) were
incapable of maintaining law and order on
the eastern frontier. On the
i n s t r u c t i o n s of t h e i r home governments
they pursued a p o l i c y o f p e a c e f u l
c o e x i s t e n c e w i t h the b l a c k s of South
A f r i c a , and c o n s e q u e n t l y the f r o n t i e r
farmers were not allowed to take the law
into t h e i r own hands and e s t a b l i s h order.
During the S i x t h F r o n t i e r War (1834-35)
twenty-two whites and eighty Hottentots
were k i l l e d , 456 homes were burned, and
several thousand head of c a t t l e , horses,
and sheep were l o o t e d by the X h o s a .
These l o s s e s were some of the m a j o r
causes of the Great Trek.
The Cape was governed by the
N e t h e r l a n d s - b a s e d Dutch E a s t India
Company from 1652 to 1795. From 1795 to
1803 B r i t i s h forces occupied the Cape and
from 1803 to 1806 c o n t r o l was i n the
hands of the Batavian government i n the
Netherlands. I n 1806 the Cape was
permanently occupied by a f o r e i g n nation
(the B r i t i s h ) with f o r e i g n language and a
foreign culture. After 1820,
p a r t i c u l a r l y , c o n c e r t e d attempts were
made to a n g l i c i z e the D u t c h - s p e a k i n g
colonists. The f r o n t i e r farmers, who
were poorly educated and whose knowledge
of English was scant, found i t d i f f i c u l t
to adjust to the changed circumstances.
They also opposed the British
government's p o l i c y of i n t e g r a t i o n
between whites and b l a c k s . Nearly a l l
the b l a c k s w i t h whom they had d a i l y
contact were u n c i v i l i z e d heathen. They
were t h e r e f o r e c o n v i n c e d that the
government's i n t e g r a t i o n p o l i c y was a
threat not only to western c i v i l i z a t i o n
i n South A f r i c a but also to C h r i s t i a n i t y .
To ensure the c o n t i n u e d e x i s t e n c e of
t h e i r c u l t u r e , they d e c i d e d to f r e e
themselves of B r i t i s h domination and to
e s t a b l i s h an independent state where they
would be f r e e to l i v e according to t h e i r
own d i c t a t e s . The Voortrekkers, l i k e the
Mormons, i d e n t i f i e d themselves with the
I s r a e l i t e s who hundreds of years e a r l i e r
had made t h e i r journey to the promised
land.
The Voortrekkers, however, had d i f f i c u l t y
freeing themselves from British
authority. The Cape o f Good Hope
Punishment A c t , 1836 extended B r i t i s h
a u t h o r i t y i n South A f r i c a to l a t i t u d e
twenty-five degrees south. This
t w e n t y - f i v e degrees p a r a l l e l passes
approximately 100 km north of P r e t o r i a
and the area c l a i m e d by the B r i t i s h
included the greater part of the current
Republic of South A f r i c a . It was not
possible to enforce the above-mentioned
act and the Voortrekkers did not take
much notice of i t e i t h e r . N a t a l , where
the m a j o r i t y of Voortrekkers had s e t t l e d ,
was annexed by B r i t a i n i n 1842. Many
Trekkers then l e f t Natal to s e t t l e i n the
Transvaal and the Orange Free State. In
1848 the Orange Free S t a t e was a l s o
annexed by B r i t a i n . However, the
Trekkers eventually achieved their goal
when the B r i t i s h government recognized
the independence of the area north of the
Vaal River i n 1852 and of the Orange Free
State i n 1854. Two independent Boer
republics had thus been established i n
South A f r i c a . The year 1854 i s generally
regarded as the year i n which the Great
Trek ended.
The hardships s u f f e r e d by the farmers on
the eastern f r o n t i e r and subsequently by
the Trekkers during the Great Trek, had a
d i s r u p t i n g e f f e c t on t h e i r family l i f e .
The unsettled circumstances, which lasted
approximately twenty years, have created
great problems f o r South African
genealogists. I should l i k e to mention
902c/Lombard
b r i e f l y the main f a c t o r s that a f f e c t e d
f a m i l y l i f e and the s t u d y of f a m i l y
history.
E x c e p t i o n a l l y h i g h l o s s o f l i f e and
property occurred as a r e s u l t of attacks
by h o s t i l e black t r i b e s and the d i f f i c u l t
l i v i n g conditions during the Trek.
have already mentioned the heavy losses
suffered during the S i x t h F r o n t i e r War.
In February 1838 a p p r o x i m a t e l y 370
whites, and more than 200 black servants
were k i l l e d by Zulus i n Natal and great
damage was done to private property.
L i t t l e documentation e x i s t s r e g a r d i n g
deaths by natural causes during the Great
Trek, but i t i s apparent from the estate
f i l e s of the Orange Free State which date
back to 1854 that the death rate during
the p e r i o d i m m e d i a t e l y f o l l o w i n g the
Great Trek was s t i l l v e r y h i g h .
studied the estate f i l e s of 1,020 married
women f o r the period 1854 to 1880 and
could ascertain that at l e a s t 161, or
15.8% of the t o t a l , e i t h e r died at c h i l d
b i r t h or s h o r t l y afterwards. The average
l i f e expectancy of a married woman of
that time, l i v i n g i n the Orange Free
State, was approximately t h i r t y - n i n e to
f o r t y years. Of the 161 c h i l d r e n who
were born d u r i n g the above-mentioned
confinements, at l e a s t 58 (or 36%) died
i n early infancy.
I t should be accepted, however, that the
actual number of deaths at c h i l d b i r t h was
much higher. In any instances i t i s
believed that both mother and c h i l d d i e d ,
but this cannot be v e r i f i e d as the cause
of death i s not stated on the death
notice. The only way of determining
whether a woman d i e d d u r i n g her
confinement i s by comparing the date of
her death with the date of b i r t h of her
youngest c h i l d . In many cases, however,
the date of b i r t h or the age of the c h i l d
i s not mentioned. The names of c h i l d r e n
who had already died leaving no h e i r s do
not appear i n the estate f i l e e i t h e r .
Thus i f a c h i l d died at b i r t h h i s name
was not stated i n the death n o t i c e .
The high death rate previously mentioned
c l o s e l y corresponds to the losses
3
s u f f e r e d by the Mormons i n t h e i r camp
near the Missouri River during the winter
of 1846-1847 and d u r i n g the handcart
migration i n 1856.
The V o o r t r e k k e r s were m a i n l y s t o c k
farmers. Those who came from the
I Suurveld i n the Uitenhage d i s t r i c t were
c a t t l e farmers and those from the inland
plateau farmed mainly with sheep. The
large numbers of livestock that
accompanied the Trek created problems.
The various groups of Trekkers could not
move at a f a s t pace and were spread over
a wide a r e a . They were t h e r e f o r e
vulnerable to attack and t h e i r l i v e s t o c k
could e a s i l y be r a i d e d . At the end of
t h e i r journey they s e t t l e d on large farms
and thus l i v e d f a r from one another. The
towns t h a t were founded had a few
inhabitants to begin w i t h , and developed
I s l o w l y . It also took the Voortrekkers a
long time to s e t t l e permanently as the
B r i t i s h government c o n t i n u a l l y annexed
the areas i n which they were l i v i n g .
The Mormons were primarily
a g r i c u l t u r a l i s t s and artisans who l i v e d
on small farms and i n towns and c i t i e s .
Their migration d i d not extend over such
a l o n g p e r i o d ; t h e y soon e s t a b l i s h e d
themselves i n t h e i r new areas and t h e i r
towns grew q u i c k l y .
Because the Voortrekkers l i v e d f a r apart,
education f a c i l i t i e s were scarce and most
of the people received l i t t l e schooling.
The f i e l d cornets who were responsible
f o r the a d m i n i s t r a t i v e d u t i e s i n the
d i f f e r e n t d i s t r i c t s were chosen f o r t h e i r
m i l i t a r y q u a l i t i e s and had l i t t l e or no
experience with c l e r i c a l work. Many
o f f i c i a l documents dating from the period
of the Great Trek were l o s t . Those that
have been p r e s e r v e d are i n a poor
condition and the handwriting i s o f t e n
i l l e g i b l e . Most marriage ceremonies were
performed by the magistrates, but few of
the marriage registers have been
preserved. The marriage r e g i s t e r which
was used i n P o t g i e t e r ' s laager ( s t a t i o n ) ,
and that of the magistrate of
Potchefstroom, however, have been
preserved. Good s c h o o l s and other
educational f a c i l i t i e s gradually followed
902c/Lombard
as the towns and c i t i e s expanded. The
first newspaper, The F r i e n d of the
Sovereignty, was published in
Bloemfontein i n 1850, a f t e r the Orange
Free State had been annexed by B r i t a i n .
The Mormons, on the other hand,
established large towns from the outset
and therefore educational f a c i l i t i e s were
more r e a d i l y a v a i l a b l e and the l e v e l of
education was generally higher than i t
was f o r the Voortrekkers.
The church played an important part i n
the l i v e s of the Voortrekkers i n s p i t e of
the f a c t that no clergyman i n the Cape
Colony was prepared to accompany them to
see to t h e i r s p i r i t u a l needs. The
V o o r t r e k k e r s were g e n e r a l l y r e l i g i o u s
people and were a l l members of the same
church. The Reverend Erasmus Smit
( f o r m e r l y a m i s s i o n a r y o f the London
Missionary S o c i e t y ) , who was of Dutch
o r i g i n and m a r r i e d to the s i s t e r o f
G e r r i t M a r i t z , one of the Voortrekker
leaders, did accompany the Trek but he
was already an old man and also i n c l i n e d
to d r i n k . Although he o f f i c i a t e d as
minister f o r a t i m e , he was not
a c c e p t a b l e to many of the T r e k k e r s ,
p a r t i c u l a r l y to those who knew him w e l l .
While sojourning i n the Free State the
Trekkers made use of the services of the
Reverend James A r c h b e l l , the Wesleyan
missionary of Thaba 'Nchu. In 1840 they
succeeded i n securing the services of an
American P r e s b y t e r i a n m i s s i o n a r y , the
Reverend Daniel L i n d l e y , who was t h e i r
pastor u n t i l 1847.
The church r e g i s t e r s are among the few
documents of the time of the Great Trek
that have been preserved i n a f a i r l y good
condit ion. They are of i n c a l c u l a b l e
value to the genealogist. The
" r e g i s t e r s " of the Reverend Smit c o n s i s t
of loose b i t s of paper and are i n a very
poor condition but the Reverend L i n d l e y ' s
r e g i s t e r s have been w e l l preserved and
are neatly w r i t t e n . In the seven years
he served the Voortrekkers he baptized
1,383 c h i l d r e n , confirmed 583 people, and
o f f i c i a t e d at 97 marriages.
The church also played an important r o l e
4
i n the education of young people. As a
p r e r e q u i s i t e f o r c o n f i r m a t i o n one at
l e a s t had to be able to read the B i b l e ;
t h e r e f o r e few o f the V o o r t r e k k e r s or
t h e i r descendants remained i l l i t e r a t e .
During the crossing of the Mormons, the
Church played a much more s i g n i f i c a n t
part than i t did with the Voortrekkers,
since r e l i g i o n had been a major reason
f o r the Mormon's decision to migrate.
They did not (and s t i l l do not) have paid
m i n i s t e r s i n t h e i r c h u r c h , s i n c e the
ordinary members saw to church matters
themselves. Therefore the problem of
having no one to administer the
sacraments d i d not a r i s e .
As with the Mormon migration, the Great
Trek was w e l l planned, advance parties
b e i n g sent out to r e c o n n o i t r e the
interior. I t i s d i f f i c u l t to determine
the exact number of people who took part
i n the Great Trek and l a t e r s e t t l e d i n
the Orange Free State and Transvaal. I t
i s b e l i e v e d , however, that some 16,000
people made up the major t r e k s . It i s
estimated that approximately 20,000 souls
were i n the s p i r i t u a l care o f the
Reverend Daniel Lindley i n 1845. His
p a r i s h comprised the whole of N a t a l , the
Orange Free S t a t e , and the T r a n s v a a l
(more than t w i c e the s i z e o f U t a h ) .
There were roughly 35,000 whites l i v i n g
i n the two new republics by the time the
Great Trek came to an end i n 1854, 15,000
i n the Orange Free State and 20,000 i n
the Transvaal. The Genealogy Section of
the South A f r i c a n Human Sciences Research
Council i s c u r r e n t l y conducting a
genealogical and demographic study of the
Voortrekkers and hopes that t h i s w i l l
r e s u l t i n more c e r t a i n t y about t h e i r
numbers.
A f t e r Western c i v i l i z a t i o n had been
established i n N a t a l , the Orange Free
State and the Transvaal, thousands of
f a m i l i e s from the Cape and even from
overseas came to s e t t l e t h e r e . The
number of new immigrants quickly
increased, particularly after the
discovery of diamonds and gold i n the
interior.
902c/Lombard
There was a gradual settlement of new
land up to the start of the Great Trek,
as the cattle farmers moved further into
the i n t e r i o r i n search of s u i t a b l e
grazing land. By the end of the 1820s a
number of white farmers had already
settled permanently i n the southern Free
State. With the Great Trek this pattern
of gradual settlement was broken.
Members of particular families, who u n t i l
then had been included to l i v e i n the
same d i s t r i c t and who often intermarried,
now settled i n different parts of the
interiors. I t i s often a great problem
for the genealogist to determine the
relationship between Voortrekker families
and members of the same families who
remained i n the Cape Colony. One of the
major tasks facing researchers i s to
5
ascertain the place of origin of every
Voortrekker family and where they
eventually settled.
The factors that influenced the family
l i f e of the Voortrekkers seem complicated
to the novice and the resultant problems
almost insurmountable. These factors and
problems make the genealogy of the
Voortrekkers interesting, however, and
the deeper one's involvement, the more
interesting i t becomes. Much research
remains to be done i n this f i e l d and I am
convinced that a thorough genealogical
and demographic study w i l l contribute to
a better understanding of the Great Trek
and the people who took part i n i t .
If
902c/Lombard 6

E . A . WALKER: The Great Trek. London, 1948.

 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

How to Trace Your

Heritage to Africa: The
Voice
ot Experience
Alex Haley
Series 903
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 HOW TO TRACE YOUR HERITAGE TO AFRICA:
THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE
Alex Haley
with James D. Walker
Alex Haley. Native of Tennessee. Resides i n Beverly H i l l s , California, Professional
writer. Sixteen honorary doctorates. Author, lecturer.
James D. Walker. Born in Washington, D.C.
consultant. Author, lecturer.
Alex Haley
The t i t l e of this talk i s supposed to be
"How to Trace Your Heritage Back to
Africa: The Voice of Experience." Now,
that i s a big t i t l e i n one sense, and
anybody who knows anything at a l l about
genealogical things broadly, and partic-
ularly about trying to trace a family
back to Africa, knows that i t i s a mis-
leading t i t l e at best. There i s not
any one way to do i t .
Before I go on, I want to say that I have
taken the l i b e r t y of i n v i t i n g James
Walker to be here with me because, very
frankly, Jimmy knows more genealogy than
I w i l l ever know. He i s one of the
scholars. I have come to be credited
with knowing more than I r e a l l y do know
about genealogical research. I know more
than Jimmy maybe about the specific fam-
i l y I worked on, but as to how one would
go about searching in general, he i s the
authority, so I have asked him to be here
with me, and he graciously has agreed.
We w i l l alternate to see i f we can't give
some l i t t l e b i t of insight into this
subject.
I guess the basic thing I would say i s
that i n researching A f r i c a n h e r i t a g e ,
probably more than with any other ethnic
or nationalistic heritage that could be
researched, one has to rely extremely
heavily upon oral history—what the older
people i n the family can t e l l . The
reasons are obvious. The records are not
Resides i n Washington, D.C. Research
nearly so complete or good for those who
descend from slaves as they are f o r
others.
I worked on Roots with a l o t of cooper-
ation from the few members of the family
who were l e f t alive that knew anything
about i t , with the single exception of my
father. And the reason I say that i s
that Roots deals with my mother's side of
the family, and my father was never
overly happy that his side was being
shirked. At least, that i s how he saw
it. Later I hope to do something about
his side of the family, and that lets me
digress just a l i t t l e into an interesting
aspect of black genealogy. That i s that
most of us black people, so-called, are
made up genetically of some part African,
some part European, and, for a great many
of us, some part American Indian. That
would be the average person; there would
be many, many exceptions of course, but
on the average that would be the case.
In my own case, though my mother's side
went as Roots, the book and f i l m , de-
scribed i t , on my father's side, both of
his grandfathers were I r i s h . He was the
result of the mating of I r i s h men and
slave women. That was the Irish i n f l u -
ence i n the family. I decided, just out
of curiosity more than any particular
I r i s h ethnic feeling, that I would go and
check into that too. I f e l t kind of
funny going to Ireland; I expected a l i t -
tle b i t of d i f f i c u l t y , to put i t mildly,
once they saw me. But what happened was
903/Haley/Walker
not something I had expected i n the
slightest. When I got there and began to
research, I was being very covert about
what I was doing. The people didn't pay
me the slightest b i t of attention when I
was working i n the records and the f i l e s
i n old Dublin Castle, Dublin, and various
other places. They began to help me
after I got bold enough to t e l l them, i n
a kind of vague way, that I was looking
into one side of my family. No problem.
They were very helpful.
The records f i n a l l y led me to a l i t t l e
town called Carrickmacross. I rented a
car and went down there. I began search-
ing the records there, and everything was
going fine u n t i l the records ultimately
led me to a church, or the p o s s i b i l i t y of
a church. I went to the largest church
i n town, which was a Catholic church, and
I was doing okay there u n t i l they f i n a l l y
got some wind that something was amiss.
They sent In two priests, who began to
question me. They were courteous, but
they were firm, and they began to ask me
some rather pointed questions. I had the
feeling that the door was about to close,
but I didn't know from which direction.
They were nice enough u n t i l they dis-
covered I was Protestant. That was the
problem. They told me I would just have
to leave there, that obviously my infor-
mation wasn't In their records, and that
I had to go over to the Protestant side.
It happened that I did find the particu-
lar family I was looking for i n the Prot-
estant records, and the Protestants
couldn't have been happier. So I was
able to trace the I r i s h side of the
family back about as f a r as I traced
Runta Kinte's l i n e , into Carrickmacross,
Ireland. I joined the I r i s h Research
Society, paid my dues every year f a i t h -
f u l l y , and one of these years I'm going
to turn up at a meeting and see what hap-
pens. I t would be fun. And I may one
day write something about my I r i s h his-
tory.
The point I wish to make i s that my his-
tory i s a characteristic, f a i r l y classic
account of the genetic background of most
of the so-called black people i n this
2
country. Black people are not totally
African by any means. Just walk up and
down the street anywhere that black
people are, and simply look at us. You
see us i n complexions ranging from what
we c a l l white to black. What you're
looking at i s no more than walking ge-
netics. You're looking at what has
resulted from the fact that biology and
genetics are no respectors of s o c i a l
taboos. During slavery and during the
Reconstruction, there were many hundreds
of thousands of matings, i n the biolog-
i c a l sense, between white and black,
generally the white males and the black
women who were the slaves or who lived
during Reconstruction. There was not
b i r t h control as we know i t today, and
there were born many hundreds of thou-
sands of children who naturally came of
various complexions. Then there would be
subsequent matings, which would tend to
be the lighter with the lighter.
Among the many, many pieces of mail that
come to me now from people as a result of
Roots, there are some extremely poignant
types of mail. One i s from people who
are orphans. They write the most poi-
gnant of letters saying what a vacuum
they feel because they don't know who
their parents are. They write and say,
"Is there some way you could help?"
Well, of course there isn't. I have also
talked with those who are adopted and
with their parents—that's another area
of very poignant situations.
But probably the most poignant of a l l , to
get to this area we're talking about now,
i s those people who came out of this ge-
netic background of which I speak, who
during the 1920s and '30s were born of
what would be classified black mothers
but whose complexions were i n e f f e c t
white. As those people grew up, they
caught i t hard from both directions ra-
c i a l l y . When they were i n their twenties
and t h i r t i e s , they would do what was
known at the time as passing. That meant
they would simply leave the communities
where they had been born and reared, move
to somewhere far distant, frequently into
large c i t i e s and the eastern part of the
903/Haley/Walker
United States, and move over into white
society, where over a period of years
they would marry and have families.
The letters that these people write today
are almost pathetic. They t e l l of how i t
i s to feel that they are of the black
race in legal terms while their neighbors
and their own families are unaware of
t h i s . They hear a l l the time the things
that are said about black people without
even their families being aware that they
are black. It's a torment i n which they
l i v e . Some of the letters make you won-
der that the people have been able even
to keep their sanity over a long period
of time. But those are facets of the
story.
The story of Roots, apart from being the
specific story of my family, i s charac-
t e r i s t i c of the story of black people a l l
over this country. Every black person
has just about the same story. That i s
one of the reasons, I think, that the
book was so well received among black
people. Every black person's ancestry
goes back to some African boy or g i r l ,
born or raised i n some v i l l a g e , usually
In western Africa, to some age at which
they were kidnapped or somehow taken into
slavery. They were put into the hold of
some slave ship and brought across the
same ocean into some succession of plan-
tations. The ancestry goes on up to the
C i v i l War, the Emancipation, and from
that day to today's struggle for freedom
in i t s various facets. So that, broadly
speaking, i s what Roots describes.
One of the f a s c i n a t i n g s i d e l i g h t s of
Roots was that i n some way, although i t
dealt with a black family, o r , more
broadly, with black people's s t o r i e s ,
somehow, because of i t s family aspect, i t
transcended that. The book and the f i l m
have been well received by v i r t u a l l y a l l
peoples everywhere. It's just astonish-
ing to me that the book i s now i n t h i r t y -
three different languages. I t has been
l i t e r a l l y a b e s t - s e l l e r i n at l e a s t
twenty-five of those languages. And that
i s , as I said, not because the writer was
so "wow" as i t might seem, but simply be-
3
cause that public out there, wherever
those places were, elected to give the
book and the film that kind of response.
And again the reason for the response was
the theme of family. The book caused
many, many people, of a l l nationalities,
of a l l kinds of ethnic groupings, to want
to get further into the study of their
own families.
Now to get specifically to how one would
trace a black family. In my experience,
and I think I was b i l l e d as a voice of
experience, I would never have been able
to trace my family at a l l i f my family,
my mother's side of the family, had not
been extremely story-oriented. They were
a people who were always talking, just on
their own, about the family, about the
things that had happened before them i n
the family. I grew up hearing about
Chicken George and Tom the blacksmith and
various others about as much as I heard
about David and Goliath and others i n
Sunday School, u n t i l I knew my family's
story thoroughly. And then I happened by
luck to become a writer and get curious
about the story and go one day to the
National Archives. That i s where u l t i -
mately I met Jimmy Walker and began that
long, long search which would lead me, at
times, into some extremely emotional s i t -
uations and some very monotonous s i t u -
ations that are characteristic of genea-
logical searching; and ultimately i t a l l
came together i n this book.
I just wish that we could somehow have
some interchange, with people asking
about things they're specifically inter-
ested i n , but I don't know that we w i l l
have either the time or means to do that.
As an alternative, I thought that maybe
the best way we might go about this would
be for me to begin by "running my mouth"
a b i t , as my grandmother used to say I
did a l l the time, and then ask Jimmy i f
he would talk for a while, as his knowl-
edge i s much more specific about things
relating to African ancestors. Then I
w i l l come back and t e l l some other things
that I hope might give further illumina-
tion. And I s t i l l hope that some way,
maybe toward the end of this session, we
903/Haley/Walker
could have at least a few questions from
a few people, which would give a l i t t l e
bit more interaction. Jimmy.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
James D. Walker
My thanks to the toasted Irishman that
preceded me. That's a term we used, i n
Washington at l e a s t , to i d e n t i f y the
people who c a l l themselves black I r i s h -
men.
The problem with researching a black fam-
i l y history i s not nearly as great a
problem as most people assume. First,
the procedure for tracing genealogy i s
exactly the same for everyone, regardless
of race, creed, color, or national o r i -
gin. Second, because of the history of
the blacks i n the United States, tracing
a black genealogy i s merely a matter of
researching your family back to the pe-
riod of enslavement, which differs for
different families. In other words, some
people were manumitted during the C i v i l
War, many others were manumitted long
before the war, and there were, contrary
to general opinion, a great number of
families who came to the United States as
immigrants and free persons and were
never slaves.
As Alex has indicated, a great number of
us have a mixture of different national-
i t i e s . And this i n i t s e l f presents a few
problems, for several reasons. During
the period of enslavement, there was no
record made of the paternity of a s l a v e —
only of the maternity. The mother was
duly noted i n the records of the planta-
tion owner, i n the records of the county
courthouse, and i n deeds and i n many
w i l l s . Because there i s no reference to
the father of the slave, we are sometimes
extremely handicapped.
Even i f we find out who the father of a
given child i s , the other problem that we
encounter when we're t r a c i n g a black
family during the period of slavery, i s
trying to determine where, when, and how
the slave was acquired. He could have
4
been acquired i n many ways. Most fre-
quently, the purchase, sale, and transfer
of slaves were duly documented i n the
county deed books. Why? Because their
value exceeded that of real property, and
the place to record such information was
in the county deed book.
Many w i l l s provide an interesting b i t of
information. The w i l l s usually identify
the wishes of the deceased and the par-
celing out of his estate, which sometimes
involved the transfer of a particular
slave, usually with one or more of h i s
c h i l d r e n , to a given family member.
Thus, w i l l s can provide family linkages.
They may be the only records that do.
As Alex has also indicated, a great num-
ber of the parents of mulatto children
were the slave owners. What Alex did not
mention i s that the slave owner need not
have been a male. Many times i t was a
female. Carter G. Woodson i n the 1930s
did a study i n which he indicated that 42
percent of the female slave owners i n
North Carolina were themselves the mother
of one or more children by a slave on
their plantation.
This a l l leads to confusion. But you
w i l l find that as you trace your history,
there exists a great deal of documenta-
tion to assist you i n identifying your
ancestors.
During the period of slavery, the slave
was perhaps far better off than the poor
tenant farmer. The reason i s that every-
thing that happened to that slave i s doc-
umented. In some states the name of the
slave was entered on the personal prop-
erty tax records. Special censuses were
taken of the slave population, and, as I
already i n d i c a t e d , the transfer of a
slave was duly recorded i n legal docu-
ments. This i s not true of the tenant
farmer—no such records were kept; the
farmers existed as a convenience to the
property owner, who didn't care whether
they came or l e f t , lived or died.
I w i l l mention one other incident that I
think i s important. A Washington resi-
903/Haley/Walker
dent, a good friend of mine, a former
student, had sought for eleven years the
location of a family Bible which she knew
existed. She i s a white woman. She
hunted and she hunted. She checked with
every family member that she could. She
f i n a l l y got a clue as to i t s l o c a t i o n — i t
was to be found i n the manuscripts c o l -
lection of the University of Virginia at
Charlottesville, a four-hour drive from
Washington through the mountains; never-
theless, she made the trek. She got to
the Manuscripts Division and after a l l of
the usual security procedures was per-
mitted to look at the family Bible. She
got i t out, turned to the section between
the Old Testament and the New Testament,
and glanced at the family pages. And
there on the pages under births, deaths,
and marriages were duly recorded the
births, the deaths, the marriages of a l l
of her great-grandfather's slaves—and
not a mention of any family member.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Alex Haley
Jimmy and I should get an act. We're
doing pretty good. I was just thinking
of one other anecdote about the places
where records of slaves were kept that
would not appear at f i r s t to be sources.
I n c i d e n t a l l y , one of the main places
would be right here i n Salt Lake City.
I've said several times to the press and
others that i f I had known at the time I
was researching Roots about the existence
of the records here, I could have saved
at least two years of that research time
that I spent searching i n l i t t l e county
courthouses, i n England, and i n other
places. I could have gotten It a l l right
here. But I didn't, and I guess, i n
another sense, i t i s just as well because
I think that one of the great factors i n
the success of the book was that i t came
out when i t did; the timing seemed to be,
for whatever reason, absolutely perfect,
and I certainly can't quarrel with that.
But another source that really startled
me, one of the better sources for records
of slaves once one can Identify what
5
slave he i s looking for, i s i n the l i -
brary of the Daughters of the American
Revolution. I t seems that on large,
well-kept plantations during the time of
slavery, the function of a proper mis-
tress of the plantation, that i s to say,
the wife of the owner, was to take an
inventory of the plantation once each
year. In the Daughters of the American
Revolution Library, they have the records
pretty much compartmentalized by state,
and then by plantation within the state.
There are folders—some of them very
t h i c k , or accordian, f o l d e r s — o f the
papers from that plantation i n that pe-
riod of time. And you w i l l find again
and again the most methodic, c a r e f u l
i n v e n t o r i e s , taken annually on the
plantation by i t s mistress, written i n
t h i s c a r e f u l , copperplate, Spencerian
handwriting l i s t i n g e v e r y t h i n g — e a c h
teaspoon, each horse, each slave. In a
time when slaves were not listed i n the
census by name, the mistress would have
listed every slave at least by number.
She may have listed f i e l d slaves ab-
stractly, such as x number of males and x
number of females, and perhaps t h e i r
ages. But when she came to those who
worked i n the household area, whom she
knew personally, she would write their
names and, i n some cases, l i t t l e descrip-
tions of them, of their personalities.
These could be almost like l i t t l e gold
discoveries for a person seeking informa-
tion about that particular person.
I was recently i n Natchez, Mississippi,
where antebellum homes are preserved as I
have never seen them i n number. Some
doctor and his wife had found the records
and the negatives of an old photographer
who had l i v e d there for about f i f t y
years. He had apparently gone a l l over
the place taking pictures of black and
white people a l i k e and had c a r e f u l l y
labeled his pictures. The negatives had
been stuffed up into an old l o f t , and
there they had been for almost thirty
years. Nobody paid them any attention.
Somehow this doctor heard about them. He
i s a photography buff. He and his wife
have now made i t almost their l i f e ' s work
to print these negatives and publish some
903/Haley/Walker
of them i n books. Some are beautiful
pictures of black families intact, s i t -
ting almost wriggly i n their Sunday best,
whatever i t was—this i n a period not
long after slavery. I a l l but wept
looking at some of these photographs of
black families, as well as white fami-
l i e s — p h o t o g r a p h s going back to that
period of time. I know that there are
people around this country who would give
v i r t u a l l y anything to know that their
family was so beautifully recorded. And
that's the t h r i l l of genealogy again.
For what time we have l e f t , we are going
to try something. I'm sure that some of
you have things you would l i k e to know,
and neither Jimmy nor I, with our varying
areas of expertise, would pluck out of
our heads things that would meet your
particular interest. But between the two
of us we would like to try to answer your
questions. So i f you have some query,
come up this way. There i s a microphone
for you to ask your question. We w i l l
try to deal with as many as we can i n the
time remaining. I think that that i s
probably the best way to use the time we
have, which I wish could be a whole
afternoon.
First Participant:
I'm here from New York, and I'm repre-
senting a l o t of interests. Some of my
friends come from Trinidad i n the West
Indies. I noticed that there are no
classes at the conference on how to trace
your ancestry i n the West Indies or i n
the Caribbean. Do you go about i t the
same way you would your black history i n
the United States?
Mr. Haley:
I'm glad you asked that. I t just happens
to be one of the things I do know some-
thing about that I stumbled upon i n re-
search. I t utterly fascinated me. Are
you talking about Caribbean black people?
First Participant:
Yes.
6
Mr. Haley:
In the researching of Roots, one of the
questions f o r me became, What ship
brought Kunta Kinte to this country? I
had some clues. The family story had
always said he came to some place called
"'Naplis." I heard "'Naplis" before I
was old enough to know anything. Now,
this was obviously Annapolis, Maryland.
In Africa, some forty years later, I
heard this old griot say that Kunta Kinte
had disappeared "at about the time the
king's soldiers came." Now my search
became to find out who the king's sol-
diers were.
I went to London and searched and
searched i n British parliamentary records
and f i n a l l y found a group called Colonel
0'Hare's Forces. They had been sent from
London to that place on the Gambia River
and were obviously the king's soldiers to
whom the griot referred.
Now I had a time area, and things were
starting to f i l l i n . I knew Kunta was
brought on a ship—there was no other way
he could have been brought. My question
then became, What ship had sailed out of
the Gambia River and had had as i t s des-
tination Annapolis? Had the ship's des-
tination been Charleston, I would have
been i n bad trouble because so many slave
ships came into Charleston. Annapolis
was not a frequent slave port—that was
one of my big assets. I searched and
searched and searched i n the Public Rec-
ord Office i n London, u n t i l one after-
noon—I w i l l never forget i t — I looked
down and saw, among about thirty-five
ships l i s t e d , the Lord Ligonier, Captain
Thomas Davies. She had l e f t on 5 July
1767, destination Annapolis. Well, I
nearly had a f i t . I got on a plane, flew
back to this country, made i t to Annap-
o l i s , and began to search the records at
the Maryland Hall of Records. I knew
about how long i t took sailing ships to
cross the ocean, and I found that after
two months, three weeks, and a few days,
on 29 September, the Lord Ligonier, with
Captain Thomas Davies, had arrived from
the Gambia River. She had l e f t with 140
903/Haley/Walker
slaves as her cargo; she arrived with 98
alive, and I knew Kunta Kinte was one of
them.
Anyway, i n the slave-ship records you
would see thirty-five or forty ships on
one l i s t i n g , and the dates of t h e i r
departures were there. These ships had
stayed anywhere from six months to ten
months getting their cargo before they
sailed out, the competition for cargo was
such. They would leave from any place.
The Gambia River area was what I was
studying, but they would leave from any-
where down the coast of western Africa.
The destination of ship A would be B a l t i -
more; ship B, Barbados; ship C, Charles-
ton; another one, Martinique or Jamaica;
and so forth. These ships had a l l loaded
from the same places i n Africa, and the
question of what happened to the cargo
depended simply on the destination of the
ship—was i t the United States, or was i t
the Caribbean?
Now l e t me t e l l you what a l l that back-
ground means and t r y to get at what
you're asking. Generally, the slave
ships l o s t about one-fourth of t h e i r
cargo by death. The fascinating thing
was that when the ships got to the United
States, there were always auctions, as
the book Roots describes. The agent for
the ship would run an ad i n the paper ( i n
the case of the Lord Ligonier, i t was i n
the Maryland Gazette), and i t would say
how many Africans they had brought i n and
what time the auction would be held. To
that auction would come a great many
plantation owners from different places
who would inspect the slaves as they
would put them on the block, and they
would buy them one by one. Rarely would
they buy more than one at a time. Thus,
most of the A f r i c a n s brought to the
United States were taken, one by one,
from an auction to a plantation where
everything they met was alien to A f r i c a ,
where everything about Africa was r i d i -
culed. Even the other blacks knew
nothing about Africa. The African was
reduced to keeping whatever he could
retain about Africa within himself, as
was the case with Kunta Kinte. He had no
7
support from anybody. Everything African
was out. Either i t was i l l e g a l , or the
African could be beaten or laughed at by
the other slaves for trying to retain his
African culture.
That happened with those brought to this
country. Here the agriculture was i n d i -
go, r i c e , some cotton, and tobacco. The
average plantation at that time had five
to eight slaves, not three hundred or
four hundred l i k e the Gone with the Wind
image. There were a few that big, but
very few. A plantation i n need of slaves
only added one more slave, rather than a
lot more slaves. That's why the slaves
went one at a time to these alien planta-
tions. That was the background of the
ancestors of almost a l l of us blacks i n
this country who go back to such a person
as Kunta Kinte or a female equivalent.
But i n the Caribbean there was a d i f f e r -
ence. The Caribbean black people l i k e to
feel that they have some inherent sense
of blackness greater than ours. I t ain't
so. I love them dearly, but their heri-
tage was determined purely by which way
the slave ship went. Back at the slave-
ship harbor, two ships could leave within
a week of each other with Africans from
exactly the same radius, the same t r i b a l
groups, maybe the same villages, possibly
the same families, but one ship would
have as i t s d e s t i n a t i o n Barbados or
Jamaica and the other, the United States.
When the ship got to i t s destination i n
the Caribbean, there was not an auction
where the slaves were sold off one by one
and taken to places alone, with nobody to
support them. In the Caribbean, almost
without exception, the agriculture was
sugar cane. And instead of small planta-
tions, there were vast tracts of l a n d —
thousands of acres of sugar cane—on
which there might be a thousand slaves
or, on a smaller plantation, five hun-
dred. And there, when the slave ships
arrived, the agents for the ships would
make deals with the owners of planta-
t i o n s , who bought, i f not the whole
l i v i n g cargo, half the cargo. And so you
had at least half the l i v i n g cargo of
903/Haley/Walker
A f r i c a n s going together and staying
together on one p l a n t a t i o n i n the
Caribbean. So the Africans there sup-
ported each other, whereas the black
brought here was one against the many
wherever he was taken. And that had a
great deal to do with the character, the
perception, and the psyche of the black
who was a slave here and of the black who
was a slave i n the Caribbean, and of the
descendants of both. Now Jimmy can prob-
ably add something much more learned to
this.
Mr. Walker:
Thank you, Alex. There i s , as I've i n d i -
cated before, the research problem.
Technique i s exactly the same. They have
to trace their family back to the orig-
i n a l immigrant, i f possible. If the fam-
i l i e s arrived i n the United States after
the C i v i l War, then their a r r i v a l i s duly
documented on immigration passenger
l i s t s . However, the history of the slave
trade i s such that many of the blacks
were brought from Africa to the Caribbean
and then to the New England states and
then south into the southern part of the
United States. However, beginning i n the
late 1840s or early 1850s, the Southern-
ers began to reject West Indies slaves.
They considered them lazy and t r i f l i n g .
They wanted d i r e c t importations from
Africa.
One of the problems with tracing families
from the West Indies i s that many of them
came from Africa to the West Indies to
the United States and then back to the
West Indies, whereas many others came
directly to the West Indies and never
l e f t u n t i l they immigrated to t h i s
country.
For the B r i t i s h West Indies and the
Caribbean, the records of the B r i t i s h
Public Record Office, i n the countries
that were B r i t i s h , and the records of the
Catholic church, i n countries of French
or Spanish domination, are e x c e l l e n t .
Once the family i s located there, It's
just absolutely fantastic what you can
find. And I too regret that there was no
8
one here to talk about that subject, but
maybe at the next conference there w i l l
be somebody here.
First Participant:
Thank you both for your time.
Mr. Haley:
Is there somebody else?
You gave a l e c t u r e i n Dayton, Ohio,
several years ago—in fact, before Roots
came out—at which time I asked you i f
you had heard anything about the rumor
that you were going to start a black
library i n Washington, D.C. At that
point, you said you had heard about the
rumor but that i t was only a rumor so
far. I was wondering i f there has been
any progress made. Thank you.
Mr. Haley:
Not really. I ' l l t e l l you what began to
happen. Among the discoveries I've made
since Roots came out i s that i t ' s one
thing to have lovely aspirations to do
things l i k e that, and then i t ' s another
thing entirely to make them happen. I
have talked about i t . In fact, I talked
with Jimmy Walker about i t at some length
early on. But several things began to
happen. The minute i t got publicized
that I was going to do something like
that, I got flooded with m a i l , with
requests, with one thing or another. I
was trying to deal with the l i f e of being
a writer, doing that and the other, and I
simply could not cope with i t physically.
I have tried not only that but several
other things i n the interim. Now what i t
has come down to and what I think i s
going to happen i s this: I have a small
foundation, and I am going to see i f I
cannot set up w i t h i n that foundation
something to encourage black family
reunions. The reason I am limiting i t to
blacks i s again simply because of the
demand. I don't know i f we really can
903/Haley/Walker
cope with just black family reunions, and
if we open i t up, i f we try to deal with
a l l family reunions, t h a t ' s the l a s t
y o u ' l l ever see or hear of me. But this
i s something that I hope I can do
p a r t i c u l a r l y w e l l just because of my
image. I could get i t going, and then I
want to work with people l i k e the good
brothers of the Mormon church, who have
the means, ideas, and experience, and see
if we cannot create an agency that could
aid people of every kind, color, and
nationality who are interested i n family
reunions. That's what I now really want
to go into. But I'm going to leave the
library to l i b r a r i a n s .
Third Participant:
Mr. Haley, I've had a question for about
two years, ever since I saw Roots. My
mother's family are Harveys, and, i n the
film, after the young man came home from
Europe, he returned to Georgia and sought
out the family at the Harvey plantation.
We were wondering i f you could give us
the name of that Harvey family.
Mr. Haley:
The Harvey family i n Roots? Who played
that role? I'm just trying to remember.
Third Participant:
Did they interject anything i n the tele-
v i s i o n production that wasn't i n the
book?
Mr. Haley:
No, everything i n that was pretty much
true. In the whole of Roots, i n the book
and the film, of the major characters,
the only wholly f i c t i t i o u s character—one
I t o t a l l y created and loved dearly—was
the one called Fiddler, which Lou Gossett
played. I created him because music was
such a part of slavery, and there was
nobody i n my family who was identified
with music. Also, Kunta needed some
older, wiser slave to be his teacher, his
mentor. So I created Fiddler out of a
composite of many, many things I've read
9
about older slaves. Lou played that role
l i k e nobody ever dreamed of playing i t .
One of the most moving things that ever
happened in the filming of Roots occurred
when we filmed a scene with Fiddler and
Kunta i n Savannah, Georgia. The reason
we went down there was because the coun-
tryside of Savannah looks very much l i k e
the savannah lands of Africa. We came to
that time when Kunta was being beaten to
say that his name was Toby. That episode
was absolute fact; I heard i t from the
time I was l i t t l e . They named him Toby,
but he never wanted to say that that was
his name.
I had said at a conference one day, " I
don't care what we do; I don't want any
scene i n the picture to be any stronger
than that." I t seemed to be symbolic,
his fighting to retain his real name.
Then we wrote the scene, and the day came
that we were to film i t . Now and then i n
the motion picture business there w i l l
come moments when the script, actors, and
circumstances a l l come together and some-
thing happens that you could not humanly
have written or even have planned. The
script called for Lou Gossett, playing
F i d d l e r , to be s i t t i n g there as V i c
Morrow, the actor who played the over-
seer, was ordering Kunta's beating.
LaVar Burton was playing Kunta.
Vic ordered, "Beat him again." It looked
as i f LaVar were suspended above the
ground. (He wasn't r e a l l y , but you
couldn't see the l i t t l e projection that
he had his toes resting on.) They would
beat him with a big manila rope that had
been frayed. When they h i t him, i t
looked horrible on film, but i t was not
that bad at a l l . Every time they would
hit him, he would arch his body, and you
got that dramatic effect. Finally, he
gasped "Toby, my name i s Toby." And then
Vic said, "You hear what he said—Toby.
Cut him down."
Then the script called for Lou to catch
him and hold him. Lou was supposed to
say something l i k e , "Boy, you know your
name ain't Toby." Lou had been trying to
903/Haley/Walker
make him say "Toby" too. Then we were
going to fade out. But Lou told me
later, " I forgot completely that I was an
actor. I was back two hundred years."
He said, " I became Fiddler." And he said
that when that boy f e l l down from that
tree, he started crying. At that moment,
a l l cameras were going, and i t was quiet
— y o u somehow know when something i s
going to happen. Lou began to talk, and
i t was almost like stream of conscious-
ness. The sound people very b r i l l i a n t l y
detected something and moved the sound
boom over so that we could pick up Lou's
voice. Lou just totally ad-libbed what
he said on that screen. He said some-
thing l i k e , "Boy, you knows what your
name i s . What i t matter what they think
your name i s ? " And then he began to weep
on camera, and he said, "There's goin' to
be a better day." He paused, and then he
said again, "There's goin' to be a better
day." And by the time he said that,
everybody on that set was weeping—the
cameramen, everybody. And f i n a l l y the
director just said, "Cut, recess." No
more that day. It was beautiful.
I forgot what you asked me.
Third Participant:
I wanted to know i f you could give us the
f i r s t name of the Harvey family.
Mr. Haley:
Lea was the name of the f a m i l y . That was
the r e a l name. Harvey was a f i c t i t i o u s
name we used because you need to use
f i c t i t i o u s names when you're making a
t e l e v i s i o n show. The names i n the book
are the correct names. The names on
t e l e v i s i o n were f i c t i o n a l .
Third Participant:
Thank you.
Mr. Haley:
You're not a Lea by chance, are you? I f
you are, I'm going to say, "Hey, c o u s i n . "
10
Fourth Participant:
Mr. Haley, I'm from Brigham City, Utah.
I represent a day-care center i n Brigham
City, and they wanted me to t e l l you that
they a l l love you and wish they could
have been here to shake your hand. I
wanted to t e l l you how much I love you.
I just think i t ' s great that you're here.
Mr. Haley:
Fantastic. Bless your heart.
Fifth Participant:
Would i t be a l l r i g h t i f I s a i d , " H i ,
cousin"? My maiden name i s Haley, and I
have a book I b e l i e v e you would be i n t e r -
ested i n . I was wondering how I would go
about tracing my black ancestry.
Mr. Haley:
Let me t e l l you something. A f t e r Roots
I_, some of you may have seen a l i t t l e
one-hour feature c a l l e d "Roots: A Year
L a t e r , " I t h i n k , where I went back to
Alamance County, North C a r o l i n a , where my
great-grandparents had been s l a v e s . We
went to a l i t t l e crossroads church near
B u r l i n g t o n , North C a r o l i n a . A white
f a m i l y named Murray had i n v i t e d me to
come and speak there. Then they began to
i n v i t e some black Murrays who were i n the
area. I t was an almost eerie t h i n g .
There was a l i t t l e b i t of taut f e e l i n g — I
wouldn't say tension—because they had
never done t h i s before. Nobody had ever
thought of doing t h i s before. Yet there
were these people who had been l i v i n g f o r
generations w i t h i n the county, a l l of
whom knew that there were black and white
Murrays of the same stock. They simply
were separated by the f a c t that they were
black and w h i t e .
We had t h i s reunion on t e l e v i s i o n , and I
don't know how i t r e a l l y happened except
that there I was speaking, and there was
t h i s l i t t l e church h a l f - f u l l of black
Murrays and h a l f - f u l l of white Murrays.
We a l l knew the story of the family
p r e t t y thoroughly, and we were geneti-
903/Haley/Walker
cally, I suppose, everything to sixteenth
cousins. But the point i s that nobody
bit anybody, and everybody seemed to get
along pretty good, and now i t has become
an annual thing. It i s very matter-of-
fact. It's down i n the heart of the
South, and the blacks and the whites have
their reunion and no big deal. I have
heard of numerous other cases where this
is being done, particularly i n the South.
And I think that i t w i l l be an absolutely
marvelous thing when that spreads. It i s
simply dealing with the facts as they
are. So when you say what you say to me,
I say to you, "Fine, cousin."
Fifth Participant:
I'd like to give you a copy of the book
after the meeting.
Mr. Haley:
I would like very much to have i t . Did
you say you were a Haley?
Fifth Participant:
Yes.
Mr. Haley:
From where?
Fifth Participant:
North Carolina.
Mr. Haley:
You know, the Haleys come originally from
Haleyville, Alabama, at least, some of
them do. Does i t say that i n the book?
Fifth Participant:
No.
Mr. Haley:
Well, that may be another branch. But
I'd love to see the book.
11
Sixth Participant:
Mr. Haley, I would like to introduce Dr.
Moto j i Niwa from Japan. For forty years
he has researched Japanese family crests
and surnames. He has a question.
Mr. Haley:
We are a l l so glad to have him here.
Sixth Participant [translating for Dr.
Niwa]:
I have researched Japanese genealogies
for f o r t y years, e s p e c i a l l y Japanese
surnames and family crests.
As a genealogist, I am well known among
Japanese people. Since the translation
of your book was published i n Japan, I
have been known as the Alex Haley of
Japan. The Japanese people have forgot-
ten my real name because in Japan my name
is now Alex Haley. It i s sad not to see
my name i n Japan, but I'm so grateful to
be called after you, because you are such
a great man.
I would like to ask you one or two ques-
tions for my reference after I go back to
Japan. Is there any simple answer for
those people who want to do genealogical
research? I just came back from Yungkia
recently. While I was i n Yungkia, I met
so many people who like you. While I was
there, I was asked how to do genealogical
work i n New Guinea. But I couldn't
answer this question. I would l i k e to be
able to t e l l those people how to do gene-
alogical work easily. Right now I would
l i k e to publish a dictionary of surnames.
I have a dream that someday many people
w i l l be able to do their genealogical
work very simply. I would l i k e to have
your opinion on this matter.
Mr. Haley:
I think i t ' s great.
Dr. Niwa:
Thank you very much.
 /
7

WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Roman Catholic Church

Records in Turkey: How to
Use Them tor Genealogy
and
Family History
Livio A. Missir
^ Series 904
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH RECORDS IN TURKEY: HOW TO USE THEM FOR
GENEALOGY AND FAMILY HISTORY

Livlo A. Missir

Born i n Turkey. Resides i n Brussels, Belgium. Principal administrator for the overall
supervision of exterior relations for the Commission of European Communities. Doctor
in law, University of Rome. Author, translator, family historian, diplomat.

A. TERMINOLOGY opposed to c i v i l records; church records

mean records, i . e . registers, established
To avoid any confusion, especially from by a church person, irrespective of their
the American point of view, and because c i v i l value. They are generally called,
of the extreme complexity of the according to Roman Catholic canon law,
religious and c i v i l interferences i n the l i b r i baptlzatorum (registers of
Middle^ Eastern, i . e . Levantine coun- baptisms), l i b r i mortuorum (registers of
t r i e s , I think i t useful to make a very death), and l i b r j . matrimoniorum
small introduction to my paper by giving (registers of marriage).
seme explanation of the meaning of the
words I w i l l use. And since the t i t l e They are, of course, v a l i d with regard to
given to my paper i s "Roman Catholic Roman Catholic canon law, irrespective of
Church Records i n Turkey," l e t us start the date of their elaboration, whereas
by examining the meaning of records. they seem to be never accepted by
Turkish c i v i l law.

1. Meaning of "Records" On the contrary, Western countries seem

to recognize their c i v i l value, although
Records i s used here not i n the large with reference to different dates more or
sense of "archive" but i n the very less according to the date of their own
s p e c i f i c sense of b i r t h , death, and c i v i l b i r t h , death, and marriage legis-
marriage registers. lation or according to the date when such
c i v i l l e g i s l a t i o n was introduced i n
In the next section, we w i l l see to what Turkey (1930).
extent these registers can be considered
as ecclesiastic or c i v i l documents s t i l l To give an example, I t a l y recognizes as a
i n force with regard to the Roman c i v i l record, any Roman Catholic church
Catholic canonic legislation on one hand, record d e l i v e r e d by a Roman Catholic
and to the respective c i v i l legislation authority established on the territory of
on the other hand. the Republic of Turkey with reference to
a period before 1930, whatever the date
I exclude from the word records any other of the d e l i v e r y of the c e r t i f i c a t e
document (papal Bullae, Ottoman firmans concerning the record might be (whether
or hodgets or tezkeres which might be i t be 1650 or 1980). What i s important i s
preserved i n the Roman Catholic archives the fact that the church document (or
of Turkey and which might have some record) covered by the certificate refers
interest for genealogical researchers). to a period before 1930. For instance,
the c e r t i f i c a t e of baptism of my
grandfather Amedeo M i s s i r Mamachi d i
Lusignano, christened i n the Church of
2. Meaning of "Church Records"
Santa Maria of the Chocolants at Smyrna
(Izmir) on 11 January 1865, which was
Church records mean here ecclesiastic as
904/Missir
delivered to me by the priest i n charge
of this church, the late Father Pacifico
Fazzi, OFM, last year, i s recognized by
the Italian c i v i l authorities as a c i v i l
certificate of birth and bears on I t s
back the following declaration of the
Italian consul at Smyrna: ("II presente
atto e valido a t u t t i g l i e f f e t t i c i v i l i "churches or r e l i g i o u s i n s t i t u t i o n s i n
("The present certificate i s valid on any
point of view according to c i v i l law").
3. Meaning of Roman Catholic
The meaning of the term Roman Catholic i s
a very important question since, from a
r e l i g i o u s point of view, any church
recognizing the pope of Rome (be i
"eastern" l i k e the Armenian church or
"western") i s called, at least according
to the Anglo-Saxon, German, or Protestant
terminology, Roman Catholic. Therefore,
i f I do not explain the meaning of what I
Intend by Roman Catholic i n my specific
context, I might cause to err any scholar
who might need to make a search i n l e t us
say "Roman Catholic Armenian" or "Roman
Catholic Greek" records i n Turkey.
What I mean i s the Latin, i . e . , the Roman point of view of the involved families
Catholic church bound to the pope of Rome and persons.
through bishops and priests using the
Latin language, i n other words using the
Latin r i t e , the Latin mass and liturgy.
So when I refer to Roman Catholic church
records I refer only and exclusively to
L a t i n baptism, death, and marriage
registers. Nothing more.
4. Meaning of the Expression "In Turkey"
The expression i n Turkey too necessitates
an explanation, since i n Turkey might
have not only a geographical, but also a
legal or j u r i d i c a l meaning.
What I mean however i s only records of
the Latin church which are presently to
be found and consulted on the territory
of the Republic of Turkey, irrespective
of the nationality of their proprietor or the peculiarities of Ottoman Islamic law
possessor. In fact, these records might
2
be Turkifh or foreign according to the
legal status, i . e . , to the citizenship of
the i n s t i t u t i o n , foundation, or person to
which (or -.o whom) they belong.
Generally, according to the Lausanne
Treaty (1923) covering most of the
Turkey, Latin churches i n this country
are foreign and either French or I t a l i a n ,
which means that Roman Catholic church
records i n Turkey ar^ mostly i n either
French or I t a l i a n . This i s very
important because, i n case of research,
the scholar has to ascertain not only the
i n s t i t u t i o n (the church) to which the
records involved belong, but also i t s
t nationality.
B. IMPORTANCE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH RECORDS IN TURKEY
1. Ethnological Importance
I am not able to give a s t a t i s t i c a l
evaluation of Roman Catholic records i n
Turkey, be i t on the point of view of the
number of registers, or be i t on the
However, they represent an important
point i n the history of the Middle East,
since the f a m i l i e s and persons i n
question belonged to Latin communities
either issued from the Crusades or formed
by the a r r i v a l of foreign merchants,
missionaries, diplomats, consuls,
doctors, and their families who played an
important role i n the p o l i t i c a l or econo-
mic history of the relations between East
and West, between Europe and the Ottoman
Empire, between Christianity and Islam.
The importance of these records i s s t i l l
bigger i f one thinks of the fact that
these persons, families, or communities,
e i t h e r became subject to the Ottoman
Empire i n the course of the century or
found a way to maintain their foreign
allegiance by several means according to
(for instance thanks to the so-called
904/Missir
foreign protection which made them
f o r e i g n proteges), but s t i l l remained
members of a sole and unique Roman
Catholic or Latin or Prankish community
or nation, which played an important role
w i t h i n the framework of the Ottoman
Empire as Toynbee pointed out with reason
i n his famous Study of History.
The study of the Roman Catholic church
records i n Turkey (Turkey to be intended
as the whole post-Ottoman states; i . e . ,
Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania,
Cyprus, Israel, and some of the Machrek
countries) allows the historian to speak
of the L a t i n nation of the Ottoman
Empire, as we are (or should be)
accustomed to speak of the Armenian, of
the Greek, and of the Jewish nations of
the Ottoman Empire.
There i s an ethnological link among a l l
members of the Latin families and persons
christened, married, or enterred
and recorded i n the Roman Catholic church
records, be they nowadays on the
t e r r i t o r y of Greece, on that of the
Republic of Turkey, or of any other
republic, kingdom, or state of the Middle
East. And i t i s practically impossible
to e s t a b l i s h a family h i s t o r y or a
genealogical tree of a L a t i n family
without consulting the Greek Roman
Catholic records of the islands of Corfu
and Scio (Chios), the French Roman
C a t h o l i c records of Saint-Polycarp i n
Smyrna, the Italian Roman Catholic church
records of the Dominicans of Galata i n
Istanbul, the Lebanese Roman C a t h o l i c
church records at Beirut, the Cypriot
Reman Catholic church records at Nicosia
or Limassol, or the Egyptian Roman
Catholic church records of Heliopolis.
Of course, as f a r as the state i s
concerned, these records are Greek,
French, Lebanese, e t c . , but ethnolo-
g l c a l l y they r e f e r to communities
r a c i a l l y bound and linked among them-
selves, whatever t h e i r western o r i g i n
might have been, their Europeanness and
their Roman Catholic Latin faith being
the determining elements.
2. Chronological Importance
According to the I t a l i a n genealogist,
Count Guelfi Camajani of Florence, the
oldest church record i n Italy goes back
to 1425.
In the post-Ottoman countries i t seems
that the oldest Roman Catholic church
record goes back to 1580. I t i s that of
the Greek island of Scio (Chios).
The oldest record i n Turkey seems to be
that of Santa Maria Draperis, going back
to 1666. I t i s followed by those of
Sant'Antonio and of Holy Peter and Paul
of the Dominicans at Galata. The oldest
in Smyrna i s that of Santa Maria at
Bournabat (1796).
Unfortunately, these records are not
always complete. Seme gaps are to be
regretted because of f i r e s , earthquakes,
p o l i t i c a l events which made some of the
books ( l i b r i ) disappear. For instance a l l
the records of Santa Maria of the Chocol-
ants at Smyrna were burned by the f i r e of
September 1922, and the f i r s t ten l i b r i
of Saint-Polycarp, of the same town, also
perished during that disastrous f i r e .
There are no duplicates elsewhere to
helped us reconstruct the lost acts.
3. Historical Importance
From what has already been said, we can
understand the historical importance of
such records as witnesses of the
existence of a nation and i t s deeds.
A portion of the Roman Catholic Latin
nation of the Levant played such an
important role i n the Levant that we can
refer to i t as an aristocracy i n several
senses. It w i l l suffice to cite the case
of the Giustiniani and Timoni families,
the names of which are quoted so often i n
the records of Chios, of Constantinople,
and of Smyrna. The Giustinianis were not
only an a r i s t o c r a t i c family of the
Levant, but they gave even cardinals to
the Holy Roman church, whereas the
904/Missir
Timonis are known as the f i r s t physicians
who introduced to Europe the inoculation
against smallpox and played an important
role as dragomans (a kind of co-ambassa-
dor and coconsul) i n many parts of the
Ottoman Empire. Nowadays some Timonis,
who l e f t Istanbul and Smyrna at the end
of the last century, are l i v i n g i n the
United States.
C. USE OF THE RECORDS
1. Location
If someone knows or thinks that he has
Latin ancestors who lived i n the Levant
( i . e . , i n ex-Ottoman countries), he has,
f i r s t of a l l , to locate the records.
Did that ancestor l i v e i n Chios, i n
Istanbul, i n Smyrna, i n Jerusalem, or i n
Alexandria?
This i s the f i r s t question to answer. Of
course, since I said that there were
racial links between the L a t i n
communities of a l l these towns, i t i s
possible that this ancestor might have
had relatives i n a l l of them. But one
has to start with one town.
After the town, the church has to be
found. I f the church i s not known, the
authority to consult i s the highest Latin
(i.e., Roman Catholic) authority
according to the o f f i c i a l state book of
the Vatican which i s c a l l e d Annuarlo
Pontificio. The highest authority i s
g e n e r a l l y a r e s i d e n t i a l bishop or an
apostolic, vicar or the apostolic nuncio,
who w i l l very kindly help the interested
party to get i n touch with the local
Latin hierarchy.
In Turkey there a r e , i n f a c t , an
a p o s t o l i c pronuncio i n Ankara, an
a p o s t o l i c v i c a r f o r the L a t i n s at
Istanbul, and a residential bishop at
Smyrna. Some of the records are under
their direct jurisdiction, since some of
the interested parishes (for instance the
Raman Catholic catherdrals of Istanbul
and Smyrna) are or were under the
4
jurisdiction of secular priests depending
on the bishop.
Other records are under the jurisdiction
of the respective churches, for instance
the Dominicans for Holy Peter and Paul of
Galata and Holy Rosary at Smyrna, the
Franciscans f o r Santa Maria both at
Istanbul and Smyrna, and the Capuchins
for Saint-Louis at Istanbul and
Saint-Polycarp at Smyrna.
2. Authorization
Authorization has to be obtained from the
parish or church concerned. Sometimes the
authorization of the bishop i s also nec-
essary i n order to consult the records
personally. A third authorization might
be also required according to the nation-
a l i t y of the church (the French consul or
ambassador for the French church records,
the Italian consul or ambassador for the
Italian church records, etc.).
In some cases, i f a church has been sup-
pressed (for instance the French Latin
church at the Dardanelles) the records
might be either at the Latin cathedral of
the nearest biggest town (e.g., Istanbul)
or at the French consulate and might
require the a u t h o r i z a t i o n of both
authorities.
In some cases, the records might have
been sent by the interested order (for
instance the Capuchins) to their central
office i n Europe. I never came across
such a case, but Dr. Slot, of the Dutch
State Archive, The Hague, relates in one
of his books that he found i n Paris, at
the Capuchins c e n t r a l headquarters i n
France, the records of the Latin church
of Melos (a Greek island).
3. Research
The researcher needs a certain knowledge
of religious uses in the Levant.
Indexes, language, c a l l i g r a p h y , etc.,
play a big role, and only a scientific
904/Missir 5

approach, after photocopying and the writer. So the researcher should know
computerizing the records, w i l l allow at least Italian and French, besides Lat-
scholars and researchers to have i n . Armenian and Arabic signatures are to
satisfactory results. be found i n some cases (e.g., Saint-
Polycarp) .
Indexes

Sometimes the records lack indexes Complements

completely so the scholar has to go
through the whole book and establish the
index himself. (In the case of the f i r s t
book of Saint-Polycarp of Smyrna, the
Index has been made by myself and refers
to the period 1807-50.)
Sometimes the indexes exist, but they are
in alphabetical order by Christian (not
the family) name; and usually i n such
cases the index does not follow a true
alphabetical order, but rather a chrono-
logical order, Albert coming after Antony
i f Albert was born after Antony. Further-
more, indexes to the registers of mar-
riage generally refer to only the bride-
groom's Christian name.
Only in the second half of the last
century were indexes made i n true
a l p h a b e t i c a l order according to the
family name.
Languages
Latin i s to be found i n many records; but
Italian is also used, especially i n the American c i v i l registers should also ex-
oldest texts and even i n French church,
records, depending on the nationality of
How can one complete missing periods,
documents, etc.?
Either published genealogies (those of
the de Hubsch, Testa, Giustiniani, Lusig-
nans, Missir, etc.) or research i n the
Vatican archive ( i n the case of marriage
a u t h o r i z a t i o n s , etc.) can help one
complete a record.
For the last century ( i . e . , from the be-
ginning of the nineteenth century for
France and a l i t t l e b i t later for I t a l y ) ,
c i v i l records exist either with the inte-
rested consulates i n loco or with the
archives of the respective ministries of
foreign affairs (Nantes i n France) or the
state archive i n Italy (for instance,
Turin, where I personally found the f i r s t
Sardinian register of the Sardinian sub-
jects i n Smyrna going back to 1842, the
present oldest register of the Italian
consulate archives going back only to
1870).
ist for Smyrna at Washington, D.C. Ameri-
can religious records are mixed either
with Protestant (Anglican or Dutch or
German) or Latin records of the Levant.

NOTES

^"Le vant ine refers to any state having been t e r r i t o r i a l l y a portion of the old
Ottoman Empire, which collapsed i n 1923.

There exist also l i b r i status anima rum (records describing the religious state
of families), but they are d i f f i c u l t to consult because of the canonical secret.
L i b r i confirmatorum do not generally exist; confirmation i s mentioned i n separate
l i s t s or in footnotes.

I t would take a long discussion to explain the existence of one or two Roman
Catholic churches i n Turkey which have Austrian, Spanish, or perhaps also some other
Catholic citizenship.
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

West African Cultures:

Past and Present
Victor Uchendu,
Marion Kilson,
Derrick J. Thom
-^Series 905
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 WEST AFRICAN CULTURES: PAST AND PRESENT
A PROUD HERITAGE:
THE CULTURES OF THE BRITISH SLAVE TRADE AREAS OF WEST AFRICA

Victor C. Uchendu

Born i n Nigeria. Resides i n Urbana, I l l i n o i s . Professor of anthropology and director

of the A f r i c a n Studies Center, U n i v e r s i t y of I l l i n o i s . Ph.D. (anthropology),
Northwestern Unversity. Author.

INTRODUCTION Agricultural revolution i n Africa f a l l s

into three well-marked phases. The Nile
Archaeological evidence, buttressed by Valley i n Egypt pioneered the f i r s t phase
the growing s o p h i s t i c a t i o n i n dating about the second h a l f of the f i f t h
archaeological data, i s changing our millennium B.C. with two important grain
traditional views of man and his early crops, wheat and barley. The Sudanic
c u l t u r a l beginnings and achievements. belt, stretching from the Atlantic i n the
A l l the a v a i l a b l e s c i e n t i f i c evidence west to the Ethiopian highlands i n the
points to the conclusion that the tropics east, and lying south of the equatorial
is the home of the early man, and that region and north of the Sahara desert,
within the tropics, i s the home of the led the second phase of the agricultural
early man, and that within the tropics, revolution. Between the second and the
the eastern A f r i c a n highlands hold a third millennium B. C , the Sudan started
place of pride. I f the R i f t Valleys and to b u i l d an a g r i c u l t u r a l c i v i l i z a t i o n
the river gorges of eastern Africa hold based essentially on drought-resistant
the key to the early history of man, we sorghums and millets to which the Western
intend to argue that the cradle of the Sudan added i t s regional s p e c i a l t y — a dry
great cultural traditions of sub-Saharan rice called Oryza glaberrima. The impact
A f r i c a , lies i n West Africa. of the Sudan food producing revolution i s
r e f l e c t e d i n the build-up of a high
Support for this thesis can be found from density of population which both Bantu
three sources of data: the demographic migration and, much later, the Atlantic
facts of the region since the Neolithic slave trade depended upon. The Bantu
revolution; the cultural achievements of migration created the t h i r d phase of
the region; and the great Bantu migration a g r i c u l t u r a l d i f f u s i o n i n much of
which o r i g i n a t e d from western A f r i c a . southern and easten Africa.
The agricultural achievemtnes of the West
African region are important enough to
have generated the speculation that the WEST AFRICA: A CULTURAL PROFILE
inland Niger d e l t a i s one of the
independent centers of a g r i c u l t u r a l West A f r i c a , i n the period of the
origins. Whatever the f i n a l verdict of Atlantic slave trade, was conceived as a
history on the status of the West African much larger geographic b e l t than our
region with regard to the o r i g i n of current use of the term Implies. A l l the
agriculture, i t is quite clear that the territory from Mauritania i n the west to
high density of population i n the the Congo i n the east came to be known as
region—a population pressure which i s West Africa. The Arabs had even a wider
s t i l l locally f e l t i n places—gave rise conception. To the, Bilad as Sudan—the
to recurrent out-mitration of which the land of the blacks—was synonymous with
Bantu migration was the most dramatic. sub-Saharan Africa. With the specializa-
tion of trade on the coast, subregional
905/Uchendu
names were evolved by European traders to
differentiate the West African coast and
its main commodities. The Guinea coast,
the Slave coast, the Gold coast, and the
O i l Rivers, are typical. Because West
Africa provided most of the slaves and
also sustained the legitimate trade by
providing commodities and products which
fed the industrial machines i n B r i t a i n ,
i t also a t t r a c t e d a large group of
traders, t r a v e l e r s , and missionaries
whose selective perceptions of the West
African coast became the stereotypes and
the f o l k l o r e of A f r i c a n c u l t u r a l
traditions.
Like African cultures of which they are
an important part, West Africa cultures
are varied but dynamic. There are also
important underlying uniformities which
must be understood i n t h e i r t o t a l
context i f we are to understand African
societies. Ignorance of the underlying
c u l t u r a l unity that gives meaning to
African cultural diversity has tended to
do violence to African cultures and to
render African ethnography less
i n t e l l e c t u a l l y stimulating that i t
would be otherwise. Before we outline
the c u l t u r a l background to A f r i c a n
c i v i l i z a t i o n during the period of the
Atlantic slave trade, we w i l l b r i e f l y
review the concept of culture and
note i t s s t r a t e g i c r o l e i n any
civilization.
The Meaning of Culture
Popular definitions of culture abound.
Culture i s often viewed as a "way of
l i f e " ; "a mode of adaptation." For some
i t i s "the man-made part of the
environment"; others r e s t r i c t i t to
"knowledge, b e l i e f , a r t , morals, law,
custom and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man as a memeber of
society." The anthropological literature
emphasizes that c u l t u r e i s a " s o c i a l
h e r i t a g e " — a product of h i s t o r y that
results i n shared ideas, shared practices
and beliefs. Culture i s a l l these and
more. It i s a strategic instrument for
achieving desired ends, an active process
2
that i s always changing, always helping
us to adapt to changing enviroments.
Culture theorists f a l l into two tradi-
tions: realists and idealists. The rea-
l i s t s approach culture through observed
manifestations, behavior, and products of
behavior. For the r e a l i s t s , culture i s
what the culture bearer does or does not
do. The culture bearer does a l l the grand
things and not-so-grand things we a t t r i -
bute to culture. The idealists approach
culture through an interpretation of the
culture-bearer's ideas of societal values
and norms. For the idealist culture i s an
abstraction, a construct, a design or
code for proper behavior.
Every culture embodies the achievments of
the past and modes of adaptation to
present challenges posed by i t s environ-
ment. Tradition and change are important
characteristics of culture. Cultures that
refuse to change, or to adapt to their
environment, soon pass away and become
objects of interest to archaeologists.
Living cultures change; but they do not
change out of recognition. They need the
strength of t r a d i t i o n , which i s the
pattern of the past, to make necessary
changes which w i l l become the pattern for
the future. In this view, every culture
can be regarded as ". . . programmatic, a
guided course of a c t i v i t i e s . . . . A l l
culture may be regarded as man's way of
imposing form upon the forces around
him." How West African cultures imposed
cultural forms on their respective c i v i l -
izations w i l l be explored i n this paper.
There are as many approaches to African
cultures as there are disciplines. His-
t o r i a n s , anthropologists, economists,
students of f o l k l o r e and l i t e r a t u r e ,
etc., have developed their various ap-
proaches. For a panoramic view of West
African cultures, we w i l l adopt an integ-
rated approach that draws from many dis-
ciplines. We w i l l emphasize the following
themes: (a) the African world view (b)
the African value systems; (c) and how
these two shape and condition West
African social organization and c i v i l i -
zation.
905/Uchendu 3
a

AFRICAN WORLD VIEW AND COSMOLOGY product i s also a social reality to i t s

culture bearers. A l l social products
Western scholars s t i l l regard Africa as a have a quality appertaining to phenomena
continent of l i t t l e t r a d i t i o n s ; they that we recognize as having a being or
assign the great traditions to the East existence independent of our volition.
and West. Africa has i t s great tradi- In this construction a world view i s
tions and l i t t l e traditions. We have no taken for granted and i s seldom subjected
record of a people without a view of i t - to analysis for possible contradictions.
self and of the world around i t . Despite It i s usually the outsiders, the non-
the great diversity that characterizes culture bearers who subject others' world
Africa, there are shared commonalities views to systematic doubt. Being
that shape a sense of history and culture p s y c h o l o g i c a l l y adjusted to a c u l t u r e
and locate a world view. In my view, the implies accepting i t s world view without
African world view i s larger than the sum question. The task of the analyst,
of individual world views held by i n d i v i - however, i s to contribute to the
dual societies i n the African continent. sociology of knowledge by analyzing how
s o c i a l r e a l i t y or world view i s
Every world view tends to be ethnocen- constructed and how i t can be
t r i c . The philosopher Schopenhauer transformed.
summarized this phenomenon when he said:
"Everyman takes the limits of his own THE BUILDING BLOCKS FOR AFRICAN WORLD
vision for the limits of the world." VIEW
Schopenhauer's dictum r e f l e c t s an
individualistic frame of reference—the Contemporary African world view has been
self view. There is also another view: a affected by three streams of thought i n
society's view of i t s e l f and of the world the last 1,000 years. The earliest
around i t . This i s the world view. stream came from the Arab world, be-
ginning i n the nineth century A.D. The
European stream began to percolate about
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE WORLD VIEW the fifteenth century; and modern African
thought, a reinterpretation of the Arab
As humans we l i v e i n two interacting and European thoughts, came much later,
worlds: the world of nature and the about the eighteenth century. If we want
world of culture. The world of nature i s to capture what the traditional African
imposed on us; and the world of culture world view was, we would have to imagine
Is of our own creation and imposition. what the African continent was, cultur-
How we react to the world of nature and a l l y , about 800 A.D. The reconstruction
the world other than our own depends on of A f r i c a ' s c u l t u r e h i s t r o y has been
the assumptions which make sense to us i n approached through the concept of "cul-
terms of our own world view. The world ture area," a methodolgy which as been
view, l i k e a l l c u l t u r a l elements, Is abandoned because of i t s low u t i l i t y .
s o c i a l l y constructed. I t functions t o
interpret the external worlds i n a way In The Mind of A f r i c a 5
W.E. Abraham, a
that i s consistent with the intellectual Ghanaian philosopher, makes two
and emotional frames of a given society. observations which may be restated:
A l l forms of learning or education
involve this interpretation; and how we F i r s t , African cultures have a "certain
approach the external world, whether world view" which i s f u l l y intregrated
through the strategies of accomodation, with and expresses the unity and
adaptation, or conquest, depends on our consistency of t h e i r r e l i g i o n and
world view. theology, morality and social
organization.
World views are a social product because
they are socially constructed. A social Second, African cultures share "family
905/Uchendu
a
type" resemblances, while they may
exhibit s u p e r f i c i a l differences i n
matters of detail, they remain
e s s e n t i a l l y members of a f a m i l y i n
orientations and central dispositions.
THE DESTINY OF MAN
The central concern of a world view i s to
define and defend the role of man In
society and i n extrasocietal domain. The
destiny of man:—what man Is, where man i s
located i n social and s p i r i t u a l forms and
where man eventually goes and why—are
questions which the world view raises and
tries to answer. There are usually two
classes of answers: the f o l k answer which
comes as part of the enculturatlon or
s o c i a l i z a t i o n process; and the answer
provided by the student of culture. The
student may be Interested i n the socio-
logy of knowledge or ehtnophilosophy.
Black A f r i c a e x h i b i t s four important
notions which convey i t s conception of
the destiny of man i n the A f r i c a n
continent.
F i r s t , the A f r i c a n world view i s
l i f e - a f f i r m i n g . Africans cultivate a
philosophy of v i t a l i s m and dynamism.
They do not subscribe to a philosophy of
world denial or a compelling desire to
abandon the here and now for there and
thereafter. There i s no exaltation of
celibacy or monastic l i f e but rather an
e x a l t a t i o n of t h i s l i f e which f i n d s
practical expression in polygyny, healing
shrines and the incorporation of the
departed elder into the l i v i n g lineage.
For the African, fertility and
reincarnation are v e h i c l e s f o r l i f e -
affirmation.
Second, A f r i c a n world view lays more
emphasis on duty than on rights. This
emphasis has led to a number of mis-
leading interpretations which are
annoying to the informed and g r o s s l y
misleading to the ignorant. A society
founded on a system of duties rather than
on a system of rights does distinguish
between the two and can and does realize
rights through performance of duties, and
4
vice versa. In Black Africa rights are
not asserted i n the a b s t r a c t , they
r e f l e c t rewards inherent from ones
performance of duties. Children have an
obligation to bury their parents accord-
ing to their means. They also have the
right to inherit their parents' wealth.
But children who deny their parents good
b u r i a l s cannot lay claim to t h e i r
parents' wealth by appealing to the
abstract "rights of man."
Third, African world view emphasizes the
necessity f o r a countervailing power.
This i s the basis of the segmentary
principle in African p o l i t i c a l process
and of the individual power quest—the
augumentation of individaul power through
magic i f need be—and the reason for the
a c q u i s i t i o n of new gods i f they are
perceived to be more powerful or helpful
than the existing ones.
Fourth, African world view i s essentially
a tolerant world view. This tolerance is
exhibited i n the coexistence of multiple
gods, the absence of wars of religion i n
Black A f r i c a and the heterodoxy that
prevails. The doctrine of tolerance
influences African ethics which considers
whether action helps or harms human
power. Since man i s conceived as a
"living power" who can gain as well as
lose power, there i s the compelling
necessity to relate to a l l known sources
of power i n an e f f o r t to provide a
countervailing force i n the event of a
major c r i s i s . The higher the individual
i n s o c i a l , economic, and p o l i t i c a l
status, the more his growth-points of
power. Power is not sought for i t s own
sake or to achieve e v i l ends; i t i s
sought for doing good. In this view,
what is e t h i c a l l y good must be
ontologically good.
AFRICAN VALUE SYSTEMS
African value systems are shaped by their
world view. The basic value systems
found i n A f r i c a include but are not
limited to the following: 1. Respect for
the elders which derives from the
postulate of l i f e a f f i r m a t i o n . The
905/Uchendu
a
proposition i s that this l i f e i s more
important than l i f e hereafter. To die
young i s to die u n f u l f i l l e d ; and i t i s
the most tragic of a l l deaths. The
hereafter i s not the object of great
elaboration and what l i t t l e construction
of i t that exists i s modeled on the here
and now. 2. Emphasis on l i n e a l conti-
nuity. 3. Emphasis on mutual dependency.
4. Emphasis on transparent l i v i n g . 5.
Emphasis on cosmological balance and the
recognition that the world can and should
be manipulated to achieve seme good ends.
These basic value systems are supported
by other values:
1. The African defines achievement i n
social rather than i n personal terms. He
regards himself as a member of a large
extended family that may embrace a
lineage or nation. This group i s
responsible to him and he i s responsible
to i t . The f r u i t s of h i s personal
success are shared by a large group and
i t i s this willingness to l e t others
share i n his success that i s valued more
than the fact he i s successful. I t i s
this orientation that has made p o l i t i c s —
p o l i t i c a l r o l e and the governing of
people—the principal avenue f o r
achievement i n Africa.
2. Work, particularly manual work, Is not
valued i n i t s e l f . The end of work i s
survival and to make a l i v i n g . A good
l i f e i s a l i f e of enjoyment, of relaxed
leisure. I t Is far preferable for others
to do the work; hired labor, children,
and women may do the work as required.
Emancipation from manual work i s the sign
of s o c i a l achievement and s e t t l i n g
"palaver" i s a work of social distinction
reserved f o r the elders and high
achievers.
3. The African i s intensely religious.
R i t u a l power, conceived as a n c e s t r a l ,
divine, or magical, i s directly at hand
and immediately available i n the world
for the achievement of desired goals.
4. The African i s a humanitarian. He
shares h i s property and services
5
generously with those who are members of
his social group and he expects them to
reciprocate. He cares personally for the
aged and the young and f o r h i s own
indigent relatives. But orphanages and
homes for the aged are basically alien to
his thinking. Because of his emphasis on
the values of r e c i p r o c i t y and mutual
dependence, he may not care much for
distant people who may not reciprocate
his help directly or indirectly.
5. Equality of opportunity, i n the sense
of equal access to s k i l l s which w i l l
provide upward social mobility i s not a
widespread t r a d i t i o n a l A f r i c a n value.
Most Africans are born into t h e i r
positions and they do not feel guilty
about i t and may i n f a c t e x t o l i t .
Paradoxically, inequality of opportunity
i s not a c t u a l l y consciously valued.
Relative equality and inequality are a
fact of l i f e and accepted as such. But
modern developments—the expansion of
education and opening of new p o l i t i c a l
and economic opportunltes—are creating
an environment i n which equal opportunity
is demanded.
WEST AFRICAN SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS
Social structure as a body of perduring
rules that structures and gives meaning
to social organ!zaton i s a reflection of
the value system of a people. Social
organization i s a vehicle of collective
action and i t embodieg four important
elements or principles. I t i s a system
for coordinating individual efforts, a
matter that c a l l s f o r leadership; i t
involves an element of foresight needed
for planning and prudent management of
available resources; i t involves respon-
s i b i l i t y , which manifests i t s e l f i n two
important a r e a s — t h e assumption of
responsibility by the ultimate decision-
maker and an assignment of responsibility
among those individuals who help to rea-
l i z e the organizational goals; and i t
involves a reward system which takes
diverse cultural forms.
There are many cultural characteristics
905/Uchendu
a
which are d i s t i n c t l y West African, but
are neither limited to this region nor
universal in i t . Daryll Forde has synthe-
sized these cultural forms, calling at-
tention to how the factors i n the natural
environment have combined with a
succession of external stimuli and local
responses to produce^ a complex cultural
map of West A f r i c a . The following are
among the distinctive cultural features
of West A f r i c a :
1. The ethnolinguistic units tend to be
unusually large, indicating residential
s t a b i l i t y , a viable agricultural economy,
and a well-defined concept of l o c a l i t y
and community. Among the very large
language groups, some numbering from two
to twelve m i l l i o n , are the Hausa, the
Yoruba, the Igbo, the Mossi, the Akan.
The demographic features of these
s o c i e t i e s renders the use of " t r i b e "
rather meaningless and absurd. The
ethnolinguistic and the language groups
are not only l a r g e , but population
densities are high, as they were in the
days of A t l a n t i c s l a v e r y . Local
population densities as high as 2,000 per
square mile are not unknown, and given
the agricultural base of such societies
and the relative poverty of the s o i l s ,
the agricultural c i v i l i z a t i o n of these
areas becomes quite impressive.
2. West A f r i c a is the home of unilineal
descent groups. Descent of name,
property, and s o c i a l status u s u a l l y
follow a p a t r i l i n e a l emphasis but there
are important departures as among the
Akan, who are m a t r i l i n e a l , and the
peoples of the Cross River area i n
N i g e r i a , who have a double-descent
system. Everywhere in the region, l i n e a l
continuity i s important and, in f a c t , i s
the basis f o r the i n s t i t u t i o n of
polygyny. To die without an heir i s to
break the principle of l i n e a l continuity.
This disaster i s averted by polygyny.
In West A f r i c a , the lineage i s a
community of the living and the dead.
Ancestors are the invisible members of
the lineage and they are nothing i f they
are not moral s p i r i t u a l beings.
6
Parenthood i s a structural imperative for
ancestorship but i t i s not a sufficient
condition. To achieve the status as an
ancestor, one has to demonstrate
transparent l i v i n g . This explains why
a l l immortalized parents do not become
ancestors. Although parenthood, death,
and transparent m o r a l i t y are c r i t i c a l
f a c t o r s i n the s e l e c t i o n process of
ancestors, an element of time is involved
before an immortalized parenthood i s
transformed into ancestorhood.
The lineage system is supported by the
extended f a m i l y , another important
i n s t i t u t i o n i n West A f r i c a . The extended
family i s the most pervasive and most
durable corporate structure in the West
African kinship. Its central feature i s
its s t r u c t u r a l extension. As a
multifunctional institution, i t performs
more than the usual functions assigned to
the f a m i l y : reproduction, status
placement, biological maintenance,
socialization, and social control. In
addition, i t is a power unit i n the
p o l i t i c a l system; i t i s emotionally
committed to i t s members who share the
success and the failures of each other;
i t provides a framework i n which
appropriate respect i s accorded to the
elders who are the l i v i n g representatives
of the ancestors; and to maintain i t s
continuity and v i a b i l i t y , i t manifests a
primacy of descent t i e s over m a r i t a l
ties. This explains why the father-son
and mother-daughter axes are the enduring
blocks of West African marriage rather
than the husband-wife axis.
Tracing the lineage members i s an impor-
tant cultural a c t i v i t y . A l l the Impor-
tant events which articulate the social
structure provide an opportunity to know
lineage members. Among the royal clans
and the wealthy c l a s s , a h i g h l y
specialized s t a f f , known as the griots i n
some areas, become the reference library
for the lineage.
3. West African cultures are known for
t h e i r highly-developed prestige and
a c q u i s i t i v e culture patterns. While
t h e i r economic i n s t i t u t i o n s vary, the
905/Uchendu
a
acquisitive values and status
distinctions based on wealth are common.
The long experience with local and long
distance trades, the marketplaces that
integrated urban and a g r i c u l t u r a l
sectors, and the importance of cattle i n
the tsetse free zones, provided
opportunites for status d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n .
4. Urban and infra-urban communities
have a long tradition i n West A f r i c a .
The medieval c i t i e s of Timbuktu, Gao and
Djenne, i n Western Sudan, are well known.
Their educational and religious
institutions, based on Islam influenced
many later c i t i e s i n the region. Their
architectural forms, typically a "clay
box-under-a-dome," are now the prototypes
for many West African savanna towns. The
Yoruba c i t i e s , which came much later,
provide ehtnographic evidence of how a
predominantly agrarian society can
integrate a c i t y l i f e with complex craft
specializations.
The genius of the medieval West African
cultures lay In their political
institutions. Contemporary ethnography
indicates a higher degree of p o l i t i c a l
fragmentation than probably existed
before the advent of the Atlantic slave
trade. C h i e f s , headmen, and r o y a l
lineages played important roles i n their
respective p o l i t i e s . The use of proverbs
was important at the royal court because
they embodied traditional wisdom, reduced
embarrassment, and u n i f i e d the s o c i a l
structure by giving i t a shared community
of values.
In terms of p o l i t i c a l achievements, three
medieval Western Sudan states s t i l l stand
out: Ghana, Mali and Songhai. They are
usually regarded as "successor states."
However, there were at least thirteen
important states and state c l u s t e r s
between the f o u r t h century and the
ninteenth century; and they included: 1.
Ghana, fourth century to eleventh century
A.D. 2. Mande, eleventh century to
seventeenth century A.D. 3. Dja, ? to the
tenth century A.D. 4. Songhai, ninth
century to the sixteen century A.D. 5.
Kebbi, thirtheen century to the
7
•
eighteenth century A.D. 6. Hausa States,
tenth century to the ninteenth century 7.
Bornu, tenth century to ninteenth century
8. Bambara, seventeenth century to the
ninteenth century 9. Kumbu-bona (Akan)
twelveth century to the sixteenth century
10. Bono (Akan) twelveth century to the
seventeenth century 11. Asante (Akan)
eighteenth century to the ninteenth
century 12. Yoruba States, ? to the
ninteenth century 13. Benin, fourteenth
century to the ninteenth century 14.
Dahomey (Fon) seventeen century to the
ninteenth century A.D.
Most of the earliest and most powerful
states were located i n the Savanna and
speculations s t i l l p e r s i s t about the
independent o r i g i n s of some of the
states. There i s evidence i n support of
both conquest theory and independent
evoluion of West African States.
The West A f r i c a n States and the
c i v i l i z a t i o n s they represented had a
number of important common features which
must be noted: 1. They incorporated
various peoples and cultures. 2. The
kings were divine and led a l i f e of
seclusion and their physical well-being
was symbolic of the health of the polity.
Because of t h i s a t t r i b u t e of d i v i n e
kingship, kings could not die a natural
death. 3. The state was run by an
elaborate bureaucracy. 4. Each state
surrounded i t s e l f with "soft states,"
which ran their affairs as long as they
paid their tributary. 5. Women played
important part and the institution of
Queen Mother or Queen Sister was recog-
nized practically everywhere. 6. Each
polity was tied to an expanding network
of foreign trade and periodically the
royal court assumed the atmosphere of a
trade f a i r . I t has been suggested that
the growing dependence of West African
States on external trade, particularly
after the abolition of slave trade, made
them quite vulnerable to external
domination. This was particularly so i n
those states i n which external
t r a d e — u s u a l l y In i v o r y , skins, gold,
copper, s a l t , and kola-nuts—was a royal
monopoly. 7. The royal courts were more
905/Uchendu
a
than centers f o r i n t e r n a t i o n a l trade;
they were the center of high culture, the
great t r a d i t i o n of the s o c i e t y . The
intellectual and p o l i t i c a l ideas which
nourished t h i s great t r a d i t i o n were
pre-Muslim and pre-Christian. The basic
ideas and world views of West African
cultures ran sharply counter to the
tenents of both Muslim and C h r i s t i a n
religions.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
In The Myth of the Negro Past, Melville
J. Herskovits synthesized, evaluated, and
dismissed the various myths about black
people and their West African cultural
heritage. The central theme of the myths
was that blacJk^ people are a people
without a past.
In a very brief compass, we have tried to
recapture the profile of West African
c i v i l i z a t i o n . I t was a c i v i l i z a t i o n
based on a productive a g r i c u l t u r a l
economy i n which cooperative labor was
regulated by the larger kinship group,
and the tenure system assured every
individual access to land. The urban
center provided for craft specialization,
and guilds of specialists developed to
monitor t h e i r craftsmanship and to
protect their economic interest. While
the polity was dominated by men and women
of rank and wealth, the exercise of
arbitrary power was checked by secret or
exclusinve societies, age grades and age
s e t s , and by the d u a l i t y of s o c i a l
organization which defined the powers of
the ruling lineage and the rights of the
non-ruling lineages. Graphic and plastic
arts are important and tales, proverbs,
and riddles are the three major forms of
l i t e r a r y a r t . I t was a c i v i l i z a t i o n which
put the old people at a center stage,
regarded the extended family as the
foundation of social structure and looked
upon the ancestors as part of the social
structure.
905/Uchendu 9
a

NOTES

^"Oliver, Roland, "The Problem of Bantu Expansion," Journal of African History, V o l .

VII, No. 3, 1966, pp. 361-376. " " ~
2
Uchendu, Victor C. 'The Challenge of Cultural Transition in Sub-Saharan A f r i c a , "
ANNALS, AAPSS, No. 432, July 1977, pp. 70-79.
3
Van Peursen, CA. The Strategy of Culture, Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing
Company, 1974, pp. 11-21.
4

Nkrumah, Kwane, Conscientism, London, Panaf. Books Ltd. 1974.

5
Abraham, W.E. The Mind of Africa, University of Chicago Press, 1962, pp. 45-46.
6
F i r t h , R. Elements of Social Organization, Boston, Mass, 1963, pp. 75-78.
^Forde, Daryll, "The Cultural Map of West Africa: Successive adaptations to tropical
forests and grasslands," Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences,
Series 2, Vol. 15, No. 6, 1953, pp. 206-19; see also Ottenberg (ed) Cultures
and Societies of A f r i c a , New York, Random House, 1960, pp. 116-38.
g
LeVine, Robert, A. "Africa" i n Hsu, F. L. K. (ed), Psychological Anthropology
Approaches to Culture and Personality, Homewood, I l l i n o i s : the Dorsey Press,
Inc. 1961, pp. 52-4.
9
Uchendu, Victor C. "Ancestorcide! Are African Ancestors Dead? i n Newell, W. H. ed.,
Ancestors, The Hague: Mouton Publishers, n.d., pp. 283-96.
^Shimkin and Uchendu "Persistence Borrowing and Adaptive Changes i n Black Kinship
Systems: Some Issues and their Significance" i n Shim kin D.B. et a l The
Extended Family i n Black Societies, The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1978, pp.
391-406.

^ H u l l , Richard W. African Cities and Towns Before the European Conquest, New York: W.
W. Norton and Company, 1976.
?
12 liii V a. <**~ï iÆåå*bi&
Oliver, Roland and J.D. Fage, A Short History of A f r i c a , Baltimore, Maryland,
Penguin Books, 1962, pp. 44-52.
13
Herskovits, M. J . The Myths of the Negro Past, Boston: Beacon Press, 1958.
 k
* * &Jfc£

WEST AFRICAN CULTURES: PAST AND PRESENT

TRADITIONAL RELIGION AND FAMILY IN WEST AFRICA

WfÚ- i "'*« ' * . . CC**» to 7»

Marion Kilson

Bom i n Connecticut. Resides i n Lexington, Massachusetts. Director, Mary Ingraham

Bunting I n s t i t u t e , R a d c l i f f e College. Ph.D. ( s o c i a l anthropology), Harvard
University. Author, lecturer.

Enormous v a r i a t i o n i n the scale and constitute a microcosm within which we

complexity of traditional social systems
characterizes West Africa. Societies
range from small, antonomous communities
of several hundred people to large-scale
state systems of hundreds of thousands.
Comparable diversity characterizes the
religious and family institutions of the
region which stretches from the Atlantic
Ocean eastward to Lake Chad and south
from the fringes of the Sahara desert
through savannah grasslands and tropical
forests to the sea.
Today I want to explore some relations
between r e l i g i o n and family i n West
Africa, drawing upon the anthropological
literature for four West African peoples:
the Ashanti and Ga of southern Ghana and
the Yako and Yoruba of southern Nigeria.
Since I appreciate that many people here
may be unfamiliar with s o c i o l o g i c a l
a n a l y s i s , I plan to i l l u s t r a t e my
discussion with selections of Ashanti,
Ga, Yako, and Yoruba oral literature. I
hope that these poems, prayers, and tales
w i l l convey to you, insiders' perceptions
of the s o c i a l s i t u a t i o n s on which
outsiders' abstractions are based.
I have chosen to focus on family and
religion among Ashanti, Ga, Yako, and
Yoruba peoples, because their traditional
social systems share certain significant
a t t r i b u t e s and d i f f e r i n equally
important ways. I also believe that the
family and religious patterns i n these
societies exemplify the major variations
in these institutions i n West African
society. These four peoples, then,
can gain insights into the dynamics not
only of these specific societies but of
West African societies in general.
Situated primarily within the forest zone
bordering the A t l a n t i c Ocean, these
people cultivate a variety of fruits and
vegetables, especially root crops like
yams and cassava. Those l i v i n g on the
sea coast and near rivers and lakes also
engage i n fishing, and a l l keep barnyard
poultry, sheep, and goats. In
p r e c o l o n i a l times, t h i s h o r t i c u l t u r a l
economy sustained densely-populated
communities ranging i n size from hamlets
of less than one hundred to cities of
hundreds of thousands.
Although presenting similar ecological
profiles as s e t t l e d agricultural
communities, the kinship systems of these
societies differ significantly i n ideas
about the structure of residential groups
and the a l l o c a t i o n of r i g h t s and
responsibilities associated with descent.
But certain basic assumptions about the
nature of marriage and about the
relations between spiritual beings and
human beings are shared i n these
societies. How these divergent notions
interact and some implications of these
interactions are major concerns of this
paper.
In these West African societies i t i s
expected that three generations of
relatives w i l l l i v e together. How people
who l i v e i n one household should be
related to the head of the household—and
905b/Kilson
hence to one a n o t h e r — d i f f e r s . In
A h s a n t i , Yako, and Yoruba s o c i e t i e s , the
head of the household i s expected to be a
man l i v i n g with h i s w i f e or wives, while
among the Ga people, the household head
may be either a man or a woman. Among
the Yoruba and Yako, the second
generation should be comprised of the
household head's sons and t h e i r wives;
among the A h s a n t i , the household head's
s i s t e r ' s sons and these nephews' wives
w i l l constitute the second generation.
In a l l t h r e e s o c i e t i e s , the t h i r d
generation w i t h i n the household w i l l be
the immature c h i l d r e n of second-
generation members.
Because Ga women as w e l l as men may be
heads of households, the Ga r e s i d e n t i a l
system d i f f e r s c o n s i d e r a b l y from the
other three. When the household head i s
a woman, the other adult members of the
household are women—her s i s t e r s , her
daughters, and her s i s t e r s ' daughters as
w e l l as the c h i l d r e n of the women of the
second g e n e r a t i o n . In Ga households
headed by men, the other members are
expected to be men—the head's brothers,
his sons and t h e i r sons.
In Ga s o c i e t y , then, husbands and wives
are not expected to be members of the
same household. In f a c t , a Ga woman may
l i v e a l l her l i f e w i t h i n one household.
A man l i v e s i n at l e a s t two households
during h i s l i f e t i m e , f o r as a boy he i s a
member of h i s mother's household from
which he moves at puberty to j o i n h i s
f a t h e r ' s household. Since Ga husbands
and wives do not l i v e i n the same
household, the Ga duolocal r e s i d e n t i a l
system c o n t r a s t s w i t h the v i r i l o c a l
residence pattern of the Yako, Yoruba,
and A s h a n t i .
The f o u r r e s i d e n t i a l systems I have
described represent the s o c i a l l y approved
models f o r household composition i n these
West A f r i c a n s o c i e t i e s . In r e a l l i f e , of
c o u r s e , such models o f t e n are not
realized. Not only do death and divorce
d i s r u p t i d e a l p a t t e r n s o f domestic
organization, but the common practice of
f o s t e r i n g out young c h i l d r e n to other
households leads to a d d i t i o n a l v a r i a t i o n s
in the c o m p o s i t i o n o f h o u s e h o l d s .
Moreover, as household members mature and
age, the pattern of household composition
expands and c o n t r a c t s i n p r e d i c t a b l e
ways. An Ashanti youth, f o r example,
w i l l leave his parents' home to j o i n the
household of h i s maternal uncle, while
his f a t h e r ' s s i s t e r ' s son—and l a t e r h i s
new wife—may j o i n the youth's parental
household. A Yoruba bride w i l l leave her
f a t h e r ' s f a m i l i a r compound to become a
member of her husband's family just as
her b r o t h e r ' s w i f e w i l l come as a
stranger to the f i r s t young woman's natal
compound. In Ashanti-land older women
frequently head households composed of
j u n i o r m a t r i k i n . Nevertheless, even i f
the i d e a l r e s i d e n t i a l model i s r a r e l y
achieved i n the v i c i s s i t u d e s of s o c i a l
l i f e , i t i s the standard toward which
people s t r i v e and by which people judge
one another's behavior.
Thus f a r I have presented a rather formal
d e s c r i p t i o n of d i f f e r e n c e s i n the
composition of dwelling groups. I have
suggested that the sources of these
v a r i a t i o n s i n c l u d e the a p p l i c a t i o n of
approved s o c i a l r u l e s , the existence of
predictable l i f e cycle status changes, as
w e l l as the o c c u r r e n c e of s o c i a l l y
d i s r u p t i v e events. Such a s o c i o l o g i c a l
d e s c r i p t i o n derives from statements of
people who l i v e w i t h i n these s o c i e t i e s
and from observations of outsiders who
study them.
In order to give you some sense of an
i n s i d e r ' s p e r c e p t i o n s and a f f e c t i v e
responses to an i m p o r t a n t r e s i d e n t i a l
change a s s o c i a t e d w i t h the t r a n s i t i o n
from girlhood to womanhood, l e t me read
part of a Yoruba b r i d e ' s r e c i t a t i o n as
she leaves her f a t h e r ' s house f o r her
husband's:
You the e l d e r s , who have come from f a r ,
I thank you f o r honouring t h i s day . . .
You people of the world,
help me to thank my mother,
f o r she decked me out i n c l o t h e s . . . so
rich
I could confuse a god . . .
And you, my friend Ilajue,
you my best friend:

This sudden marriage has spoiled
many things for us . . .
And you my parents:
when you don't see the river
w i l l you forget the waves?
When you don't see the thunder
w i l l you forget the rain?
When you don't see me any more—
w i l l you forget me? . . .
It was you who decided
that I was old enough
to move into another house.
Don't leave me alone in that place . . .
I am afraid—
not because I am a coward.
I am afraid not because I cannot fight
I t i s this strange house
that is upsetting me . . .
Whom shall I turn to i n this new house?
In the strange corridors I never walked?
In the strange doors I never entered?
Whom can I turn to i n t h i s strange
house?
Let me now turn to another important
source of variation in the family systems
of these West African societies—ideas
about how descent determines s o c i a l
rights and responsibilities. In these
societies property rights such as t i t l e s
to land and to o f f i c e , r i g h t s to
participation i n certain religious
groups, and obligations for a One's child is one's child . . .
kinsperson's funeral depend upon
r e l a t i o n s established by b i r t h to a
particular set of parents. Among the Ga
such rights and duties derive—as in our
own s o c i e t y — c o g n a t i c a l l y from both
parents; among the Yoruba such j u r a l
r i g h t s come from membership i n a
patrilineal descent group. Yoruba men
and women, then, belong to a descent
group in which descent i s traced through
men, a group that includes their father's
father and his patrilineal
descendants—father, father's brothers
and sisters, father's brothers' children,
and brothers' children. A Yoruba man's
heir i s his younger brother, or f a i l i n g
any l i v i n g younger brother his own eldest
son. The Yako and Ashanti recognize the
importance of m a t r i l i n e a l descent
groups-membership i n a group formed by
descent through women which consists of a
person's mother's mother and her
3
matrilineal descendants-her mother, her
brothers and s i s t e r s , her s i s t e r s '
children, her own brothers and sisters,
and her sisters' children. Yako and
Ashanti people derive some important
rights and privileges matrilineally and
others p a t r i l i n e a l l y . For example, i n
Ashanti society rights to land, o f f i c e ,
and property derive from matrilineal k i n ,
while surnames and c e r t a i n r i t u a l
observances are passed p a t r i l i n e a l l y . By
contrast, i n Yakoland rights to land and
houses derive p a t r i l i n e a l l y , while
moveable property and debts as well as
participation in major religious cults
come from matrilineal a f f i l i a t i o n s .
Although the descent lines along which
r i g h t s and o b l i g a t i o n s pass from one
generation to another d i f f e r s in West
A f r i c a n s o c i e t i e s , the importance of
family continuity over time as this i s
symbolized in the transmission of goods
and o f f i c e s i s widely shared. The
special value of bearing children who
w i l l become ones heirs i s c l e a r l y
articulated in another Yoruba poem:
A child is l i k e a rare b i r d .
A child is precious l i k e coral.
A child is precious l i k e brass . . .
Only a child brings us joy,
Only the one who i s buried by his c h i l d ,
Is the one who has truly borne a child,
On the day of our death, our hand cannot
hold a single cowry.
We need ƒ c h i l d to i n h e r i t our
belongings.
Despite the intersocietal variations in
the composition of dwelling groups and i n
the allocation of descent group rights
and duties, these West African societies
have several important ideas about the
nature of marriage. Men and women are
perceived to play complementary and
competitive roles. Marriage i s
considered to be an a l l i a n c e between
unrelated descent groups which are
represented by husband and wife. Through
marriage a man acquires exclusive rights
to a woman's s e x u a l i t y and to her
domestic services. He and his kinship
group also gain some r i g h t s to her
905b/Kilson 4

reproductive capacity-exclusive r i g h t s kinsmen c a l l e d the widows, saying

only i n p a t r i l i n e a l Yoruba society and "You must come and weep."
l i m i t e d r i g h t s not only among the Ga who
have a cognatic system of descent but Wild-pigeon came and l i f t e d up (her
also among the Ashanti and Yako who have voice). . .
double descent systems. Only i n Yoruba
society does a c h i l d belong unequivocably
and e x c l u s i v e l y to the f a t h e r ' s descent "Du du, du du du du!
group; i n each of the other s o c i e t i e s , Husband i s dead,
the mother's descent group also has j u r a l Du du!
claims on a c h i l d . Thus, at marriage I shall never eat again,
only i n Yoruba society are a woman's Du du!
reproductive resources transferred Until I meet my husband.
c o m p l e t e l y to her husband's descent Du du!"
group; i n each of the other s o c i e t i e s a
woman's descent group r e t a i n s c e r t a i n The ( l a t e ) husband's s i s t e r s s a i d ,
r i g h t s i n her reproductive c a p a c i t y . "You have done something . . .
(worthy of p r a i s e ) ; you too,
[ H o r n b i l l ] , . . . come ( h i t h e r ) . "
While a man acquires exclusive r i g h t s to
his w i f e ' s s e x u a l i t y , a woman acquires [ H o r n b i l l ] . . . came, and raised
o n l y l i m i t e d r i g h t s to her husband's (her song of sorrow):
s e x u a l i t y , f o r these A f r i c a n s o c i e t i e s
permit polygynous m a r r i a g e s . In "Kya, kya, f o r my husband i s dead!
a d d i t i o n , through m a r r i a g e a woman . . . Kya, k y a .
becomes e n t i t l e d to some economic support Husband i s dead.
from her husband. Among a l l four people Kya, k y a .
the marriage contract can be, and o f t e n I s h a l l never eat again!
i s , broken through d i v o r c e . Kya, k y a .
U n t i l I meet (my) husband.
Kya, k y a . "
Polygynous marriages may create s p e c i a l
tensions and misunderstandings between
husbands and wives and between cowives. The ( l a t e ) husband's s i s t e r s s a i d , "
Aspects of these r e l a t i o n s are conveyed . . . [ H o r n b i l l ] , you have done
by two Ashanti tales that I wish to read something (worthy of commendation);
to y o u . As i s so o f t e n t r u e i n . . . [Rat], come ( h i t h e r ) , f o r you
s t o r y t e l l i n g around the world, each t a l e and your husband have eaten something
d e p i c t s the n e g a t i v e consequences o f of much sweetness." . . .
b r e a k i n g a s o c i a l r u l e i n o r d e r to
demonstrate the s o c i a l benefits accruing [Rat] s a i d , "Oh, don't bother me so.
to virtuous behavior. The f i r s t t a l e And she came and l i f t e d up (her
focuses on r e l a t i o n s between a husband voice):
and h i s wives:
"Sankuroro Dampofo!
Wild-pigeon, . . . H o r n b i l l , and As f o r me, husbands are not hard to
. . . Rat were a l l married to one find,
man. Now that man made . . . Rat, Sankuroro Dampofo.
his f a v o u r i t e w i f e ; and . . . If he i s dead, he i s dead!
Wild-pigeon and H o r n b i l l , . . . he Sankuroro.
d i d n ' t look a f t e r at a l l w e l l . . .
Now she finished, and everyone took
Now . . . i t wasn't three days when a i t as a lesson for himself, that i n
sickness touched t h e i r husband so this tribe no one should say, "This
that he d i e d . When he d i e d , h i s wife i s my favourite wife."
905b/K±lson
While t h i s f i r s t Ashanti tale stresses a
husband's m i s p e r c e p t i o n of h i s w i v e s '
a f f e c t i o n f o r him, the second emphasizes
jealousy between cowives and its
consequences f o r t h e i r c h i l d r e n .
They say that there were once two
cowives; one of them had a c h i l d ,
while the other had not any. The two
of them l i v e d i n one house; they
shared a common cooking-hearth.
One day, the one who had a c h i l d , set
o f f . . . to [do] the ( f a m i l y )
washing, and as she was going, she
took her c h i l d and gave i t to her
co w i f e , saying, "I w i l l not be long
[with] . . . t h i s (washing), so take
this i n f a n t ; when you see the morning
sun shining through the m i s t s , place
her i n i t , but when the sun becomes
strong, l i f t her up and put her i n
the shade."
The cowife s a i d , " I have heard."
She set out, and the morning sun
shone through the mists and (the
woman) took the c h i l d and l a i d her i n
it. Then the woman went and sat by
the f i r e . . . cooking her f o o d .
Now the sun beat down, and the c h i l d
lay i n i t . And the sun beat down
very s t r o n g l y , and the c h i l d l i f t e d
up (her voice and sang):
"Father's w i f e . . .
Did not mother say? . . .
The morning sun quickly dispels the
mists, . . .
I am about to melt . . .
Korororodo . . . "
And the c h i l d ' s l e f t hand melted; and
she [sang] . . .
"Father's wife, . . .
Did not mother say? . . .
The morning sun quickly dispels the
mists . . .
I am about to melt . . .
Korororodo . . ."
And the c h i l d ' s r i g h t hand melted,
But the woman kept her mouth shut.
Now, a l l at once she was going to
cast her eyes and look at the c h i l d ,
but the c h i l d had turned into a f i s h .
The woman l i f t e d her up, and put her
i n t o the soup-stew, and f i n i s h e d her
cooking."
The t a l e c o n t i n u e s ending w i t h the
mother's discovery that she has eaten her
own c h i l d . The mother then says to her
c o w i f e , " I speak the g r e a t f o r b i d d e n
word, that from today and henceforth,
l i g h t your own h e a r t h - f i r e and l e t me,
too, l i g h t mine." That i s why when two
co-wives l i v e i n one house, t h i s one has
her own cooking stones, ,and that one has
her own cooking stones."
Just as important assumptions about the
nature of marriage are shared i n these
s o c i e t i e s , so are c e r t a i n fundamental
r e l i g i o u s ideas about r e l a t i o n s between
humans and transcendental beings. In a l l
four s o c i e t i e s people believe that the
f e r t i l i t y of land and people depends upon
s p i r i t u a l beings who respond to human
a c t i o n and who safeguard the moral order.
R i t u a l i s p e r c e i v e d as a means f o r
maintaining harmonious r e l a t i o n s and f o r
redressing disturbed r e l a t i o n s between
humans and s p i r i t s .
W h i l e these b a s i c premises u n d e r l i e
r e l i g i o u s systems i n a l l four s o c i e t i e s ,
there i s considerable v a r i a t i o n con-
c e r n i n g which c a t e g o r i e s of tran-
scendental beings play c e n t r a l roles i n
human l i v e s . A l l four cosmologies recog-
n i z e a c r e a t i v e supreme being who i s
believed to be removed from contemporary
human a f f a i r s . Human beings, however,
appeal to ancestral shades or to d i v i n e
b e i n g s to i n t e r c e d e w i t h the supreme
being on t h e i r b e h a l f . Although an-
c e s t r a l shades and gods are supplicated
everywhere, one or the other i s u s u a l l y
thought to be most powerfully ascendant
i n the r e l i g i o u s l i v e s of the people.
Among the A s h a n t i p e o p l e , a n c e s t r a l
s p i r i t s are c o n s i d e r e d to be more
i m p o r t a n t than any o t h e r c a t e g o r y of
s p i r i t ; among the Yako, f e r t i l i t y s p i r i t s
associated with matriclans outrank a l l
others; among the Yoruba and Ga, the gods
905b/Kilson
served by p a t r i l i n e a l l y hereditary
priesthoods take precedence over other
spiritual beings.
In these West African societies r i t u a l
plays a major role i n human l i v e s .
Established cults associated with deities
or ancestors periodically seek to ensure
the f e r t i l i t y and prosperity of the
people through r i t u a l . A l l four peoples
celebrate a great annual f e s t i v a l of
f i r s t fruits and thanksgiving addressed
to gods and ancestors. At which, for
example, a Yako priest may offer slices
of a new yam to his deity and pray:
Today we w i l l eat new yams
When a man l i e s with a woman l e t her
conceive and bear a l i v e c h i l d .
• . .[God] take this offering of yam.
We w i l l eat new yams.
The man who carries witchcraft l e t
him die.
Ga and Yako priests appeal to gods at
regular i n t e r v a l s during the farming
c y c l e , while Ashanti p r i e s t s worship
their ancestral s p i r i t s every three weeks
throughout the year. One day each week a
Yoruba household head sacrifices to honor
the household's founder, while Ashanti
and Ga daily share food with ancestral
shades. Through such periodic r i t u a l s ,
human beings acknowledge their dependence
upon s p i r i t u a l beings for success i n
their earthly endeavors, for f e r t i l i t y i n
t h e i r f a m i l i e s as w e l l as i n t h e i r
f i e l d s , and for freedom from want, war,
disease, and death.
Let me read you selections from a Ga
prayer which expresses human dependence
upon divinity-the supreme being, lesser
gods, and ancestors-for prosperity and
longevity. Libating at the opening r i t e
in a cycle of annual rites surrounding
the cultivation of m i l l e t , the priest of
Sakumo prays:
Hail, hail, hail.
Fathers and mothers, grandfathers and
grandmothers.
What i s today? Today i s Tuesday.
Fathers' Tuesday, mothers' Tuesday,
grandfathers' Tuesday, grandmothers'
6
Tuesday, Millet-digging Tuesday.
Tuesday people, I c a l l you. . .1 c a l l
you for the town; I c a l l you for
children's l i v e s ; I c a l l you for
l i f e ; I c a l l for rain to f a l l that
the earth may be moist and mushroom
may grow.
Almighty God who created [sky]
. . . and earth and on earth trees
and stones, rivers and mountains,
valleys and other things, afterward
then he created human beings and he
put a l l into the hands of men and
through this then he gave Ga also an
angel. [The Ga] people went to
different wars and they won victory
. . . And our great war leader who
helped . . . i s our N i l Sakumo . . .
Sakumo i t i s good when you present,
you destroy and you repair, when one
c a l l s [Sakumo] . . . then he answers
• . . Drink some.
I c a l l you; I c a l l you for success; I
c a l l you for your town, and your
children's l i v e s ; I c a l l you for
l i f e . I c a l l for rain to f a l l that
the earth may be moist . . .
Yes, i t i s not because of something
[evil] that I c a l l you early this
morning . . . [Today] Old man Sakumo
. . . i s going . . . to the f i e l d
. . . May good be good; may peace by
peace; that we may eat the fruits of
rainy and dry seasons, . . . As we go
to dig [the ground], may no tree
strike us, [may] no stone strike us
• • «
We c a l l a l l our gods from the Volta
River up to Langma . . . [hinterland]
and seaside gods, to come and help
before the seeds grow.
Lo, may rain f a l l on the ground for
us and moisten i t so that when we go
then peace may be peace that next
year may come and meet a l l of us
beautifully . . . ^
Strike! May there be peace.
Opportunities for individual i n i t i a t i v e
and experimentation i n r e l i g i o u s l i f e
occurs most clearly i n redressive r i t u a l .
I n d i v i d u a l s seek the assistance of
s p i r i t u a l beings to overcome the scourge
of barrenness or s t e r i l i t y and to cure
i l l n e s s e s which are often a t t r i b u t e d
905b/Kilson
either to ones own antisocial behavior or
to another's malevolence. A barren
Yoruba woman, for example, may seek the
blessing of f e r t i l i t y from the god of her
husband's partriclan, from the god of her
own patrician, or from the deities of
other patricians. When an Ashanti person
becomes i l l , his sickness i s o f t e n
attributed to an ancestor's displeasure
at his conduct; through r i t u a l , the
person w i l l attempt to reestablish good
r e l a t i o n s with the offended s p i r i t .
Misfortune—like success—in human l i f e
is often attributed to s p i r i t u a l beings
who are believed to respond to disorder
in human society and to chaotic relations
between humans and s p i r i t . Through
r i t u a l , human beings attempt to reorder
and harmonize t h e i r r e l a t i o n s with
spirits.
In a l l four s o c i e t i e s , i n d i v i d u a l s
participate in a m u l t i p l i c i t y of r i t u a l s .
Within a short period of time, an
i n d i v i d u a l may j o i n i n one r i t u a l
performed on his own behalf, i n another
on behalf of his dwelling group, i n
another for the benefit of his descent
group, and i n yet another for his entire
community. Some rituals occur
Ml -at -- '- 'frit* Ï < :•{•>»•> -ji '• ••
This paper i s based on information i n the ethnographic accounts cited in the
bibliography.
2
U l l i Beier ed., Yoruba Poetry:
University Press, 1970), pp. 67-72.
3
l b i d , pp. 110-111.
4
R. S. Rattray, Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales (Oxford:
175-177. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
5
I b i d , pp. 187-191.
6
D a r y l l Ford, Yako Studies (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), p. 241.
7
Marion Kilson, "The Structure of Ga Prayer," Journal of Religion i n Africa IX,
3 (1978), pp. 183-185. — - ~™
7
predictably and periodically, others are
engendered by unanticipated ecological,
physiological, and social crises in human
lives.
Given the d i f f e r e n t p r i n c i p l e s f o r
organizing descent and domestic groups i n
these four African societies, the bases
for mobilizing r i t u a l groups necessarily
varies. Matrilineally related kinsfolk,
for example, worship ancestral spirits i n
Ashanti and pay homage to communal
f e r t i l i t y s p i r i t s i n Yako; p a t r i l i n e a l
kin join together in supplicating deities
among Yoruba, Ashanti, and Ga peoples.
Household members l i n k e d by t i e s of
marriage as well as by descent and
adoption may unite to commemorate and
supplicate household founders.
Nevertheless, this brief discussion of
aspects of family and religious systems
in four West African societies indicates
that while the configuration of family
r e l a t i o n s w i t h i n which d a i l y l i f e i s
shared and the constellation of immortal
beings to whom r i t u a l i s addressed may
vary, the underlying assumptions about
the nature of the universe and human
dependence on d i v i n i t y are widely shared.
NOTES
An Anthology of Traditional Poems (Cambridge:
Clarendon Press, 1930), pp.
~
 905b/Kilson

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Basehart, Harry W. "Ashanti" In David M. Schneider and Kathleen Gough eds.,

Matrilineal Kinship. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961, pp.
270-277.

Busia, K. A. The Position of the Chief i n the Modern P o l i t i c a l System of Ashanti.

London: Oxford University Press, 1951. '

"The Ashanti of the Gold Coast." In Daryll Forde ed. African Worlds.
London: Oxford University Press, 1954, pp. 190-209.

Clarke, Edith "The Sociological Significance of Ancestor-Worship i n Ashanti. Africa

3 (1930) : 431-471.

Fortes, M. "Kinship and Marriage among the Ashanti." In A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and

Daryll Forde eds. African Systems of Kinship and Marriage. London: Oxford
University Press, 1950, pp. 252-284.
T ± m e 311(1
" Social Structure: An Ashanti Case Study." In Meyer Fortes ed.,
Social Structure. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1949, pp. 54-84.

Kinship and the Social Order. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1969.

Lystad, Robert A. "Marriage and Kinship among the Ashanti and the Agni. A Study of
Differential Acculturation." In William R. Bascom and Melville J . Herskovits
«te-» Continuity and Change i n African Cultures. Chicago: University of Chicago
P r e s s
' ~~ 1959, pp. 187-204.
Rattray, R. S. Ashanti [1923]. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.

Religion and Art i n Ashanti f19271. London: Oxford University Press, 1959.

Tufuo, S. W. and C. E. Donkor. Ashantis of Ghana: People with a Soul. Accra:

Anowuo Educational Publications, 1969"!

Ga

Azu, Diana Gladys. The Ga Family and Social Change. Cambridge: African Studies
Center, 1974.

F i e l d , M. J . R e l i g i o n and Medicine of the Ga People [1937]. London: Oxford

University Press, 1961. —

Marion African Urban Kinsmen: The Ga of Central Accra. London: C. Hurst

Kuladjie, Joshua N. "Aspects of Religion and Morality i n Ghanian Traditional Society

with Particular Reference to the Ga-Adangme." In J . M. Assimeng ed. Traditional
L i f e Culture and Literature i n Ghana. Owerri: Conch Magazine L t d . , 1976, pp.
Yako

Forde, Daryll. "Double Descent Among the Yako." In A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and Daryll
Forde eds. African Systems of Kinship and Marriage. London: Oxford University
Press, 1950, pp. 285-332.

"Death and Succession: An Analysis of Yako Mortuary Ritual." In Max

GLuckman ed. Essays on the Ritual of Social Relations. Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1962, pp. 89-123.

Yako Studies. London: Oxford University Press, 1964.

Yoruba

Bascom, William. The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and
Winston, 1969.

Fadipe, N. A. The Sociology of the Yoruba. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1970.

Forde, D a r y l l . The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of Southwestern N i g e r i a . London:

International African Institute, 1951.

Lloyd, P. C. "The Yoruba of Nigeria." In James Gibbs ed., Peoples of A f r i c a . New

York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1965, pp. 547-582.
 WEST AFRICAN CULTURES: PAST AND PRESENT
IMPACT ON URBANIZATION ON AFRICAN FAMILY LIFE

Derrick J . Thorn

Born i n England. Resides i n Logan, Utah. Associate professor of geography, Utah

State University. Ph.D., Michigan State University. Author, lecturer.

INTRODUCTION i s ample evidence to disprove such a

Too often A f r i c a i s perceived as a
continent of v i l l a g e s , and i t s r u r a l
nature i s emphasized to the neglect of
the dynamic processes at work i n the
urban centers. While the majority of
Africa's population does i n fact l i v e i n
v i l l a g e s , i n c r e a s i n g l y the c i t i e s of In West Africa several important c i t i e s
A f r i c a represent the a s p i r a t i o n s f o r
economic advancement f o r m i l l i o n s of
rural dwellers. Rural to urban migration
has been increasing at a rapid pace
throughout Africa such that the
continents urban population i s doubling centers. These c i t i e s were located at
every f i f t e e n years. The c i t i e s of
Africa are playing a dynamic role i n
bringing modernization and social change
to Africa, and consequently affect family
l i f e . The arrival of rural inhabitants
to urban l i f e requires adjustments to new focusing on these c i t i e s of the western
surroundings and changes i n traditional
family structure.
The focus of t h i s paper i s on the
influence of urbanization on family l i f e
in Africa. In order to understand these
influences, a background to urbanization,
African urban problems, and traditional
A f r i c a n family structure needs to be To the south of the Sudanic c i t i e s
discussed w i t h i n a h i s t o r i c a l and
geographic context.
BACKGROUND
Traditional African Cities
A common misconception i s that prior to
the arrival of European c i t i e s an urban
tradition did not exist i n A f r i c a . There
notion. The c i t i e s of the Nile Valley
were among the earliest urban centers i n
world history. North Africa developed
important c i t i e s long before the time of
Christ and i n Africa south of the Sahara,
numerous c i t i e s emerged prior to the era
of European colonial domination.
developed on the southern fringes of the
Sahara. Cities such as Timbuktu, Jeime,
Gaya, Kano and Katsina became front ports
of Black Africa, functioning primarily as
important administrative and trade
the termini of the trans-Saharan trade
routes and were points of c u l t u r a l
contact between Arabs to the north and
forest peoples to the south. Important
kingdoms and empires rose and f e l l ,
Sudan at a time when Europe was wallowing
in the superstitions of the Dark Ages.
The trans-Saharan trade brought pros-
perity and cultural enrichment to the
western Sudan and encouraged the growth
and development of a high degree of
civilization.
important forest kingdoms developed among
the Ashanti, Ewe, Dahomey, Yoruba and
Benin peoples. Each kingdom focused upon
large urban agglomerations that
functioned as administrative and trade
centers. The Yoruba of south western
Nigeria were probably the most highly
urbanized people of Black Africa. By the
end of the nineteenth century, as Great
Britain was consolidating her hold over
Nigeria, Yoruba c i t i e s such as Ibadan and
 905/Thom
c
Abeokuta had an estimated population of
100,000, and several others ranged
between 50-100,000. Although these were
c i t i e s , in terms of population size they
were i n effect large Agrotowns where the
majority of the population were farmers,
cultivating fields beyond the c i t y walls.
East A f r i c a did not experience the
i n t e n s i t y and concentration of t r a d i -
tional urban centers that was found i n
West A f r i c a . However, towns have existed
along the coast of East Africa for over
two thousand years. Most of the pre-
colonial c i t i e s of East Africa were port
c i t i e s that flourished on trade between
East A f r i c a , the Middle East and India.
The splendor of such c i t i e s as Kilwa,
Pemba, Mal ind i , Lamu and Zanzibar were
extolled by early Portuguese explorers.
The heterogeneous makeup of the popula-
t i o n of the early East A f r i c a n port
c i t i e s included "indigenous Bantu-
speaking African peoples, Yemenite Arabs,
Persians and Malays. Gradually these
peoples evolved into the Swahili people
of today."
The Colonial Impact.
As European control spread into Africa
from the sixteenth to the nineteenth
c e n t u r i e s , i t s influence upon the
traditional African c i t i e s was varied.
The Europeans i n i t i a l l y established small
trading posts such as St. Louis, Gore'e,
Conakry, Abidjan, Lagos, and many others
along the coast of West A f r i c a . The
diversion of West African trade to the
coastal areas caused a marked decline i n
trans-Saharan trade and a subsequent
decline of important Sudanic c i t i e s such
as Timbuktu. At the same time, the
diversion of trade to the coast enhanced
the growth and expansion of indigenous
forest cities such as Kumasi,
headquarters of the Ashanti, and the
cities of Yorubaland such as Oyo.
The European coastal trading posts
gradually developed into important port
c i t i e s and became springboards for
European expansion into the interior. As
European influence spread and colonial
2
boundaries were established, the port
c i t i e s became a v i t a l link between the
colony and the metropolitan powers. In
the i n t e r i o r some of the t r a d i t i o n a l
c i t i e s declined when the c o l o n i a l
transportation system bypassed them; the
future of others such as Kano was assured
when roads and railroads connected them
with the port c i t i e s and they were drawn
into the expanding transportation network
and the emerging colonial economy.
The period fom 1862 to 1917 was one of
establishment of new European s e t t l e -
ments, many with specialized functions.
During this period more than f i f t y new
towns were l a i d out with only three
l o c a t e d ^ on the s i t e s of indigenous
centers. The specialized functions of
these urban centers included commercial,
mining, transportation, and administra-
tive headquarters.
Several of the old trading towns such as
Kano and Kumasi retained their commercial
f u n c t i o n by becoming centers for the
marketing of cash crops such as peanuts
and cocoa. Numerous mining towns were
constructed to e x p l o i t the wealth of
Africa and f i l l the rising demand for
minerals i n Europe. Cities such as Jos
and Enugu were founded to exploit Niger-
ian t i n and coal. Lubumbashi (formerly
Elizabethville) was established by Bel-
gians to exploit the copper of Shaba
(Katanga). Cities of Zimbabwe (formerly
Rhodesia) located on the highly mineral-
ized Great Dyke included Que Que,
Gatooma, Gwelo and Salisbury. The copper-
belt towns of Zambia included Mufullra,
Nchanga and Broken H i l l . In South A f r i c a ,
diamonds encouraged the growth of Kimber-
ly at the confluence of the Vaal and
Orange Rivers while the gold of the
Witwatersrand spawned Johannesburg. Many
of these towns were located in sparsely
populated areas which necessitated
migration to f i l l the need for labor.
The c o l o n i a l powers also established
towns that functioned as administrative
headquarters or regional capitals. The
c i t y of Kaduna was created by the British
to function as the regional administra-
 )
905/Thom
c
tive headquarters of Northern Nigeria.
The Germans founded Buea i n the Cameroons
and the French established Niamey i n
Niger for s i m i l a r administrative pur-
poses. Many of the port c i t i e s came to
function as capital c i t i e s as indepen-
dence was attained from the c o l o n i a l
powers, c i t i e s that have emerged as the
largest and most important urban agglo-
merations i n their respective countries.
As colonial c i t i e s were established and
people migrated to the c i t y , a western-
educated African e l i t e gradually emerged.
Problems of urbanization emerged i n the
form of rapid urban growth, physical and
social conditions, and urban ethnicity.
AFRICAN URBAN PROBLEMS
Urban Growth
Since the 1920s the proliferation of new
towns by European colonizers has
declined, resulting instead i n a rapid
growth of e x i s t i n g urban centers,
following World War I I , the rate of urban
growth has accelerated at an increasing
rate. Cities i n Africa are growing at a
phenomenal rate with settlements of more
than 20,000 increasing at an annual
growth rate of 7.4 per cent. It i s
estimated that over 60 percent of urban
growth i s due to migration, where
migrants from r u r a l areas a r r i v e i n
search of economic opportunities. The
rural incomes are one-half to one-third
less than i n the c i t y , and this makes
c i t y l i f e a t t r a c t i v e to the r u r a l
inhabitant. Furthermore, better services,
schools and hospitals are more readily
available i n the c i t y and f u r t h e r
encourage a rural to urban migration.
The basic and fundamental problem of
African urbanization i s the rapid growth
and expansion of the c i t i e s (see table 1
at end of paper.) The i n a b i l i t y of most
cities to absorb the great number of
migrants and to provide adequate housing,
jobs, and public f a c i l i t i e s causes
social, economic, and p o l i t i c a l unrest.
Physical and Social Conditions
3
The rapid increase of urban population
creates a number of social problems. The
I n a b l i l i t y of the c i t y to provide
s u f f i c i e n t f a c i l i t i e s and amenities
results i n deplorable conditions where
crime, health hazards, and many of the
social i l l s of modern urban l i f e exist.
Unfavorable s o c i a l conditions are
compounded by economic conditions caused
by high unemployment. The i n a b i l i t y of
the c i t y to generate sufficient jobs to
absorb the newcomers r e s u l t s i n
unemployment rates of 15 to 25 percent of
the labor force In large c i t i e s such as
Lagos, Accra, Nairobi and Kinshasa.
Because of high unemployment rates, many
families are unable to pay for adequate
housing. Consequently, every major c i t y
i s characterized by sprawling squatter
settlements or b i d o n v i l l e s on t h e i r
margins. These shanty towns which
provide the most meager s h e l t e r
constructed out of discarded materials
house as high as 30 percent of a city's
population as in the case of Dakar.
Every large c i t y in Africa i s plagued
with housing shortages, high rents, and
extremely overcrowded conditions. Even
i n areas where housing i s permanent and
of better quality, overcrowding persists.
In Nairobi a housing estate where 400
rooms were built to house 1200 people
housed in reality over 3000.
Overcrowded conditions such as these
increase the susceptibility to
communicable diseases and one of the most
frequent causes of death i s tuberculosis.
Because of unhealthy and unsanitary
conditions dysentary, typhoid, and
i n t e s t i n a l diseases are not uncommon.
Shanty town residents are also subject to
poor diets that result i n malnutrition.
In some instances the reluctance to spend
hard-earned cash on nutritious food i s a
principal cause of malnutrition.
Urban Ethnicity
One of the i n t e r e s t i n g c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of
A f r i c a n c i t i e s i s the diversity and
heterogeneous makeup of the population.
This diversity i s well illustrated i n the
small c i t y of Kisumu, Kenya (24,000)
where twenty-five ethnic (tribal) groups
and c i t i z e n s from twelve countries
reside. In Kisumu approximately 60
percent of the population i s African, 35
percent Asian, 2.5 percent European and
1.5 percent Arab. From this example the
heterogeneity of the population i s
readily observable. While the percentages
may vary from c i t y to c i t y , the dichotomy
between African and non-African on the
one hand and among Africans on the other
i s well i l l u s t r a t e d .
Expatriate Europeans, Middle-Eastern
peoples, and Asians usually make up a
small minority of African c i t y popula-
tion, but their influence on administra-
tion, trade, and commerce i s much greater
than t h e i r numbers. The expatriate
population remains an educated, wealthy
elite, residing in comfortable
residential areas with all the
conveniences and amenities of modern
urban l i v i n g . Only the expatriates and a
few prosperous Africans can afford such
luxuries. These residential areas are
far removed from the conditions of urban
l i v i n g in the shanty towns.
While there exists a dichotomy between
expatriate and African, there i s also
another more disruptive cleavage among
Africans themselves based upon t r i b a l or
ethnic a f f i l i a t i o n . The f e e l i n g of
ethnic solidarity i s carried over into
the c i t y and while i n the long term
determination may occur, In the short
term s u p e r t r i b a l i z a t i o n may develop
whereby ethnic associations based upon
common kinship assume primary importance
i n the c i t y . The intensity of these
r i v a l r i e s among different ethnic groups
i n the urban environment creates tensions
that have been likened to the racial
tensions experienced i n the United
States.
The diversity of African urban
populations developed as a result of the
growth of the c i t y . I n i t i a l l y the c i t y
grew i n a p a r t i c u l a r place and the
population was drawn from adjacent areas
and usually comprised a single ethnic
group. Over time, as the c i t y continued
to grow i t attracted different ethnic
groups from greater distances and as
these peoples arrived they were referred
to as strangers. The cleavage between
the Indigenes and strangers encouraged
residential segregation and sections of
town tended toward ethnic and linguistic
homogeneity. Strangers quarters referred
to by various names such as Sabon Gari i n
Northern N i g e r i a , or Zongo i n Ghana,
emerged to house the African,
non-indigenous population. Since each
ethnic group tended to associate, reside,
and work with their "own kind," there
also emerged patterns of ethnic division
of l a b o r — a tendency for a particular
ethnic group to monopolize certain jobs
i n the c i t y . There also developed
voluntary associations based upon ethnic
background that often reinforece the
distinctiveness and cultural background
of the members. Such cleavages,
especially among the masses of i l l i t e r a t e
and s e m i l i t e r a t e u n s k i l l e d , has often
been a cause of tension between groups
within the c i t y .
The problems of African urbanization—
migration, urban growth, and s o c i a l
c o n d i t i o n s — h a v e a l l acted upon and
brought changes to the traditional family
structure. Since the c i t y i s the focal
point for social change and the recipient
of modernizing influences, Individuals
and families migrating to the c i t y have
been affected by these various urban
influences.
FAMILY LIFE IN AFRICA
The Traditional Family
The traditional African family i s rooted
i n the extended family with strong
kinship ties and obligations to one's
descent group. The nuclear family i n
traditional society tends to be subhumed
to one's o b l i g a t i o n s to the broader
extended family. Thus, marriages, while
often arranged by parents or brothers, i s
more than a contract between i n d i v i -
d u a l s — i t i s a union between two extended
905/Thom
c
families and communities. One's extended
family and k i n s f o l k have a vested
interest i n the success of the marriage,
and i n most African societies the dis-
solution of a marriage occurs only after
lengthy attempts at reconciliation by the
community. Children i n most African soc-
ieties are viewed as belonging to the
lineage and not only to the parents, con-
sequently the socialization of children
becomes a community a f f a i r . Children are
raised with a strong sense of security
and belonging with many adults providing
direction and discipline.
Associated with marriage i s the custom of
bridewealth, a concept that has been
grossly misrepresented i n western
society. It has implied that a young man
"purchases" a bride on an open market
through payment of goods, cattle, or more
recently, money. This further implies
that young women are forced into marriage
to the highest bidder. In r e a l i t y , only and a v a r i e t y of other tasks. The
rarely w i l l a young woman be forced to
marry someone she does not l i k e . The labor, e s p e c i a l l y i n East and South
payment of bridewealth i s payment from
one extended family to another for the i s the r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of women. Men
r i g h t to add to the lineage of the
husband. Indeed, i n many societies, i f a
wife has not produced children within a
reasonable period of time, the husband
can demand the return of the bridewealth.
Every African society places a high value
on raising a large posterity that w i l l
provide support and comfort i n one's old
age.
Polygyny i s another common feature i n
Africa whereby a man may marry as many
wives as he can afford. The high value
placed by African societies on security,
family, and many children i s the rational
basis f o r the p r a c t i c e of polygyny.
Bohannan and Curtin have suggested that:
Obviously, to make polygyny work i t
i s necessary constantly to re-create
a situation i n which the rewards and
o b l i g a t i o n s are as neatly and
precisely stated as are the obliga-
tions and rules among parents and
children, husbands and wives. . . .
Polygyny has nothing to do with the
5
p o s i t i o n of women i n s o c i e t y .
African women, by and large, have
high social position: legal rights,
religious and p o l i t i c a l responsibil-
i t y , economic independence. . . The
next myth that must be banished i s
that polygyny has anything to do
with the concupiscence of the male.
Polygyny i s a state into which most
A f r i c a n men enter with c e r t a i n
trepidation.
Finally the traditional African family
has always formed a basic self-sufficient
economic unit. Survival was dependent
upon defined roles based upon age and
sex. Men were primarily the protectors
of society, warriors, herdsmen, hunters,
hut builders, tool and weapon makers, and
more often skin traders. To women f e l l
the tasks of food production, food
preparation, water f e t c h i n g , firewood
collecting, child care, child rearing,
significant thing about the division of
A f r i c a , i s that production of food crops
traditionally were involved in
a g r i c u l t u r e only i n providing heavy
manual labor i n the c l e a r i n g and
preparation of f i e l d s . Working together,
the African nuclear family and extended
family survived and shared times of feast
and famine equally.
Changing Patterns of the African Family
Increasing urbanization and the
encroachment of western influences have
had their impact upon the traditional
African family. Urban growth has been
primarily the result of rural to urban
migration.
Permanent migration i s predominantly the
result of the emergence of an educated,
western-oriented e l i t e whose career,
ambitions, and opportunites rest i n the
city. This e l i t e , frequently educated
abroad, has absorbed many western values
and t h i s i n turn has affected t h e i r
a t t i t u d e s and perceptions of f a m i l y .
 905/Thom
c
Adaptation to permanent urban residence
has brought changes to the traditional
family structure. Often this educated
e l i t e do not stand by t r a d i t i o n a l
marriage conventions and expect to court
their wives i n the western sense; yet, at
the same time they are w i l l i n g to hold to
the traditional payment of bridewealth.
Monogamy tends to be the most common form
of marriage among urban residents with a
husband u s u a l l y marrying a woman o f
s i m i l a r educational background. This
r e s u l t s i n changing roles where many
married women are carreer-oriented and
leave the raising of their children to
domestic servants or r e l a t i v e s l i v i n g
with them. In the urban situation, the
husband assumes the r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of
paying rent, school fees, and buying food
while the woman assumes the
r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of buying c l o t h i n g and
household furnishings.
The geographic separation of the c i t y -
dweller from his rural roots diminishes
the influences of the extended family and
significantly reduces the unreasonable
demands of relatives. An educated, r e l a -
tively wealthy urban resident i s expected
to share his prosperity with his rural
r e l a t i v e s . The f i l i a l o b l i g a t i o n s are Since rural to urban migration i s age-
carried out since i n many instances the
education and hence the position of the c i t y a preponderance of youth and males,
urban inhabitants i s the r e s u l t of
support from the extended family through
secondary school and university. Thus,
the educated e l i t e assumes responsiblity
to pay school fees and t u i t i o n of
brothers, s i s t e r s , and cousins. Since
education i n most African countries i s
viewed as a means to a better way of
l i f e , parents aspire to provide schooling
for their children. Even educated married
women are expected to contribute to the present.
education of relatives on her side of the
family. These obligations are assumed
and i n many instances create financial
d i f f i c u l t i e s for the urban resident.
Ties to the r u r a l extended family
gradually diminish after three or four
generations have spent their entire lives
l i v i n g i n the c i t y and the nuclear family
takes on added significance and becomes
the focus of family a c t i v i t i e s . The
t r a d i t i o n a l custom of men and women
eating separately gives way to family
meals. S i g n i f i c a n t l y , many educated
urban e l i t e s have r e c e n t l y shown a
growing i n t e r e s t i n i d e n t i f y i n g t h e i r
rural roots and maintaining contacts with
their rural relatives. Many feel that i n
the process of acquiring an education and
assuming non-African values, a part of
their cultural heritage has been denied
to them and this has led many to search
out their rural roots.
In contrast to the educated e l i t e , there
are the masses of semiliterate unskilled
workers who temporarily migrate to the
city. Temporary migration to the c i t y
frequently involves young males who find
work to accumulate cash for bridewealth
or to acquire cash to purchase a specific
luxury item such as a radio. For some
the journey to and residence i n the c i t y
i s veiwed as an i n i t i a t i o n , a r i t e de
passage, replacing the t r a d i t i o n a l
practice of raiding for induction into
manhood. Upon returning to their village
with g i f t s and savings, they are accorded
status and prestige.
and-sex-selective, there results i n the
fewer children than one might expect, and
very few aged. During the c o l o n i a l
period, the British Colonial administra-
t i o n i n Central and East Africa
discouraged the settlement of families i n
the towns. Young males were encouraged
and enticed to work i n the c i t y , leaving
their wives and children to take care of
the farm. This pattern of family
fragmentation has continued down to the
In some areas survival i s dependent upon
receiving cash receipts from household
heads working i n the c i t y . A recent
survey of the semi-arid marginal lands of
the Akamba i n Kenya revealed that 40
percent of the male household heads were
working i n the c i t i e s and towns of Kenya.
In South Africa the situation i s even
905/Thom
c
more c r i t i c a l in that African families
under the policy of apartheid have been
specifically barred from residing in the
c i t y unless the wife has employment.
Such conditions contribute to a rising
crime rate, prostitution, social
diseases, and family d i f f i c u l t i e s caused
by separation. Such government policies
have been c r i t i c i z e d by churchmen and
social workers in South Africa.
In Lesotho i t i s estimated that more than
60 percent of the adult male work force
is absent from their village and working
in the mines of South Africa. There i s
growing concern i n Lesotho over the
problem of family abandonment. An
estimated one-third of the head of
households, upon returning from the
mines of South Africa, take up residence
i n the c a p i t a l Maeru and i n e f f e c t
abandon^ t h e i r f a m i l i e s i n the r u r a l
areas.
Yet another problem of growing concern i n
most c i t i e s and towns of Africa i s the
increase i n juvenile delinquency.
Abandoned youths and runaways roam the
streets of v i r t u a l l y every large c i t y and
eke out an existence by whatever means
are available. Parking lot boys are
observed in c i t i e s from Dakar to Nairobi
begging money i n return for directing
automobiles into vacant parking places.
When payment i s not forthcoming, i t is
not uncommon to observe dents and
scratches on the automobile upon return
to the parking place. Muggings, theft,
robbery, and burglaries are becoming more
common in c i t i e s throughout the conti-
nent . Such actions and behavior, are
symptomatic of the breakdown of extended
family influence and portrays the nega-
tive influences of rapid urbanization.
While urbanization has had some negative
effects upon family l i f e , i t should be
stressed that the extended family and
familial obligations are alive and well
in most parts of Africa. The extended
family has proven to be highly r e s i l i e n t
and has been modified to f i t the circum-
7
stances of urban l i f e and rural-urban
relationships.
Since most of urban growth i s the result
of rural to urban migration, i t might be
a n t i c i p a t e d that the c i t i e s would be
wrought with stress and anxiety as the
migrants endeavor to adjust to their new
surroundings. While adjustments have to
be made, the t r a n s i t i o n from r u r a l
existence to urban l i v i n g i s f a c i l i t a t e d
through the extended family which recog-
nizes familial obligations to the newly-
arrived. Relatives already residing in
the city provide assistance and support
u n t i l the migrant finds employment and
adjusts to the urban environment. The
loneliness, anxiety, and anomie that has
been a frequent problem of urbanization
in western society i s rarely experienced
by the African migrant, for the extended
family provides the security, comfort,
and sense of belonging so necessary i n
adjusting to urban l i f e .
The transition i s eased further through
the numerous voluntary associations where
contact with people of the same ethnic
group f a c i l i t a t e s adjustment to the c i t y .
These voluntary associations provide the
newcomer with information about the c i t y ,
p o l i t i c a l educations, and even adult
education. In addition to providing these
useful services, voluntary associations
also look out for the Interests of the
ethnic group they represent, protect
business advantages, and even provide a
basis of support for politicians.
In contrast to the voluntary associations
which function to promote the well-being
of the urban dweller there are also im-
provement unions in the city which are
organized to promote improvements i n the
home village area. Funds are collected
and lobbying carried out i n order to se-
cure roads, schools, and hospitals i n the
rural homelands. Since many migrants plan
to retire to the home v i l l a g e , they re-
tain a vested interested i n seeing that
adequate modern f a c i l i t i e s are made
available.
905/Thom
c
CONCLUSION
The c i t i e s of Africa appear to be facing
insurmountable problems. Rapid urban
growth, poor urban conditions, and
diversity of population have a l l
influenced the quality of l i f e i n the
African urban center. Rapid urbanization
creates s o c i a l and economic problems.
Deplorable l i v i n g conditions i n the
shanty towns cause health and disease
problems, the sex ratio imbalance has
resulted i n a r i s i n g crime r a t e ,
increased p r o s i t i t u i o n , and growing
concern over s o c i a l diseases. Such
conditions are not necessarily uniform
throughout Africa, regional differences
and v a r i a t i o n s depend upon the areas
urban tradition, colonial background, and
present-day government policies.
By virtue of the functions which African
c i t i e s perform, the city i s the node of
modernization and social change. Social
change i s occurring at an increasing pace
and traditional values tend to be modi-
fied and even disappear. Functioning as
the focus for transportation, communi-
cations, commerce, manufacturing, and
administration, the city i s the major
r e c i p i e n t of outside contact and
influence. It i s a point of diffusion
for new ideas and knowledge, and a v i t a l
l i n k between the rural areas and the
modern world. In t h i s capacity the
c i t i e s w i l l continue to influence the
d i r e c t i o n and development of the
countries to which they belong and at the
same time bring change to traditional
African family l i f e . While family l i f e
in general remains strong, there has been
a relative decline within the c i t i e s .
T r a d i t i o n a l l i n k s with the extended
family have been weakened, resulting in a
greater focus on the nuclear family among
urban residents. The influx of male head
of households causes the weakening of
family t i e s and places considerable
burden upon wives remaining i n the rural
areas. New ideas and misconceptions of
western family l i f e as portrayed i n
newspapers, movies, and observations of
expatriates becomes a model for some
A f r i c a n s and change the t r a d i t i o n a l
family structure. Change i s inevitable
and time w i l l t e l l whether the strengths
of traditional African family l i f e w i l l
persist.
905/Thom 9
c

Table 1 Growth of Major African Cities 1940-

Annual %
City 1940 1950 1960 19TB growth

Cairo 1,307,000 2,100,000 3,348,000 4.961,000

Alexandria 682,000 925,000 1,516,000 2.032,000

(SB
3.7

Kinshasa 208,000 402,000 1,288,000 9.5

Johannesburg 286,000 880,000 1,111,000 1,152,000 4.7

Lagos 180,000 230,000 459,000 875,000 5.4

Capetown 187,000 594,000 746,000 807,000 5.0

Ibadan 387,000 459,000 627,000 746,000 2.2

Addis Ababa 150,000 402,000 449,000 684,000 5.2

Accra 73,000 140,000 388,000 758,000 8.1

Dakar 165,000 230,000 374,000 581,000 4.3

Nairobi 100,000 112,000 267,000 535,000 5.7

Salisbury 51,000 120,000 270,000 390,000 7.0

Kano 89,000 130,000 295,000 351,000 4.7

Port Elizabeth 125,000 148,000 274,000 290,000 2.8

Abidjan 127,000 180,000 282,000 4.1

I

Source: United Nations Demographic Yearbook

905/Thom 10
c

NOTES

Hlabogunje, A.L. "Urbanization and Social Change," i n J . Paden and E. W. Soja,

The African Experience, (Evanston. Northwestern University Press), Vol. 1, 1970, p.
33TI
Davidson, B. The Lost Cities of Africa, (Boston: A t l a n t i c - L i t t l e , Brown) 1959,
p. 196.
3
Mabogunje, op. c i t . p. 336.
4
Hance, W. Population, Migration and Urbanization i n Africa, (New York: Columbia
University Press), 1970, pp. 215-16.
\ o s s e r , C. Urbanization i n Tropical Africa. International Urbanization Survey
Report, Ford Foundation, 1972. p. 32.
6
0ram, N. Towns i n Africa. (London: Oxford University Press), 1965, p. 24.
7
Hanna, W. J . and Hanna, J . L., Urban Dynamics i n Black Africa, (Chicago: Aldine
Press), 1971, pp. 116-17.
8
I b i d . , p. 105
9
Bohannan, P. and Curtin, P. Africa and the Africans, (New York: Natural History
Press), 1971, pp. 106-09. '
10.
Lloyd, P. C. Africa i n Social Change, (Baltimore: Penguin) 1967, p. 177.

^Thom, D. J . Kenya Marginal/Semi-Arid Lands Pre-Investment Inventory, Report #6

"Human Recourses and S o c i a l C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s , " Consortium f o r International
Development, Nairobi, 1978, pp. 77-80.
12
Roberts, K., A. Bishop, W. Lye, et a l : "Lesotho: Land Conservation and Range
Management Project." (Mimeo). pp. 133-44.
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

How to Trace Your

South Atrican Family
History
through Written Sources
R. T, J, Lombard
^ Series 906
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 HOW TO TRACE YOUR FAMILY HISTORY IN SOUTH AFRICA THROUGH
WRITTEN SOURCES

R. T. J. Lombard

Born i n South Africa. Resides i n Pretoria, South Africa. Senior chief research
o f f i c e r , National Institute for Historical Research, Human Sciences Research Council
of South Africa. D. L i t t . et P h i l . , University of South Africa. Editor, author.

F i r s t , my sincerest thanks to the Genea- MIGRATION PATTERNS

logical Society of Utah for allowing me
to make a small contribution to this
important international conference.
should also like to take this opportunity
of congratulating The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints on the com-
memoration of i t s 150th anniversary on 6
April this year. To vis in South Africa 6
April i s also an important day. I t was
on this day i n 1652 that the f i r s t
settlement of whites was established at
the southern tip of Africa. This settle-
ment also had religious significance as
i t meant the founding of the Christian
church i n Southern A f r i c a .
The sixth of April 1652 i s genealogically
also of great significance as i t marks
the beginning of the written sources from
which the genealogist derives his infor-
mation about South Africa. On 6 June
1652 the Commander at the Cape, Jan van
Riebeeck, recorded the birth of the f i r s t
white child i n South Africa i n his daily
journal. The child was Bernert Willemsz,
the son of the sick-comforter, Willem
Barentsz Wijlant. Because there was no
ordained minister at the Cape, the child
was only baptized on 20 August 1653 by a
v i s i t i n g clergyman.
In this paper I intend to touch on a
number of matters concerning which every
genealogist i n South Africa should have a
sound knowledge, namely: (1) migration
patterns, (2) w r i t t e n genealogical
sources, and (3) genealogical i n s t i -
tutions .
I The f i r s t whites who arrived i n South
A f r i c a were o f f i c i a l s of the Dutch East
India Company ( D . E . I . C . ) and their stay
at the Cape was only temporary. In 1657
a number of company o f f i c i a l s received
farms from the D . E . I . C . and they were
thus the f i r s t permanent white s e t t l e r s .
These f i r s t white inhabitants were mainly
of Dutch o r i g i n , although at that stage
the D . E . I . C . was a l r e a d y employing
o f f i c i a l s of various other n a t i o n a l i t i e s ,
p a r t i c u l a r l y German. By the l a t t e r half
of the eighteenth century the o f f i c i a l s
of German o r i g i n at the Cape outnumbered
those of Dutch o r i g i n .
In 1688-89 and i n subsequent years
a p p r o x i m a t e l y 200 French Huguenots
arrived i n South A f r i c a . Seme of them
had l e f t France before 1686 (the year i n
which the E d i c t of Nantes was revoked)
and l i v e d i n the Netherlands f o r a time
before leaving f o r the Cape. A few of
them, f o r example, the progenitor of the
Lombard f a m i l y and h i s w i f e , M a r i e
C o u t e a u , were p r o b a b l y born i n the
Netherlands.
These immigrants of Dutch, German, and
French o r i g i n were the ancestors of the
Afrikaans-speaking South A f r i c a n s . The
Afrikaans language developed mainly from
Dutch but w i t h German and French
influences.
During the period of the D . E . I . C , a
l a r g e number of s l a v e s f r o m A f r i c a ,
Madagascar, and East India were brought
906/Lombard
to the Cape. They, In turn, were the
primary ancestors of the colored
population i n South A f r i c a . Because the
Cape was situated on one of the most
important trade routes, s a i l o r s and
soldiers called there frequently. Some
of them married South African g i r l s and
took them back to Europe with them.
V i s i t i n g s o l d i e r s and s a i l o r s also
fathered many i l l e g i t i m a t e c h i l d r e n ,
particularly among the slave g i r l s of the
D.E.I.C. As you can imagine, t h i s
creates a big problem for the
genealogist.
With the growth of the farming community,
the farmers moved f u r t h e r into the
i n t e r i o r . By the end of the eighteenth
century whites were inhabiting the larger
part of the present Cape Province.
In 1795 Britain occupied the Cape to pre-
vent i t from f a l l i n g into the hands of
the French. In 1803 Britain returned the
Cape to the Dutch (the Batavian
Republic). Three years later Britain
again occupied the Cape and declared i t a
British colony. In the course of the
nineteenth century various groups of
inmigrants arrived at the Cape. The most
important of these were the B r i t i s h
settlers of 1820 and the German m i l i t a r y
s e t t l e r s who s e t t l e d on the eastern
frontier of the Cape Colony i n 1858.
There were also various smaller groups of
Immigrants such as the English orphans
who were sent out by the C h i l d r e n ' s
Friend Society about 1836, the Dutch
orphans, and the Irish female settlers of
the 1850s.
One of the largest migrations i n the h i s -
tory of South Africa was the Great Trek,
which started i n 1836. For p o l i t i c a l ,
economic, and cultural reasons, thousands
of Afrikaans-speaking people l e f t the
eastern d i s t r i c t s of the Cape Colony to
e s t a b l i s h an independent republic of
their own further to the north. This was
the beginning of the occupation of Natal,
the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal
by whites. A f t e r the Voortrekkers,
thousands of other emigrants from the
Cape Colony and even groups of European
immigrants also settled in these areas.
2
The f i r s t Indians were brought to Natal
i n 1860 to work in the cane f i e l d s .
With the discovery of diamonds and gold
in the northern Cape, the Orange Free
State, and the Transvaal, fortune hunters
streamed into South A f r i c a from a l l parts
of the world. South A f r i c a also received
i t s share of the large number of eastern
Europeans who emigrated from the
continent from 1880 u n t i l the outbreak of
the First World War (1914-18). In this
period, f o r instance, approximately
40,000 Jews s e t t l e d i n South A f r i c a .
Between 1933 and 1939 approximately 9000
more Jews emigrated from Germany to South
Africa.
The migration from the rural areas to the
c i t i e s began during the f i r s t half of the
twentieth century. The increase in the
population, the depression and drought of
the t h i r t i e s , and the industrial growth
during and after the Second World War
were the main causes of this migration.
By the end of the nineteenth century
whites from South A f r i c a , Great Britain,
and Germany began to settle i n Rhodesia
and South-West A f r i c a . Groups of
A f r i k a n e r s also l e f t South A f r i c a to
settle i n Kenya, Tanganyika, and even i n
Patagonia i n Argentina, p a r t i c u l a r l y
after the Second Anglo-Boer War
(1899-1902). Isolated individuals also
l e f t the country i n a steady flow to
settle elsewhere. There i s probably not
a family i n South Africa that does not
have some genealogical connections i n
other parts of the world. The
Genealogical Society of South Africa and
the Genealogy Section of the Human
Sciences Research Council c o n t i n u a l l y
receive i n q u i r i e s from people outside
South A f r i c a about distant relatives i n
South A f r i c a .
WRITTEN GENEALOGICAL SOURCES
Written genealogical sources can be
divided into two groups, namely published
and unpublished.
906/Lombard
Published Sources
As with any other research, i t i s the
task of the genealogical researcher f i r s t
to acquaint himself with the methodology
of research and second to take note of
everything that has already been
published on his subject. Anyone who i s
interested i n doing genealogical research
in South Africa i s advised to make a
thorough study of the Handbook f o r
Genealogical Research i n South A f r i c a
that has been published by the Human
Sciences Research C o u n c i l . Numerous
family h i s t o r i e s have already been
published. The most important
genealogical p u b l i c a t i o n to date i s
Genealogies of Old South African Families
by C. C. de V i l l i e r s and C. Pama. It
contains complete genealogical tables of
a l l white South Africans from 1652 to
about 1810. These genealogical tables
are now being extended to 1830 by Dr. J .
A. Heese. When they have been published,
South Africans w i l l be in the unique
p o s i t i o n of having at t h e i r d i s p o s a l
genealogical tables of v i r t u a l l y a l l
whites who settled in the country before
1830.
Unpublished Written Sources
The most important unpublished documents
are found i n the state archives, church
archives, museums, or are i n the private
possession of families.
O f f i c i a l State Documents
The settlement of South Africa proceeded
in an orderly manner from the outset.
New immigrants had to obtain permission
from the Dutch East India Company to
settle i n the country and established
farmers were required to obtain
permission to move f u r t h e r i n t o the
interior. There were a few cases of
sailors or soldiers who deserted and then
sought refuge in the Interior, but they
were the exceptions.
The documents of the D.E.I.C. have been
particularly well preserved. The careful
documentation begun by the o f f i c i a l s of
3
the company was continued and even
improved by the British o f f i c i a l s after
1806. The majority of Voortrekkers were
farmers and few had had experience as
administrative o f f i c i a l s . Consequently,
the documentation of the Great Trek i s
poor and much has been lost to posterity.
Fortunately for the genealogist, the
church registers of that period have been
reasonably well preserved.
The most important documents from the
time the Dutch East India Company was i n
office are the journal of the governor,
the Resolutions of the P o l i t i c a l Council,
land registers, muster r o l l s , and tax
r o l l s (or revenue returns). When the
community at the Cape was s t i l l small,
v i r t u a l l y a l l events—even births,
marriages, and deaths—were recorded
daily by the governor. Appointments to
or discharges from various posts and
information relating to when a person
became a free burgher were recorded i n
the Resolutions of the P o l i t i c a l Council.
I n i t i a l l y only hunting licenses were
recorded i n the Wildschutte Boeke
(hunting r e g i s t e r s ) (1687-1795), but
later grazing licenses and the granting
of loan farms were also entered i n these
registers. By studying the hunting
registers the researcher obtains an idea
of how the population gradually moved
further into the interior. The muster
r o l l s contain regular records for
m i l i t a r y purposes and, as t h e i r name
suggests, the tax r o l l s contain records
for taxation purposes. The latter cover
the period 1692-1845 and supply details
about every burgher's property and income
for a specific year. His f u l l name as
well as his wife's i s mentioned and the
number of sons and daughters he had. A
series of documents—Permits to Remain i n
the Colony and Permits to Leave the
Colony (1806-1844), to be found In the
f i l e s of the Colonial Office Archives
(CO), are also of great help to the
genealogist.
The estate f i l e s preserved i n the
archives of the Master of the Supreme
Court are the most important state
documents for genealogists. They provide
906/Lombard
miscellaneous information about the
deceased, h i s next of k i n , and his
property. The Master of the Supreme
Court has o f f i c e s i n Cape Town,
Kimberley, Grahamstown, Pretoria,
Bloemfontein, and Pietermaritzburg. The
oldest estate f i l e s have, however, been
transferred to the state archives.
An estate f i l e contains basically three
types of documents: the w i l l , the estate
accounts, and a death notice (See i l l u s .
1.) In the archives of the Master of the
Supreme Court in Cape Town, these three
types of documents are kept i n separate
f i l e s , but i n the Transvaal and Orange
Free State a l l the information i s kept i n
the same f i l e . The oldest w i l l s date
back to 1689. They give the address of
the deceased and in some instances the
birthplace and names of children. The
estate accounts contain an inventory of
the deceased person's property and an
explanation of how t h i s property was
divided among the h e i r s . Baptismal
c e r t i f i c a t e s , marriage c e r t i f i c a t e s , and
b i r t h c e r t i f i c a t e s of members of the
family are often found in such a f i l e .
Interesting information about a they were minors or adults and their date
particular family can often be gleaned
from the correspondence and other
documents attached to the estate
accounts. From a report on a court case
concerning the estate of Marthina Johanna
Hoffman, wife of Josias P h i l i p Hoffman
(the f i r s t state president of the
Republic of the Orange Free State,
1854-55), f o r example, i t b ecomes
apparent that the couple were married i n
Cape Town on 29 August 1830 and were
divorced on 7 February 1839. They were
reconciled about year later and did not
remarry despite the fact that they lived
together for almost forty years. Thus at
the time when Josias Hoffman was the
President of the Orange Free State, he
was l i v i n g with a woman to whom he was
not l e g a l l y married. It i s worth
mentioning that no further children were
born to them after their reconciliation
in 1840. Their most intimate
friends—and even their four
children—were not aware of the fact that
they were not legally married. That no
4
mention i s made of these facts i n any of
Hoffman's biographies proves that an
ordinary historian can sometimes profit
by a l i t t l e genealogical research.
As far as the genealogist i s concerned,
the death notice is the most important
document i n the estate f i l e . A death
notice form was f i r s t used in the Cape
Colony in 1834. It was a printed form on
which details about the deceased had to
be f i l l e d i n . Similar forms were later
used in the Orange Free State, Natal, and
the Transvaal and are s t i l l used in South
A f r i c a and i t s neighboring s t a t e s .
Although the form has been changed from
time to time, i t has always remained
basically the same.
A death notice form that has been
properly completed contains the following
information about the deceased: f u l l
name, date of birth or age at the time of
death, birthplace, date of death as well
as place, the names of the surviving
spouse and of the predeceased spouse(s),
and the names of the parents and the
children of the deceased. Regarding the
children, i t i s usually stated whether
of birth and age were frequently given.
The names of sons-in-law and daughters-
in-law are sometimes mentioned. The
names of grandchildren of deceased
parents are also given. In cases where
the deceased was very old, the names of a
number of grandchildren and even of
great-grand c h i l d r e n are sometimes
mentioned.
The birthplace indicated in the death
notice gives the researcher an idea of
where to s t a r t tracing the relevant
person's ancestors. This information i s
particularly important when i t concerns
immigrants. It usually mentions whether
death resulted from unnatural causes,
such as an accident, drowning, death on
the b a t t l e f i e l d , lightning, murder, or
suicide.
The names of children who died i n infancy
are normally not given i n the death
notices. An estate was registered in the
event of the decease of the minor who
906/Lombard
s u r v i v e d one or both h i s parents,
provided that such a c h i l d i n h e r i t e d from
the e s t a t e o f h i s p a r e n t s . These
documents sometimes give the researcher
an idea of the g r i e f and s u f f e r i n g of
parents whose c h i l d r e n a l l died w i t h i n a
week or two on account of an epidemic
such as measles, d i p t h e r i a , or s c a r l e t
f e v e r . This occurred p a r t i c u l a r y during
the Second Anglo-Boer War when women and
c h i l d r e n had to l i v e in terrible
conditions i n the concentration camps.
Anyone who wants to do g e n e a l o g i c a l
research i n South A f r i c a i s advised to
s t a r t with the estate f i l e s . Because
such a large amount of information about
three or four generations of a family i s
combined i n one f i l e , estate f i l e s make
i t easier to e s t a b l i s h family t i e s . Once
a framework has been constructed with
information from the estate f i l e s , other
sources can be used to f i l l the gaps that
might s t i l l e x i s t .
Since 1895 the r e g i s t r a t i o n of b i r t h s and
deaths has been compulsory i n the Cape;
i n Natal since 1868; i n the Transvaal
since 1901; and i n the Orange Free State
s i n c e 1902. The o l d e s t marriage
r e g i s t e r s i n the p o s s e s s i o n of the
R e g i s t r a r o f B i r t h s , M a r r i a g e s , and
Deaths date back to about 1820, but they
are not complete. The marriage r e g i s t e r s
for the Cape are comparatively complete
from 1859, f o r Natal from 1868, f o r the
Transvaal from 1861, and f o r the Free
State from 1872. However, neither the
r e g i s t e r s of the R e g i s t r a r nor the
indexes of the r e g i s t e r s are open to the
p u b l i c ; consequently, they have l i t t l e
value f o r the genealogist. C e r t i f i c a t e s
of b i r t h , m a r r i a g e , and death are
obtainable from the Registrar provided he
i s g i v e n f u l l p a r t i c u l a r s about the
person concerned. In order to obtain a
b i r t h c e r t i f i c a t e , f o r example, the
person's f u l l name, b i r t h p l a c e , and date
of b i r t h (at l e a s t the year), and names
of h i s parents have to be provided. The
only value such a c e r t i f i c a t e has f o r the
g e n e a l o g i s t i s t h a t i t c o n f i r m s the
correctness of the information already
obtained.
C l e r i c a l Sources
As i n most other countries of the West,
the g e n e a l o g i s t i n South A f r i c a i s
greatly indebted to the Christian
churches of the country. I t has already
been mentioned that the death notices i n
the estate f i l e s date back to 1834. From
the 170 years from 1665 to 1834 the
g e n e a l o g i s t has to depend m a i n l y on
church r e g i s t e r s f o r h i s research.
Although many other sources e x i s t from
which information can be obtained about
people, no other source f o r t h i s period
states family relationships so
explicitly.
In 1665, t h i r t e e n years a f t e r Jan van
Riebeeck had established a refreshment
s t a t i o n at the Cape f o r the Dutch East
I n d i a Company, a c o n g r e g a t i o n of the
Reformed Church of the Netherlands was
o f f i c i a l l y founded i n Cape Town and the
f i r s t c h u r c h r e g i s t e r s were opened.
U n t i l 1780 t h i s church was the o n l y
d e n o m i n a t i o n t h a t was a l l o w e d i n the
country. Members of the Lutheran Church
and even of the Roman Catholic Church had
to r e s i g n themselves to become members of
a reformed church. In the eighteenth
century the German community at the Cape
increased r a p i d l y because of the large
number of Germans who were i n the service
of the company. Towards the middle of
the century they started campaigning f o r
the establishment of a Lutheran
congregation i n Cape Town. The company
was opposed to the idea at f i r s t but
compiled with the request eventually and
the f i r s t L u t h e r a n c o n g r e g a t i o n was
founded i n 1780. The r e g i s t e r s of S t .
George's Cathedral i n Cape Town, center
of the oldest English-speaking
congregation i n South A f r i c a , date back
to 1806.
C h r i s t i a n missionaries from Europe and
the United States have played a
p a r t i c u l a r l y i m p o r t a n t r o l e I n the
h i s t o r y of South A f r i c a . I f one consults
the D i c t i o n a r y o f South A f r i c a n
Biography, one f i n d s that a remarkably
high percentage of missionaries have been
included. The blacks of South A f r i c a who
o r i g i n a l l y came from C e n t r a l A f r i c a
906 Lombard
settled in the eastern and northern parts
of the country where the climate was
f a i r l y warm and the r a i n f a l l high. The
whites who moved northwards from the
southwest, on the other hand, settled
mainly i n the western and central parts
of the country.
The blacks lived independently i n their
own areas and i t was only when the
European powers began to divide A f r i c a
among themselves in the second half of
the nineteenth century (the s o - c a l l e d
"scramble for Africa") that the blacks i n
South A f r i c a came under white (mainly
British) authority. Before this time i t
was mainly missionaries and traders who
had settled among the blacks. The oldest
written sources for the study of the
h i s t o r y and genealogy of the black
nations were provided by missionaries of
the last century.
Unfortunately for the genealogist, many
Christian missionaries held the view that
when a black man from A f r i c a was
converted to Christianity, he also had to
be given a "Christian" name. Only his
" C h r i s t i a n " name was recorded i n the
church registers and not his original
"heathen" name. Not u n t i l the twentieth
century did missionaries begin to realize
that i t was wrong to want to change every
black Christian into a westerner, thus
estranging him from his own community.
The oldest registers and copies of later
registers of the Dutch Reformed Church,
the largest denomination In the country,
are preserved in central church archives
i n Cape Town, Pretoria, Pietermaritzburg,
and Bloemfontein. The registers i n Cape
Town date from 1665, those in
Pietermaritzburg from 1838, those i n
Bloemfontein from 1848, and those i n
Pretoria from 1870. In the library of
the South African Human Sciences Research
Council i n Pretoria, there are microfilms
of the registers of the Dutch Reformed
Church in the Cape Province (1665-1900),
i n Natal (1838-1920), and i n the Orange
Free State (1848-1976). The oldest
r e g i s t e r s of the Reformed Church of
A f r i c a (Nederduits Hervormde Kerk van
A f r i k a ) (1842-approximately 1900) are
6
preserved in the archives of the church
i n Pretoria. V i r t u a l l y a l l other church
registers i n South Africa are s t i l l kept
i n the local parishes. It i s therefore
d i f f i c u l t , time-consuming, and expensive
to do research from the registers as the
researcher has to travel from one place
to another.
The registers of the Afrikaans churches,
p a r t i c u l a r l y , are very complete and
generally well preserved. The baptismal
registers usually contain the f u l l name
of the c h i l d , the date of birth and the
date of baptism, the names of the
parents, including the mother's maiden
name, as w e l l as the names of the
godparents (See i l l u s . 2.) Some of the
old registers also mention the d i s t r i c t
i n which the family l i v e d . The child's
grandparents were often the f i r s t two
witnesses while other witnesses were
either r e l a t i v e s or f r i e n d s of the
parents. Complicated relationships can
sometimes be sorted out by studying the
l i s t of the witnesses.
The Afrikaner system of name giving i s a
great help to the genealogist. The same
system also applies i n Scotland.
According to this system the eldest son
i s given the name of the paternal
grandfather, the second son that of the
maternal grandfather, and the third son
bears his father's name. The eldest
daughter, on the other hand, is named
a f t e r the maternal grandmother, the
second daughter a f t e r the paternal
grandmother, and the third daughter is
given the mother's name. The
disadvantage of this system of name
giving is that you find various children
with the same Christian name in the same
family. My own grandfather, for example,
had seven sons who each had a son called
Johannes Jacobus C h r i s t o f f e l Lombard.
Four of these sons were born i n the same
town and do not d i f f e r much in age. A
researcher could therefore very easily
confuse them.
The following procedure should be adhered
to when doing research from church
registers i n order to eliminate errors as
far as possible: If a person's date of
906/Lombard 7

b i r t h i s not known, h i s f i r s t marriage Information on the genealogy and h i s t o r y

s h o u l d be t r a c e d i n the marriage of the French Huguenots i n South A f r i c a .
r e g i s t e r — w h e r e h i s b i r t h date w i l l Members o f the Huguenot S o c i e t y are
probably be g i v e n . Even when i t i s only allowed to do research at the museum.
mentioned that a person was of age or a Research on behalf of the public i s also
minor, the f i r s t marriage w i l l s t i l l be done f o r a f e e .
an i n d i c a t i o n of the approximate date of
b i r t h . The next step i s to a s c e r t a i n the The 1820 S e t t l e r s Museum at Grahamstown
names of the e l d e s t c h i l d r e n of the
relevant person in the baptismal T h i s museum was founded by the 1820
register. This information gives the Settlers Memorial Association and
researcher an i n d i c a t i o n of the names of c o l l e c t s information on the h i s t o r y and
the persons' parents. Only afterwards i n genealogy of the B r i t i s h s e t t l e r s who
the b a p t i s m a l e n t r y o f the r e l e v a n t came to South A f r i c a i n 1820. Research
person sought i n order to determine the i s a l s o undertaken on b e h a l f o f the
names of h i s parents and h i s date of public.
b i r t h with c e r t a i n t y . The names of the
c h i l d r e n , parents, and baptism witnesses The K a f f r a r i a Museum a t K i n g W i l l i a m ' s
should be c a r e f u l l y compared to a s c e r t a i n Town
that it is the right person.
S u b s e q u e n t l y , the same procedure i s The German m i l i t a r y s e t t l e r s who came to
followed to trace h i s grandparents. It South A f r i c a at the end of the Crimean
i s a lengthy, laborious process but one War i n 1858 were s e t t l e d i n the eastern
that i s worth the t r o u b l e . p r o v i n c e i n the v i c i n i t y o f K i n g
W i l l i a m ' s Town. The K a f f r a r i a Museum
Sources i n P r i v a t e Possession a l r e a d y possesses a l a r g e number o f
published sources on these people and
Every family possesses important also researches t h e i r genealogy.
documents such as genealogical tables i n
f a m i l y B i b l e s , d i a r i e s , and photographs. The K i l l i e Campbell Museum i n Durban
Many of these sources have already been
presented to museums and a r c h i v e s , where T h i s Museum c o l l e c t s sources on the
researchers can consult them. h i s t o r y and genealogy o f the o l d e s t
inhabitants of N a t a l .
GENEALOGICAL INSTITUTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA
The Genealogy Section of the HSRS
There are various genealogical
i n s t i t u t i o n s i n South A f r i c a that may be South A f r i c a , l i k e the r e s t o f the
approached by the researcher for western world, experienced a r e v i v a l of
assistance and guidance. I s h a l l discuss i n t e r e s t i n genealogy a f t e r the Second
a few b r i e f l y . World War and various prominent academics
began to campaign f o r the establishment
The Genealogical S o c i e t y of South A f r i c a of a genealogical bureau. In 1951 the
South A f r i c a n Academy f o r Science and A r t
This Society was founded i n 1964 and has appointed a commission to investigate the
t h r e e branches w i t h a p p r o x i m a t e l y 600 p o s s i b i l i t y o f such a f o u n d a t i o n .
members at p r e s e n t . The S o c i e t y ' s E v e n t u a l l y the South A f r i c a n Human
mouthpiece, Fanrflia, appears four times a S c i e n c e s Research C o u n c i l decided to
year and i t s Newsletter three times a establish a section for genealogical
year. research i n the National I n s t i t u t e f o r
H i s t o r i c a l Research i n 1970.
The Huguenot Memorial Museam a t F r e n c h
Hoek The purpose of t h i s section i s not to
u n d e r t a k e r e s e a r c h on b e h a l f o f the
This museum collects sources and p u b l i c , but to coordinate research i n
906/Lombard
South Africa and to assist the public
with advice. Despite the fact the the
section has only been i n existence for
ten years, much has already been done to
arouse i n t e r e s t i n genealogy and to
promote and f a c i l i t a t e research i n South
Africa. The following are a few of the 8.
most important projects of the section:
1. An extensive genealogical library of
books, magazines, and manuscripts on
South African and European genealogy
i s being b u i l t .
2. Miscellaneous information of a
genealogical and biographical nature,
such as i s found i n newspaper
cuttings, epitaphs, and photographs
i s collected.
3. Source guides and indexes are
compiled so that information i n books
and magazines and i n the f i l e s of the
section w i l l be easily accessible.
4. A study i s made of genealogical
sources i n South Africa and some of
the most important sources are
collected on microfilm. As already
mentioned, one of the biggest
problems of the south A f r i c a n
genealogist i s that his sources are
spread throughout the country.
5. The public are assisted with advice
about their research problems.
6. A Handbook for Genealogical Research
in South Africa has been compiled and
published i n both o f f i c i a l languages:
English and Afrikaans.
8
7. A register f o r genealogical
researchers i s maintained i n order
that persons who share an interest i n
the same f a m i l i e s may e s t a b l i s h
contact.
A start as been made with the publi-
cation of a genealogy series of which
fourteen books have already been
published. The market f o r
genealogical publications i s limited
i n South Africa and no publisher i s
therefore i n t e r e s t e d i n handling
them. Consequently, most family
h i s t o r i e s are issued p r i v a t e l y .
Because of the expense involved to
p u b l i s h p r i v a t e l y , many valuable
manuscripts remain unpublished. Some
of these manuscripts are edited by
the Genealogy Section and published
whenever possible. The publication,
South A f r i c a n Genealogies
(1652-1830), compiled by Dr. J . A.
Heese, has already been mentioned.
The interest of the public i n the work of
the Genealogy Section indicates that the
section i s f u l f i l l i n g a great need. In
1979, for example, 254 people approached
the section f o r advice about their
research problems, 392 v i s i t s were paid
to the l i b r a r y of the HSRC by
genealogical researchers, and 273 written
queries were received, of which 51 came
from abroad.
South A f r i c a ' s contribution to genealogi-
cal research is small compared with the
work that i s being done i n some other
countries. However, the increased inter-
est that i s being shown in this f i e l d of
research bodes w i l l for the future.
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Pilgrimage Records of
India:
A Rich Source of
Genealogy and
Family History
B. N, Goswamy
^ Series 907
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Chrtst
of Latter-day Saints
 PILGRIMAGE RECORDS OF INDIA: A RICH SOURCE FOR GENEALOGY AND FAMILY HISTORY
B. N. Goswamy
Born i n India. Resides i n Chandigarh, India. Professor of art history and chairman,
Department of Fine Arts, Panjab University.
lecturer.
In the culture from which I come, i t i s
possible to discern an obsession f o r
genealogies. A family or dynasty i s
called a Vansa and the lineage of a
family i s contained i n that proud record
referred to as a vamslvali. More than
anything else, i n the past of India,
there was this great pride i n lineage,
most pronounced naturally among the royal
dynasties. The two legendary branches of
Hindu royalty, Suryavamsi and
Chandravansi, those of solar and lunar
descent, are heard of repeatedly i n
Indian chronicles, and i t was the effort
of every ruling house to trace direct
connections with one or the other. An
outstanding example of a family l i v i n g on
pride from the past i s furnished by the
Katoch rulers of Kangra i n the Punjab
Hills. In 1819 the genealogical tree
went back more than 450 generations and
the English traveler Moorcroft asked h i s
host-ruler to get a copy made for him.
B r i t i s h settlement o f f i c e r s i n the
nineteenth century spoke with some awe of
the a n t i q u i t y of t h i s family. G.C.
Barnes said: "While our ancestors were
unreclaimed savages, and the Empire of
Rome was yet i n i t s infancy, there was a
Katoch monarchy with an organized
government at Kangra."
Instances of the a n t i q u i t y of r o y a l
families can be multiplied from a l l over
India, from the north as well as from the
south, from the Hindu setting to the
Muslim. I f the rulers of Mewar and
Jodhpur and Jaisalmer i n the Rajasthan
desert gloried i n family pride, so also
did i n some ways the Great Mughal s. A
look at the royal seal used by Jahangir
i n the f i r s t quarter of the seventeenth
Ph.D., Panjab University. Author,
century would t e l l us much of this, for
the seal, after mentioning the name of
"Nuruddin Muhammad Jahangir Padshah",
goes on to say, i n small circles fringing
the larger c i r c l e of the seal, that he i s
the son of Akbar Padshah who was the son
of Humayun Padshah, who i n turn was the
son of Babur, and so on: the descent i s
traced through Omar Shiakh Mirza, Sultan
Abu Said, Sultan Muhammad Mirza, and
Miran Shah, up to the great Amir Timur,
Sahib Qiran.
Keeping records of genealogies, and i n
part inventing them, was a specialized
business, and one hears of retainers
whose principal occupation was to keep
these records i n order, and to recite i n
loud stentorian tones for everyone to
hear, the genealogies whenever occasion
demanded i t . These Bhats, as they were
c a l l e d , or Charans, were attached to
p r a c t i c a l l y every sizeable darbar, i n
India, and one reads of them as forming
an important part of a ruler's retinue.
In fact, i f one looks properly, one even
sees them i n painting, standing i n a
corner of a sumptuous darbar-scene,
leaning sometimes on a long stick, or
raising their hand aloft obviously caught
by the painter i n the act of recitation.
The Bhat, the Charan, must have been so
familiar a sight i n a courtly setting
that he was hard to ignore. In fact, any
event of note did not go unaccompanied by
the Bhat's "performance." He was there,
always ready to break into paeans of
praise for his master who, he seemed to
say, was after a l l what he was because he
was descended from the grand lineage now
being recited.
907/Goswamy
The records of the Bhats, the Vamsavalls
kept by family priests are, however, one
matter. My attempt here i s to draw
attention to humbler records that con-
cerned every man. These were not kept by
retained servants of a court, nor do they
stretch back to hundreds of generations
as royal records do. These preserve i n a
simple, unostentatious manner the family
trees of ordinary men and women, and
these are kept at centers of Hindu
pilgrimage a l l over India. I am speaking
of pothis and bahis that are in the
possession of priests called pandas at
places l i k e Haridwar, Allahabad and
Varanasi i n Uttar Pradesh; Kurukshetra
and Pehowa i n Haryana; at Kangra and
Jalamukhi i n the h i l l s of Himachal; at
Martand i n Kashmir. One would find these
records as far east as Baidyanath in
Bengal and Jagannathpurl i n Orissa. One
would find them i n the south at selected
temples. The pandas and their pothis are
known to practically a l l Hindus, even to
many who do not belong to that f a i t h .
The i n s t i t u t i o n of the pandas i s a
complex one, and t h e i r records so
extensive and seemingly bewildering that
i t would perhaps be best to form a f i r s t
acquaintance with them through the
process by which an ordinary p i l g r i m
finds his name entering the register of a
priest. I f I think of myself as a person
reaching a famous pilgrim center, l e t us
say Haridwar, by the morning train, among
the most prominent people present at the
railway station would be a host of men
usually with a checked, red cotton cloth
on their shoulders. In the confusion
which usually attends upon disembarkation
at an Indian station, I along with other
pilgrims am surrounded by these men who
naturally assume that every one has come
for performing some specified r i t u a l at
the place of pilgrimage. A l l at once a
number of voices formulate the same
question, and ask each p i l g r i m the
i n s i s t e n t question: "Kahan Ke b a s i , ;
kahan ke basi?" repeated quickly twice.
"What i s your native place?" When I am
asked this question, I would not cite
Chandigarh, the place where I now live
and teach, as my native place, f o r
Chandigarh, a new c i t y , does not perhaps
2
even exist yet i n the records of the
pandas. I say that I come from Sahiwal
i n the d i s t r i c t of Shahpur, now i n
P a k i s t a n , for that i s my "native
v i l l a g e " , my ancestral place. As soon as
I give this answer, the crowd of the
pandas around me thins out somewhat, for
many of them l o s t i n t e r e s t i n me
immediately. They do not possess the
record relevant to my place.
The next question i s about my "játi,"
caste. I naturally answer that I am a
"Gosain" (Goswamy being a relatively late
sophistication). To the question which
kind of Gosain: I say I am a
'Mulesantiya', with reference to
Mulesant, who founded the family as we
know i t at home. At this the group of
pandas thins further. Only three or four
of them stay with me; others are already
turning t h e i r a t t e n t i o n with equal
alertness to other p i l g r i m s . Having
established that I am Mulesantiya Gosain
of Sahiwal, the pandas who are with me
start asking me about the names of my
family members, my father, my grand-
father, and so on. If I keep my own
counsel, they offer suggestions, such as
whether I am from the family of
so-and-so, or of so-and-so. A whole
string of names i s recited purely from
memory, and the moment a panda sees a
f l i c k e r of recognition, he knows that I
am his man. For, traditionally, there i s
a remarkably firm link between a family
of pandas and the familes of t h e i r
clients or yajamanas. The panda who, i n
that melee, shouted out the name of my
grandfather, asking me i f I was in any
way related to "Gosain Shankar Sahai,"
has a l l my attention for I am Gosain
Shankar Sahai's grandson. After that,
without much ceremony, he takes charge of
me, whisks me out of the station, puts me
i n a cycle rickshaw and s i t s by me
himself. We are off to some place in the
middle of a narrow lane of a crowded
bazaar where he gets off. So do I . With
remarkable alacrity he rushes into a dark
inner room, brings out a heavy volume
bound i n coarse red cloth, folded twice
and tied with a string. He unties the
string, f l i p s through the pages and i n a
matter l i t e r a l l y of seconds comes to a
907/Goswamy 3

page where I find names of other members The pothi or the bahi, the pilgrims'
of my family, a l l written down. My register, i s the panda's livelihood. I t
father's name, that of my grandfather and i s also a source of pride, of sentiments.
my great-grandfather, the names of my Understandably, therefore, i t i s kept
brothers, the last occasion on which a with care and guarded against theft or
member of my family came to this place damage. In essence, the types of
and made an entry In this register, the registers kept by the pandas are of three
ceremony performed at that time, even the kinds: (a) a Chaupata; (b) an asal
o f f e r i n g made to the p r i e s t on that nothi, the original; and (c) a naqal or
occasion. What I see before myself i s a Utara, a duplicate copy.
fragment of the history of my family.
The Chaupata i s a looseleaf Indian f i l e ,
which o r d i n a r i l y comes into use when
From this, i f I prefer, the panda can go there i s an unusual rush of pilgrims: a
back to an earlier volume, and trace my Kumbh mela, naratra festivals, etc. On
family history back further: more names, these occasions, the ordinary process of
more dates. For the panda this i s proof, pilgrims and pandas coming together i s
as i t i s for me, that I , as a member of short-circuited, for no one has time for
my family, "belong" to him, am i n his elaborate introductions or researches
care. What follows after this depends on into genealogy. The pilgrims make quick
what has brought me to the place: the notes on these looseleaf s and, once the
performance of a r i t u a l , l i k e the rush i s over, the pandas pour over their
immersion of the ashes of a member of the books and incorporate the information
family; the fulfillment of a vow; or gathered i n the Chaupatas into t h e i r
simply a dip i n the sacred river for both regular registers at their own proper
i t s coolness and religious merit. The places. The regular register, the one I
panda assists me with whatever I have to spoke of f i r s t , i s the asal bahi, the
åo~. At the end, he expects a certain original record. Of this, time permit-
payment and insists on my writing with my ting, a copy i s made for the sake of
own hand i n the very same register he had safety as the naqal. In this there are
shown me. That done, the transaction no signatures, no original entries; only
centering around the record comes to an abstracts of the entries i n the original
end, but the panda i s s t i l l at my register. When an asal i s lost, the
disposal. I f I do not have a place to naqal serves. But, as i t s name indi-
stay, he would offer to take me to his cates, the asal i s the real thing. The
home or his haveli and provide me with a volume i n current use i s called the chálu
cot; i f I am looking for food of any bahi. I t i s through this that one can
particular kind, he would point to the work one's way backward, for there are
best establishment serving i t , i f I want indications i n the panda's own hand of
to take the train or bus to another point the point from where a bahi takes the
of journey onwards, he would furnish me record up. For going backward, thus,
information. He i s , i f the payment for there might be a note that says that the
earlier services has been handsome, or at earlier bahi of the same series, i s the
least to h i s s a t i s f a c t i o n , more than "Ganesh Bahi" or "Saraswati Bahi", names
w i l l i n g to help i n any way he can. Once often taken appropriately from one deity
I have been taken care of, he i s off to of the Hindu pantheon or the other.
j o i n the other pandas again at the Inside the panda's house or establish-
railway station or bus stand. While he ment, i n a relatively dark room often
was with me, other members of his family prone to vermin, are large wooden boxes
or his employees were doing the same crammed f u l l with e a r l i e r r e g i s t e r s .
thing, along with scores of other pandas: These are taken out only when absolutely
attending to pilgrims. This goes on day necessary; when a point comes into dis-
in and day out, year i n , year out. In pute, for instance, or when someone like
fact, something like this has gone on for me arrives looking for a specific piece
more than 300 years. of information connected either with his
907/Goswamy
own family history or with someone else's
in whom there i s some special interest.
In the way information i n these bahis i s
organized l i e s the clue to the quickness
with which relevant records of particular
pilgrims can be traced. I t i s a care-
f u l l y thought-out retrieval system, and
on this point I cannot do much better
than to quote from an earlier a r t i c l e of
mine on the subject of the p r i e s t l y
records:
Between the entire body of Pandas
at Haridwar are owned a l l the bahis
keeping a record of these pilgrims
from a l l over India; and each panda
serves as the panda of specific
geographical regions not neces-
s a r i l y contiguous, or equal i n size
to the regions "owned by" another
panda. One panda may thus be
serving regions as far separate as,
for instance, the Punjab H i l l s
States, and Rajasthan and Bengal.
The Panda of the Punjab H i l l
States, to take an example over-
simplified for purposes of i l l u s -
tration, thus keeps several bahis,
one for each convenient unit of
territory, with him; he may have
separate bahis for areas of Kangra
and Mandi and Guler and Jammu.
Each of these bahis i s then sub-
divided into parts which deal with
smaller u n i t s l i k e parganas or
pattis, or, in seme cases, tehsils,
are then further sub-divided into
villages each of which has several
sheets of the bahi devoted to i t .
Under each village or town, the
families are listed according to
'castes', i n the loose sense of the
term, often keeping i n view the
hierarchy obtaining i n the area.
In the area of Kangra, thus, under
each geographical unit come f i r s t
the Brahmins, then f i r s t grade
Rajputs followed by the second
grade Rajputs; then f o l l o w the
Khatris, the Mahajans, the Buds,
the Sunaras, the Tarkhans, and
Lohars, the Ghirths, and Chang, and
so on. The bahi i s consulted by
the panda with the help of an index
of villages which accompanies each
bahi, aided of course by his own
phenomenal memory for names and
places. At a given time, thus, a
panda operates with a large number
of bahis, sometimes as many as
nearly a hundred, and these are
only the current or Chálu bahis.
For each of the current bahis there
are several preceding volumes which
are stored away, not being needed
either by the panda or the pilgrim,
for the current bahis often contain
information stretching back to the
last hundred years or so at which
point the interest of most pilgrims
ceases.
The system i s neat and amazingly accur-
ate. The indexing i s constantly brought
up to date by the pandas; but much de-
pends on the fantastic memories of the
pandas themselves. These memories, i t
might be added, are specially developed
in the families with rigorous discipline,
children being asked to memorize each day
a part of one bahi and then recite them
i n the evening to t h e i r seniors'
satisfaction. I t i s thus a combination
of system and memory that yields results
quite beyond the wildest imagination of
someone coming into contact with these
records for the f i r s t time.
What a l l this amounts to i s that here i n
these volumes, at the centers of p i l -
grimage, e s p e c i a l l y those a t t r a c t i n g
unusually large numbers of pilgrims, i s
contained information and data, the like
of which does not exist almost anywhere
else. The records go back i n some cases
to more than three centuries and a half.
The i n t e r e s t of these records i s of
course primarily genealogical but, taken
together, these records are capable of
y i e l d i n g information which goes far
beyond the intention of the people who
kept these records and now maintain them.
I am convinced, thus, that i t may be pos-
sible through these records to ascertain
the population of a village or town or
region; the hierarchy of castes i n the
social order; the relative position of
the professions: the pattern of migration
from one place to another in a particular
 I
907/Goswamy
area at a give point of time.
Considerable work of demographic interest
may be possible and data can be projected
over a period of time. The whole
confusing situtation of caste with i t s
attendant issues like mobility upwards
and downwards might be made sense of.
Even more work might be p o s s i b l e :
problems of language, scripts, or usages
of a l l kinds, are things that one could
look for in these simple volumes bound i n
faded cloth.
Contrary to the impression of dryness
that the foregoing passage might give
about the information available i n them,
the records remain intensely human,
possessed of a warmth which i s denied to
many sources of history. There i s a
peculiar tug at the heart when you come
face to face with the record of your
family, signatures and names of well-
loved persons no longer alive; roots seem
suddenly to stretch far back into the
past. In a l l this there i s a peculiar
pleasure, a sense of belonging. I have
seen simple Rajasthani peasants prostrate
themselves on the ground, touching the
earth with eight points of their bodies
(slstánga) i n the prescribed manner and
bow to the register as the panda recite
the names of their forebears. I have
seen people taking the bahi from the
panda's hand and touch with i t , out of
reverence, their eyes and their forehead.
I have seen many a moist eye when the
records are being read out or examined.
In the manner of making entries i n the
registers, a given number of conventions
are followed. I t i s necessary to fami-
l i a r i z e oneself with these before the
records can be studied with any p r o f i t .
But I should perhaps cite a typical entry
from a register to indicate some of the
conventions used. In the course of my
researches into the history of Pahari
Painting, and my attempts at breaking
through the anonymity of the Pahari
painter, one of the earliest entries I
located i n the pothi of a panda at
Haridwar was also one of the most
illuminating. But i t was no detailed
account of the history of the family, nor
did i t expand on any aspect s t r i c t l y
outside the genealogical purport of the
entry. This i s how that entry ran:
Written by Naina (Nainsukh), car-
penter-painter, native of Guler.
Son of Seu.Grand-son of Hasnu,
Great-grandson of Bharathu. Great-
great grandson of Data. The mater-
nal ancestry also written. Purohit
Hari Ram recognized (as the family
Purohit). Maternal grandfather:
Das. Maternal great-grandfather:
Chuhru. Maternal
great-great-grand-father : Hariya.
I f the w r i t i n g of (my) brother
Manaku ( i n proof of recognizing a
purohit as the family purohit)
turns up with (in the bahi of)
another Purohit, that writing w i l l
be taken as genuine. This entry
has been made with this
reservation. Written on the 1st of
the month of Jyeshtha (May-June) of
the Samvat 1820 (A.D.1763).
What information I was able to abstract
from this brief entry, or others like i t ,
may not be of interest to anyone other
than historians of Indian painting. But
I should add perhaps that this entry
occurs i n the asal bahi of the town of
Haripur-Guler i n the h i l l s . Soon after
an asal entry such as this, the panda
would make an abstract of i t i n his own
hand below i t . This was sometimes
necessary of course, for the script i n
which pilgrims wrote was often unfamiliar
to the pandas; sometimes there was more
information than he needed s t r i c t l y from
his own point of view of keeping the
record up to date. Before he forgot or
lost track of the information, therefore,
the panda would ask the p i l g r i m to
mention the salient points and include
these i n his own orderly entry appended
just a l i t t l e below.
As a source of genealogical h i s t o r y ,
there i s l i t t l e that can match these
records i n India. They naturally have
their limitations. This i s something
that I have spoken of before: thus, they
are restricted to the Hindu, Including of
course the Sikh, part of the population.
Women are l e f t out of these, at least
907/Goswamy 6

u n t i l now, except when their deaths are of f a m i l y h i s t o r y d i r e c t l y , there i s

sometimes referred to indirectly. Some nothing that quite comes close to these
of the bahis might have been destroyed, records i n India. Perhaps nothing that
others mislaid. The current bahis might comes close to them i n any other part of
y i e l d l i t t l e compared to the e a r l i e r the world.
volumes which are not always equally
well-preserved. The method of organiza- At the end I should like to add that with
tion of these records excludes the pos- the pandas at these places of pilgrimage
s i b l i t y of several facts, l i k e the rise are also to be found other categories of
of a new town, being noticed quickly. records. Many of them possess pattas and
farmans (grants) issued to them by their
To these i n t r i n s i c limitations are to be most important clients, including members
added the d i f f i c u l t i e s of consulting of royalty which they preserve with great
these records. The pandas are often care. The purpose of these grants i s to
reluctant to show them, except for an confer upon a family of p r i e s t s the
express purpose, for they are suspicious hereditary right of priesthood to a par-
of anyone looking into the records of a ticular family. Some of these I have
family other than his own. This reluc- published. Another category of records
tance i s based on good judgement, for consists of personal papers of the pandas
these records are admissible i n courts of themselves recording divisions, disputes,
law as evidence i n property disputes and adjudications, and so on. These are
so on, and are often cited i n court again invaluable i n their own right. But
cases. The pandas are thus naturally not i n the popular mind, the pandas are
w i l l i n g to be drawn into protracted legal linked only with their pothis. I t i s
battles of no direct concern to them. these which the common pilgrim wishes to
The pandas are also notoriously slow of see and makes notes i n . I t i s these
movement even i f the e f f i c i e n c y with which, i f properly studied, seem capable
which these records are kept does not of f i l l i n g wide gaps i n our knowledge of
suggest that tract In them. A l l this the past. Somewhere thus, through this
notwithstanding, with a l l the confusion, institution, we i n India had stumbled
the limitations, the d i f f i c u l t i e s , as a upon a unique way of keeping alive a link
source of social history indirectly, and with the past.

NOTE

The pandas and the valuable records they hold s t i l l await a f u l l study. I
have put the pandas' records to a limited use i n my researches i n Indian art history,
and some notice of the different aspects of their records w i l l be found i n my: "The
Records Kept by Priests at Centuries of Pilgrimage as a Source of Social and Economic
History," Indian Economic and Social History Review, Volume I I I , No. 2, 1966; "Basis
of Style," Marg, Vol XXI, No. 4, 1968; "On Some Historical Records i n Possession of
Old Families of Priests," Indian Archives Vol. XIX No. I , 1970; and "History at
Pilgrim Centres." i n E. Gustafáson and Kenneth Jones eds., Sources on Panjab History,
Delhi 1975. Some other scholars who have paid attention to these records include K.
Shah, Tom G. Kessinger, and Surinder Bhardwaj.

I should like again to acknowledge here the numerous people who find mention i n
with much gratitude the help I have the articles cited above.
received i n the course of my work from
 í

WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Christians in India
and How to Trace Their
Family Histories
Katharine S. Diehl
Series 908
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position -
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 CHRISTIANS IN INDIA AND HOW TO TRACE THEIR FAMILY HISTORIES
Katharine Smith Diehl
Born in Pennsylvania. Resides i n Seguin, Texas.
science), University of Michigan. Author.
Before undertaking any extensive study
concerning Peninsular India and i t s
neighbors ( p a r t i c u l a r l y Bangladesh,
Pakistan, and S r i Lanka), i t i s necessary
to look at events between 1940 and 1947.
Disagreements between two local forces
resulted i n severe b a t t l e s with many
casualties. Besides battle deaths, many
died of infections for which medications
were not available, severe illnesses, and
starvation. The death t o l l was probably
i n the hundreds of t h o u s a n d s — c h i e f l y
near the borders of what i n 1947 became
East and West Pakistan (separated by
India). Casualties among the Christians
may have been proportionately l i g h t e r
than among the Hundus, Muslims, and Sikhs
because Christians and Christianity were
not issues in the argument. During and
following the f i g h t i n g , C h r i s t i a n s as
well as those of other faiths migrated
from east to west or from west to east,
t r y i n g to f i n d harbor among t h e i r
sectarian a l l i e s simply to be i n what
they believed was a safer place.
These p o l i t i c a l , communal, and interfaith
battles resulted i n great destruction of
buildings, of government records, and of
family and church records. After tempers
had cooled and when successor governments
were being established, i t was almost
like starting a new community. For these
reasons a great many records of a l l
sorts—including those of churches—go no
further back than 1947; and a large
number s h i f t geographical l o c a t i o n at
that date simply because the new govern-
ment forced church a d m i n i s t r a t i v e
changes. Bishops and cathedral churches
for both the Roman and Anglican
Professional writer. M.A. (library
communions, previously in Calcutta, were
relocated i n East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh).
It has become very d i f f i c u l t , i f not
impossible, for a Christian on either
side of the border today to learn much
about any part of his family l i v i n g on
the other side. Even correspondence,
besides being c o s t l y f o r those with
l i t t l e cash income, may be l o s t or
mutilated. International travel i s
d i f f i c u l t because currency exchange i s
i l l e g a l . Though a person may purchase a
ticket, he must have friends or family i n
the host country, because he cannot
secure money for l i v i n g expenses and the
black market i s dangerous.
Tragedies in Bengal involved the Hindu
and Muslim peoples. Those i n the
Punjab—Amritsar and Lahore c i t i e s in the
o l d Northwest Province—were between
Muslims and Sikhs. Though the Christian
community i n the Punjab was smaller than
that i n Bengal, tragedies were many;
residences and church a f f i l i a t i o n s
shifted there, too. Other regions had
trouble. There were many Burmese who
walked out of t h e i r home v i l l a g e s
intending to reach India. Some did. One
man told me his father died just as the
family reached Madras. A dear friend
told me he had walked to Calcutta.
For practical purposes, then, remember
that the date 1947—the year that the
B r i t i s h Crown relinquished i t s government
of the Indian subcontinent—was the
beginning of India and Pakistan. There
have been more recent changes which,
Diehl/908
however, had l i t t l e effect on records
concerning us—those of the Christians'
families•
Sri Lanka (earlier called Ceylon) became
independent early i n 1948, less than six
months after the mainland governmental
changes. This island nation faced minor
communal trouble and similar migration
has occurred during this century.
I believe that very few Americans who
belong to families that immigrated before
the Revolutionary War are able to trace
their lines even two or three generations
into earlier eighteenth-century Europe or
elsewhere. Certainly I cannot, though I
know that my paternal ancestor and his
brothers entered through the Port of
Philadelphia i n the early 1740s; and that
my maternal ancestor arrived about 1800
to study at Will's Eye Hospital (part of
what became the University of Pennsyl-
vania Medical College). Frankly, nobody
has cared to learn: the link was broken.
A new way of l i f e and a new philosophy of
community had begun. That i s the usual
attitude of emigrants, but i t creates
questions.
That has not been the traditional way i n
South A s i a . People of those wide-
stretching lands have always been mobile.
They have maintained their family and
religious loyalties; they have continued
to look to the old village home for mates
for their sons and daughters; they have
visited the old home places; and they
have paid traditional reverence to the
elders—both men and women.
There are other references. Most of us
have read i n Matthew 1:1-17, the names of
the forty-two generations beginning with
the prophet Abraham and ending with
Jesus. The Jews were meticulous about
family records. They, too, were a mobile
people who regarded the old village as
home, as the place for marriage, for
birth of the f i r s t child, for burial, and
certainly for occasional v i s i t s . The
long sojourn in Egypt i s clear evidence
of concern about home, family, and kin;
and I believe i t was more a matter of
separation than of lost property.
2
In our era, the longest family records
are those maintained by one of the Muslim
sects, the Shiahs, who are very particu-
lar about being able to trace lineage to
the family of Abraham—a lineal history
from the seventh century of the Christian
Era. Many can do i t . The Iranians are
dominantly Shiahs and when many of them
migrated to North India early i n the
eighteenth century, they brought with
them the sectarian influence and the love
of family purity. This has continued to
be of great importance i n the northern
Indian states, for the Persians entered
through the passes i n the Hindu Kush
mountains, i n the Kabul river valley, and
farther south. They traversed gradually
as far east as Dacca i n what i s now
Bangladesh. They did not l i k e i t : the
many rivers bothered the soldiers from
arid countries.
P a r a l l e l to the Jewish and Muslim
insistence on clear lines of inheritance,
the peoples of India who have spoken
Sanskrit-derived languages are believed
to be chiefly descended from early Aryans
who came from such distant lands as
Persia. For them too, family lines are
to be clean. These people had four major
divisions within their community repre-
senting the needs of early l i f e together:
religion, military a f f a i r s , agriculture,
and everything else. Within any of these
categories, families have been able to
trace ancestry continuously. Those
beyond the bounds of the four divisions,
who, for some reason or other, could not
meet the o r i g i n a l requirements (the
outcastes), had no reason to worry about
the family tree. They could attain their
heaven only by trying several more times
to live on earth.
V i r t u a l l y everywhere i n the world highest
reverence i s paid to the priesthood of a
given religion. In the Hindu (Indian)
community, i t i s the Brahman (Brahmin)
who ranks f i r s t . Some Brahman families
can trace their bloodlines many genera-
tions . The longest I have identified i s
that of V. S. C. Bonarjee of Calcutta,
who responded to my query for informa-
tion. Now retired from public service,
this man i s deputy director of Lutheran
Diehl/908
World Service i n the Calcutta office and
lay reader in one of the churches outside
of metropolitan Calcutta. His documenta-
tion shows him to be the twenty-eighth
generation from the priest Bhattanarayan,
who came from Kanauj (about eighty miles
slightly northwest of Lucknow) to Gaur
(Bengal). Bhattanarayan, one of five
Brahmans, came at King Adisur's i n v i t a -
tion about 1032 A.D. This branch of the
Bonarjees traces Christian allegiance to
the mission of Alexander Duff, who was i n
Calcutta after 1840. The family name
continues i n the Sanskrit vernacular,
v a r i o u s l y spelled Bonarjee, Banarjee,
Banerji, Bhattacharyya.
Here we notice the use of a family name
uncommon in Asia but very usual in Bengal
and indicative of vocation and caste. An
acharyya i s a priest or teacher, today
mostly abbreviated to the suffix jee or
j i , often heard as a t i t l e of respect
regardless of inherited status. Families
l i k e the Bonarjees hold family reunions
segregated that attract more than s i x
hundred people of various r e l i g i o n s .
Hindus, C h r i s t i a n s , and those without
religious loyalties are a closely-knit
household. Faith i s a personal matter
with them, though that has not always
been true. Yet faith i s more personal i n
Bengal than in most other places. Their
family history, Under Two Masters, by N.
B. Bonarjee, was published i n 1970 by
Oxford University Press.
The next chapter i n this Indian's family
history relates to his son, the child of
his marriage to a Scandinavian woman.
The son i s reckoned as the twenty-ninth
generation. He i s completing medical
studies i n Norway and i s married. Should
a child be born to the couple, i t would
be the t h i r t i e t h generation from the
Brahman ancestor. Neither place of birth
nor maternal line w i l l matter. If the
child i s a son, i t w i l l be easy to trace
the heritage; i f a daughter, there may be
problems.
These early records were retained, f i r s t
of a l l , by being memorized and handed
from generation to generation. Possibly
names, dates, and generations were etched
3
on copper plates. Palm leaves would have
been of l i t t l e use: they are too im-
permanent. Now that there i s a printed
record, the charts on paper or metal w i l l
be neglected; only a wealthy and well-
educated household can afford to take
time to write a book for modern publica-
tion.
Unlike Mr. Bonarjee, many people either
reject or are rejected by their families
when they convert to Christianity. This
has taken place i n a l l religions, i n a l l
cultural conversions, and should surprise
no one that i t happened to a Christian
convert i n India. It happened i n early
sixteenth-century Portugal to Henrique
Henriques, son of a Jewish-convert family
of Evora. As a child, Henrique attended
a Franciscan school. Later he wished to
join the order and become a f r i a r but was
rejected for racial reasons. The Society
of Jesus had just been organized so he
made application and was accepted. In
1546 he went to India and remained a very
busy Jesuit priest u n t i l his death i n
1600.
Such rejection meant loss of connection
with the early community. For centuries
there have been s t r i c t rules of inheri-
tance and a complex legal system applic-
able to the Hindu and Muslim peoples.
Christianity has rarely had such rules,
though some sects are known to reject
those who do not conform to church
discipline when they have committed a
venial s i n .
Even canon law, the Roman Catholic church
law, i s not the same as the laws of Hindu
or of Muslim inheritance—nor the laws
that govern infringement of commandments
as they are interpreted by the Muslim
qazi (judge).
Individuals who have been rejected may
not be able to trace their lineage, for
they are outside the c i r c l e accepted into
the house. By 1980, as reflected i n much
of what follows, most personal reactions
have been obliterated. People i n India
are friendly with each other and have
come to respect people rather than to
argue about differences of f a i t h .
Diehl/908
Reasons for this present attitude are
complex but seem to have been caused by
the sudden growth of industrialization
and more generous f a c i l i t i e s for elemen-
tary and higher education. In short, i t
is due to secularization, with a l l of i t s
positive and negative aspects.
Sri Lanka has had two unusual marriage
customs. Each presents i t s problems for
genealogy. Some wealthy Singhalese
families, trying to keep their wealth i n
the family, insist that the groom become
a member of the bride's wealthy family,
share the wealth without dividing i t , and
take the family name. This i s the binne
marriage.
The other custom i s polyandry, found i n
the Kandyan (central) highlands. One
woman marries two brothers. This i s not
the same as the levirate marriage i n
Jewish tradition where the second brother
does not become a party u n t i l death of
the f i r s t husband. Information concern-
ing Kandyan polyandry i s d i f f i c u l t to
obtain because i t i s i l l e g a l and delib-
erately kept secret.
Closely related i s the Bengali custom i n
some Brahman f a m i l i e s of arranging
marriages within the immediate family,
kulln marriage. Some members of the
Bonarjee family have had kulin marriages
that are i n sharp contrast to my
Christian correspondent's rejection of
caste marriage customs and even r a c i a l
marriage. Instead he married a European
woman. Ronald B. Inden's Marriage and
Rank i n Bengali Culture (Berkeley, Los
Angeles, London: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1973) i s rather technical, but
very informative on this matter. The
Brahman, Bhattanarayan, and his compan-
ions are mentioned.
The majority of Indian Christians are
descendants of low-caste families—even
of outcastes. In addition, they may be
children of mixed liaisons (some, without
benefit of clergy). Legally they are
considered Christians and very often they
are active Christians. They have v i r -
tually no family record. They often know
of no ancestors further back than their
4
grandparents, and they have this know-
ledge by word of mouth. If they were
victims of the troubles i n the 1940s or
orphaned by a deadly famine that swept an
entire region; i f they lost a l l their
relatives by a t i d a l wave or a boating
accident; then a l l records may be lost.
Basic survival has been a full-time job
because of wars, food shortages, deluges
and floods.
Given the circumstances, there i s l i t t l e
hope that more than one, and at most two
generations w i l l be registered i n the
church offices. If they belong to one of
the nonliturgical branches of Christian-
i t y (Baptists, Mennonites, Pentecostals),
there w i l l probably be v i r t u a l l y no
record. The Catholic, Lutheran, Angli-
can, Armenian, and Orthodox churches w i l l
have baptismal, marriage and b u r i a l
records, because the hierarchical offices
universally require that such records be
maintained diligently, and the government
is becoming more and more insistent that
these registers be kept. Again, the
length of residence within the parish or
diocese w i l l determine how much i s
recorded. I t may become necessary to
secure earlier information from a very
distant (even foreign) source.
Another segment of society i n South Asia
traces ancestry to families l i v i n g else-
where i n Asia. In South Asia alone, the
amount of intermarriage within the sec-
tarian community i s phenomenal. A vast
number of people l i v e , or have lived, i n
India's port c i t i e s . Marriages (some-
times interracial) also take place.
C h r i s t i a n s who are descended from a
European father and a regional mother may
continue such international and inter-
r a c i a l unions generation after genera-
tion. I have followed one family line
(Dutch/Singhalese) from 1700 to the
present and because they lived within the
same m u n i c i p a l i t y , t h e i r records are
easily followed. That was the case when
a young army officer had come to Ceylon
as a bachelor. He met a young woman of
the upper class (caste) whose father was
a Dutch c i v i l servant. A l l were patriot-
ic members of the established church with
Diehl/908
a clean lineage. There were certainly
others—some residing within the f o r t —
who met the letter of the laws regarding
family, whose records may be less exact.
How many—and which—Europeans tended to
marry i n Asia? The Portuguese, and later
the Dutch married i n A s i a , but the
English did not. The current (1980)
family name w i l l frequently be a clue to
the national and religious a f f i l i a t i o n of
the male line—except i n S r i Lanka where
families who were rather lately Christian
have become Buddhist (as they were years
ago) but have retained the surname. Few
families have completely rebelled. I do
know of one household, that of the late
Sir Paul P i e r i s , where the present young
adults have each taken just one of the
three traditional parts of the family
name as surname: three surnames among
three siblings! Trace that line several
generations hence.
The Portuguese who traveled to Asia were
not married. Wives and families would
have required more ships, although family
loyalty might have helped ensure con-
tinued residence i n Portuguese I n d i a .
Marriage i n Goa to local convert women
raised the level of patriotism and even
gave Portuguese-born persons immediate
access to the village people. Besides,
i t posited a family l i v i n g i n the region,
a family completely loyal to church and
s t a t e . Being Roman C a t h o l i c , r i t u a l
records were made of marriages, baptisms,
b u r i a l s , and conversions of e n t i r e
villages.
This same pattern occurred at places
where the Dutch settled permanently. Few
Dutch East India Company employees
traveled with their wives and children to
Asia: marriages were arranged i n Asia
and, because the Dutch followed Portu-
guese traders about a century l a t e r ,
there were numerous young women of part-
Portuguese descent waiting to marry well.
This occurred i n a few small Indian
communities i n S r i Lanka, i n Japan and
Iran as well as i n various parts of what
i s now Indonesia. Again the records were
well maintained, and the Dutch seem to
have erected more memorial stones than
5
had the Portuguese. I have seen stones
In both Colombo and Jarkarta; there must
be some i n Chinsura at the old Dutch
church; and there are Danish and English
stones at Serampore. In Colombo there i s
a cemetery where only Christian slaves
were buried; some stones remain at
Livramente, and are inscribed with the
words, "Free, at l a s t . " This, along with
several other old cemeteries on the
i s l a n d , has been declared a n a t i o n a l
monument.
The B r i t i s h discouraged i n t e r r a c i a l
marriage. They did not interfere with
i t , however, for to do so would have
created tensions. Local customs were not
to be disturbed and, when disturbances
did occur, i t was not the public servant
who was responsible. The cause was
l i k e l y to be a venturesome trader,
a r t i s t , missionary, or traveler. Court-
ships continued and weddings followed,
and most marriages were proper. Requi-
s i t e records were made as events
occurred. In the meantime, the British
government frowned upon the situation.
There were, of course, c h i l d r e n of
European families who married children of
other European f a m i l i e s — b o t h parties
more Asian i n their orientation than they
were European, but r a c i a l l y not Eurasian.
Families that continued to reside i n
South Asia generation after generation
(with r i t u a l records made) were more
l i k e l y to marry locally. In such cases,
the local family line requires a search,
while the European line for the marriage
partner i s rather easily found. For the
old Christian families, d i f f i c u l t i e s are
minor when tracing lineage; i n cases of
recent conversions (or none at a l l ) the
lines may be hard to trace unless they
are post-1947. Since 1947, opposition to
intermarriage has become less intense,
and both Muslim and Hindu laws of inheri-
tance have come to be less regarded by
more and more households. The great
landholdings or precious metal
possessions had been confiscated at the
time of p a r t i t i o n (1947 bilateral
agreements). I t has become better to
have c h i l d r e n marry w e l l than to be
orthodox about dogma. In other words,
Diehl/908
secular society's customs began to
dominate at the same time that family
records were becoming more r e a d i l y
available.
During the last thirty years, interfaith,
intercaste, and interracial unions have
become more common i n India on condition
that an acceptable s u b s t i t u t e f o r the
usual orthodox arrangements was found.
The substitute might be (1) an unex-
pectedly large sum of money and fine
jewelry as dowry; (2) a degree from a
foreign (western) university and possibly
employment by a foreign corporation or
u n i v e r s i t y ; and o c c a s i o n a l l y (3) an
otherwise u n l i k e l y partner could be
prevailed upon to accept an uncomely,
crippled, or i l l i n d i v i d u a l — a completely
"arranged marriage" to guarantee the
s e c u r i t y of both i n d i v i d u a l s ' i n h e r i -
tances . Such ugly ducklings would be
approved as marriage partners i n a
C h r i s t i a n community more r e a d i l y than
elsewhere simply because caste i s of less
importance among Christians.
The f i r s t essential i s to accept the fact
that many waves of strangers have entered
what we c a l l India. Each wave had i t s
manner of government, family l i f e , and
worship. The strangers married and
settled into new homes with a consequent
mixture of language, s o c i a l customs,
r e l i g i o u s customs, and vocational
arrangements.
Then, just when everything appeared to be
calm, there would come wind, r a i n ,
floods, drought, dust, and more wind or
epidemic to destroy a whole v i l l a g e . The
only worse eventuality woud be people on
the rampage. What can a Christian do,
given a l l these hazards, about finding
family?
To help f i n d answers, I asked the
assistance of people i n India, S r i Lanka,
several who have lived i n Bangladesh for
many years, and one Kerala-born emigre to
the western hemisphere (both the United
States and Canada). Some of them are
nationals, some aliens, some emigres for
one reason or other. A l l are at least
f i f t y years of age—several are i n their
6
eighties—and one i s an English woman,
long a resident of southern Bangladesh.
They represent Roman, Nestorian and
Anglican Catholocism; Lutheran, Presby-
terian, and Baptist Protestantism; and
four (though not Buddhist) are able to
understand both Buddhism and Christianity
in S r i Lanka.
I deliberately selected senior persons.
I know a l l of them except three, and even
these have been closely associated with
my friends. Vocationally they include
the man who was my bibliographical and
l i n g u i s t i c assistant while dealing with
Carey Library books at Serampore College
i n 1961-62 (Baptist), a retired govern-
ment officer now i n charge of Lutheran
World Service i n C a l c u t t a , a medical
doctor, a lawyer, a former ambassador, a
convert from Brahmanism who i s now an
Anglican priest, an emigre Nestorian, who
i s now a university professor i n Nova
Scotia, an aged American who has long
been a Franciscan f r i a r i n West and South
India, an English-born Anglican nun, long
a resident of east Bengal, a J e s u i t
college professor, two retired bishops
who are members of religious orders, and
the J e s u i t Archbishop of C a l c u t t a , a
cardinal.
Several others were invited to comment on
my long l i s t of queries, but they f e l t
they had no information to offer. I t i s
significant that they are retired, less
well-educated Protestant missionaries
who, so i t seems, found l i t t l e occasion
to be i n t e r e s t e d i n peoples' family
backgrounds or family practices. These
individuals represented various denomina-
tions and they had l i v e d i n I n d i a ,
Bangladesh, S r i Lanka, and Pakistan—the
region we are considering, known as South
Asia. This area has known the successive
alien governments and has been trying
since 1947 to have several independent
nations.
To the question, "Where does an Indian
C h r i s t i a n begin looking for family
history?" the common answer was "Go to
the local church where the person i s
believed to have worshiped." I f no
longer i n residence, i t may be helpful to
Diehl/908
go to the local magistrate. He w i l l know
about family events, local news, and the
comings and goings of individuals whether
residents or v i s i t o r s . I f the individ-
u a l s ) moved, i t may be necessary to go
to other churches and other magistrates.
If the family i n question i s of a l i t u r -
g i c a l church, i n v e s t i g a t i o n at the
diocesan (regional) office may be help-
f u l . V i s i t s to cemeteries for somewhat
recent b u r i a l s , and examination of
cemetery records for burials i n the past
may be important, but do not expect to
find burial markers of any nature i n the
Syrian Catholic centers. Syrian Catho-
l i c s have always been poor, grave sites
are used over and over again, and
memorial stones have never been erected.
But the r e g i s t e r of deaths w i l l be
available. I w i l l add that the reuse of
grave sites i s not limited to Syrian
Catholics, but i s f a i r l y common.
Though I asked no Armenian priest (not
knowing i f one was s t i l l resident i n
India), I do know that the large Armenian
Community Center (Armenian S t r e e t ,
Calcutta) has fine archives and i s able
to supply information f o r e a r l i e r
Armenian centers i n South Asia. The
Armenian church i n Armintola, Bacca, has
a part-time resident caretaker; some
records and a very o l d cemetery are
there. The Armenian church i n Madras has
l i t t l e remaining except i t s building and
cemetery. Like Dacca and also bombay,
Madras has a caretaker resident because
p r i e s t s and people have l e f t . The
Armenian people have emigrated chiefly to
Paris, but a great many to England. Only
the wealthy Calcutta Center was active i n
1970. I f information i s not available
there, the next step i s to inquire
through the office of the Catholics at
Echmiadzin i n the Armenian Soviet
Socialist Republic—the world home of the
Armenians near Ararat. Some information
may be a v a i l a b l e at J u l f a , Isfahan
( I r a n ) , at the Old Cathedral (Vank)
archives. This would be of interest to
India-resident Armenians. I have visited
each of these Armenian communities.
The procedure for tracing individuals'
records sounds easy, but remember that
7
there have been wars; remember that cheap
paper was often used—paper that might
last longer than American newsprint, but
not nearly so long as a school primer.
Remember that i n some regions, people
simply did not bother to keep records.
Remember that diocesan boundaries have
changed considerably over the recent half
century, and even more dramatically i n
several centuries. Even though I can
document the regulation dated 19 December
1837 s t a t i n g that Calcutta's Roman
C a t h o l i c diocesan records were to be
maintained i n Calcutta, that applied only
to the one branch of the C h r i s t i a n
church. Previous registers were held i n
Madras (Mylapore), but now Calcutta i n
Bengal had a diocesan o f f i c e . Remember,
too, that when Bengal was divided i n
August 1947, Dacca and Calcutta offices
and adminstrations became necessary:
earlier facts i n one place, later facts
in another a n d — i f one found i t interest-
ing to go back to the early years of the
nineteenth c e n t u r y — y e t another place
would be a possible source of informa-
tion. And f i n a l l y , remember termites,
possibly the mightiest destructive agent
of anything written or printed. The
white ant eats into the heart of a book
or package of papers and leaves a
seemingly firm s h e l l . Within a week the
l i t t e creatures can destroy much.
Remember, too, that marriage, burial, and
birth records are legal documents. Bap-
tismal records, though often accepted as
substitutes for the legal documents are
church documents. Whether government or
church has r e s p o n s i b i l i t y f o r the
registers, the security of the records i s
jeopardized by acts of God and of man, by
water and termites, by war and stupidity.
As a child i n eastern Pennsylvania, I
learned of quite a few old congregations,
especially Lutherans and reformed groups
that used the same structure and had
adjacent cemeteries. Few memorial stones
bear dates i n the 1600s. The next
century and a half, 1700-1850, witnessed
many burials. Some of these community
churches seem to have been representative
of the local population, North European
and Lutheran/Reformed. There are also
Diehl/908
Anglican chapels in settlements dominated
by English immigrants. By American
standards these may be quite old, and
they have adjoining cemeteries.
These churches were b u i l t i n a land where
no r e l i g i o u s structures representing
other faiths (even Judaism) were i n the also favored choices.
neighborhood. Nor were there immigrant
business corporation officers drumming up
export trade f o r northern hardwoods,
anthracite coal, or iron ore. Not even
sand or clay f o r g l a s s , pottery, or
bricks was intended for export. The
people made glass and pottery, and
imported many bricks (possibly as ballast Asia an almost desperate attempt to
on empty ship bottoms traveling west).
Nobody considered exporting these natural
materials. The settlers, -immigrants l i k e
my own grandfather, were independent
people who would make i t successfully.
In contrast, South Asian r e l i g i o u s
structures for strange religious rites
were i n every v i l l a g e . People worshiped
in the normal manner i n the home, i n the
temple, and i n the mosque. The newcomers
were an alliance, organized for business
purposes and intent upon maintaining
t h e i r usual manners of f a m i l y / s o c i a l / v a r i e t y , but c e r t a i n l y not everything
r e l i g i o u s l i f e without doing much to
disturb the a c t i v i t i e s of the original
residents. These newcomers to India had
corporate influence and a certain amount
of corporate wealth; those who landed i n
the New World had neither.
This contrast explains why c e r t a i n
records of Europeans and Christians i n
South Asia differ considerably from those
produced i n the American colonies. Our
concern i s the exceptional sources of
South Asia's C h r i s t i a n family h i s t o r y
that w i l l be available i n South Asia and
elsewhere. Since 1500, that region has
been influenced by western European
customs and by the newly imported
Christianity.
The next part of this paper deals with
printed manuscript sources that are
a v a i l a b l e somewhere. P o s s i b l y l i v i n g chaplains, or school personnel.
persons should be considered before
mentioning the physical objects.
8
During the last two decades or so, a
steady stream of emigration applicants
has been at consular offices i n Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Indian, and S r i Lanka. They
wanted to go home—most of them either to
England or to the Netherlands. Austral-
i a , Canada, and the United States were
Eventually
Australia accepted so many new residents
that the government f e l t that the country
could not absorb any more. The door
closed to those who could not prove a
certain percentage of European ancestry.
In order to meet Australian requirements
for immigration, there has been i n South
authenticate ancestry. The United
Kingdom and the Netherlands did not place
such r e s t r i c t i o n s . They f e l t that,
having been governors for such a long
time, they were morally obligated to
accept their own former subjects. I t
w i l l be very interesting to examine the
results of these decisions during the
next two decades.
Now to the printed sources one might use.
For actual t i t l e s , a bibliography has
been attached that includes some of each
useful. That would require a long book.
Family information w i l l be found i n
published papers, books, and journals; i n
unpublished (often manuscript) papers,
letters, and government reports; and i n
private collections (often consisting of
a variety of papers and loved objects)
including printed and manuscript sources.
PUBLISHED SOURCES
Annual Directories
The several East India companies' l i s t s
of officers and employees vary. Some
include Europeans only; others include
everybody within stated administrative
ranks regardless of race, age, or faith.
Others are vocational directories of the
c i v i l service, military or naval service,
Dutch
directories including East and West India
companies were worldwide, but the East
India portion was pre-printed and
Diehl/908
published i n Batavia ( J a r k a r t a ) , and
seems to have been taken l i t e r a l l y for
inclusion i n the world directory produced
i n Europe. The E n g l i s h East India
Company limited i t s e l f to Asia and was
far less i n t e r e s t e d i n published
personnel l i s t s than were the Dutch.
Locally and privately published general
business d i r e c t o r i e s were u s u a l l y
classified under such headings as bakers,
stationers, jewelers, printers, clergy,
churches, schools, teachers, missions,
missionaries, and fine shops. Because
nearly everybody was i n business of some
nature, these l i s t s included a large
segment of the population.
There were special directories of ethnic
groups, such as Armenians i n Calcutta,
and Burghers i n Colombo. Cultural soci-
eties had their yearbooks with l i s t s of
members, contributers, and institutions.
Cumulative Directories
The Dutch East India Company's own
directories were not cumulative. When
combined with materials of the West India
Company, the eastern matter was held
within i t s category. I found no direc-
tories covering several of the years:
copies may no longer exist.
The English East India Company published
records of categories of their servants
(employees), usually those quite senior
in rank, from the oldest l i v i n g person
(with date of entry to the service) to
the year of directory publication. These
seem to have appeared rarely.
For the deceased there are cemetery
charts with grave sites marked; burial
directories for a c i t y , a region, and
even the entire Indian peninsula (though
somewhat spotty); and obituary notices i n
book form—almost a who was who) . Gov-
ernment yearbooks usually had a section
that recorded v i t a l s t a t i s t i c s (births,
marriages, and deaths) chronologically.
Sometimes these yearbooks represented not
only a region or a presidency, but a l l of
Asia.
Government Gazettes (Newspapers)
The gazette always included new arrivals
i n the public service, their rank, their
assigned place, sometimes their family
members, and t h e i r promotions. Also
l i s t e d were new businesses and t h e i r
p r o p r i e t o r s ; s a l e s ; l o c a l s o c i a l and
cultural a c t i v i t i e s ; local societies
(organizations and their a c t i v i t i e s were
very personal notes); international news
of local interest (often very helpful i n
tracing the family); and nearly always
v i t a l s t a t i s t i c s ; probated w i l l s ; and
occasionally, announcement of sales of
personal property at public auction to
recover debts.
C i v i l i a n Newspapers
Facts published were much as i n the
gazettes, except that these newspapers
included more community news than
governmental f a c t s . They p r i n t e d
l i t e r a r y information (new books, authors,
book prices; music; art; dancing; and
information about i n t e r e s t i n g and
successful people. These papers usually
had a bias toward p a r t i c u l a r readers
(language, race, f a i t h , r e s i d e n t i a l
l o c a t i o n , vocation) somewhat as i n
today's large c i t y .
Private Organizations, Their Journals and
Reports
Here i s a wealth of information, but
because the editions were s m a l l — f i f t y to
five hundred—few copies remain avail-
able. The same i s true for most pub-
lished works from South Asia's presses.
While early serials were usually intended
for Europeans, as years passed venture-
some local citizens had their societies
which, i n turn, had publications. The
language of a great number was English,
but certainly a large portion came to be
w r i t t e n and published i n one of the
numerous vernaculars. Life expectancy of
independent journals was brief; that of
the societies' journals was often rather
long.
Semi-private Journals and Reports
Diehl/908
Because we have no state church i n the
United States, these publications appear
unusual, but each of the major trading
companies was from a nation with an
o f f i c i a l religious a f f i l i a t i o n . It i s
astonishing how much family information
i s included i n d i r e c t l y i n school or
schoolbook society reports, missionary
and temperance society publications, and
community social service organizations.
Names of e d i t o r s , t r a n s l a t o r s , and
contributors, as well as their fathers
and sons, can be i d e n t i f i e d . These
include some church membership r o l l s with
names i n the vernacular and i n the
church-approved western manner.
Family Histories as Published Books
The history of the Bonarjee family has
been mentioned, and there are many
s i m i l a r published works. The great
d i f f i c u l t y i s knowing that they have been
produced and finding the author, t i t l e ,
family, and imprint. The catalog of the
B r i t i s h Museum Library i s very helpful
for they have indexed biographies (their
personal names, with reference to the
authors from the person-as-subject), as
w e l l as indexing the authors. Our
Library of Congress has not done this i n
i t s printed catalogs. For books of
American origin i t may be necessary to
examine the actual library catalogs of
major public and university l i b r a r i e s .
Christians are not the only ones who
prepare family histories. The recent
rash of Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist (a few i n
India, but far more i n S r i Lanka), and
C h r i s t i a n family biographies i s over-
whelming. With a l l the intermarriages
that have occurred, these books may prove
extremely helpful. Hints are offered i n
the articles and reviews i n The Journal
of Asian Studies (quarterly) and B i b l i o -
graphy of Asian Studies (annual and a b i t
tardy). For Dutch and for Portuguese
m a t e r i a l s , I t i n e r a r i o (Leyden) i s a
recent small journal with lots of human
interest.
Corporate or Ethnic Societies
The Dutch Burgher Union i n Colombo ( S r i
10
Lanka) has had i t s Journal of the Dutch
Burgher Union with very explicit interest
i n family history. It includes a l l of
Asia where the Dutch have been, but
especially S r i Lanka families. Another
group i s the Armenian community i n early
nineteenth-century Bengal. Their publi-
cations were d i r e c t e d to t h e i r own
people, whether school t e x t s , church
books, journals, or yearbooks. Text i s
often mixed Armenian and English and i t
i s becoming more and more d i f f i c u l t to
find persons l i v i n g i n Bengal who speak
and read Armenian.
UNPUBLISHED SOURCES
Public Domain Materials
Included are archives of many sorts:
churches and church headquarters
(sometimes c a l l e d diocesan o f f i c e s ) ;
government archives at the n a t i o n a l ,
state, l o c a l , and minicipality levels;
i n s t i t u t i o n a l archives of schools,
colleges, and universities as well as of
cloisters, convents, temples, and
mosques. Usually some kind of i d e n t i f i -
cation i s required to gain permission to
use such collections i n South Asia (not
unusual elsewhere). There are companion
collections i n the West.
Private Domain
Actual family property records may be
hard to find. People are not eager to
show themselves to strangers. Though I
found two sets i n Colombo, i t took me at
least a year to establish myself. I was
always t e l l i n g one family what I had
learned about i t s ancestry. Later I read
the same facts i n their o f f i c i a l family
t r e e — f a c t s I had put together by steady
plodding, using hints here and there, and
following every trace of the name and
office held by various generations. For
the other set, what the family collected
supplemented what I had found; the facts
did not d i f f e r . These private collec-
tions w i l l usually be made available only
by appointment and under s t r i c t super-
vision of a member of the household.
This, I suppose, would be true anywhere.
Diehl/908
EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS OF SOURCES
Published Materials
The great national libraries and archives
of western Europe have their large hold-
ings dealing with East and West India
trade history. These contain much per-
sonal information—some of which i s
available i n various countries—but the
trading company's country of origin w i l l
naturally have had greater concern for
i t s books and papers. For the English
company, libraries i n London and the two
university libraries in Scotland (Glasgow
and Edinburgh) w i l l be best stocked with
sources that are original. For the Dutch
(VOC) company, the several universities
and great archives i n the Netherlands
have an enormous quantity of material.
It i s possible that what w i l l be found i n
South Asia may not be duplicated anywhere
in Europe and that the reverse i s also
true.
Unpublished Materials
A large part of the unpublished holdings
are manuscripts. In this category, the
archives of various national governments,
private s o c i e t i e s , u n i v e r s i t i e s , and
missionary and church o f f i c e s are
included. The Roman Catholic archival
collections i n Rome and particularly i n
the Vatican are rich i n primary sources
and not a l l have yet been cataloged.
L i t t l e of this i s duplicated i n South
Asia except what i s i n Arquivos da India
Portuguesa (the Archives of Portuguese
India) i n Panaji, Goa. The Portuguese
practice was to make at least two copies
of everything, retain one set i n India,
and send one or more sets to Portugal ( i f
there was more than one set, they were
placed on different boats). This addi-
tional security has proved a boon to
scholars.
I have lived, taught, and done research
for eight and a half years i n South and
Southeast Asia. I was always a private
citizen, not a consular officer or member
of a consortium. I am greatly interested
in people who produced early books and
papers printed i n India or thereabouts
11
and, as a result, I have hunted many
biographies, found some, and managed to
put quite a few l i f e histories together.
But I have also received several inter-
esting requests for assistance. A few
come to mind—each of these involving
Jewish ancestry. There has been for
centuries a large Jewish population i n
what i s now Kerala. Some Jews have
recently emigrated for the same reasons
that the Armenians emigrated: business
restrictions i n India became unbearable.
One young Harvard student was studying a
man named G i f f o r d — W i l l i a m G i f f o r d ' s
younger brother—who had converted to
Christianity and was a priest i n India.
His w r i t i n g included a s e r i e s of
lamentations known as the Seven Dolours,
believed to have been printed i n India.
I never found a trace of the series.
Another was an Amsterdam student touring
Asia. Before departing, his father had
suggested that he try to find the grave
of an ancestor, a medical doctor named
Pohl (or Poale, or other spelling), who
died i n Bengal i n 1820 or later. Though
Jewish, that made no different so far as
records were concerned: again I found
nothing. The young man who v i s i t e d
numerous institutions, cemeteries, and
societies i n his efforts to untangle the
mystery, also found nothing. We met i n a
Jesuit college: a l l was very ecumenical.
Another request came from the late Dr.
Walter J . Fischel, who was working on the
history of the Jews i n India. There had
been a converted Jew named L. Immanuel I.
van Dort, a teacher of Hebrew at Colombo
Seminary, a boys' school, i n 1758-59. He
asked i f I knew any more about him. I
did not.
I t i s these i n t e r f a i t h , i n t e r c a s t e ,
i n t e r n a t i o n a l l o y a l t i e s and eventual
marriages that create much interest, as
w e l l as years of f r u s t r a t i o n s and
unanswered questions. The name changes,
the consequent s o c i a l p r i v i l e g e s or
restrictions, the eventual successes or
failures of generation after generation
either aid or destroy the chances of
Diehl/908 12

finding links of the story.

My f a v o r i t e record of avowed l o y a l t y
begins with a young Ceylon Tamil who was
sent to Holland during the 1750s to study
theology. He married a young Dutch woman
in Amsterdam. Their f i r s t child, a son,
was born a week or two after they landed
in his homeland. The son, i n turn,
studied i n Holland. Skipping the M.A.,
he earned his Ph.D. and J.U.D., for he
loved to study. Eventually he too
married a Dutch woman. They traveled
east where he was named chief justice of
the Supreme Court i n Batavia (Jarkarta).
His name was Quint Ondaatje. After I
returned to the United States i n 1972,
friends sent me an obituary notice from
Colombo of a simple, poor man named Quin
Ondaatje, who made his l i v i n g peddling
small amounts of coal o i l house to house.
If you can find such signs of a family
after more than one hundred f i f t y years,
you are lucky.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The individuals named below responded to my request for information concerning family
records, family s t a b i l i t y , marriage customs, secularization, and other aspects of
family l i f e i n South Asia. Though not a l l of these subjects, nor a l l of the
responses, have been examined i n this paper, the respondents unanimously agreed that
the family as a social unit i n South Asia i s changing rapidly. Their names follow:

The Right Reverend James D. Blair (Bishop of Dacca, retired); V. S. C. Bonarjee; Dr.
John Correia-Afonso, S.J.; the Honorable Herbert A. J. Hulugalle (a former ambassa-
dor); Mother Joan SE (of a celebate Anglican order for women i n Bengal)—the only
woman to reply; the Reverend L. M. Kundu; Joseph J. Mangalam, Ph.D.; Friar Achilles
Meersman, O.F.M.; the Right Reverend Dr. Edmund P e i r i s , O.M.I. (Bishop of Chilaw, Sri
Lanka, retired); Lawrance Cardinal Picachy, S.J. (Archbishop of Calcutta); Hemendra K.
Sircar (my assistant at Carey Library, since deceased); James H. Sproule, M.D.; A. R.
Tampoe (a lawyer).

SOME USEFUL SOURCES FOR TRACING FAMILY HISTORIES OF INDIAN CHRISTIANS

It i s d i f f i c u l t to use printed sources when studying Indian Christians, because they

usually refer to Europeans or Americans who died i n India, but many lived many
Diehl/908 13

years—even several generations—in South Asia. They had children and grandchildren
who remained i n the East and married there—perhaps with local residents of part
Portuguese, part Dutch, part French extraction. In other words, many residents of
India have been, and are, children of mixed marriages. Bishop B l a i r , one who respond-
ed to my questions, referred to an early missionary clergyman who arrived i n India i n
1740, John Zacharias Kiernander. His descendants were able to trace the longest
Anglo-Indian heritage of which the bishop knew personally.

The bibliography follows the outline presented at the end of the formal paper.

PUBLISHED EASTERN SOURCES

Annual Directories

Calcutta. Bengal Almanac, for 1822. (Calcutta: Mirror Pr., 1822).

Ceylon Calendar (sometimes Almanac), for 1814-. (Colombo: Govt. Pr., 1814- ).

Dutch East Indies. Namebook, 1757-1808; Naamlyst, 1809-11. (Batavia, now Jakarta:
Govt. Pr., 1757- ).

French East Indies. Almanach, pour l'annee 1838- : Annuaire statistique des estab-
lissements, 1839- . (Pondicherry: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, 1838- ).

Madras. Almanac for the year 1800- . (Madras: various presses, 1800- ).

Cumulative Directories

Calcutta. Register of Graves i n Calcutta. (Calcutta: Jobbing Pr., 1900).

Carey, W. H. Oriental Christian Biography. 3 vols. (Calcutta: Baptist MissionPr.,

1850-52).

Casie Chitty, Simon. Tamil Plutarch. (Jaffna, Ceylon: Ripley and Armstrong, 1859).

Colombo, Dutch Reformed Church, Wolvendaal. Index to the Baptism Registers, comp. by
Samuel N. W. Mottau. 3 vols. MSS. 193-? . Report on the Records of the
Dutch Reformed Church, by Perera and Reimers. MSS. 1937.

Dacca. English Cemetery Records Held at St. Thomas Church, 1816-1900. MSS. ( I have
a copy of this, and understand that some names are unrecorded because the
graves could not be identified.)

(The) East Indian Chronologist. (Calcutta: Hircarrah Pr., 1801).

Haan, F. de. Oud Batavia; 2d ed., met platen album. 2 vols. (Bandoeng, Java: A. C.
Nix & Co., 1935).
Diehl/908 14

Holmes and Co. The Bengal Obituary. (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1848).

India. National L i b r a r y of C a l c u t t a . Catalogue of P e r i o d i c a l s , Newspapers &

Gazettes. (Calcutta: Government of India Pr., 1956).

Lewis, J . Penry. L i s t of Inscriptions on Tombstones i n Ceylon. (Colombo: H. C.

Cottle, Govt. Printer, 1913).

Ludovici, Leopold. Lapldarium Zeylanicum. (Colombo: J . Maitland & Co., 1877).

Lushington, Charles. The History, Design, and Present State of the Religious, Benevo-
lent and Charitable Institutions, Founded by the B r i t i s h i n Calcutta and I t s
VicinityI (Calcutta: Hindoostanee Pr., 1824).

Rozario, M. de. The Complete Monumental Register. (Calcutta: P. Ferris, 1815).

Seth, Mesrovb J . "Some 18th Century Armenian Graves," i n Bengal Past and Present,
54:64-68 (Calcutta, 1937).

Troostenburg de Bruyn, C. A. L. van. Biographisch woorden boek van Oost-Indische

predikanten. (Nijmegen, the Netherlands: P. J . Milborn, 1893) (A who-^was-who
for the clergy in East India.).

. De Hervormde Kerk i n Nederlandsch Oost-Indië onder de Oost-Indische Compagnie,

1602-1795. (Arnhem, the Netherlands: H. A. Tjeenk W i l l i n k , 1884)
(Institutional history, parallels the above.).

Wenger, Edward S. L i s t of Tombs and Monuments. (Calcutta: printed, not published,

1895) (Used by Wilson i n the following:).

Wilson, C. R. L i s t of Inscriptions on Tombs. (Calcutta: Supt. of Govt. Printing,

India, 1896).

Government Gazettes and Two Pieces of Express Legislation

Bengal. The Government Gazette, Vol. 1- June 1815- (Calcutta: Govt. Gazette Pr.,
1815- ).

• Government Gazette, bilingual text, Vol. 1- July 1, 1840- (Serampore:

Serampore Pr., 1840- ).

Bombay. The Bombay Government Gazette, August 4, 1831- (Bombay: Govt. Central Pr.,
1831- ).

(The) Calcutta Gazette, v o l . 1- March 4, 1784- (Calcutta: Govt. Pr., 1784- ).

Ceylon Government Gazette, 15 March 1802- (Colombo: Govt. Pr., 1802- ).

Madras. The Fort St. George Gazette, v o l . 1- 1801- (Madras: Govt. Pr., 1801- ).

Punjab, India. Punjab Government Gazette, 1856- (Simla: Govt. Pr., 1856- ).
Diehl/908 15

Uttar Pradesh, India. Government Gazette of uttar Pradesh, 1858- (Allahabad: Supt.
Govt. Printing and Stationery, 1858- ).

Ceylon, Legislative enactment, rev. 1956. "Kandyan Marriage and Divorce Act," cap.
113. (Colombo: Govt. Pr., 1956).

, rev. 1956. "Marriage Registration Ordinance," cap. 112. (Colombo:

Govt. Pr., 1956).

C i v i l i a n Newspapers and Journals

Ceylon Antiquary, v o l . 1- 1916- (Colombo, 1916- ).

Ceylon Literary Register, v o l . 1- 1886- (Colombo, 1886- ).

Friend of India (weekly ser.), v o l . 1- January 1, 1935- (Serampore, 1835- ).

Private Organizations, Their Journals and Reports

Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India. Transactions, v o l . 1- 1828-

(Calcutta, 1828, f i r s t volume reprinted 1837, again 1838; various presses,
1828- ).

"Baptisms i n Calcutta," i n Bengal Past and Present, 26 (parts 1-2). (Calcutta,

1923).

Bengal and Assam Representative Council of Missions, Literature Committee. Descrip-

tive and Classified Catalogue of Bengali Christian Literature. (Calcutta:
Baptist Mission Pr., 1918).

Benjamin, T. K. Report on Malayalam Christian Literature. (Vepery, Madras: Society

for Promoting Christian Knowledge Pr., 1918).

Beven, F. Lorenz. A History of the Diocese of Colombo (Anglican). (Colombo: Times

of Ceylon Co., Ltd., 1946).

Bombay, American Mission. Literary Work of the American Mission, 1813-1881, by Rev.
Henry J . Bruce. (Bombay: Education Society's Pr., 1882).

. St. Thomas Cathedral (Anglican). The Story of St. Thomas' Cathedral, [250th
Anniversary, 1718-1968]. (Bombay: The Cathedral, 1968).

Caldwell, R. P o l i t i c a l and General History of the D i s t r i c t of Tinnevelly. (Madras:

Govt. Pr., 1881).

Ceylon Bible Society. Reports, 1813- (Colombo: various presses, 1813- ) (Now known
as S r i Lanka Bible Society, the reports continue.)

Ceylon Literary & Agricultural Society. "Proceedings," i n Ceylon Antiquary, v o l . 8,

Diehl/908 16

1922-23. (Colombo, 1922-23: f i r s t published ed.).

Ceylon, Methodist Church. A History of the Methodist Church i n Ceylon, 1814-1964.

(Colombo: Wesley Pr. [1971]).

Clayton, A. C. Christian Literature i n India and Ceylon. (Madras: Society for

Promoting Christian Knowledge Pr., 1920).

Costa, S. J . , Anthony d'. The Christianisation of the Goa Islands. (Bombay: Heras
Institute, 1965).

Diehl, Katharine Smith and Hemendra Kumar Sircar. Early Indian Imprints. (New York,
London: Scarecrow Pr., Inc., 1964).

Goa, Se Catedral. Se Catedral de Goa, alguns documentos do seculo x v i , por Francisco

Xavier Gomes Catao. (Lisbon: Tipografia Silvas, Lda. 1964; repaged from
Studia, revista semestral, nos. 13-14, January/July, 1964, pp. 487-545: now
pp. 1-61).

Hardy, Robert S. Jubilee Memorials of the Wesleyan Mission, South Ceylon. (Colombo:
Wesleyan Mission Pr., 1864).

Knight, Anstey, J . C. Report on the Protestant Telugu Christian Literature. (Madras:

Christian Literature Society for India, 1917).

Kopf, David. The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind. (Princeton:
Princeton University Pr., 1979) (Bonarjee family i s mentioned.)

L a i r d , Michael A. M i s s i o n a r i e s and Education i n Bengal, 1793-1837. (Oxford:

Clarendon Pr., 1972).

Lehmann, E. Arno. I t Began at Tranquebar: the Story of the Tranquebar Mission,

1706- ; Tr. from the German. (Madras: Christian Literature Society, 1956).

Madras, St. Mary's Church. St. Mary's Church, Fort St. George, Madras: A Brief
History, Compiled by W. H. Warren and N. Barlow; rev. (Madras: The Church,
1968).
Perera, S. J . , Simon G. "The Jesuits i n Ceylon i n the 16th and 17th Centuries," in
Ceylon Antiquary, Vols. 1-6, various issues. (Colombo, 1916-20).

Potts, E. Daniel. B r i t i s h Baptist Missionaries i n India, 1793-1837: The History of

Serampore and I t s Missions"! (Cambridge: At the University Pr., 1967) (Useful
with Laird, above.)

Serampore Missionaries. Circular Letters, 1807-36; several series. (Serampore:

Mission Press, 1808-36).

Silva, K. M. de. Social Policy and Missionary Organizations i n Ceylon, 1840-1855.

(London: Longmans, 1965) (Author i s a serious scholar and a Christian i n
Buddhist S r i Lanka).

Tranquebar, New Jerusalem Church. New Jerusalem Church, Tranquebar, 1718-1968:

Souvenir: 250th Anniversary of Dedication. (Madras: Printed at Diocesan Pr.;
The Church published, 1968).
Diehl/908 17

Note: Church anniversary booklets, usually at ten or twenty-five year intervals, are
prepared by nearly a l l the old churches. Also the numerous missionary and
Bible societies have archives—of printed and MS. records—in South Asia and i n
the West. They deserve investigation.

Semi-private Journals and Reports

Asiatick (Asiatic) Researches, vols. 1-20, 178,

'8-1839. (Calcutta: various presses,
Irregular, 1788-1839). -

Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 1- 1832 (Calcutta: The Society,
1832- ) (Successor to Asiatick Researches.)

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 1- 1834-
(London: The Society, 1834- J~.

Madras Journal of Literature and Science, vol. 1- 1833-. (Madras: various presses
for the Society, 1833- J.

Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, vols. 1-3 cumulated. (London:

Longman, Hurst, et. a l . 1819-20, but covers years 1807-date).

Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap, vol. 1- 1779- (Batavia, Java:

various presses for the Society, 1779- ;frequent reprintings from 1820- i n
Batavia).

Family Histories as Books

Aserappa, Antony F. Short History of the Ceylon Chitty Community. Rev ed. Part I I .
(Colombo: Catholic Pr., 1930).

Bonarjee, N. B. Under Two Masters. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970).

Bonnell, B. The Fruit of Experience. (Madras: privately printed, 1966).

David, The Reverend [of Lahore?] Survey of Protestant Christians of West Pakistan
Christian Council. (Publication information not known: book suggested by one
respondent.)

Fay, Mrs. E l i z a . Original Letters from India. (Calcutta: Press name cut from t i t l e
page, 1824).

Godden, Jon and Rumer. Two under the Indian Sun. (London: Macmillan, 1966) (These
sisters have written much of family l i f e i n Bengal; the works by Masters also
useful for long-term Bengal residence.)

Mukherjee, Nilmanl. A Bengal Zamindar: Jaykrishna Mukherjee of Uttarpara and His

Times, 1808-1888. (Calcutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1975).
P i e r i s , Sir Paul E. (Various publications, usually very d i f f i c u l t to c i t e , though the
substance i s normally dependable.) (Colombo, or elsewhere i n Ceylon, 1910- ).

Corporate or Ethnic Societies

Armenian Almanac: Tetrak, called Blossoms, for years 1812-49. (Calcutta: various
Armenian presses, 1812-49, annual) (Issue for 1815 contains names of every
Armenian resident i n Calcutta, from the priests to the youngest child.
Language i s chiefly Armenian, i n Armenian letters: translators are few.)

Dutch Burgher Union. Journal of the Dutch Burgher Union, 1912- (Colombo: The Dutch
Burgher Union, 1812- ) (Very Important: their objective was family
histories.)

Jaffna, American Mission. Catalogue of the Members of the Armerican Mission Churches
i n Jaffna, Ceylon, January 1, 1844. (Jaffna: American Mission Pr., 1844)
(Gives Tamil and American honorary names for about 300 individuals.)

» • Report of the American Ceylon Mission from I t s Commencement i n 1816 to

the Close of 1846. (Jaffna: American Mission Pr., 1846).

Musleah, Ezekial N. On the Banks of the Ganga: The Sojourn of Jews i n Calcutta.
(North Quincy, MA.: Christopher Publishing House, 1975). (An extremely
important book: v i r t u a l l y unique.)

Seth, Mesrovb J . Armenians i n India. (Calcutta: Privately published, 1937). (This

and the Musleah book are v i t a l : most Armenians and most Jews have emigrated
from India.)

UNPUBLISHED SOURCES

Bombay, St. Thomas Cathedral. Monumental inscriptions and memorial stones or tablets.

Calcutta, St. Paul's Cathedral. Baptismal register, 1847- MS.

, • Marriage register, 1847- MS.

, • Monumental inscriptions and memorial tablets.

» Numerous old cemeteries, churches, and buildings have pictures, tablets, and

varia. (Same i s true of a l l old places.)

Colombo, Dutch Government records. The de Saram Family, MSS. (private copy).

. Various family records of the de Sarams, Bandaranaike, Jayawardena, and both

L.S.D. and Richard Pieris families.
Diehl/908 19

, Government archives. Portuguese "tomboes" or land registration records,

continued and respected by the Dutch, contain vast amount of family history.
MSS.

, St. Peter's Church. Monumental inscriptions and memorial tablets. (This i s

one of the few remaining structures from Dutch years.)

, Wolvendaal Church. Monumental inscriptions and memorial tablets, also memorial

stones used as paving within sanctuary.

, . Birth and Baptismal registers, 1 7 — into the early 1800s. MS.

(Indexes are good.)

, . Marriage registers, 1 7 — MS.

Goa, Government archives. Roteiro dos Arquivos do India Portuguesa, por Panduronga S.
S. Pissurlencar. (Bastora, Goa: The Archives, 1955) (Vol. 2760: "Livro do
registo de baptisados da Missao da Bengala, 1665-1791.") Roteiro i s printed
and published, the records are MSS.

, Roman Catholic Church. Resposta ao folheto, que tern portitulo: Address of the
Right Rev. Daniel O'Connor, P.P. Vicar Apostolic of Madras, to the Clergy and
People of the See of Meliapor. Por hum E c c l e s i a s t i c o do Arcebispo de Goa.
(Goa: Typographia Nacional, 1838). (Though controversial in substance, this
is included for the appendixes H, J , K, and L which refer to the public
legislation concerning registration of baptisms, marriages and funerals being
required of every Catholic priest receiving a stipend. Dates of the four
documents are from 19 December 1837 through 3 A p r i l 1838).

Jaffna and Jaffna D i s t r i c t , i n North Ceylon ( S r i Lanka) have several old churches,
Catholic and Protestant, where monumental and memorial stones are found. For
Americans, this i s the place to go f i r s t of a l l . )

Madras, St. Mary's Church. Monumental and memorial inscription.

Tranquebar, New Jerusalem and Zion Churches. Monumental inscriptions, memorial

stones; also the adjoining b u r i a l grounds.

Note: Land grants under Portuguese, Dutch and, to some degree, the English
governments are recorded i n appropriate archives. The Government of Ceylon,
during the f i r s t years of this twentieth century, was actively translating,
editing, and publishing records from the various archives within their land.
No other part of South Asia did likewise.

EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS AND SOURCES

Amsterdam. Gemeentelijk Archiefdienst van Amsterdam. (Municipal archives).

The Hague. Algemeen Rijksarchief. (National archives of The Netherlands).

London. Archives and Library of the B r i t i s h and Foreign Bible Society.

Diehl/908

, School of Oriental and African Studies. The Library. New York. Archives and
Library of the American Bible Society. Utrecht. Gemeentelijk Archief.
(Municipal archives).

Note: Archives and libraries of mission boards, denominational offices, universities,

and national governments (especially i n Europe) are useful. I have worked i n
neither Lisbon nor Rome: both have remarkable collections.
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

R H
Sources in the
Arab World for
S H I
Genealogy and
Family History
Arnold H. Green
- \ Series 909
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 SOURCES IN THE ARAB WORLD FOR GENEALOGY AND FAMILY HISTORY
Arnold H. Green
Born In C a l i f o r n i a . Resides i n Cairo, Egypt. Associate professor of modern Arab
history, American University. Ph.D. (near eastern history), University of California,
Los Angeles. Author.
In the West during the last decade or so
the "Roots phenomenon" has sparked or at
least demonstrated a renewed interest i n
family history and genealogy. In some
respects the Arab-Islamic world has
experienced a "roots phenomenon" of i t s
own, which began several centuries ago
and has continued more or less unabated
until the present. While not needing to
borrow the r e l a t i v e l y l a t e reawakened
interest of the West in f a m i l i a l anteced-
ents, the Arab world can p r o f i t from the
West's experience i n r e f i n i n g c e r t a i n
methodologies of research. This paper
w i l l thus discuss f i r s t , methodologies
for research on family history i n the
Arab world; second, seme f r u i t f u l sources
f o r research on Arab f a m i l i e s ; and,
third, examples of useful academic genres
which may result from research on Arab
family history.
PART I. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES
Interest in and cultivation of genealogy
as a subject f i e l d and as l i t e r a r y genre
do not need to be imported into the
Arab-Islamic world which has long pursued
£ts own traditional science of genealogy,
11m al-ansab. A form of oral chronicle
among the Arabs i n pre-Islamic times,
ilm al-ansab became a veritable science
during the c l a s s i c a l Islamic p e r i o d .
Treatises were written about the theory
and method of ilm al-ansab, which was
taught as a subject i n madrasa-s
(seminary-colleges) and mosque-univer-
sities . Tens of thousands of volumes
containing genealogies and biographies,
including many works of tabaqat (biogra-
phical dictionaries), were consequently
composed. As both, a subject f i e l d and a
l i t e r a r y genre, ilm al-ansab has con-
tinued to thrive u n t i l the present time.
Like heraldry i n pre-modern Europe,
however, ilm al-ansab has tended to be
preoccupied with lineages considered to
be noble. In the Arab-Islamic context,
nobility was concerned at f i r s t mainly
with the concept of t r i b a l purity but i t
l a t e r also acquired an important r e -
ligious dimension with the emergence of
families of ashraf (those acknowledged to
be descendants of the prophet Muhammad).
The nine-volume Kitab al-tabaqat al-kabir
of Ibn Sa d (d. 845 A.D.) i s a good exam-
ple of an early work containing both Arab
t r i b a l and "prophetic" genealogies. That
i s , the noble Arab-Islamic lineages are
traced back to Adam through the prophet
Muhammad and the b i b l i c a l p a t r i a r c h s .
From the ninth century onward there pro-
liferated volumes purporting to trace i n
detail the branches and generations of
s h a r i f i a n (prophetic) f a m i l i e s i n the
Arab-Islamic world.
I t became common during the Islamic
middle ages f o r prominent f a m i l i e s ,
particularly those of (or aspiring to be
of) the p o l i t i c a l or religious e l i t e s , to
establish their genealogies i n a formal
way, often as a means to the ends of
claiming descent from Muhammad and of
enjoying the privileges (such as social
prominence and tax exempt status) which
normally accompanied the recognition of
that claim. P. M. Holt has analyzed a
seventeenth century treatise in which a
Circassian ruler of Egypt attempted to
trace his genealcjgy back to Muhammad's
tribe of Quraysh; and Ahmed Abdesselem

has discussed an unedited manuscript i n
which a f a m i l y of Turkish ulama
( r e l i g i o u s scholars) l i v i n g i n Tunis
asserted themselves to be ashraf v i a a
m a t e r n a l l i n e of d e s c e n t . Because
f i c t i t i o u s genealogies were frequently
put forward, one of the chief functions
of the n a q i b a l - a s h r a f (head of the
syndicate of the acknowledged descendants
of Muhammad) In a given l o c a l i t y was to
i n v e s t i g a t e t h o r o u g h l y a l l c l a i m s to
being of the prophetic lineage,
p r o c l a i m i n g some a u t h e n t i c and o t h e r s
false. I n a d d i t i o n to t e a c h i n g the
c
theory and method of i l m al-ansab In a
mosque-university or i n a madrasa, the
p r o f e s s i o n a l g e n e a l o g i e s ( n a s s á b ) was
thus r e g u l a r l y c a l l e d upon to put h i s
knowledge and s k i l l s i n t o practice by
s c r u t i n i z i n g alleged noble genealogies.
However, the p r e o c c u p a t i o n o f ilm
al-ansab w i t h "noble lineages was not i t s
only l i m i t i n g c h a r a c t e r i s t i c ; i t also
f a i l e d to develop a t r u l y e m p i r i c a l
technique f o r acquiring genealogical data
and f o r testing i t s v e r a c i t y . Despite
the q u a s i - e m p i r i c a l a c t i v i t y of Muhammad
Murtadaj a l Zabldi ( d . 1205 A.D.—1791
A.D.), the t y p i c a l method o f the
Arab-Muslim nassib consisted, l i k e that
of the s p e c i a l i s t i n hadith (prophetic
t r a d i t i o n , o r a l cannon law), l a r g e l y i n
v e r i f y i n g the t r u s t w o r t h i n e s s o f the
human t r a n s m i t t e r s rather than in
checking the genealogy i t s e l f against the
documentary record. The t r a d i t i o n of
i l m al-ansab consequently d i d not f o s t e r
the technique of a r c h i v a l or documentary
research.
Of course, with p a r t i c u l a r reference to
the n a t u r a l s c i e n c e s , a t r a d i t i o n o f
empirical research had existed to some
extent i n the Arab-Islamic world before
the t w e l f t h century. A s i m i l a r t r a d i t i o n
began to arise i n Europe from the Renais-
sance onward. But, while r e v o l u t i o n i z i n g
such f i e l d s as physics, astronomy, and
medicine, t h i s new e m p i r i c a l method did
not u n t i l the nineteenth century funda-
mentally a f f e c t the f i e l d of h i s t o r y .
A l t h o u g h i t g r a d u a l l y abandoned the
tendency to a t t r i b u t e events to supernat-
u r a l causes, f o r the time being h i s t o r -
2
i c a l methodology remained essentially
deductive and e x e g e t i c a l .
In t h i s regard, i t was during the period
between the s i x t e e n t h and n i n e t e e n t h
centuries that the s i m i l a r l y exegetical
approach of o r i e n t a l i s m emerged and took
shape i n Europe. Attacked i n recent
years f o r (among other t h i n g s ) its
e u r o c e n t r i c i t y , o r i e n t a l i s m i s defined
and considered here not so much i n terms
of i t s p r o - C h r i s t i a n and pro-European
c u l t u r a l biases but rather i n terms of
i t s e s s e n t i a l l y textual methodology. For
generations western orientalists
discovered and interpreted Arab-Islamic
h i s t o r y and c u l t u r e p r i m a r i l y v i a textual
materials. That i s , as a p r e - d i s c i p l l -
nary approach to knowledge, o r i e n t a l i s m
borrowed i t s methodology from b i b l i c a l
studies and c l a s s i c s . This methodology
consisted l a r g e l y of l o c a t i n g important
texts ( e . g . , Q u r ' a n i c , p h i l o s o p h i c a l , or
historical), establishing their
authenticity, rendering them ( w i t h
c r i t i c a l i n t r o d u c t i o n s and m a r g i n a l
notes) i n t o European languages, and then
u s i n g them as source m a t e r i a l s f o r
understanding and explaining Arab-Islamic
h i s t o r y and c i v i l i z a t i o n . Many a
nineteenth century o r i e n t a l i s t expressed
a direct interest i n genealogical
texts—although not uncommonly f o r the
purpose of l i n k i n g the Arab t r i b e s to
Ishmael and therefore to the b i b l i c a l
genealogies of the book of Genesis. In
s p i t e of the d i s r e p u t e i n t o which
o r i e n t a l i s m has f a l l e n of l a t e , the
t e x t u a l - e x e g e t i c a l method r e t a i n s i t s
v a l i d i t y and usefulness as a s c h o l a r l y
endeavor. Since unexploited and unedited
texts abound, there consequently remains
a good deal of tedious but important work
to be done. While they ought not to
ignore the o r i e n t a l i s t s ' pioneering work
on genealogical t e x t s , f a m i l y h i s t o r i a n s
today w i l l p r o b a b l y not find the
textual-exegetical method of the
p r e - d i s c i p l i n a r y o r i e n t a l i s t s to be i d e a l
f o r t h e i r own purposes. This i s not
because some consider o r i e n t a l i s m to be
disreputable nowadays, but rather because
only a l i m i t e d amount of data can be
found i n the formal texts favored by the
orientalists.
909/Green
For scholars interested i n the Arab
f a m i l y , more promising methodologies
accompanied the emergence during the last
century and a half of the modern social
science disciplines. Ethnographers, for
example, have formulated and refined the
f i e l d research methods of p a r t i c i p a n t
observation and the use of informants.
With regard to the Arab family, one can
f i n d pioneering examples of these
ethnographic methods as early as Edward
Lane's The Manners and Customs of the
Modern Egyptians ( f i r s t published i n
1826); and, since then, generation after
generation of ethnographers have observed
and described the nature and workings of
the Arab family in t r i b a l , v i l l a g e , and
urban s e t t i n g s . Anthropologists have
exploited the wealth of data thus
compiled to formulate a whole subfield
of kinship analysis. Although perhaps
the main objective of the ethnographic-
anthropological method has been to
identify patterns or types i n kinship
structures, another major r e s u l t of
it—one of i n t e r e s t to the f a m i l y
historian—has been to provide a
hundred-year record of critical
investigation into the character of the
Arab family. Yet, while the f r u i t s of
this research methodology ought to be
indispensable to the family historian,
especially for identifying typical kinds
of f a m i l y circumstances and r e l a t i o n -
ships, the use of participant observation
and informants cannot be the exclusive or
even the primary methodological approach
for the family historian, particularly i n
the effort to reconstruct the history of
specific families.
In t h i s regard, the most appropriate
methodological approach for the family
historian is that of archival history,
the methodology f i r s t pioneered during
the nineteenth century by a new breed of
historians l i k e Leopold von Ranke, who
insisted that research i n history and
ancillary f i e l d s must exploit a l l the
available documentary evidence. In the
West since von Ranke's day, s o c i a l
h i s t o r i a n s , demographers, and genea-
logists (having gone beyond heraldry to
become interested in ordinary families as
well as i n "notable" ones) have learned
3
to unearth and to consult a wide variety
of documentary source materials. A l i s t
of these would include not just such
obvious records as census, b i r t h ,
christening, marriage, and burial records
but also property deeds, records of
inheritance l i t i g a t i o n and other kinds of
l e g a l a c t i o n , tax assessments, voter
registration l i s t s , passenger l i s t s , and
various other by-products of the
socioeconomic and l e g a l - p o l i t i c a l l i f e of
a community. The author of one recent
work has systematically described the
various kinds of l i t t l e - k n o w n records
a v a i l a b l e i n England f o r research i n
genealogy and family h i s t o r y , s o c i a l
history, and h i s t o r i c a l anthropology. He
mentions parish r e g i s t e r s , manorial
rentals, manor court transfers, views of
frankpledge, court leets, ecclesiastical
court records, quarter sessions, assizes,
hearth taxes, wills, and probate
inventories. He then goes on to comment
that "Massive deposits of such records .
. e x i s t f o r most continents.
Findings a r i s i n g from the growing
interest in social history, h i s t o r i c a l
demography and economic history suggest
that such records are even more p l e n t i f u l
and extend over longer periods of time
than one might, even ten years ago, have
imagined." While this observation i s
probably more valid for Europe than for
the Arab-Islamic world, archives and
documents represent the greatest
potential asset to be exploited by the
historian of the Arab family.
PART I I . ARCHIVAL AND DOCUMENTARY
SOURCES
As more and more scholars abandoned the
textual-exegetical method of orientalism
for one or other of the disciplines, the
a r c h i v a l method of h i s t o r y became
increasingly practiced. I n i t i a l l y most
accessible to European scholars were the
n a t i o n a l archives of various European
countries. During the interwar and
immediate post-World War I I periods a
whole generation of scholars (including
native Middle Easterners earning higher
degrees at European universities) wrote
dissertations on the Middle East based
909/Green
almost exclusively on materials located
i n such f a c i l i t i e s as the India O f f i c e ,
the P u b l i c Record O f f i c e , the Quai
d'Orsay, and the Chateau de Vincennes.
Although scholars are now r i g h t l y
expected to exploit Middle Eastern as
well as European archives, the latter do
contain materials which cannot be ignored
with impunity. Whereas t h i s r u l e
probably applies to p o l i t i c a l and
diplomatic history more than to family
history, there do e x i s t valuable
materials of interest to family
historians not only i n long established
f a c i l i t i e s such as the P u b l i c Record
Office but also in comparatively new ones
such as the French Archives d'Outre-mer
i n Aix-en-Province.
Whatever they might f i n d i n European
archives, those interested in Arab family
history w i l l sooner or later need to
became acquainted with document-holding
f a c i l i t i e s i n the Middle East i t s e l f . In
this regard, just as one generation of
historians of the Middle East moved from
near exclusive reliance on texts to the
exploitation of European archives, the
next generation of historians moved from
near exclusive r e l i a n c e on European
archives to the exploitation of Middle
Eastern a r c h i v e s . Today's younger
scholars can be guided by the pioneering
works of Bernard Lewis, Stanford Shaw,
Robert Mantran, Andre Raymond and
others—both by their articles written
specifically to describe various archival
collections and also by their monographs
and a r t i c l e s based on documentary
materials i n Middle Eastern a r c h i v e s .
Long of uncertain access for a variety of
reasons (including p o l i t i c a l ones),
certain Middle Eastern archives are now
more accessible than ever; and, while
perhaps not as rigorously organized as
the best European archival f a c i l i t i e s ,
they are becoming better organized a l l
the time.
It i s thus with good reason that
considerable interest has recently been
shown in Middle Eastern archives. In i t s
o f f i c i a l B u l l e t i n , the Middle East
Studies A s s o c i a t i o n has sponsored a
series of articles describing research
4
f a c i l i t e s y i n various Middle Eastern
countries. Also, within the past few
years there have appeared special volumes
devoted exclusively to archival sources
and methods of the Middle East: Berque
and Chevalier eds., Les Arabes par leurs
Archives (Paris: CMS, 1976), and the
January 1979 issue of Revue d'Histoire
Maghrebine (edited by Abdeljelil Temimi)
on "Methodologie et Sources d'Histoire
Maghrebine." Recent academic
conferences, such as the Princeton
conference on demography (1974) and the
conference i n Aix-en-Proy^ence (1979) on
nineteenth century Egypt, demonstrate a
continuing need f o r and expanding
i n t e r e s t i n the a r c h i v a l h i s t o r i c a l
method in Middle Eastern studies. In
this regard, the a r t i c l e "On Archival
Sources for Demographic Studies of the
Middle E a s t , " which Daniel Crecelius
prepared for the Princeton conference on
demography, contains one of the best
surveys to date of Middle Eastern
documents collections.
A. ARCHIVES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
The following brief discussion of the
kinds of document-holding f a c i l i t i e s i n
the Middle East w i l l be divided into four
sections: national and mosque l i b r a r i e s ,
national archives, archives containing
Islamic documents, and archives
containing the legal-religious documents
of non-Islamic minorities.
1. National and Mosque Libraries
A number of Middle Eastern countries have
established national l i b r a r i e s on the
model of the B r i t i s h Museum, the
Bibliotheque Nationale, or the Library of
Congress. On this pattern, for example,
are Egypt's Par al-Kutub ( C a i r o ) ,
Tunisia's Bibliotheque Nationale i n Souk
el-Attarine (Tunis), Algeria's National
Library (Algiers), and Morocco's
Bibliotheque Generale (Rabat). In some
other c o u n t r i e s , the national l i b r a r y
grew out of an important mosque-madrasa
collection. On this pattern are Turkey's
Sulaymaniye Library (Istanbul), Syria's
909/Green
Zahariya L i b r a r y (Damascus), and the
three separate c o l l e c t i o n s i n Yemen's
Great Mosque of Sanaa. In this regard,
some countries with new n a t i o n a l
libraries also possess important mosque
libraries, such as Egypt's Azhar
Mosque-university or Morocco's Qarawiyin
Mosque-university (Fez).
National and mosque l i b r a r i e s are
particularly rich i n Arabic manuscripts,
including the important classical texts.
The most important kind of document they
contain of interest to family historians
is the tabaqat (biographical dictionary),
of which there e x i s t thousands and
thousands of volumes (both published and
unpublished) for a l l regions and periods
of Arab-Islamic history.
2. Government Archives
By "government archive" i s meant a
facility containing mainly those
documents which were generated by the
administrative processes of a p o l i t i c a l
regime. Most government archives i n
Europe and America have a f i f t y year or
at least a thirty year rule which bars
researchers from consulting recent (and
presumably sensitive) documents. In the
Middle East the general rule (to which
exceptions e x i s t ) i s that the most
accessible documents are those from the
pre-World War I period. In most cases,
the pre-World War I period entailed an
Ottoman administration or a l o c a l
administration under colonial rule. As a
r u l e government documents from the
post-colonial period (and i n most cases
from the post-World War I period) are not
accessible.
Even for the Arab lands, one of the
Middle East's most important government
archives i s Turkey's Basbakanlik A r s i v i
(the National Archives i n Istanbul) which
is located on the grounds of the old
Ottoman Prime M i n i s t r y . Similarly
important, Egypt's Par al-watha'iq (at
the C i t a d e l i n C a i r o ) , containing
materials dealing p r i m a r i l y with the
o f f i c i a l bureaucracy i n Egypt since the
sixteenth century, i s located i n the
5
complex which was the seat of power
before and after the time of Muhammad A l l
(d. 1848). Egypt's other n a t i o n a l
archive, Par al-mahfuzat, which contains
f i n a n c i a l records dealing with such
matters as taxation and land tenure, i s
located nearby i n the same general
complex. Tunisia's National Archives,
Par el-Bey, similarly i s located i n the
building which served as the seat of the
b e y l i c a l Prime M i n i s t r y (the same
b u i l d i n g i s today the seat of the
Tunisian Republic's Prime Ministry). The
Moroccan National Archives are located i n
Rabat, with branch f a c i l i t i e s i n other
important towns.
Government archives i n the Middle East
contain a wealth of documents of interest
to the f a m i l y h i s t o r i a n , i n c l u d i n g
cadastral (land) surveys f o r taxation
purposes, tax r e g i s t e r s , l i s t s of
government employees, pension records,
e a r l y census m a t e r i a l s , some w a q f i y á t
(records of endowed lands), and several
other kinds of documents. According to
both Shaw and C r e c e l i u s , C a r l o ' s Par
all-mahfuzat alone contains, among many
other things, about 1,500 tax registers
for the 1658-1808 period, about 1,800
bureaucratic and m i l i t a r y personnel
registers for the 1672-1889 period, and
several hundred pension registers for the
1681-1840 period.
3. Archives Containing Islamic Pocuments
The European parish register, a favorite
source for family historians and
genealogists i n the West, has no real
couterpart i n the Arab-Islamic world.
P a r i s h r e g i s t e r s contain information
about christenings (and therefore about
births), marriages, funerals, and family
relationships. The Islamic r e l i g i o n
requires neither baptism nor an
equivalent r i t e de passage; marriage i s
considered a legal contract between two
f a m i l i e s and not a sacrament as i n
Christianity; and, while funeral
ceremonies ordinarily take place with a
r e c i t e r of the Qur'an i n attendance,
there seems to have developed no
tradition of keeping funeral registers.
909/Green
In the Middle East, family historians
thus cannot simply go f i r s t to the local
mosque to use i t s register as they would
go f i r s t to the parish church i n Europe.
While the mosque is not the equivalent of
the parish church in terms of record
making and record keeping, the Islamic
r e l i g i o n did generate other kinds of
documents and therefore spawned other
kinds of document-holding f a c i l i t i e s of
considerable value to family historians.
The two most important of these are (a)
depositories of waqfiyat (acountant
registers of endowed properties) and (b)
depositories of records of Shari a_
(Islamic law) courts.
In some countries waqf i y a t have been
gathered to new central locations. In
Turkey, for example, most waqf documents
from Anatolia have been centralized in
the Anthropological Museum of Ankara
where they are, i n e f f e c t , under the
direct responsibility of the government.
In most countries, however, waqfiyat have
remained in special repositories under at
least the q u a s i - o f f i c i a l jurisdiction of
Islamic r e l i g i o u s a u t h o r i t i e s . For
example, the waqf registers of Istanbul,
in theory under the jurisdiction of the
National Archives, are in r e a l i t y located
in a special archive at the Muftuluk (the
seat of the M u f t i of Istanbul—the
supreme Islamic dignitary of the c i t y ) .
In Egypt, although some waqfiyat can be
found i n ^Dar al-watha'iq- and others i n
the Shari a Court archives, most are
located in the archives of the Ministry
of waqf-s i n downtown Cairo. In Yemen,
waqf records remain in their original
regional depositories in such towns as
c
Sanaa, Zabid, Ibb, and Sa dah. Except i n
such countries as Egypt and Turkey, where
waqf r e g i s t e r s are maintained pretty
w e l l , waqfiyat are sometimes haphazardly
organized and even exposed to the dangers
of the elements. In Tunisia, where the
Ministry of Waqf-s was abolished when the
country became Independent from France i n
1956 and no other agency was assigned
jurisdiction over the records, thousands
of waqf r e g i s t e r s are r o t t i n g i n a
warehouse (with a leaky roof) near the
old port. Nevertheless, for reasons to
6
be explained below, r e p o s i t o r i e s of
waqf documents are among the most
valuable archives for family historians.
Another important kind of f a c i l i t y i s the
Shari a court a r c h i v e . Since u n t i l
f a i r l y recently church and state were not
separated i n Islamic countries, Islamic
law courts handled the vast majority of
l i t i g a t i o n , particularly in the domain of
personal and family status (marriage,
divorce, orphanage, inheritance, etc.)
which i s of interest to family
historians. Again, in some areas, like
Syria, Shari a court records have been
removed to a central location and place^
under direct governmental j u r i s d i c t i o n .
But the rule has been to leave them i l l
situ under the immediate competence of
Islamic authorities. This is the case,
for example, i n Egypt, where regional
court records have been gathered to the
archive of Cairo's Shari a court. Shaw
commented as recently as 1968 that "the
most important, but by far the least
exploited, archival materials concerning
Egypt's economic and social l i f e as well
as i t s religious a f f a i r s , are those found
c
in i t s Shari a courts . . . . Most of
the court r e g i s t e r s are arranged
c h r o n o l o g i c a l l y i n f i f t e e n separate
series, running fom the sixteenth to the
nineteenth c e n t u r i e s . " For family
h i s t o r i a n s , perhaps the two most
interesting documents found i n Shari a_
court archives are the sidáq (marriage
contract) and the records of inheritance
l i t i g a t i o n called mukhallifát. With
regard to the latter, Crecellus explains
that "while birth records were not kept
by Muslims u n t i l the nineteenth century,
death records of propertied Muslims (and
dhimmis) e x i s t i n the Shari a_ Court
records for earlier centuries, for the
d i s t r i b u t i o n of the inheritance among
heirs was prescribed i n minute^etail by
Islamic (and dhimmi) law." Since
Shaw's lament about the unexploited state
c
of Egypt's Shari a court records, Andre
Raymond has complete the research for and
published his two-volume A r t i s a n s et
commercants du Calre (Damascus, 1974),
which was based p r i m a r i l y on the
mukhallifat documents. Abd al-Rahim Abd
c
al-Rahman also used Shari a court tax
909/Green
records f o r h i s a l - R i f a l - m i s r i f i
al-qarn al-thamin ashar (Cairo, 1974).
4. Document Repositories of Non-Islamic
Minorities
While the population of the Middle East
i s predominately Muslim, i t contains
large pockets of other religious
groupings, mainly Christians. Probably
the largest Christian community i n the
Middle East as a whole i s that of the
Greek Orthodox, although national Eastern
r i t e churches have high concentrations of
members in certain regions, e.g., the
Coptic Orthodox Church i n Egypt, the
Syrian Orthodox Church i n Syria, and the
Maronite Church i n Lebanon. Armenian
communities (both Gregorian/Eastern and
L a t i n r i t e s ) are scattered throughout
Turkey and the Arab East. In addition,
there are a number of other Latin r i t e
Christian communities i n the Middle East
where, f i n a l l y , some r e s i d u a l Jewish
communities also remain.
As a rule Eastern r i t e Christian churches
did not keep baptismal, marriage, and
f u n e r a l records u n t i l the nineteenth
century. At that time they probably
acquired the custom from European Latin
r i t e churches which had long kept such
records. The archive of the Dominican
I n s t i t u t e i n the Mousky ( C a i r o ) , f o r
example, contains a fourteen-volume
baptismal r e g i s t e r (1618-present), a
seven-volume marriage register
(1618-present), and a thirteen-volume
death register (1774-present). Persons
l i s t e d i n these registers are l i k e l y to
be European Reman Catholics resident i n
Cairo, although a separate reconcilia-
tions register was kept to record the
baptisms of native Egyptians. Most of
this reconciliations l i s t was published
by P. Gabriele Giamberardini as I Prlmi
Copti C a t t o l i c i ( C a i r o : Franciscan
Centre of C h r i s t i a n O r i e n t a l S t u d i e s ,
1958).
During the nineteenth century, Eastern
r i t e churches d i d begin to keep
christening, marriage, and death records.
The Coptic Orthodox Church's c e n t r a l
7
a r c h i v e s , located next to S t . Mark's
Cathedral i n Abbasiya (Cairo), contains a
r o o m f u l l of marriage c o n t r a c t s , the
e a r l i e s t of which go back to the
mid-nineteenth century. Baptismal
registers, which Copts started to keep
toward the end of the nineteenth century,
are kept in individual churches. While
there e x i s t s no established procedure
whereby any qualified researcher can gain
access to these and similar archives, the
registers kept i n l o c a l C h r i s t i a n
churches or i n the churches* central
archives are at least p o t e n t i a l l y of
great interest to family historians.
B. Specific Kinds of Documents and the
Data They Contain
Once the family historian has located and
gained entry to the appropriate
f a c i l i t i e s , the next steps are to examine
the relevant documents and to extract the
desired information. In the previous
section certain kinds of documents were
mentioned i n the context of the
d i s c u s s i o n about a r c h i v e s . In the
present section we shall describe each
major kind of document and attempt to
specify the kinds of data i t contains
that may be of Interest to family
historians.
1. Tabaqat (Biographical Dictionaries)
Reminiscent of C h r i s t i a n hagiography,
tabaqat arose as a genre during early
Islamic times as a means of preserving
biographical details about ulama (Islamic
scholars and j u r i s t s ) as w e l l as
l i t e r a r y , bureautic, and commercial men
of d i s t i n c t i o n . Collectively, tabaqat
constitute a sort of general who's who of
Islamic h i s t o r y . The many published
collections of tabaqat from the basis for
such b i o g r a p h i c a l data projects as
Onomasticon Arabicum (Paris) as well as
such s o c i a l h i s t o r i e s as Richard
B u l l i e t ' s pioneering The Patricians of
Nishapur (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1972). Yet there exist almost
innumerable unpublished collections of
tabaqat, preserved for the most part in
909/Green
the manuscript sections of Middle Eastern
n a t i o n a l and mosque l i b r a r i e s . Even f o r
the r e l a t i v e l y small town of Zabid i n
Yemen, for example, there is a of Muhammad). Longer entries might give
seven-volume b i o g r a p h i c a l d i c t i o n a r y
(al-Ghuzzi's Atiyát allah al-maiid
• e—e—-—
l i - t a r á j i m acváh al-qarn a l - r á b i ashar
a l - h i r j r T min ulamá' zabid) describing
r e l i g i o u s notables who have died since
1882. For m e t r o p o l i s e s l i k e C a i r o ,
Baghdad, Damascus, Jerusalem, Tunis, and
Fez, there are l i t e r a l l y thousands of
published and unpublished biographical
d i c t i o n a r i e s c o v e r i n g many h i s t o r i c a l
periods.
Even v e r y s h o r t e n t r i e s i n tabaqat
collections contain some useful
i n f o r m a t i o n f o r the f a m i l y h i s t o r i a n .
Consider the following b r i e f notice o n p .
389 o f M a k h l u f ' s tabaqat a l - m á l i k i y a
( C a i r o , 1349/1935):
Abu Abd A l l a h Muhammad bin Muhammad
al-Khaddár a l - T ü h i s i ; i t s ( i . e . ,
1
T u n i s ) m u f t i , i t s l e g a l expert, and
i t s poet. He was one of the
excellent and b r i l l i a n t ulama and men
of l e t t e r s . He studied under Shaykh
al-Riyahl, Shaykh a l - T a h i r bin
Mas u d , Shaykh Hasan a l - S h a r l f ,
Shaykh B i n Malluka and others. He
composed a volume of poetry and a
volume of outstanding sermons. He
C
died i n dhu ' l - q a d a 1267 (1851).
From t h i s n o t i c e , which takes four l i n e s
i n the d i c t i o n a r y , we learn that there
was an Islamic scholar and author named
(Abu Abd A l l a h ) Muhammad who died i n
1851, who was the son of a man named
Muhammad al-Khaddlr (possible a green-
grocer, since Khaddar means greengrocer),
and who i s from the c i t y of Tunis (hence
the nisba of " a l - t ü h i s i " ) . We also learn
the nature of his o f f i c i a l p o s i t i o n s ,
including that of m u f t i (official
expounder of Islamic law), and the names
of four of h i s teachers. In t h i s regard,
from tabaqat one i s apt to learn more
about student-teacher r e l a t i o n s h i p s than
about f a m i l y r e l a t i o n s h i p s , unless
f a t h e r s , b r o t h e r s , or sons were a l s o
ulama or notables of one sort or another.
Yet at l e a s t the f a t h e r ' s name, i f known,
i s u s u a l l y given, i f only w i t h i n the f u l l
name of the person h i m s e l f (e.g.,
Muhammad b i n Muhammad—Muhammad the son
more f a m i l y information as w e l l as more
information generally, including
textbooks studied and examples of the
person's poetry. In Makhulf's 500-page
d i c t i o n a r y , an a v e r a g e - s i z e d t a b a q a t ,
there are more than 2,000 e n t r i e s ranging
i n length from three l i n e s to four pages.
This particular kind of document
emphasizes notables ( e s p e c i a l l y r e l i g i o u s
notables) and cannot be used to trace the
family r e l a t i o n s h i p s of the more numerous
ordinary people. But, since the Islamic
r e l i g i o u s establishment usually possessed
a high degree of openness to outside
(including lower) s o c i a l elements, i t i s
possible that ordinary families
occasionally had members who merited a
biographical entry. It i s an extremely
u s e f u l kind of document f o r research i n
f a m i l y h i s t o r y , i n part because i t exists
for all periods and regions of
Arab-Islamic c i v i l i z a t i o n .
2 . Waqfiyat (Registers of Endowed
Properties)
The i n s t i t u t i o n of waqf ( p l u r a l awqaf
and c a l l e d hubus/ahbas i n North A f r i c a )
o r i g i n a t e d very early i n Arab-Islamic
c i v i l i z a t i o n , probably f o r such reasons
as (a) the desire of property owners to
a v o i d t a x a t i o n and to d i m i n i s h the
p o s s i b i l i t y of c o n f i s c a t i o n by the state,
and (b) the desire to keep properties
i n t a c t , s i n c e I s l a m i c i n h e r i t a n c e law
tends to fragment p r i v a t e l y owned land.
These d e s i r e s c o u l d be r e a l i z e d by
deeding the land to a mosque or some
other charitable i n s t i t u t i o n which would
t h e r e a f t e r be regarded as the property's
l e g a l owner. In theory waqf properties
are of two types: waqf khass or khayri
( p r i v a t e w a q f ) , i n which case the
property i s l e g a l l y owned by a pious or
c h a r i t a b l e i n s t i t u t i o n but the revenues
are divided among the donor's descendants
according to Islamic laws' inheritance
formula, and waqf amm (public waqf), i n
which case the revenues a c t u a l l y go to
909/Green
the deed-holding i n s t i t u t i o n . Unless
specified as a public waqf right from the
beginning, usually an endowed property
w i l l be a private waqf so long as the
donor has descendants and then w i l l
become a public waqf when the donor's
line becomes extinct.
Waqfiyat are among the very best sources
for family historians of the Arab-Islamic
world. Like tabaqat they emphasize
f a m i l i e s of a c e r t a i n socioeconomic
standing ( i . e . , property owners) and yet
also exist for a l l regions and periods of
Arab-Islamic c i v i l i z a t i o n . Unlike
tabaqat, moreover, they are apt to
contain the names of a l l the members of
the family, i n c l u d i n g wives and
daughters, over several generations.
Crecelius writes that:
By consulting the original waqfiyat
held by the Ministry of Awqaf or
recorded i n the r e g i s t e r s of the
Shari°a Courts, one obtains the names
of donors from which the branches of
genealogical trees can be traced
through a n c i l l a r y documents held
either by the Ministry of Awqaf or
c
the Shari a Court archives. In this
way the Ministry of Awqaf and many
private f a m i l i e s have already
established genealogies of propertied
merchant, m i l i t a r y and r e l i g i o u s
f a m i l i e s that gfø back to the
eighteenth century.
3. Mukhalllfát (Records of Inheritance
Transactions)
c taxpayers l i v i n g i n the same household.
Preserved as a rule in Shari a Court
archives, these documents are also among
the very best sources f o r f a m i l y
historians. Since Islamic law stipulates
p r e c i s e l y how a person's property
(including shares of waqf revenues)
should be d i s t r i b u t e d among h e i r s , a
propertied person's death o r d i n a r i l y
entailed registering the assets with the
local qadi (Islamic judge) and indicating
the name and legacy of each inheritor
along with his or her relationship with
the deceased. Thus l i k e waqf documents,
mukhalllfat tend to mention propertied
f a m i l i e s but cover a l l regions and
9
periods of Islamic c i v i l i z a t i o n (at least
i n theory) and contain a good deal of
genealogical information.
4. Tahir (Ottoman cadastral surveys)
As soon as they conquered the Arab lands
(the F e r t i l e Crescent, Egypt and the
H i j a z i n 1516-17; Yemen beginning i n
about 1535; and North A f r i c a , except
Morocco, during 1534-74), the Ottoman
Turks conducted extensive surveys of land
and population for taxation purposes. In
principle, the surveys were repeated at
regular intervals from the sixteenth to
the nineteenth century. In practice they
were done only Irregularly and for some
Arab provinces (Egypt, f o r example)
almost never. Also, the surveys of the
sixteenth century were much more
extensive and contain f u l l e r and more
accurate information than those of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
when the Ottoman bureaucracy was
beginning to break down. At any rate,
the tahrir mufassal (detailed cadastral
survey) set out to register the land,
revenues, and population of each v i l l a g e .
Demographers have s u c c e s s f u l l y used
tahrir documents to estimate the size and
character of the population In various
regions of the Oj^oman Empire, mosj:
notably i n Anatolia and i n Palestine.
Some tahrir registers (even some of those
recorded during the sixteenth century)
include only the number of the
inhabitants i n a given v i l l a g e or quarter
but no names. However, other registers
include the name of each head of
household and the names of any other
These documents therefore have a certain
interest for family historians.
5. Census Reports
The Ottoman government conducted a census
during 1831-8, which included some of the
few Arabic-speaking regions s t i l l under
Ottoman rule; and Muhammad A l l Pasha, the
semi-autonomous Ottoman governor of Egypt
during 1805-48, conducted a census of his
domain. These e f f o r t s , however, seem to
have been i n the tradition of the later
tahrir which as a rule counted number of
909/Green
households or even of persons but
recorded few names. It was not u n t i l the
l a s t two decades of the nineteenth
century that a d e t a i l e d census was
conducted i n the Ottoman Empire
(beginning i n 1884) and i n Egypt (after
the British occupation which commenced i n
1882). The Ottoman census, which was
repeated and expanded i n 1902-5, recorded
such information as sex, name, father's
name, mother's name, birthplace, b i r t h -
date, profession, religion, and marital
status. The census law further estab-
lished a system of c i v i l registration,
with the registers kept at the local
(kaza) l e v e l , to update the census by
adding new information about b i r t h s ,
marriages, deaths, r e l o c a t i o n s , e t c .
Egypt developed a roughly similar system
about the same time, although precise
information about i t i s d i f f i c u l t to
obtain in part because population and
census information i s currently under the
jurisdiction of the military authorities.
Other Arab countries developed systems of
c i v i l registration after World War I ,
usually at the I n i t i a t i v e of a colonial
power.
Needless to say, census materials, when
and where they e x i s t , constitute an
important source f o r f a m i l y h i s t o r y
because the information is so detailed
and the coverage (at least i n theory) Is
so broad and deep.
6. Personnel Dossiers and Pension
Records
From the early nineteenth century, the
Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and T u n i s i a
undertook programs of modernization which
i n i t i a l l y emphasized military reforms but
which also eventually affected the
governmental a d m i n i s t r a t i o n . Bureau-
cracies were expanded and reorganized.
The need to pay, promote, and give
retirement benefits to large numbers of
employees (including soldiers and ulama
as w e l l as c i v i l servants) obliged
governments to keep better records about
their own personnel. These personnel and
pension records now provide a limited but
useful source of data for family history,
for they contain information not only
10
about the employees themselves but also
about their dependents.
7. Christian Marriage Contracts and
Baptismal Registers
The marriage contract, a document which
the Coptic church began to keep about the
middle of the nineteenth century and
which i s preserved i n a central archive
i n each diocese, contains at least the
following information: the date of the
contract, the name of the prospective
groom and the name of his father, the
name of the prospective bride and the
name of her father, and the name of the
officiating priest. The baptismal
registers, preserved i n the individual
churches, record the c h i l d ' s name,
baptismal date, birthdate, father's name,
and officiating priest. These kinds of
documents, while limited both to a recent
period and to a small segment of the
population, can nevertheless be useful to
the family historian.
8. Miscellaneous P o s s i b i l i t i e s
Other kinds of documents which might be
discovered and prove to be exploitable
sources for family history are: genea-
l o g i c a l trees maintained by private
families, commercial documents, registers
kept by craft and merchant guilds, and
registers maintained by Sufi brotherhoods
and other voluntary associations.
PART I I I . PROSPECTS FOR INTERPRETING AND
INTEGRATING THE DATA
Only after the archives have been located
and permission to use them obtained and
only a f t e r the documents have been
examined and the relevant data extracted
can the most significant stage of family
history be contemplated: integrating the
data into analyses of Arab families or of
the Arab family. In this regard, once
the data has been located and obtained,
there are basically three methodological
possibilites for exploiting i t : family
h i s t o r y as extended biography, family
history as h i s t o r i c a l science, and family
909/Green
h i s t o r y as the study of a c o n t r o l group
f o r comparative purposes.
The f i r s t method i s e s s e n t i a l l y that of
an h i s t o r i c a l n a r r a t i v e with an extended
f a m i l y (extended both l a t e r a l l y and
chronologically) as the basic u n i t of
study. Roots, although containing some
features of an h i s t o r i c a l n o v e l , might be
the best-known example of t h i s genre of
family history. A pretty good Middle
Eastern specimen of t h i s type would be
Emine Foat T u g a y ' s Three C e n t u r i e s ;
F a m i l y C h r o n i c l e s o f T u r k e y and Egypt
(Oxford U n i v e r s i t y Press, 1963), which
examines the multigenerational experience
of a Turkish f a m i l y , several of whose
members served as government o f f i c i a l s i n
Ottoman Turkey and E g y p t . In t h i s
regard, using t h i s approach an h i s t o r i a n
can use a p a r t i c u l a r f a m i l y as the
instrument for exploring broader
h i s t o r i c a l developments, including s o c i a l
change. Indeed, a work of t h i s type
would f a l l short of i t s p o t e n t i a l i f i t
focuses on a g i v e n f a m i l y ' s domestic
a f f a i r s so narrowly that i t ignores the
f a m i l y ' s s o c i a l and h i s t o r i c a l context.
F i n d i n g adequate source m a t e r i a l s may
prove to be a d i f f i c u l t y i n the extended
b i o g r a p h y approach to f a m i l y h i s t o r y .
This seems to have been Alex H a l e y ' s
problem i n Roots, a problem which he
solved by using h i s imagination to supply
dialogue and otherwise to f i l l i n the
gaps. More than a few major sources
would be e s s e n t i a l ; and i t would be
p r e f e r a b l e to d i s c o v e r whole s e t s o f
i n t e r s e c t i n g documents. The researchers
may be obliged to discover the data f i r s t
and only then to s e l e c t an appropriate
family to i n v e s t i g a t e , rather than the
other way around. A r e l a t e d problem i s
that of l i n k a g e . Some k i n d s o f
documents, such as w a q f i y a t , provide more
or l e s s readymade m u l t i g e n e r a t i o n a l
family trees. Most documents do not,
however, and the task of reconstructing
the f a m i l y r e l a t i o n s h i p s therefore passes
to the r e s e a r c h e r . A g a i n , the more
i n t e r s e c t i n g documents one h a s , the
better are the p o s s i b i l i t i e s f o r l i n k i n g .
11
Another basic methodology f o r i n t e r p r e t -
ing genealogical data i s that of t r e a t i n g
f a m i l y h i s t o r y as h i s t o r i c a l s o c i a l
science. That i s , rather than construct-
ing a n a r r a t i v e about a s p e c i f i c extended
family i n i t s p e c u l i a r s o c i a l - h i s t o r i c a l
c o n t e x t , the r e s e a r c h e r c o n s i d e r s the
Arab family i n the abstract as an i n s t i -
t u t i o n and attempts to generalize about
i t s c h a r a c t e r i s t i c patterna and about the
ways i t has changed over the generations.
One might be interested i n such s p e c i f i c
aspects of f a m i l y l i f e as f a m i l y s i z e ,
m o r t a l i t y r a t e s , husband-^wife r e l a t i o n s ,
and p a r e n t - c h i l d r e l a t i o n s . A number of
studies i n t h i s genre of family studies
have already appeared, w r i t t e n mainly by
social scientists rather than by
h i s t o r i a n s . One expects, therefore, that
the documentary record hasn't yet been
e x p l o i t e d v e r y much i n t h i s domain.
Among works by s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t s are: K .
e l - D a g h e s t a n i , "The E v o l u t i o n of the
Moslem F a m i l y i n the M i d d l e E a s t e r n
Countries," I n t e r n a t i o n a l S o c i a l Science
B u l l e t i n , v o l . 5 (1953); and D. F . Beck,
"The Changing Moslem Family i n the Middle
E a s t , " Marriage and Family L i v i n g , v o l .
19 (1957). Examples of t h i s genre which
resulted from the analysis of documentary
s o u r c e s i n c l u d e volume I I I (on the
f a m i l y ) of G o i t e e i n ' s A Mediterranean
C i v i l i z a t i o n ( U n i v e r s i t y of C a l i f o r n i a
P r e s s ) , and chapters dealing with family
and personal status law i n J . N . D.
A n d e r s o n ' s I s l a m i c Law i n the Modern
World (NYU Press, 1959).
The overlapping of h i s t o r y with s o c i a l
science i n t h i s institutional-phenomen-
o l o g i c a l approach to family h i s t o r y makes
i t possible to use published anthropol-
o g i c a l r e s e a r c h as independent source
m a t e r i a l . Beginning with Edward Lane i n
the e a r l y nineteenth century, generations
of anthropologists have made observations
about family structures and r e l a t i o n s h i p s
i n the Arab Middle E a s t . I t i s thus
p o s s i b l e f o r the f a m i l y h i s t o r i a n to
supplement h i s or her a r c h i v a l research
on the Arab family with over a century
and a h a l f of anthropological observa-
t i o n s , which c o n s t i t u t e i n a sense
another kind of h i s t o r i c a l record. That
909/Green 12

i s , the cumulative record of anthropol- acquired via participant observation and

ogical findings can be checked against other nondocumentary methods. Family
the documentary record, and vice versa. history, which begins as genealogy and
In the same way, document-based family a r c h i v a l h i s t o r y , can thus eventually
h i s t o r y w i l l give anthropologists and contribute to and interact with a variety
other s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t s an h i s t o r i c a l of disciplinary approaches and
point of reference for their own data methodologies.

NOTES

1 c
The treatise, Qahr al-wujuh a l - abisa bi-dhikr nasab umara' al-jarakisa wa
i t t i s a l i h i bi-quraysh ("A cogent demonstration of the lineage of the amirs of the
Circassians and i t s connexion with Ouraysh") i s analyzed by Professor Holt i n "The
Exalted Lineage of Ridwan Bey: Same Observations on a Seventeenth century Mamluk
Genealogy," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, v o l . 22, part 2
(1959), pp. 221-230. ~
2 c

The manuscript, al-Ta r i f bi-ajdad al-bayramiyin ("Introduction to the

ancestors of the Bayrams"), is located in a private l i b r a r y , i n Tunis. See Ahmed
6
Abdesselem, Les historiens tunisiens des XVII , X V I I I , et XIX s i e d e s : Essai
d'histoire culturelle (Tunis: Publications de l'Universite de Tunis, 1973), pp.
292-293.

Arab-Islamic scholarship underwent a long, gradual decline after the twelfth

century but then revived somewhat i n the eighteenth. Beginning in India and spreading
to the Hijaz and from there to Cairo, the revival accompanied a resurgence of
neo-orthodox mysticism and emphasized hadith studies. In Egypt, one of the major
figures i n this development was Shaykh Muhammad Mur tad a al-Zabldi, who was one of the
ablest and most productive scholars of his age. Born i n India of Iraqi ancestry,
al-Zabidi studied i n Morocco, i n the Hijaz, i n Yemen ( i n the town of Zabid), and in
Jerusalem, acquiring in the process hundreds of i j l z a t (testimonials from professors).
Lauded by his peers for his intelligence and erudition, he is given credit by his
biographers for over one hundred treatises i n various f i e l d s . Hadith studies were
central to v i r t u a l l y a l l of his research, but he paid more than passing attention to
a n c i l l i a r y f i e l d s , including philologoy and genealogy. Indeed, one of his f i r s t works
on genealogy, Tarwih al-qulub f1 dhikr al-muluk bani ayyub (written in Cairo in
1187/1773), has recently been edited (by Salah al-Din al-Manajid) and published
(Damascus: Majma a l - l u g h a a l - a r a b i y a , 1970). Departing somewhat from the
essentially deductive and text-oriented Islamic scholarly tradition, al-Zabidi moved
i n the direction of the concepts and methods of empirical research. He was known, for
example, to travel extensively among villagers and especially bedouin, collecting
samples of speech patterns and family trees. He used the data thus collected to
compile dictionaries on word meanings and genealogical terms and to reconstruct links
between generation.
4
Alan MacFarlane, Reconstructing H i s t o r i c a l Communities (London: Cambridge
University Press, 1977).
5
See William R. Polk's a r t i c l e on H. A. R. Gibb in International Journal of
909/Green 13

Middle East Studies, v o l . 6 (1975).

6
See Bernard Lewis, "The Ottoman Archives as a Source for the History of the
Arab Lands," Journal of the Royal A s i a t i c Society, 1951, pp. 139-155; S. J . Shaw, (a)
"Cairo's Archives and the History of Ottoman Egypt," Report on Current Research,
Spring 1956, pp. 59-72, (b) "Archival Sources for Ottoman History: The Archives of
Turkey," Journal of the American Oriental Society, v o l . 80 (1960), pp. 1-12, and (c)
"Turkish Source Materials for Egyptian History," i n Holt ed., P o l i t i c a l and Social
Change i n Modern Egypt (Oxford University Press, 1968), pp. 28-48; Andre Raymond, "Les
documents du mahkama comme source pour l'histoire economique et sociale de l'Egypte au
XVIII siècle," i n Berque and Chevalier ed., Les Arabes par leurs archives (Paris:
CNRS, 1976), pp. 125-39; and Robert Mantran, Inventaire des documents d'archives turcs
du Par El-Bey (Paris: PUF, 1961).
7
The following are among the research reports appearing i n the Middle East
Studies Association Bulletin: Ramzani, "Research F a c i l i t i e s i n Iran," v o l . 3, no. 3
(Oct. 1969); Zartman, "Research F a c i l i t i e s i n Algeria," v o l . 4, no. 1 (Feb. 1970);
Williams, "Research F a c i l i t i e s i n the U.A.R.," v o l . 4, no. 2 (May 1970); Brown,
Rollman and Waterbury, "Research F a c i l i t i e s i n Morocco," v o l . 4, no. 3 (Oct. 1970);
Raccagni, "Research F a c i l i t i e s i n Tunisia," v o l . 6, no. 1 (Feb. 1972); Hudson,
"Research F a c i l i t i e s i n Lebanon," v o l . 6, no. 3 (Oct. 1972); Brlnner, "Research
F a c i l i t i e s i n Israel," v o l . 7, no. 1 (Feb. 1973); Bechtold, "Research F a c i l i t i e s i n
the Sudan," v o l . 7, no. 2 (May 1973); Humphries, "Opportunities and Facilites for
Research i n Syria," v o l . 8, no. 1 (Feb. 1974); and Green and Stookey, "Research i n
Yemen: F a c i l i t i e s , Climate, and Current Projects," vol. 8, no. 3 (Oct. 1974).
8
See especially the paper of Terence Walz, "Family Archives in Egypt: New
Light on Nineteenth Century Provincial Trade," Robert Mantran's paper dealt with
Turkish archival sources for Egyptian history.
9
A new guide to the Ottoman archives has just been published by the Assistant
Director. See A t i l l a Cetin, Basbakanlik A r s i v i Kilavuzu (Istanbul, 1979).
10
See Abdul-Karim Rafeq, "The Law-court Registers of Damascus in
Berque and Chevalier ed., Les Arabes par kurs archives, pp. 141-59.
11
Shaw, "Turkish Source Materials for Egyptian History," p. 41.
12
"On Archival Sources for Pemographic Studies of the Middle East."
13
See also B u l l i e t ' s "A Quantitative Approach to Medieval Muslim Biographical
Pictionaries," JESH0, v o l . 13 (April 1970), pp. 195-211.
14
Crecelius, "On Archival Sources for Demographic Studies of the Middle East."
^See especially Omer L u t f i Barkan, "Essai s u r g e s donnges statistiques des
registres de recensements dans l'Empire Ottoman aux XV et XVI siecles," JESH0,
vol. 1 (1957), pp. 9-36; and "Research on the Ottoman Fiscal Surveys," in M. A. Cook
ed., Studies i n the Economic History of the Middle East (Oxford University Press,
1970), pp. 163-171.

^See especially Wolf-Dieter Hutteroth and Kamal Abdulfattah, Historical

Geography of P a l e s t i n e , Transjordan and Southern Syria i n the Late Sixteenth Century
(Erlangen, 1977); and Amnon C o h e n a n d B e r n a r d L e w i s , P o p u l a t i o n and Revenue i n the
Towns of Palestine i n the Sixteenth Century (Princeton University Press, 1978).
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Islam and the

Family in the Arab World
Donna Lee Bowea
Lee L. Bean,
Peter von Sivers
& Series 910
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
Bom i n Utah. Resides i n Bountiful, Utah. Professor and chairman, Department of
Sociology, University of Utah. Ph.D. (sociology), Yale University. Author, lecturer,
teacher.
Much of the literature dealing with the
family i n Islamic nations i s concerned
with transforming the traditional ^image
and nature of the Islamic family. In
the face of the major forces of modern-
ization which affect much of the Islamic
world—increasing urbanization, rising
levels of education for both males and
females, growing industrial employment,
and increasing standards of l i v i n g , for
example—it would be surprising i f some
changes were not observed. Yet i n the l i f e .
constant search f o r i n d i c a t o r s of
modernization, writers and researchers
have often ignored the fact that con-
siderable s t a b i l i t y i n particular social
i n s t i t u t i o n s and behavioral patterns
p e r s i s t alongside changes i n other
institutions and forms of behavior.
Goldscheider, for example, remarks:
Continuity i s often neglected i n
analyses of modernization. Ele-
ments of modernity may be observed
within traditional societies and
traditional patterns persist within
modem social systems. Therefore,
i t i s more accurate to postulate
that t r a d i t i o n a l s o c i e t i e s have
differential degrees and types of
"modernness" within their social
structures and value systems and
that therefore there w i l l be some
carry-over of traditional elements
in modem societies.
When observers analyze the family i n the of primarily demographic data to demon-
context of a changing society, they may
tend to see changes when none have
occurred. They may be comparing the
traditional family to an image rather
than to r e a l i t y or they may be
emphasizing small and inconsequential
changes while major structural components
of family organization have remained
constant. I t therefore seems appropriate
to begin, not with the question of what
i s changing i n the family i n those
s o c i e t i e s undergoing the process of
modernization, but rather what are the
generally stable components of family
If we begin with the questions of how
much s t a b i l i t y persists within the family
in the context of modernization, i t i s
appropriate to begin with the consider-
ation of the family i n Islamic societies
for two reasons. F i r s t , the family i s a
central institution i n Islamic doctrine.
Second Islamic nations i n general repre-
sent a broad spectrum of nations ranging
from those which have been l i t t l e
affected by modernization—Afghanistan,
for example—to those who have been much
affected by modernization—Kuwait, for
example. Clearly a comprehensive cross-
cultural analysis of families i n Islamic
nations i s impossible in a paper of this
size. Therefore we focus upon one
Islamic nation which remains essentially
traditional i n many forms but which has
been subject to a considerable amount of
change and development over the past
quarter of a century.
In this paper, I propose to examine a set
s t r a t e that i n one Islamic n a t i o n ,
Pakistan, the family remains a remarkably
stable institution i n spite of dramatic
910a/Bean
change which are normally associated with
modernization. We then w i l l discuss i n
brief the consequences of this s t a b i l i t y
and continuity for Pakistan.
PAKISTAN—A BRIEF BACKGROUND
Pakistan as we know i t today i s a nation
which has emerged from two larger en-
t i t i e s . The f i r s t division which created
the original state of Pakistan occurred
i n 1947 when the B r i t i s h agreed to
independence for the Indian subcontinent,
approving a division which would estab-
l i s h an independent homeland for the
Muslims of I n d i a . The case for an
independent and Islamic nation was
perhaps best stated by the individual
known as the founder of Pakistan,
Muhammad A l i Jinnah, who was reported to
have said to Gandi i n 1944:
We maintain that Muslims and Hindus
are two major nations by any
definition or test as a nation-we
are a nation of a hundred m i l l i o n
and what i s more we are a nation
with our own distinct culture and
c i v i l i z a t i o n , language and l i t e r a -
ture, art and architecture, names
and nomenclature, sense of values
and proportion, l e g a l laws and
moral codes, customs and calendar,
history and traditions, aptitude
and ambitions; i n short, we have
our own distinctive outlook on l i f e
and of l i f e . By a l l canons o|
international law we are a nation.
Unfortunately, the Muslim population of
undivided India was concentrated i n a
variety of dispersed areas. Outside of
the p r i n c e l y states of Hyderbad and
Kashmir, the Muslim population was a
majority in the western sections of the
Indian subcontinent and i n the eastern
half of the eastern state of Bengal.
Pakistan thus emerged as a nation
composed of two sections, separated by
approximately 1,000 miles of what was to
become enemy t e r r i t o r y . The eastern
section of Pakistan subsequently sought
its own independence in a c i v i l war, and
with the support of India emerged as the
2
state of Bangladesh i n 1972. Pakistan
thus i s the original West Pakistan, a
nation composed of a l l or parts of four
orginal states of Indian—the Northwest
Frontier Province, Baluchistan, the Sind,
and the Punjab.
It i s inappropriate to describe pakistan
as a monolithic nation. It i s rather a
nation of great diversity. Geographi-
cally the nation i s bordered by India to
the East, China and Russia to the North,
Afghanistan and Iran to the West, and the
Arabian Sea to the south. The Central
Punjab i s one of the most intensively
i r r i g a t e d a g r i c u l t u r a l regions i n the
world, fed by waters a r i s i n g i n the
Himalayas and Hindu Rush i n the north.
Much of the country, however, i s h i l l y or
arid desert.
Economically the nation i s heavily depen-
dent upon a g r i c u l t u r e although some
progress has been made i n i n d u s t r i a l
development, p r i m a r i l y i n t e x t i l e
industries. The economy has i n the
past-prior to the nationalization of a
variety of industries under Bhutto, been
dominated by a small number of families,
and consequently the l e v e l of income
inequality i s high. Moreover, i n spite
of some growth i n the economy, poverty
remains extensive and intensive. *
For a variety of reasons, the nation has
been torn with continuous conflict: a
series of wars with India, a c i v i l war
with Bangladesh, and relatively frequent
incursions of the military i n the govern-
ment, the most recent being the coup led
by General Zia ul-Haq overthrowing
Zulfiqar A l i Bhutto. One reason for the
internal conflict i s that the nation i s
also highly diversifed socially, being
composed of a v a r i e t y of ethnic and
l i n g u i s t i c groups who often contend for
p o l i t i c a l power and a u t h o r i t y . This
contention results from the domination of
the government and m i l i t a r y by the
Punjabis and the Urdu speaking migrants
from India.
Within this relatively new nation of such
d i v e r s i t y there remains one c e n t r a l
common thread—Islam, i t was to provide
910a/Bean
Islamic Independence that the nation was
created and the r e l i g i o u s f a c t o r has
remained a common thread, often tenuous,
which has held this nation of nearly 80
million people together for a third of a
century.
Because of the unusual p o l i t i c a l and
cultural history of the population of
Pakistan, one might be led to conclude
that this particular nation i s unique and
serves as an example for no other Islamic
nation. Such a facile assumption i s
incorrect, for i t i s apparent that the
changes, and the absence of changes, i n
Pakistan are mirrored i n a variety of
Islamic nations i n the Middle East.
P o l i t i c s and h i s t o r y may d i s t i n g u i s h
Islamic nations, but the common religious
foundations support a wealth of similar
institutional forms.
A Comment on Evidence
For countries such as Pakistan, the
quality of data available for social,
cultural, and historical studies i s poor.
There are very few nations outside of
North America and Europe where social and
demographic data are routinely available
and of good quality. I t i s because of
the absence of accurate data for most of
the world currently and for Europe, North
America, and Latin America h i s t o r i c a l l y
that sociologists and demographers have
increasingly turned toward the u t i l i z a -
tion of nominative data of the type which
i s the central focus of this particular
conference. But i n Pakistan and other
Middle East nations, such data i s
t y p i c a l l y not a v a i l a b l e ; and when
available, i t cannot be u t i l i z e d easily
to r e c o n s t i t u t e f a m i l i e s to examine
changes over time. The problem arises
from two conditions. F i r s t , the number
of names u t i l i z e d i s limited so that
there are many individuals known by the
same name, even i n the same urban area.
Secondly, because dates are not known at
a l l or are poorly recorded, even i n the
case of relatively well-known Individ-
uals, further specification of a unique
individual by name and date of birth i s
not possible.
3
Because of these problems, one must
t y p i c a l l y r e l y upon aggregate data
c o l l e c t e d i n censuses or surveys.
Fortunately i n Pakistan there have been
periodic censuses from 1881 to 1872, and
there have been a series of demographical
surveys, generated by a number of
agencies, which provide useful population
data i n aggregate form. I t i s this type
of information which i s u t i l i z e d i n this
paper, and therefore when we speak of
changes i n the family, we l i m i t our
references to proportions, averages,
and rates which apply to selected
structural characteristics of the family.
Consequently, we are not in a position to
deal with a number of important issues
such as changing patterns of role respon-
s i b i l i t i e s and types of intra-familial
relationships. Some information on such
issues i s available, but i t i s derived
from such small data sets that i t i s
d i f f i c u l t to argue that the findings are
representative of a particular region,
let along a country as a whole.
Continuity and Change i n the Pakistan
Family
In reviewing changes i n the family during
the processes of industrialization and
modernizaton i n western Europe and North
America, several indicators are typically
utilized. F i r s t , Hajanl Identified i n
his analysis of changes i n marriage over
a period of several centuries a typical
European marriage pattern marked by a
rising age of marriage and an increasing
proportion of unmarried men and women.
This pattern was not reproduced to the
same degree i n North America, and i n
recent years the age of marriage has
dropped i n western Europe and the pro-
portion of adults who eventually marry
has increased. Nevertheless, i n marked
contrast to the typical European marriage
pattern i d e n t i f i e d by Hajnal, the
idealized form of marriage i n Islamic
societies i s marked by two character-
i s t i c s : early marriage for both males and
females and universal marriage. Thus, we
begin our investigation of the family i n
Pakistan with a consideration of age of
marriage and proportions married.
910a/Bean
Although there i s increasing evidence
that the idealized extended family of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries i n
the United States and western Europe was
more myth than r e a l i t y , the literature
related to the idealized form of the
family i n Islam emphasizes the extended
family. We next, therefore, examine the
degree to which the extended family
exists and persists.
Thirdly, although divorce Is regarded as
"easy" under Islam, there i s the con-
tinuous assumption that the Islamic
family i s relatively stable. What i s the
evidence on divorce? Is i t rising i n a
nation like Pakistan?
Fourth, a t y p i c a l pattern of family
change associated with modernization and
i n d u s t r i a l i z a t i o n i s the increasing
limitation on family size through the
adoption of some modes of f e r t i l i t y
control. The pattern i s widespread i n
a l l western industrialized societies, and
i f the Islamic family i n Pakistan i s
assumed to follow the path of change
observed in those countries, we ought to
note an increasing reduction of the
family size.
Marriage
Marriage in Pakistan i s essentially a
l e g a l bonding of two independent
f a m i l i e s , with the marriage remaining'
typically arranged for a couple by the
family. The linkage i s formalized
through the signing of a contract.
H i s t o r i c a l l y marriages were l a r g e l y
endogomous, with the preferred from of
marriage involving cousins. I f such
potential mates were not available, the
selection was at least, for the woman,
from the same or higher class group. No
systematic information i s available on
the degree to which endogamy has broken
down, or the degree to which mutal choice
(love matches) have replaced formally
arranged marriages.
An important part of the marriage
contract involves the specification of
Mehr—a f i n a n c i a l settlement made or
premised to the bride at the time of
4
marriage by her husband's family. Mehr
may be made or committed i n terms ÖT
cash, bullion, jewelry, or goods, and i s
the property of the b r i d e , providing
security for her i n the case of divorce.
Indeed i f the husband divorces the wife,
payment of mehr must be completed i f
promised but not delivered at the time of
the marriage contract signing. One
change which has taken place i n the
marriage pattern i s that limitation are
now placed on Mehr i n Pakistan. This
change was introduced during the regime
of Z.A. Bhutto along with restrictions on
the amount of funding which might be
spent on the marriage celebration. The
ruling was introduced apparently for two
purposes: f i r s t to eliminate the
ostentatious displays and waste of funds
associated with the sumptuous weddings
for the upper classes, and second to
stimulate economic development. Mehr was
essentially a wealth transfer which was
saved, and thus did not find i t s way into
investment to be used for development
purposes. What evidence i s available
indicates that the contractual nature of
marriage and the provision of Mehr
remains central i n the institution of
marriage.
During nineteenth century and the early
part of the twentieth century, childhood
betrothal and marriage, but not consumma-
tion of the marriage, was common, con-
sistent with the injunction that "men and
women are urged to get married early and
fear of poverty should not be a discour-
aging factor. For the Koran assures that
God shall provide them from his unbounded
favors." Early In the twentieth cen-
tury, however, British colonial author-
i t i e s established laws increasing the
minimum age of marriage to fourteenth i n
the case of females. The law was d i f f i -
c u l t to enforce, and e a r l y marriages
continued. Since 1920, however, the mean
age of marriage for both males and
females has been r i s i n g . (See Table 1 at
end of paper.)
The data presented In Table 1 represents
both national and urban estimates. The
average age of marriage of the urban
population i s higher as one would
910a/Bean 5

anticipate. The pressures of urban

female improved l i f e expectancy of the
l i v i n g r e s u l t i n prolonged education
United States. Consequently, i n contrast
prior to entry into the labor force and with the emergence of a number of
marriage. unmarried adults associated with the
Relative to the industrial
nations, however, the mean age of mar- i n d u s t r i a l i z a t i o n and modernization
riage remains low with approximately half phases of European h i s t o r y , marriage
of the females married before the age of remains the normal adult state i n
nineteen. Pakistan and i n most Islamic nations.
However, i t should be noted that the
Proportions Married proportion of women married at older
a g e s — a f t e r age f o r t y — i s lower i n
For the adult i n Islamic society, mar- Pakistan than i n either the United States
riage i s expected. As abdul-Rauf has or Utah, reflecting only the high l i k e l i -
noted: "Under the Islamic law, i t i s hood of widowhood associated with greater
undesirable for a marriageable person to mortality risks.
remain single, even when the intention i s
to be free to concentrate on prayers and The Extended and the Nuclear Family
on similar religious ordinances. The
'monastic' a t t i t u d e has no place i n Much of the evidence on family households
Islam, as declared by the Prophet." structures has been generated i n the
normal course of data collection i n the
Dr. (Mrs.) Inaytullah who has been active census or i n one or more f e r t i l i t y
in the Pakistan Family Planning Associa- surveys conducted during the 1960s and
t i o n has used various references to 1970. The data i s remarkably inconsis-
support an even stronger statement: tent.
"Islam not only opposes c e l i b a c y but
actively encourages the institution of According to the National Impact Survey
marriage. I t i s stated that he who which was conducted i n 1968-69, covering
abstains from marriage because he i s 3,340 households, the majority of the
terrjjjied of a family cannot belong to married women age forty-nine or younger
us." lived i n "joint" households. Data from
this survey indicates that 55.4 percent
Pakistan's adult population, therefore, of the rural women and 58.4 percent of
is marked by an unusually high proportion the urban women l i v e i n joint house-
of persons who marry and who are cur- holds. The analysis of the 1960 census
rently married. As seen the Table 2, indicated that the proportion of families
various estimates of the proportion of l i v i n g i n extended families was lower:
females married before age f o r t y are 43.7 percent i n the rural areas and 42.5
unusually high compared to the proportion percent i n the urban areas. But the
of the population married i n United report from the 1974-75 national fer-
States or Utah, for which comparative t i l i t y survey concludes that " I t i s
statistics are provided i n Table 2. increasingly evident from available data
that they [extended familieø] are giving
Because of the injunction to marry, there away to nuclear families." No data i s
is no prohibition against the remarriage presented to substantiate the argument.
of e i t h e r those divorced or widowed. Another study conducted i n Karachi among
Thus, the proportions of the population 225 domestic women and 200 career women
currently divorced or widowed tends to be found that two-thirds of the domestic
unusually low. In part, of course, the women reside i n nuclear households and
low number of widows i n late middle age three-quarters of the career women reside
or years compared to the United States or in nuclear family households. Unfor-
Utah stems from a more balanced sex tunately, the research design of this
ration (or number of males relative to study raises too many questions for us to
females) at each age of adulthood; accept the obvious suggestion that i n the
Pakistan does not have the comparative major metropolitan areas the nuclear
910a/Bean
family is replacing the extended family.
Moreover, i t should be noted that while a
given family may not share the same
household, thus being recorded as a
nuclear family, several related families
may build in the same area, thus sharing
a compound occupied by several single
family dwelling units. This type of
arrangement provides the opportunities
for continuous i n t e r a c t i o n among the
extended family while maintaining
separate households for various nuclear
family units.
Marital Dissolution: D i v o r c e and
Separation
Although divorce i s permissible in Islam,
i t i s not viewed with great favor
theologically, and couples are urged to
u t i l i z e whatever resources are possible
to resolve their differences. Resources
are a v a i l a b l e because marriages are
arranged and represent a contract
developed by and sponsored by two
families. Thus there i s considerable
family support to maintain marriages.
Additionally, a husband Is expected to
wait three months after the decision to
divorce i n order to insure that his wife
is not pregnant. Consequently, while i t
must be remembered that the registration
of divorces i s rare, the censuses and
surveys uniformly report an unusually low
proportion of women who are divorced. In
the 1951 census of Pakistan, less than 1
percent of the women above the age of ten
(.39 percent) were divorced; i n the 1961
census approximately the. same figure was
reported, .37 percent. In the 1974-75
national f e r t i l i t y survey, of the 4,949
women who were ever married aged twenty
through f orth-ijj.ne, only 32 or .6 percent
were divorced. There seems to be no
source of data which suggests that
divorce i s increasing substantially i n
Pakistan.
Changes i n Family Size
Pakistan was one of the earliest govern-
ments to provide support f o r family
limitation programs, and since the i n -
ception of government sponsorship i n
1952, massive amounts of funding, largely
6
from external donor agencies, have been
spent attempting to f o s t e r the small
family norm and to provide the means and
motivation f o r increased fertility
control. Data available from censuses,
the Population Growth Estimation Survey
(PGE), the Population Growth Survey
(PGS), the National Impact Survey, the
Pakistan segment of the World F e r t i l i t y
Survey, and evaluation studies of the
family planning program has demonstrated
that the f e r t i l i t y control programs have
had l i t t l e impact on f a m i l i e s i n
Pakistan.
In the most recent survey of the f e r t i l -
i t y l i m i t a t i o n program i n Pakistan,
Warren Robinson summarized the results of
a series of sources of data indicated
above. I f we restrict our analysis to
results from methodologically comparable
data sources—measures of f e r t i l i t y
derived from retrospective survey ques-
t i o n s — i t i s clear that f e r t i l i t y has not
changed and thus family size remains
relatively stable for most of the popu-
lation. In 1962 the crude birth rate was
estimated to be 38; i n 1968-71, 37; i n
1968-69, 39; and i n 1974-75, 41. The
small changes can be a t t r i b u t e d to
difference i n research operations, but
the consistency of the levels suggests
remarkable s t a b i l i t y over a decade of
intensive government effort to entourage
individuals to limit family size.
The persistence of high f e r t i l i t y i n
Pakistan and other Islamic nations has
been noted by Kirk and others. Moreover,
Yaukey's studies i n Lebanon have demon-
strated that Muslim f e r t i l i t y has been
considerably higher than the f e r t i l i t y of
the C h r i s t i a n population. The c l e a r
difference i n f e r t i l i t y between the
European populations of the USSR and the
Islamic populations of the USSR i s also
well-known.
In consequence, i n spite of the normal
forces of modernization, urbanization,
and i n d u s t r i a l i z a t i o n complemented by
massive family planning efforts, minimal
changes have been observed i n attitudes
toward childbearing and family growth In
Pakistan.
910a/Bean
Summary and Conclusions
We have examined i n this paper a number
of characteristics of marriage and the
family i n Pakistan. We have l i t t l e
evidence of striking structural changes,
but we do not suggest that there are not
major changes taking place with respect
to authority patterns within the family
or patterns of decision-making contrary
to the idealized form of the patriarchal
family. Regardless of what changes are
taking place, the s t a b i l i t y of family
structure i n this one particular Islamic
nation i s evident. What we have found i s
clearly consistent with the theological
expectations related to the family
structure i n this one particular Islamic
nation i s evident. What we have found i s
clearly consistent with the theological
expectations related to the family under
Islamic law and philosophy. Marriage
s t i l l occurs at relatively young ages
although some age increase has been noted
i n recent years suggesting some post-
ponement r e s u l t i n g from prolonged and
increased educational enrollments. Most
i n d i v i d u a l s s t i l l get married, and
divorce remains relatively rare.
Traditional customs such as Mehr are i n
evidence i n marriage contracts.
substantial proportion of the population
remains i n joint or extended households,
and the expectations regarding the
bearing of c h i l d r e n appear to have
changed l i t t l e i n spite of significant
external pressures.
It i s our view that the evidence suggests
a remarkable degree of s t a b i l i t y among
family units i n Pakistan although that
nation has experienced a good deal of
7
change i n terms of urbanization, indus-
t r i a l i z a t i o n , increasing educational
attainment, and exposure to the outside
world through mass communications.
Some observers may view this pattern of
s t a b i l i t y i n a negative sense, but to do
so one must ignore two important factors.
F i r s t , the extended family linkage, often
expressed i n a larger k i n group, the
Biradari, has important implications for
the economic development of the nation.
Given the opportunity to work abroad,
particularly i n the o i l - r i c h nations of
the Gulf region, large numbers of
P a k i s t a n i males have migrated abroad.
Yet they remain tied to their families at
home and return much of their income to
t h e i r f a m i l i e s i n Pakistan. These
remittances constitute the second largest
source of foreign exchange for Pakistan.
Second, to assume that i n s t i t u t i o n a l
structures which mitigate against the
growth of individualism are negative i s
to base assumptions upon a pattern of
western philosophy shaped by western
religions. This western philosophy sees
the essential human unit of a society or
religion as the individual and not the
A family. Islam i s dintinct from almost
a l l other religions i n seeing not the
i n d i v i d u a l alone, but the i n d i v i d u a l
within the context of the family as the
essential social or religious unit. I t
is expected that each individual w i l l
marry, and responsibilities among family
members are clearly delineated i n Islamic
theology. And no forces of modernization
i n Pakistan, one Islamic nation, have
created a major d i s r u p t i o n i n t h e i r
pattern.
910a/Bean 8

TABLE 1

Mean Age of Marriage, Various Dates and Sub-Samples, Pakistan

1931-1971

Date Sample Mean Age at Marriage

"""" ' ~ Males Females

a
1921 Punjab-Muslims 23.0 15.9
a
1931 Punjab-Muslims 22.2 16.0
a
1941 Punjab-Muslims 22.5 16.8
a
1951 Punjab-Muslims 21.5 18.1
a
1961 Pakistan 23.5 17.6
1961-4 Karachi, Pakistan 26.8 20.2
1965^ Karachi, pakistan 25.4 19.0
d
1969 Lahore City 24.4 19.2
e
1971 Pakistan 24.3 18.9

Sources:

a. Nasim M. Sadik, "Estimation of Nuptiality and I t s Analysis from the Census Data of
Pakistan," Pakistan Development Review 2 (summer, 1965): 229-48.

b. J . Henry Korson, "Age and Social Status at Marriage i n Karachi, 1961-64," Pakistan
Development Review 4 (winter, 1965): 586-600.

c. Mohd. Afzal, Lee L. Bean, and Imtiazuddin Hussain, "Muslim Marriages: Age, Mehr
and Social Status," Pakistan Development Review, v o l . 12, no. 1 (spring, 1973): 48-61.

d. Nafis Ahmad kham, "Muslim Marriages i n the Walled City of Lahore," Research report
(University of the Punjab, Lahore, 1972).

e. Naushin Iftiknar and Mohd. Afzal, "Marriage Patterns i n Pakistan Through Net
Nuptiality Tables—1968-71," Pakistan Development Review, v o l . 14, no. 2 (summer,
1975): 207-232.
910a/Bean

TABLE 2

Proportions Current by Married by Age and Sex, Pakistan, Various

Dates: United States and Utah (1970)

c
.d
Pakistan U.S Utah

b b
Age 1951 3
1961 a
1973 1975

M F M F F F M F M F
15-19 31.1 53.8 16.0 52.8 28 38 3.9 11.1 4.0 11.7
20-24 56.3 80.8 45.3 86.2 73 LM 42.9 60.5 47.8 62.2
25-29 74.2 90.4 69.1 92.3 92 87 77.1 82.5 81.7 85.9
30-34 82.2 91.1 81.6 93.1 94 92 85.7 86.1 90.9 88.9
35-39 86.9 89.7 85.9 91.1 95 92 87.9 86.6 91.7 89.4
40-44 86.2 85.0 85.4 84.8 92 89 87.9 85.3 92.5 89.2
45-49 85.1 83.5 85.7 80.9 91 84 88.3 83.2 89.4 87.5
50-54 84.0 73.8 84.4 70.6 NA. NA 87.9 78.7 92.0 82.9
55-59 74.1 68.8 81.6 68.1 NA NA 86.6 72.2 88.8 77.6

Sources:

a. Mohammed Afzal, the Population of Pakistan (Islamabad. The Pakistan Institute of

Development Economics, 1974), Census data.

b. Population Planning Council of Pakistan, Pakistan F e r t i l i t y Survey (Lahore;

Population Planning Council, 1976).

c. Bureau of the Census, 1970 Census of the Population, U.S. Summary, PC(l)-Dl, Table
203, Washington, D.C, 1973.

d. , Utah, v o l . 1, part 46, table 152, Washington, D.C, 1973.

910a/Bean 10

NOTES

Hlorroe Berger, The Arab World Today (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company,
1962), pp. 141-153; Edwin Terry Protho, Changing Family Patterns i n the Arab East
(Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1974); Serim Timur, "Determinants of Family
Structure i n Turkey," and Fatima Mernissi, "The Patriarch i n the Moroccan Family" Myth
or Reality?" i n Women's Status and F e r t i l i t y i n the Muslim World, ed. James Allman
(New York: Praeger Publishers, 1978), pp. 227-242, 312-332.
2
For a discussion of the concept of modernization, see S.N. Eisenstadt,
Modernization: Protest and Change (Englewood C l i f f s , N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1966) and
Calvin Goldscheider, Population, Modernization, and Social Change (Boston: Little,
Brown and Company, 1971).
3
Calvin Goldscheider, Population, Modernization, and Social Change (Boston:
L i t t l e , Brown and Company, 1971), p. 97.
4
Mahmood Safdar, A P o l i t i c a l Study of Pakistan (Lahore: Sh. M. Ashraf, 1972),
p. 47. ~ ~ " ~
5
John Hajnal, "European Marriage Patterns i n Perspective," Population i n
History, ed. D. Glass and D.E.C. Eversley (Chicago: Aldine, 1965), pp. 101-143.
^Peter Laslett, "Introduction" Household and Family In Past Time, ed. Peter
Laslett, Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1972), pp. 60-62.
7
The law which required the formal registration of marriages i n Pakistan was
introduced i n 1961 and has provided an ususual body of nominative data. See for
example, J. Henry Korson, "Age and Social Status at Marriage i n Karachi, 1961-64,"
Pakistan Development Reveiw, v o l . 8, no. 4 (winter, 1965; 586-600.
g
Muhammad Abdul-Rauf, The Islamic View of Women and the Family, (New York:
Robert Speller & Sons, Publishers, Inc., 1977), pp. 44.
9
I b i d . p. 44.

^A. Inaytullah, "Islam and F e r t i l i t y " Islamic Viewpoints on Family Planning

(Lahore: Family Planning Association of Pakistan), p. 30.
1:L
Mehtab S. Karim, " F e r t i l i t y Differentials by Family Type," The Pakistan
Development Review, XIII:2 (summer, 1974), pp. 129-144.
12
Mohammad Afzal, The Population of Pakistan, (Islamabad: The Pakistan
Institute of Development Economics, 1974), p. 49.
13
Population Planning Council of Pakistan, Pakistan F e r t i l i t y Survey: World
F e r t i l i t y Survey (Lahore: Population Planning Council of Pakistan, October, 1976), p.

14
M. Sabihuddin Baqai, Changes i n the Status and roles of Women i n Pakistan
(Karach: Department of Sociology, University of Karachi, 1976), p. 57.
1 5
A f z a l , The Population of Pakistan, pp. 43-45.
910a/Bean 11

^Population Planning Council of Pakistan, F e r t i l i t y Survey, pp. 67 and A-I-5.

17
Warren C. Robinson, "Family Planning i n Pakistan 1955-1977; A Review," The
Pakistan Development Review, v o l . 17, no. 2 (summer 1978): 233-247.
 ISLAM AND THE FAMILY IN THE ARAB WORLD
THE ARAB FAMILY UNDER COLONIZATION: ALGERIA

Peter von Sivers

Bom i n East Prussia. Resides i n Salt Lake City, Utah. Associate professor of
history, University of Utah. Ph.D., University of Munich. Author, editor.

The Algeria which the French conquered
between 1830 and 1857 was for the most
part a sparsely populated country domi-
nated by a subsistence system. Subsis-
tence is understood here as a mode of
l i f e i n which the essentials of survival,
such as food, clothing, and shelter, are
produced as well as consumed by families.
Dense populations and an exchange system
existed only in a half-dozen urban-rural
centers located at great distances from
each other and comprising at the most 10
percent of the population. Exchange i s
understood here as a form of l i v i n g i n
which producers s p e c i a l i z e i n one
occupation and acquire the goods which
they do not produce through purchase on
the market. For three centuries prior to
the French conquest the urban-rural
centers had nevertheless been prosperous
enough to support a Turkish-descended
central government, autonomous Islamic
religious organizations, and institutions
of higher learning. The Turkish central
government, in addition to ruling over
the urban-rural centers, had levied taxes
on perhaps a quarter of the population i n
the subsistence sector of the country-
side. These f i s c a l levies as well as
occasional military excursions into the
countryside had done l i t t l e to endear the
c e n t r a l government to the subsistence
population which, moreover, was Arab or
Berber i n ethnic background. Thus
Turks, Arabs, and Berbers had never been
linked by mutual interests. As i n so
many preindustrial countries i n Eurasia
and northern A f r i c a , two p a r a l l e l
s o c i e t i e s had coexisted with minimal
integration.
The m i l i t a r i l y superior French had few
troubles i n taking over the urban-rural
centers of Algeria. They swept up the
market exchange system and administra-
t i v e , f i s c a l , educational, and religious
institutions of these centers along the
way. The defeated Turks were shipped off
to Istanbul, and the remaining indigenous
population of craftsmen, artisans,
traders, merchants, and suburban farmers
i n the urban-rural centers were too
dependent on market exchange to b^
w i l l i n g to antagonize their new masters.
But French m i l i t a r y might encountered
f i e r c e resistance from the Arab and
Berber subsistence population on the
countryside which found the prospect of
French rule and taxes even more odious
than the rule of their former Turkish
rulers. It took a vastly enlarged French
army almost three decades (1830-57) to
conquer the Algerian countryside, and
another two decades (1857-81) passed
before the rural population gave up i t s
revolts against the ^introduction of a
universal tax system. Even thereafter
the d i s t r u s t of the c o l o n i a l regime
remained intense and eventually carried
over i n t o the War of Independence
(1954-62).
Fighting, f l i g h t , destruction, hunger,
and above a l l a disastrous cholera
epidemic (1867) took a tremendous t o l l of
the Algerian population during the period
from 1830 to 1881. It has been estimated
that the demographic curve dipped by half
a m i l l i o n persons, from 2.7 to 2.2
m i l l i o n , before i t climbed again more or
less continuously to 4.1 million around
1900. During the twentieth century the
disappearance of widespread epidemics led
to a gradual increase i n l i f e expectancy,
910b/Sivers
while the birth rate remained on i t s high
nineteenth-century l e v e l . By the time of
the War of Independence (1954-62),
Algeria experienced a population explo-
sion which pushed the ^demographic curve
to the 13 m i l l i o n mark.
It is this contrast between the
nineteenth-century contraction and the
twentieth-century expansion of the
Algerian population which provides the
background for our understanding of the
Algerian subsistence population and i t s
components, the family and the t r i b e .
During most of the nineteenth century, a
r e l a t i v e l y sparse population was not
seriously disturbed by colonialism i n the
pursuit of i t s subsistence f u n c t i o n s ,
even though the French r e l e n t l e s s l y
assaulted the t r i b a l i n s t i t u t i o n s i n
which the families were embedded. By
contrast, from the end of the nineteenth
century onwards, the rising population
density made i t increasingly d i f f i c u l t
for the family to satisfy i t s subsistence
demands. Families on m i n i - p l o t s or
without land altogether emerged, calling
the very concept of subsistence into
question. As i s well known, colonialism
eventually collapsed because i t was
unable to replace the degraded family
subsistence autonomy with a functional
market integration. In this paper I
shall (1) sketch an outline of t r i b a l and
f a m i l i a l subsistence functions under
traditional conditions of low population
density during the early years of French
occupation and (2) chart the course of
the decline and eventual degradation of
these functions under the impact of
French colonialism and a rising
demographic curve.
FAMILY ORGANIZATION AND THE TRADITIONAL
SUBSISTENCE SYSTEM
Subsistence i n mid-nineteenth century
Algeria was predominantly determined by
an oxen-powered-plough agriculture which
provided wheat and barley staples. This
a g r i c u l t u r e represented a technology
which was typical for Europe, Asia, and
northern A f r i c a for much of the period of
intermediate population density from the
Neolithic period to the industrial revog
lution (ca. 2500 B.C. to A.D. 1800).
During this period, density levels ranged
from a minimum of about two persons per
square k i l o m e t e r , below which plough
agriculture was not worth the e f f o r t , to
a maximum of about forty persons per
square kilometer, above which more
sophisticated rural aqd urban technol-
ogies became necessary. Around 1830 the
non-desert portion of A l g e r i a i n the
north averaged about nineteen inhabitants
per square kilometer—an average which
put the country into the lower halfj of
the areas with intermediate density.
In i t s most basic form Algerian subsis-
tence a g r i c u l t u r e required a wooden
plough, a yoke, a pair of oxen, and
assorted l i g h t tools f o r harrowing,
sowing, weeding, c u t t i n g , and thresh-
ing. For transportation purposes
donkeys, mules, or camels were employed.
Carts were nonexistent, partly because of
the absence of decent roads and partly
because carting was more expensive than
pack-animal transportation p r i o r to
nineteenth-century technological improve^
ments of both roads and c a r t s .
Agriculture was practiced i n a two-field
r o t a t i o n system. Pasture lands were
immense, usually ten or twenty times the
size of the cultivated areas. Fallowing
was the essential method for the refer-
t i l i z a t i o n of the s o i l , supplemented by
burning the surface, since animal
droppings were mostly l o s t on the
pastures and nitrogen-generating legumes
were cultivated i n special garden plots.
In contrast to the three-field system,
small pasture lands, and a r t i f i c i a l
f e r t i l i z a t i o n c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of the
intensive subsistence farming of northern
Europe, Algerian agriculture followed an
extensive pattern.
Labor requirements f o r t h i s extensive
system of agriculture were f a i r l y high,
although not close to the maximum at
which a change of technique or technology
would have become necessary. From
figures available for the late nineteenth
century one can estimate that the average
workload must have^been 200 to 250 days
of ten hours each. Since the humanly
910b/Sivers
possible maximum i s probably around 300
days of ten hours each, i t can be con-
cluded that l i t t l e population pressure
existed i n Algeria prior to the 1890s to
i n t e n s i f y a g r i c u l t u r e or introduce
labor-saving tools. On the other hand,
labor hours were considerably longer than
in tropical non-plough systems, and i t
has to be concluded that A l g e r i a n
agricultural work was periodically quite
strenuous, particularly during the two
peak seasons of ploughing i n October and
harvesting i n June. Cereal agriculture
based on the plough thus not only
required high amounts of labor overall
but also concentrated peak performances
twice annually.
The requirement of maximum labor exer-
tions for short periods during the
agricultural year was a major reason for
the accentuation of sex-specific func-
tions in plough agriculture. While i n
non-plough agricultures or rural systems
where no seasonal concentrations of labor
were required the inequality of physical
strength between the sexes was not f e l t
very strongly, i n plough a g r i c u l t u r e ,
where in f a l l and late spring every hour
counted, sexual differences were highly
visible. Furthermore, strenuous f i e l d
work by women during the two annual peak
periods interfered with the birth rate,
which in principle had to remain elevated
in order to balance the high, premodern
mortality rate. Thus under the specific
technological conditions of animal-
powered plough a g r i c u l t u r e for cereal
staples, male physical strength was held
at premium value.
The seasonal f l u c t u a t i o n s of labor
requirements for plough agriculture made
the organization of a flexible work force
necessary. Under the specific Algerian
conditions of a relatively low population
density, and hence the need for local
self-sufficiency, the typical i n s t i t u -
tions responsive to the necessity for
labor f l e x i b i l i t y were the tribe, for the
regulation of peak work requirements, and
the family, for the regulation of basic
agricultural work. Various intermediate
forms of organization, such as clans or
f r a c t i o n s , offered a d d i t i o n a l f l e x i -
3
bility. The tribe, furthermore, held
a u t h o r i t y over the d i s t r i b u t i o n and
redistribution of agricultural or pas-
tural plots which, as already mentioned,
were i n principle shifted regularly, in
contrast to the permanent nature of f i e l d
strips i n Europe. In a similar fashion
the exploitation^jOf brush or forest land
was f a c i l i t a t e d . Needless to say, the
tribe was also the framework of a whole
host of leisure a c t i v i t i e s , f e s t i v i t i e s ,
and religious functions. In some more
densely populated parts of Algeria, espe-
c i a l l y i n the Kabylia mountains, villages
had taken over some t r i b a l functions, and
i t i s here that a certain resemblance
existed with European village l i f e , which
had also lost i t s t r i b a l Germanic her-
itage to r i s i n g population d e n s i t i e s ,
albeit at a much earlier date.
The family satisfied nearly a l l subsis-
tence needs apart from peak labor re-
quirements. In this respect i t was as
f u l l y self-sufficient as was technolo-
g i c a l l y possible. Families provided for
such basic needs as food staples, tools,
cloth, shelter, furniture, pottery, and
utensils, and only a small number of
n e c e s s i t i e s , for instance s a l t and
metals, had to be traded for with the
world outside the family, clan, fraction,
or tribe. As i n the case of the tribe,
the family was of fluctuating size in
Algeria. It could be as small as the
so-called nuclear family consisting of
f a t h e r , mother, and growing c h i l d r e n .
But i t could also comprise as many as
thirty persons, including retire,^
parents, married sons, and domestics.
Actual size was usually the outcome of a
compromise between the number of children
supportable under conditions of oxen-
powered plough agriculture and the number
of children desirable as a hedge against
the high mortality rate.
Both tribe and family were structured
according to the principle of agnatic
descent. This principle recognized only
male family descendants as heirs of the
t r i b a l patrimony, that i s , as bearers of
the right to plough, pasture, and harvest
on t r i b a l lands. Obviously agnatic
descent was a function of the most
910b/Sivers
conspicuous t r a i t of the a g r i c u l t u r a l
system, namely male-dominated f i e l d work,
as discussed above. However, the t r i b a l
land was a too valuable producer of
wheat, and the risk of not producing male
heirs i n the family was too great to
permit a complete exclusion of female
heirs from the heritage. Underneath the
principle of agnatic descent the idea of
endogamy, p a r t i c u l a r l y that of f i r s t -
cousin marriage, was a l e g i t i m a t e
strategy for protecting a family's share
of the t r i b a l patrimony. This strategy,
as well as other forms of endogamous
matches, were of course devices to
enhance family, clan, or fraction status
within the tribe, rather than outside i t .
Thus, while the agnatic principle pre-
vented any loss of t r i b a l lands to the
outside world, inside the tribe the same
p r i n c i p l e , i n conjunction with other
p r i n c i p l e s g i v i n g l i m i t e d r i g h t s to
women, was used for carving out maximum
shares of^j^and for each family, clan, or
fraction.
The normal tendency of f a m i l i e s and
tribes i n the subsistence system was to
have more children than necessary for
reproduction, so as to counteract the
uncalculable rate of early mortality. Of
course, population growth was usually cut
to size again at regular intervals by the
even lass calculable occurrence of epi-
demics. The main problem which re-
sulted from population growth was a popu-
lation density higher than was warranted
in terms of both labor requirements and
subsistence resources available to the
family. The easiest way of solving the
problem was to s p l i t the tribe, expel the
agnatically least prestigious fractions,
c l a n s , and f a m i l i e s from the t r i b a l
t e r r i t o r y , and force them to s e t t l e
elsewhere. This solution was possible as
long as there was sufficient
no-man's-land a v a i l a b l e between the
various tribes of a given area, as was
evidently the case periodically i n most
parts of Algeria prior to the nineteenth
century.
Agnatic descent often continued to be
remembered long a f t e r t r i b a l s p l i t s
occurred, albeit i n the vaguer form of
known consanguinity without s p e c i f i c
genealogical details. Descent was thus
not a principle limited to the organi-
z a t i o n of the subsistence system and
could be changed with much l a r g e r
functions. A typical, more comprehensive
function was that of defense i n the form
of t r i b a l federations, invoked i f neces^
sary against the central government.
As i s well known, through the mechanism
of further abstraction, consanguinity can
be generalized into parentage which i s
based on the assumption of common
ancestors who bestowed a language and
culture on an entire people. If this
kind of p a r e n t a g e — i n modern parlance
called nationalism—was f e l t at a l l among
the Arabs and Berbers i n Algeria prior to
the a r r i v a l of the French, i t found ng
p r a c t i c a l i n s t i t u t i o n a l expression.
The only f u n c t i o n a l form of parental
organization going beyond subsistence
needs was that of military alliances.
I f a no-man's-land between t r i b e s
threatened by rising population density
was no longer available, as was the case
among a number of Berber tribes i n the
Kabylia mountains, adjustments to this
threat were more elaborate. First of
a l l , t r i b a l distribution and r e d i s t r i -
bution of land was often replaced by
permanent occupation. Since permanent
landholdings rendered t r i b a l ownership
obsolete, t i t l e s were now held by frac-
tions or clans, depending on the, ^severity
of the population pressure. This
diminution i n the number of titleholders
of properties (and the size of proper-
ties, of course) opened up the land to
commercial exchange. Something
approaching private property emerged.
Such commercial land transactions,
however, were severely restricted through
the institution of preemption which gave
the members of the title-holding fraction
or clan the right of prior acquisition.
There i s no evidence prior to French
c o l o n i a l i s m that f a m i l i a l properties
emerged.
Second, since the new permanently held
f r a c t i o n or clan lands could not be
subdivided below the level of adequate
subsistence returns, more i n t e n s i v e
910b/Sivers
agricultural techniques had to be found.
Extensive wheat agriculture was p a r t i a l l y
F r u i t trees
required more labor than wheat but also
yielded more revenue. The wheat d e f i c i -
ency was balanced by purchaseS2jf rom the
replaced by i n t e n s i v e a r b o r i c u l t u r e
(olives, f i g s , nuts).
Arab peasants i n the plains.
second adjustment to greater human
crowding represented a partial abandon-
ment of the subsistence system, since i t
involved recourse to trade for staples.
The trend towards permanent occupation of
the t r i b a l land by fractions or clans
also existed during the early nineteenth
century i n the plains and h i l l s of
northern Algeria, as i s attested to by
the institution of sharecropping. Lands
were no longer distributed at regular
intervals, and so weaker fractions or
clans had to be contented with l e s s
f e r t i l e lands. Similarly, smaller per-
manently occupied parcels were l e s s
capable of absorbing the unequal growth
of the various fractions or clans. In
this situation of unequal distribution of
f e r t i l e lands as w e l l as unequal
proportion of people working on them,
sharecropping provided some balance. In
essence sharecropping was the agreement
between a landlord fraction, clan, or
family and a laborer fraction, clan, or
family on the partition of the wheat
harvest according to the ratio of four to
one, after the landlord had provided the
land, seed, plough animals, and imple-
ments while the laborer had provided his
labor. The laborer fraction, clan, or
family retained i t s own poorer and more
crowded plots and thus ran two or more
farmsteads while the landlord fraction,
clan, or family2Íarmed for i t s e l f on a
reduced surface.
Another section of the population which
supplemented i t s subsistence income with
commercial exchange was the bedouins.
They specialized i n the breeding of sheep
and/or camels on lands unsuitable for
agriculture. Like the Berbers of the
mountains, they had to acquire much of
their wheat from the Arab peasants on the
northern plains and h i l l s through
exchange. In general the bedouins tended
5
•
to be organized i n tribes larger than
those of the northern subsistence
peasants, a tendency which was apparently
connected with the lengthy seasonal
migrations northwards and southwards i n
search of pastures. Particularly at the
southern terminal of these migrations
This during the winter, the locating of suf-
ficient grasslands required the coopera-
t i o n of r e l a t i v e l y large numbers of
people. However, ownership of the flocks
and herds was vested i n families, rather
than clans, fractions, or tribes, as was
i n c i d e n t a l l y a l s o the case among the
peasants of the north. Flocks and herds
were productive means, i n the same
fashion as the tools of the peasants
were, and thus f e l l into the purvue of
family o r g a n i z a t i o n . Many bedouin
t r i b e s , e s p e c i a l l y i n southeastern
Algeria, owned date palm groves i n the
Saharan oases which they worked through
sharecropper f r a c t i o n s or c l a n s , the
produce of which they traded for wheat i n
the north. Overall, the bedouins repre-
sented a relatively limited percentage of
the Algerian population and thereforejQdo
not figure prominently i n this paper.
The subsistence system i n the Algeria of
the mid-nineteenth century, during the
early years of the French conquest, can
be summarized as an organization geared
towards securing the l i v e l i h o o d of a
relatively sparse population. Families
engaged i n ox-powered plough agriculture
were associated with each other i n the
form of t r i b e s for the p r o v i s i o n of
larger labor forces during the ploughing
and harvesting seasons, and they rotated
in more or less regular fallow cycles or
t r i b a l l y owned lands. Here and there
rising population densities had led to
modifications i n the subsistence system.
Higher yielding arboriculture had
replaced wheat a g r i c u l t u r e on some
mountain lands, and less f l u c t u a t i n g
labor requirements i n aboriculture and
made t r i b a l structures less necessary.
The reduction of available land resources
had favored a permanent occupation of the
plots, the t i t l e s of which shifted from
the tribes to the component fractions or
clams but not yet to families. In order
to balance some of the inconveniences of
910b/Sivers
permanent land occupation, resulting from
the uneven distribution of land and s o i l
qualities, the institution of sharecrop-
ping had appeared. Some of these
m o d i f i c a t i o n s , p a r t i c u l a r l y the s h i f t
from t r i b a l to fraction or clan property
in the mountains, dated from the middle
of the eighteenth-century. These
modifications seem to represent the
beginning of a rising population curve
lasting into the middle of the nineteenth
century.
FAMILY ORGANIZATION AND THE DEGRADATION
OF THE SUBSISTENCE SYSTEM
The primary aim of the French conquerors
of Algeria was the creation of agricul-
tural settlements. Colonial enthusiasts
had read their Roman authors and were
dreaming of a new breadbasket on the
southern shores of the Mediterranean.
Most settlement schemes anticipated the
establishment of family farms f o r
subsistence the allegedly rich s o i l s
of A l g e r i a . Accordingly, A l g e r i a n
resistance against the French conquest
was used as a convenient excuse to
confiscate close to 1 million hectares
(ha) for d i s t r i b u t i o n to European
settlers. Many of the confiscated
lands were indeed rich—they were among
the most f e r t i l e ones available, although
they f a i l e d to be as productive as
expected—and the Algerians had to make
do with the remaining, less f e r t i l e
areas. Thus from the outset the French
devoted themselves to the establishment
of a European-controlled a g r i c u l t u r a l
system i n competition with the Algerian
subsistence peasants.
In order to satisfy the European settlers
f u r t h e r , between 1863 and 1887 the
colonial government opened up the remain-
ing Algerian land to market exchange. In
a f i r s t law i n 1863 the decision was
taken to register a l l lands, not i n the
name of tribes but of fractions, to be
taken as basic administrative units under
the name of douar. This registration
took note of permanently occupied clan
lands as well as t r i b a l agricultural and
t r i b a l pastural lands. In accordance
6
with the douar concept, the t r i b a l agri-
cultural and t r i b a l pastural lands were
subdivided and attributed to the con-
stituent fractions. Before t h i s
program of land registration was even
completed, Impatient settlers took the
next step with the law of 1873, decreeing
the creation of individual t i t l e s . A
decade l a t e r such t i t l e s had been
delivered to a l l Algerians owning lands
in the v i c i n i t y of colonial settlements,
and only remote mountains or other lands
far removed from the settlers were l e f t
with their traditional^ t r i b a l , fraction,
or clan land systems.
The immediate effects of the land laws
were considerable. The Algerians were
made to bear the costs of the execution
of these laws, even though the colonists
were the main b e n e f i c i a r i e s . They
suffered the loss of nearly 400,000 ha to
land-hungry colonists, for a total of
almost'1.4 m i l l i o n ha or 15 percent of
the surface of northern Algeria. They
were bombarded with thousands of lawsuits
demanding s a l e s , auctions, or c o n f i s -
cations of plots of land. Thus the
Algerian subsistence system was turned
into a huge banquet from which the
colonialists served themselves almost at
will.
The long-range effects of the land laws
were devastating f o r the subsistence
system. Superficially i t appeared that
these laws might benefit not only the
settlers but the Algerians as well, since
particularly during the 1880s the popu-
l a t i o n was r a p i d l y expanding again.
Rising population density demanded a more
intensive cultivation which i n turn was
possible only on smaller family plots.
On such plots fluctuations between normal
and peak labor requirements were less
pronounced and hence the dependency of
the family on the clan or f r a c t i o n
decreased. (As argued earlier, by the
time of the French arrival i n 1830 the
Algerian population had probably already
reached a density which rendered familial
dependency on tribes for labor largely
unnecessary.) At the same time higher
p r o d u c t i v i t y made these t e r r a i n s more
valuable and hence the families holding
910b/Sivers
them were more eager to abolish clan or
fraction ownership. Had the land laws
stopped for the item being with the
establishment of family ownership, these
laws could have been more or less i n
accordance with the demographic evolution
of Algerian subsistence society.
But instead i n 1887 property t i t l e s were
f u l l y individualized. Prior to 1887 the
necessity for a colonial buyer to acquire
the consent of a l l adult agnatic members
of a clan to s e l l the commonly held
property had proved to be a well-nigh
impossible obstacle. Almost the same
would have been true had ownership been
transferred from the clan to the family.
Although there were fewer male adults to
be s o l i c i t e d for consent, the very
requirement of consent would have
continued to complicate the buying and
selling of properties to a frustrating
degree. Colonialists were satisfied with
nothing less than f u l l i n d i v i d u a l i z e d
property rights.
With this individualization of properties
the colonialists were, i r o n i c a l l y , aided
by Muslim law. Muslim inheritance laws
reflect the urban environments i n which
they originally arose. In these laws the
individual subdivision of an estate among
a l l male and even female adults of as
large a group as ^ clan, i f necessary,
was a requirement. But whereas i n an
urban context the s p l i t t i n g of an estate
has no e v i l consequences other than
perhaps the regrettable dispersal of a
once handsome fortune, i n A l g e r i a n
subsistence agriculture the creation of
properties below the l e v e l of about
twenty ha (ten ha fields and ten ha
pastures, given the prevalent agricul-
tural technology) seriously imperiled the
livelihood of the heirs and their family
dependents. Muslim inheritance laws
therefore had been traditionally ignored
i n subsistence a g r i c u l t u r e u n t i l the
Christian infidels i n 1887 decided to
make the peasants more Muslim than the
latter probably chose to be.
With the establishment of f u l l y i n d i -
vidualized land t i t l e s , those descendants
who happened to be i n the direct line of
7
the clan ancestor received ample shares
of land on which they had no trouble
supporting large families. But others
who had the misfortune of belonging to
side branches of the genealogical tree
received infinitesimally small plots. An
infamous case which appears i n the
literature of the period i s that of a
clan property of 8.48 ha divided among 55
adult members. Of the 8.48 ha, 1.13 ha
went to the most direct, and 0.02 ha or a
surface of ten by twenty meters went to
the least direct descendant. Out of
402 tribes to which land t i t l e s were
delivered during this period, some 311
were given only 10 ha as the maximum
i n d i v i d u a l property. One-hundred and
ninety-three tribes even received only 5
ha as the largest individual plot, a plot
which they then s t i l l had to subdivide
into f i e l d s , fallow, and pasture. The
clan ancestors must have shuddered i n
their graves at this misuse of the family
trees which they had planted.
This elimination of a minimum surface
worked by a family for i t s subsistence
would have made sense i f at the same time
an attempt had been made to modify the
subsistence system as such by means of
market exchange. With proper incentives
families could have given up a l l the
m u l t i p l e crude n o n a g r i c u l t u r a l chores
such as making cloth, fashioning tools,
and constructing buildings and could have
concentrated instead on a g r i c u l t u r e
alone, for which they were most quali-
f i e d , so as to produce profitable crops,
animal products, or animals from reduced
land surfaces. These incentives could
have gone even further by encouraging the
families to give up, i n part or as a
whole, unremunerative branches of subsis-
tence agriculture, such as wheat cultiva-
tion, and replace these branches with
arboriculture, horticulture, ranching,
dairy farming, or beekeeping. Missing
subsistence staples would have been
bought on the market. The free exchange-
a b i l i t y of land on the market had as i t s
logical complement the modification of
subsistence a g r i c u l t u r e by market
exchange.
But the Algerian peasant families were
910b/Sivers
given few incentives to change t h e i r
subsistence system i n favor of a market
agriculture. The condition for giving up
unproductive subsistence occupations,
concentrating on marketable rural prod-
ucts, and taking recourse to market
exchange for the acquisition of basic
staples would have been the a v a i l a b i l i t y
of a cheap and easy communication system.
A modest transportation network of roads
and r a i l r o a d s had indeed ^pme into
existence i n Algeria by 1887. Yet i t
was so completely geared towards French
colonial a g r i c u l t u r e — a strong section of
which was therefore able to turn from
subsistence to exchange—that Algerians
found themselves more or less completely
excluded. For most indigenous peasant
families, the pack animal remained the
chief means of transportation even i n the
twentieth century, and few truck or bus
companies ventured into the countryside
prior to the mid-twentieth century. Most
Algerians were given no chance to respond
to the opportunities of a g r i c u l t u r a l
exchange and remained firmly locked into
the subsistence system.
Conditions were not such that there could
be adequate response to the market demand
for specialized agricultural products i n
the colonial c i t i e s . These products were
needed to acquire from the market
specialized nonagricultural manufactured
goods. Therefore, the Algerian peasant
family had to go on providing for almost
i t s entire livelihood, as i t had for
countless generations i n the past. Crude
cloth and tools continued to be manu-
factured by the family at heme, as long
as raw materials were available, while i n
the fields the family toiled for i t s
wheat staples and the meat of sheep. As
in the past, occasional surpluses were
traded on the nearest markets, but the
l i t t l e that was earned from them was
barely sufficient for the basics, such as
salt, kitchen wares, tea, coffee, and
sugar, without which a late-nineteenth
and twentieth-century Algerian household
was unthinkable. But market consumption
remained minimal since cheap transporta-
tion and agricultural specialization were
lacking.
8
If land was sufficient and the family
withstood the temptation to s p l i t i t up
among the heirs, l i f e could be comfort-
able i n spite of the degradation of the
subsistence system. The male family
members kept away from active agriculture
as much as possible and l e f t the back-
breaking cultivation of wheat i n p a r t i -
cular for their sharecroppers to do. A
few sharecroppers were usually sufficient
for the p r o v i s i o n of the basic food
requirements for the landowner family
which therefore was free to concentrate
on domestic or p o l i t i c a l affairs. Only a
small minority of the f a m i l i e s with
sufficient land resources—usually only
those with access to cheap transporta-
tion—replaced sharecroppers with
s a l a r i e d labor, invested i n modern,
urban-manufactured equipment, and engage^
in specialized agricultural production.
Subsistence f a m i l i e s which engaged i n
p o l i t i c s usually wasted l i t t l e live on
the colonial system, but they usually did
not mind the continuation of the status
quo and therefore tended to the conser-
vative side.
Those subsistence peasant families who
around 1887 started out with barely
sufficient lands were i n a far weaker
position to withstand population pressure
and i t s concomitant demand for splitting
up p r o p e r t i e s . Rural-urban migration
became an alternative to the subdivision
of landed heritages only after World War
I, and even then only h e s i t a n t l y .
During the l a t e nineteenth and e a r l y
twentieth c e n t u r i e s , the subsistence
peasant population had no choice but to
remain on the countryside. Since the
absolute bottom l i n e of subsistence was
wheat staplès, sheep pastures were the
f i r s t lands to be converted into cereal
fields for the sons of families with
small landed properties. Next came the
fallow lands, then the pastures for the
oxen, u n t i l the entire family heritage
was converted into nothing but fields for
cereal crops. Eventually, since
ploughing without oxen was impossible,
the lands were taken over by a wealthy
landlord family to whom the small
peasants were probably already indebted.
This family then employed the ex-peasants
910b/Sivers
as sharecroppers by supplying them with
their former lands, seed, draft animals,
and Implements. But by now the s o i l had
been so depleted from constant wheat
cropping and the resulting erosion that
ever larger surfaces had to be ploughed
and planted i n order to maintain the
yields. The bottom line of subsistence
agriculture began to be reached.
On i t s most reduced level, subsistence
agriculture was a desperate effort to
survive on wheat alone. The work of the
rural family was fixated on this one
concern: the provision of basic food
staples. The domestic manufacture of
textiles disappeared together with the
flocks that once had supplied the wool.
L i t t l e labor was expended on the tending
of the few sheep and goats l e f t over from
former flocks. The repair of tools and
implements was not worth any real effort,
since i t was the landlord who owned them.
The work and expertise demanded f o r
housing were minimal, since there was no
reason to build more than a flimsy hut on
grounds which belonged to the landlord.
With l i t t l e time and energy spent on
anything except the ploughing, sowing,
weeding, and harvesting of cereal f i e l d s ,
subsistence families which had reached
the bottom level found themselves idle
for most of the year, outside the f a l l
and late spring seasons which required
short periods of strenuous work. In
1960, two years before the end of the
c o l o n i a l period, 58 percent of the
"salaried" workers (euphemism for what
for the most part were sharecroppers)
worked less than 200 days a year.
Thirty-nine percent worked even less than
70 days a year or the length of the two
seasons i n f a l l and late spring. Since
f u l l employment was defined as 260 days
of work, i t was clear that by the end of
French c o l o n i a l i s m , the subsistence
system had^ been squeezed of i t s last
resources.
In this paper the Algerian subsistence
system has been traced from i t s condition
at the time of the French expedition i n
1830 and during the f i r s t few decades of
French colonialism u n t i l the end of the
French presence i n 1962. Orientation
towards subsistence, as distinguished
from exchange, was essentially a function
of a relatively low population density i n
Algeria. The subsistence system was the
foundation for the organization of the
Algerian family as the basic unit of
regular agricultural labor and the tribe
as the largest unit for the peak require-
ments of labor. As such the tribe was
the bearer of the property t i t l e , so to
speak. As the result probably of rising
population densities prior to the arrival
of the French, the family-tribe organiza-
tion of society had undergone some modi-
fications, the most important of which
were the emergence of permanently
occupied plots and fractions or clans as
new property-owning units i n the place of
tribes.
After they had conquered Algeria, the
French viewed Algerian society primarily
from the angle of colonial settlements.
Land had to be made freely available
under the legal form of individualized
property then emerging i n Europe so as to
attract a maximum of settlers. However,
this individualization of land t i t l e s was
exactly what Algerian families did not
need. True, the population figures were
on the rise again, after the decline
during the conquest period, and thus a
shift from fraction or clan t i t l e s to
family t i t l e s would have been the logical
response. But the radical step of the
French s e t t l e r s i n 1887 towards the
creation of individual t i t l e s called the
e n t i r e concept of minimal f a m i l i a l
properties s u f f i c i e n t f o r subsistence
needs into question. Unfortunately
Algerian families at this moment were
given no chance to balance the loss of
property s e c u r i t y , which meant f u l l
subsistence capacity, through a gradual
integration into the market facilitated
by an e f f i c i e n t transportation i n f r a -
structure. They remained locked into the
subsistence system which gradually was
stripped to i t s bare bones. In the end
the Algerian family under c o l o n i a l i s m
lived on l i t t l e more than a few hec-
t o l i t e r s of wheat and some secondhand
clothes.
J
910b/Sivers 10

NOTES

''"The best general surveys of precolonlal Algerian history are found i n

Charles-Andre Julien, History of North Africa: From the Arab Conquest to 1830, ed.
and rev. Roger Le Tourneau (New York: Praeger, 1970); and Jamil M. Abun-Nasr, A
History of the Maghrib (Cambridge: UP, 1971). Both texts are strong i n narrative but
lacking i n analytical penetration.
2
On the Turkish central government see Yves Lacoste, Andre Nouschi, and Andre
Prenant, L'Algerie, passe et present. Le cadre et les etapes de l a constitution
actuelle (Paris: Editions sociales, 1960), chap. 4.
3
The standard history of the French conquest i s Charles-Andre Julien, Histoire
de l'Algerie comtemporaine: La conquete et l e s debuts de l a c o l o n i s a t i o n , 1827-71
(Paris, 1964).
4
These revolts form part of a book currently i n progress. In the meantime see
Peter von Sivers, "Insurrection and Accommodation: Indigenous Leadership i n Eastern
Algeria, 1840-1900," International Journal of Middle East Studies 6 (1975): 259-75.
^Mostefa Lacheraf, L'Algerie, nation et societe (Paris: Maspero, 1965).

Charles-Robert Ageron, Les Algeriens musulmans et l a France, 1871-1919

(Paris: Presses universitaires, 1968), 550; c f . Lacoste, Nouschi, and Prenant,
L'Algerie, p. 217.
7
A l a i n Darbel, Jean-Paul Rivert, Claude Seibel, and Pierre Bourdieu, Travail
et travailleurs en Algerie (The Hague: Mouton, 1963), p. 19.
g
Ester Boserup, The Conditions of Agricultural Growth (Chicago: Aldine, 1966).
9
Colin Clark and Margaret Haswell, The Economics of Subsistence Agriculture,
4th ed. (London: Macmillan, 1970), pp. 27-56.
10 2
Northern Algeria comprises 140,000 km .

^Hippolyte Lecq and Charles Riviere, Traite pratique d'agriculture pour l e

Nord d'Afrlque, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Paris: Challamel, 1928-29); Lecq, Manuel pratique
de 1'agriculture algerienne (Paris: Challamel, 1900).
12
Clark and Haswell, Subsistence Agriculture, chap. 12. A general comparison
between carts and pack animals i s found i n Richard W. B u l l i e t , The Camel and the Wheel
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1975). ~
13
Georges Duby, L'economie rurale et l a vie des campagnes dans 1'Occident
medieval (France, Angeleterre, Empire, IX -XV s i e c l e s ) : E s s a i de synthese et
perspective de recherches, 2 vols. (Paris, 1962); B.H. Slicher van Bath, Agrarian
History of Western Europe, 500-1850 (London, 1963).
14
Auguste Geoffroy, "Bordier (fellah) berbere de l a Grande Kabylie (Province
d'Alger), proprietaire-ouvrier dans l e systeme de t r a v a i l sans engagements, d'apres
les renseignements r e c u e i l l i s sur les lieux en j u i l l e t 1884," Les ouvriers des deux
mondes, 2nd series, 2 (1890): 53-92, esp. p. 76. ™ "
910b/Sivers 11

^ C l a r k and Haswell, Subsistence Agriculture, chap. 6.

^The question of sex-related differences i n physical strength and their

social consequences i s not yet satisfactorily explored. Cf. Ester Boserup, Woman's
Role i n Economic Development (New York: St. Martin's, 1970); Jack Goody, Production
and Reproduction: A Comparative Study of the Domestic Domain (Cambridge: UP, 1976).
7
^ The connections between labor and social organization, leading to the
formation of families, clans, fractions, and tribes, have not been f u l l y studied yet.
Cf. Maurice Bloch, ed., Marxist Analyses and Social Anthropology (London, 1975), pp.
202-28.
18
Unlike i n the Middle East, where communal distribution and redistribution
were common, i n Algeria by the nineteenth century i t was not (or no longer?)
widespread. See Pierre Bourdieu, The Algerians (Boston: Beacon, 1962), p. 70; c f .
Jacques Weulersse, Paysans du Syrie et du Proche Orient, 8th ed. (Paris: Gallimard,
1946), pp. 99-109.
19
The bibliography i s abundant. Only a selection i s given here: Joseph
Desparmet, Coutumes, institutions, croyances des indigenes de l'Algerie (Algiers,
1949); Rene Maunier, Melanges de sociologie Nord-africaine (Paris, 1930); J.H.
Serviër, "Essai sur les bases de 1'economie traditionnelle chez les berberophones
d'Algerie," Cahiers de 1'Institut de science economique appliquee 106 (1960).
20
Elizabeth Bacon, Obok: A Study of Social Structure i n Eurasia (New York,
1958); Jerome Blum, "The European Village as Community: Origins and Functions,"
Agricultural History 45 (1971): 157-78.
21
As revealed by the s t a t i s t i c s which I collected from "Renseignements sur les
fortunes des chefs indigenes, Cercle d'Aumale" i n 1 I 11 and 1 I 64, Archives de
l'Ancien Gouvernement general d'Algerie (AGGA), housed i n Archives nationales de
France, Depot d'Outre Mer, Aix-en-Provence.
22
The literature i s immense. The following selection has to suffice: Robert
F. Murphy and Leonard Kasdan, "Agnation and Endogamy: Some Further Consideration,"
Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 23 (1967): 1-15; R. Descloitres and Laid Debzi,
"Systeme de parente et structures familiales en Algerie," Annualre de l'Afrique du
Nord 2 (1963): 23-59; David M. Hart, The Aith Waryaghar of the Moroccan Rif: An
Ethnography and History (Tucson: U. of Arizona Press, 1976), chaps. 8, 10.
Michael W. Dols, "The Second Plague Pandemic and I t s Recurrences i n the
Middle East: 1347-1894," J . of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 22
(1979): 162-89; Lucette V a l e n s i , "Calamites demographiques en Tunisie et en
Mediterranee oriëntale aux XVIII et XIX siecles," Annales ESC 24 (1969): 1540-61.

A systematic presentation of these federations appears i n Louis Rinn, "Le

royaume de'Alger sous le dernier Dey," Revue africaine 41 (1897)-43 (1899).
25
B u t see Elbaki Hermassi, Leadership and National Development i n North Africa
(Berkeley, Calif: UP, 1970).
26
The word t i t l e i s obviously used rather loosely here; there were no written
t i t l e s prior to the late nineteenth century.
27
Bourdieu, The Algerians, pp. 75, 82.
910b/Sivers 12

28
Jean Lascure, L'agriculture algerienne (Paris, 1892).
29
Georges Rectenwald, Le contrat de khamessat en Afrique du Nord (Paris:
Pedone, 1912). The ratio of 4:1 was the most common, but i t could change according to
the f e r t i l i t y of the s o i l .
30
From the large literature the following t i t l e s are noteworthy: Augustin
Bernard and M. Lacroix, L'evolution du nomadisme en Algerie (Paris, 1906); D.L.
Jonson, The Nature of Nomadism: A Comparative Study of Pastoral Migrations i n
Southwest Asia and North Africa (Chicago: UP, 1968).
31
Ageron, Les Algeriens musulmans, chap. 2.
32
Ibid., p. 31; and Lacoste, Nouschi, and Prenant, L'Algerie, p. 383.
33
On the administration of the indigenous population see my a r t i c l e "Les
p l a i s i r s du collectionneur. Capitalisme f i s c a l et chefs indigenes en Algerie,
1840-60," Annales ESC 35 (1980), forthcoming.
34
Eugene Coeffard, La proprlete fonciere en Algerie. Etablissement du droit
de propriete, l o l du 16 fevrier 1897 (Paris: Larose, 1897). In 1897 the Algerian
property laws were again modified, ostensibly i n favor of the Algerian population, but
in fact this modification did not amount to much.
35
Ageron, Les Algeriens musulmans, pp. 97, 762-71.
36
Noel J . Coulson, A History of Islamic Law (Chicago: Aldine, 1964).
37
Joost van Vollenhoven, Etude sur l e f e l l a h algerien (Paris, 1903); Lucien
Boyer-Banse, La propriete indigene dans 1'Arrondissement d'Orleansville: Essai de
monographie algerienne (Orleansville: Carbonel, 1902).
38 n o
Ageron, Les Algeriens musulmans, p. 98.
39
Ibid., p. 99.
40
Felix Dessoliers, L'Algerie l i b r e . Etude economique (Algiers: Gojosso,
1895). In addition, of course, massive improvements i n water conservation and
irrigation were necessary; see Alfred Flamant, Notice sur 1'hydraulique agricole en
Algerie (Algiers-Mustapha: G i r a l t , 1900).
41
See the agricultural statistics of Algeria i n Statistiques generales de
l'Algerie from 1867 onwards.
42
Of course, those Algerians who found salaried agricultural work on the farms
of the colonialists were able to escape the degraded subsistence system. I have l e f t
this group of agricultural workers participating i n a market exchange system outside
the purvue of this a r t i c l e .
43
Augustin Berque, "Esquisse d'une histoire de l a seigneurie algerienne,"
Revue de l a Mediterranee 7 (1949): 18-34, 168-80; Marthe and Edmond Gouvion, Kitab
Aayane el-Mahariba (Algiers: Fontana, 1920).
44
Jean-Jacques Payer, Les musulmans algeriens en France et dans les pays
islamiques (Paris, 1950).
910b/Sivers 13
' ;.>•'••;. % •• £ m im1ill
Lecq and Riviere, Traite pratique d'agriculture, v o l . 1, pp. 331, 340-438;
Emile Macquart, Les realites algeriennes. Etude sur l a situation economique de
l'Algerie (1881-1905) (Blida: Manguin, 1906), pp. 10-44.
46
D a r b e l , et a l . , T r a v a i l et t r a v a i l l e u r s en A l g e r i e , pp. 93-99. The
degradation of the subsistence system i s the topic of a large literature, from which I
cite a few examples. Pierre Bourdieu and Abdelmalek Sayad, Le deracinement: La crise
de 1 ' a g r i c u l t u r e t r a d i t i o n n e l l e en A l g e r i e ( P a r i s , 1964); D j i l a l i S a r i , La
depossession des fellahs (1830-1962) (Algiers: SNED, 1975); Albert Camus, Actualites
I I I : Chronique algerienne, 1939-58 (Paris: Gallimard, 1958).
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Tradition of
Genealogy among
Moslems
Michel M, Mazzaoui
X Series 911
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference.

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 TRADITION OF GENEALOGY AMONG MOSLEMS
Michel M. Mazzaoul
Born i n Palestine. Resides i n Salt Lake City, Utah. Associate professor of history,
University of Utah. Ph.D. (Islamic studies), Priceton University. Author, teacher.
Genealogy among the Moslem peoples of the
world today may be of importance to
settle legal questions pertaining to mar-
riage, succession, and inheritance, or i t
may simply be the topic of conversation
and gossip i n family circles after even-
ing meals. The interest i n genealogy i s
no doubt an aspect of family unity and
solidarity i n the face of troubled and
uncertain times. However, the tradition
of genealogy i t s e l f i n Islam goes back
many centuries when 'ilm al-ansab (the
science of genealogy) was an elaborate
undertaking with s p e c i f i c r u l e s and
formulations which every scholar dealing
with any aspect of Moslem culture had to
be familiar with and use i n his composi-
tions.
In Islam, the proper knowledge of gene-
alogies, and belief i n the articles of
f a i t h , go hand i n hand. Knowing the
genealogy of Muhammad, the Prophet of
Islam (that he descended from the tribe
of Quraysh and from the Hashim family),
i s incumbent upon a l l good Moslems.
"Knowing this fact," says a Moslem writer
of the fifteenth century, " i s necessary
for true belief; and no Moslem w i l l be
excused for ignorance of i t . "
Long before Islam, the Arabs had a strong
t r a d i t i o n of genealogy. Kinship and
family ties were among the most meaning-
f u l characteristics of the t r i b a l society
in the Arabian Peninsula, the orginal
home of the Arabs and of Islam. Tribal
warfare, blood feuds and vengence, mar-
riages and legitimacy, as well as the
great pre-Islamic epic literature of the
so-called ayyam al'Arab (the Arabian
heroic days), were a l l grounded i n a
thorough and exact knowledge of gene-
alogies extending several generations and
going back to common ancestors.
Other Moslem peoples, such as the
Iranians and Turks, also had traditions
of genealogy i n pre-Islamic times, which
can be seen i n epic w r i t i n g s that
describe heroic periods of their history
before their societies embraced Islam.
These genealogical t r a d i t i o n s were
reinforced following the Islamic conquest
as a result of contacts with the Arabs.
The Arabian Peninsula which, before the
Arabs, was the home of many other Semitic
peoples, witnessed the movement of fami-
l i e s and tribes northward to the more
c i v i l i z e d centers of the ancient Near
East. One such family was that of
Abraham who, after settling i n Ur of the
Chaldees i n Mesopotamia, was, according
to tradition, asked by God to move on to
Palestine where he and his family lived
and multiplied. The Old Testament part
of the Bible i s i n many ways the recorded
history of the family of Abraham, the
"chosen people" of Israel.
Many other such Arabian f a m i l i e s and
tribes (the term Arabian i s here used i n
a geographical sense, i . e . , originating
in the Arabian Peninsula) moved north-
wards as entities and settled i n lands
where, l i k e the I s r a e l i t e s , they
multiplied and became nations and states.
Unfortunately we do not know much about
their histories.
The Arabs were the last Semitic people to
move from the Arabian Peninsula north-
wards Into the oecumene of the ancient
911/Mazzaoul
Near East. Their immigration into, and
settlement i n , the lands of Mesopotamia
and Syria was well advanced before the
r i s e of Islam. Furthermore, t h e i r
history i n a l l i t s colorful details has
been preserved.
THE ARABS BEFORE ISLAM
The most important single aspect of the
history of the Arabs before the coming of
Islam Is their organization into families
and tribes. Throughout the length and
breadth of the peninsula, societies were
organized into tribes and t r i b a l units
both i n the established areas and i n the
open desert country. The names and
locations of these societies are known to
us in detailed recorded chronicles.
Four regional groupings may be d i s t i n -
guished as e n t i t i e s i n the Arbian
Peninsula before Islam: (a) the estab-
lished south Arabian kingdoms who are
said to have been the descendants of
Qahtan and whose genealogies were later
recorded i n Islamic times. These are the
modern inhabitants of Yemen. (b) The
north Arabian t r i b a l groups of Ghassan
and Lakhm which established client states
along the borders of the last two great
empires of the ancient Near East (the
Byzantine and Sasanid empires). These
t r i b e s have the added d i s t i n c t i o n of
having been Christianized before Islam.
Many modern Christian Arab families claim
descent from these t r i b e s . (c) The
tribes of Yamamah and Najd who roamed i n
the interior parts of the peninsula a l l
the way towards the shores of the Persian
Gulf, (d) The commercial centers of the
Hijaz where Mecca and Medina are located,
the two c i t i e s made famous with the rise
of Islam.
A l l these groups (including even certain
Israelite tribes that found their way
into the Hijaz, especially Medina, after
the diaspora) shared one thing: the
belief that they belonged to tribes and
families descending from common
ancestors.
2
Manifestations of t h i s t r i b a l organ-
ization and t r i b a l group solidarity (or
'asabiyah, as the celebrated North
African Arab historian Ibn Khaldun called
it i n the famous "Introduction,"
Muqaddimah, to his world history written
i n the late fourteenth century ) are many
and v a r i e d , and may be conveniently
summarized i n the following statement:
The s o c i a l structure of ancient
Arabia was founded upon blood
kinship. A group of men descend-
ing , or claiming descent, from a
common ancestor, associated t o -
gether f o r the sake of mutual
defence; they were united by common
worship and by common habits, but
f i r s t and foremost by a blood t i e ,
whether genuine or f i c t i t i o u s ,
which produced an effective
brother-hood: the Arab ^ r i b e , i n
fact, was a great family.
These c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of t r i b a l s o l i -
darity and family ties based on gene-
a l o g i c a l r e l a t i o n s h i p s have been pre-
served in two major groups of sources
written down i n early Islamic times. One
of these i s collections of pre-Islamic
poetry, and the other i s descriptions of
i n t e r t r i b a l wars known collectively as
Ayyam al-'Arab.
More than anybody else i n the tribe, the
poet, as an individual, stands out as
perhaps the most memorable figure i n the
l i f e of the Arabian tribe before Islam.
Many of these t r i b a l poets are s t i l l
household names among modern Arab
families, and students today learn and
recite pre-Islamic poetry to appreciative
audiences i n school or at home. The poet
was the spokesman of his tribe i n much
the same way modern p o l i t i c a l and social
organizations throughout the world have
t h e i r spokesmen. The Arabian t r i b a l
poet, often the only educated member of
his tribe, knew best the history and
achievements of the tribe, no matter how
humble these were; and, most of a l l , he
knew the members of the tribe and their
ancestors. One of the most important
duties of these poets was to compose
high-sounding poems i n praise of the acts
911/Mazzaoui
of valor of individual members of his
family, their courage during war, and
their magnanimity afterwards. If need
be, the poet also composed scathing
satire against poets of other tribes.
Romances were also a constant theme; and
these have preserved for us valuable
information about love and marriage
customs such as are found i n the
well-known stories of Antar and Ablah or
Qays and L a y l a , perhaps the o r i g i n a l
prototypes of the Romeo and J u l i e t story
in the western tradition.
The heroic days (ayyam) of the t r i b a l
Arabs depict the continuous conflicts of
t r i b a l society that often resulted i n
t r i b a l raids or mini-wars. The conflicts
were due to a variety of causes revolving
c h i e f l y aroung the concept of t r i b a l
honor which bad to be defended i n every
possible way. The h a l f - h i s t o r i c a l ,
h a l f - m y t h i c a l accounts of these wars
describe acts of heroism which i n many
ways are similar to duels between the
famous Greek heroes i n Homer's I l i a d .
Both the pre-Islamic poetry and the
accounts of i n t e r t r i b a l warfare contain a
wealth of information of a genealogical
nature which has been carried down from
generation to generation i n an elaborate
oral tradition. The t r a d i t i o n s were
recorded by Moslem genealogists and
h i s t o r i a n s i n the early centuries of
Islam. As a modern scholar has put i t ,
"The c o l l e c t i v e work of the Arab
genealogist i s based i m p l i c i t l y on the
assumption that ,±he tribe i s a family on
a larger scale."
Many of these pre-Islamic family and
t r i b a l characteristics, i f not a l l of
them, have persisted into Islamic times;
and, as we shall see shortly, a large
number of them continue to exist today.
THE FAMILY AND TRIBE IN EARLY ISLAM
When Muhammad, in the year 610, declared
that he was the Prophet of Allah and the
Messenger of God and began to preach the
new religious dispensation that came to
be know as Islam, the leading t r i b a l
3
chief of Mecca, Abu Sufyan, i s said to
have remarked, " I f God needed a
messenger, He would have chosen me!"
Muhammad descended from Banu Hashin, a
minor clan of the Quraysh tribe; Abu
Sufyan's clan, on the other hand, was the
powerful and aristocratic Ranu Umayyah
who c o n t r o l l e d and supervised the
pilgrimage to the pagan shrines i n Mecca
before Islam. Later, the descendants of
this same Abu Sufyan wrested the leader-
ship of the Moslem community from
Muhammad's successors and ruled the
Moslem empire for a hundred years or more
from the new Moslem capital of Damascus.
Later s t i l l , the family of 'Abbas, an
uncle of the Prophet, seized power i n the
mid-eighth century and ruled the Islamic
empire from Baghdad for f i v e hundred
years u n t i l the conquest of the capital
by the Mongols i n 1258.
Nevertheless, whether Almighty God (re-
presented by the angel Gabriel) according
to Islam doctrine chose Muhammad over Abu
Sufyan to carry the message of the new
religion to the Arabs of the Peninsula,
and later to the world, the Prophet,
after twelve years of preaching i n Mecca,
was not making much headway, and so
decided to emigrate to Medina, about two
hundred miles to the north. There,
according to what came to be known as the
Constitution of Medina, he established a
community based on faith i n Islam and not
on old t r i b a l a f f i l i a t i o n .
Islam i s essentially an antitribal r e l i -
gion, and part of Muhammad's mission at
least was to replace t r i b a l and familial
a f f i l i a t i o n with acceptance of the new
faith by a l l Arabs equally, and later on
by a l l Moslems. The t r i b a l 'asabiyah was
to be forgotten, and a new ' asabiyah
based on the belief i n the one and only
God Allah and i n Muhammad as his apostle
or messenger was to take i t s place. The
Koran says, "We have created you male and
female, and have made you nations and
tribes so that you w i l l come to know each
other. The best among you, i n the eye o|
the Lord, i s the one who i s most pious."
What Muhammad was t e l l i n g his people (on
the authority of God) was that indeed
911/Mazzaoui
there are In the world various t r i b e s and
nations (the koranic words are q a b a ' i l
and shu'ub w h i c h , l i k e many o t h e r
t e c h n i c a l terms i n the Koran, have caused
problems of i n t e r p r e t a t i o n to a l l
commentators and e x e g e t e s ) , but t h a t
these are i n t e n d e d o n l y to i d e n t i f y
o n e s e l f and to serve as a means of
becoming a c q u a i n t e d w i t h one a n o t h e r .
The r e a l measure of one's worth under the
new system of Islam, however, was the
degree of p i e t y and f a i t h i n the new
religion.
In a f u r t h e r statement, t h i s time as-
cribed to the Prophet h i m s e l f , Muhammad
i s supposed to have s a i d , "There i s no
d i f f e r e n c e between an Arab ( ' A r a b i ) and a
non-Arab ( A ' j a m i ) except in piety
(taqwa)." And l a t e r on i n Islamic times,
i t was o f t e n s t r e s s e d t h a t even "an
Abyssinian s l a v e , " with the added proviso
that he be a Moslem, could become a
leader of the Moslem community. "It was
w i t h the i n t e n t i o n of emphasizing the
e q u a l i t y of the B e l i e v e r s and o f
achieving the u n i t y of the Community that
the Prophet forbade a l - t a ' n f i '1-ansab,
i.e., a t t a c k s based on the r e a l or
i m a g i n a r y d e f e c t s o f an ancestor,
e s p e c i a l l y of the eponymous ancestor of
the t r i b e or the c l a n . "
Before h i s death, and during the so-
c a l l e d year of the d e l e g a t i o n s , the
t r i b a l l e a d e r s from the l e n g t h and
breadth of the Arabian Peninsula came to
Medina (the c a p i t a l of Islam and the new
s o c i a l order established by the Prophet)
and swore allegiance to Muhammad, thus
a c c e p t i n g the new f a i t h and shedding
t h e i r l o c a l , t r i b a l , and f a m i l y a f f i l i -
a t i o n s , and recognizing the primacy of
f a i t h over t r i b e i n the service of the
program to spread Islam throughout the
world.
Soon a f t e r Muhammad's death, however, the
t r i b e s reverted back to t h e i r old pagan
ways, and i t took Muhammad's f i r s t
successor, Abu Bakr, two years to bring
them back to the f o l d of Islam. But,
apparently, not before a certain
accomodation was reached whereby the
t r i b a l and family e n t i t y was recognized
4
as the f i g h t i n g unit i n the wars of
expansion that were about to be launched.
And although we do not know much about
the c o m p o s i t i o n of the e a r l y Moslem
armies, s t i l l we may s a f e l y assume that
the f i g h t e r s a l o n g the b a t t l e l i n e s ,
performed the duties a l l o t t e d to them as
t r i b a l and family u n i t s , moving under
t r i b a l leaders and taking t h e i r orders
from commanders of t h e i r own family and
tribe. The garrison towns that grew up
near the f r o n t i e r s , to which r e i n f o r c e -
ments were s e n t , were planned and
organiged on s t r i c t l y t r i b a l and family
lines.
Two o t h e r a s p e c t s of e a r l y I s l a m i c
h i s t o r y show t h a t f a m i l y and t r i b a l
s o l i d a r i t y persisted:
a) The r i s e of a movement, l a t e r to be
known as the S h i ' ah (which means f a c t i o n
or g r o u p ) , which c e n t e r e d around the
person of A l i , the cousin and son-in-law
of the Prophet, and which, at the p o l i -
t i c a l l e v e l , claimed the legitimate right
of s u c c e s s i o n a f t e r Muhammad to the
leadership of the Moslem community. The
m a j o r i t y of Moslems (Ahl as-Sunnah wa
'1-Jama'ah), however, "elected" Muham-
mad's s u c c e s s o r through some form o f
c o n s u l t a t i o n (shura), and established the
enduring system of the Caliphate.
The Prophet (perhaps f o r t u n a t e l y f o r the
Moslem community) had no surviving male
h e i r s , but h i s f a v o r i t e daughter Fatimah,
her husband ' A l i , and t h e i r two sons
Hasan and Husayn—even d u r i n g the
Prophet's lifetime—enjoyed a special
p o s i t i o n i n the Moslem coummunity, and
with time they became the nearest thing
i n Islam to a holy family (sometimes
r e f e r r e d to as A l - i 'Aba, or Panj Tan).
The l e g i t i m a t e claim to leadership of the
Moslem community was taken up by Husayn,
but h i s movement also f a i l e d when he was
defeated and k i l l e d at K a r b a l a ' . Imme-
diate descendants of Husayn continued to
claim the succession u n t i l , f i n a l l y , the
t w e l f t h i n l i n e went i n t o a state of
concealment u n t i l h i s return at the end
of time.
911/Mazzaoui
P o l i t i c a l Shi'ism f i n a l l y succeeded i n
establishing a state i n Iran ca. 1500.
This was the Safavid dynasty whose
leaders fabricated a genealogy, that
extended a l l the way back to ' A l i .
The attachment of Shi'is i n particular
(but also Moslems i n general) to the
family of the Prophet manifested i t s e l f
in later centuries, and can be seen t i l l
today. A sayyid of a s h a r i f among
Moslems today i s one who claims direct
descent from the family of Muhammad. The
Arab dynasty i n Jordan c a l l s i t s e l f
i t s e l f Hashimite, and claims descent from
Banu Hashim, the family of the Prophet.
b) The Moslem community grew up slowly i n
the conquered lands of the ancient Near
East including I r a n . New converts
attached themselves to Arabian tribes and
families and adopted their t r i b a l and
family names. This attachment (wala',
and those so designated became known as
mawall, often rendered by the word
clients) was a concept which carried with
i t a variety of meanings extending a l l
the way from a slave-master relation to
the honor and dignity of being accepted
into the noble family and tribe of the
new rulers of the land. No doubt It was
also done for convenience: as a member
of the tribe, clan, or family, the new
convert f e l t more secure.
F u l l y Islamized, but never t o t a l l y
Arabized, these mawall, with names almost
completely undistinguishable from those
of other Moslems, participated
wholeheartedly i n the new Islamic system
both i n government a d m i n i s t r a t i o n
(inasmuch as they were more h i g h l y
advanced i n this art than their Arab
masters), but more so i n the Islamic
sciences that were soon to develop. The
role of the mawall, especially i n Iran,
was v i t a l i n the development of the great
u n i v e r s a l Islamic system i n medieval
times.
Thus, although Islam grew up i n a t r i b a l
Arab m i l i e u , i t developed under the
leadership of i t s founder and his imme-
diate successors into a supratribal and
supranational r e l i g i o n that a t t r a c t e d
5
adherents from other countries and other
lands. This certainly i s one of the
secrets of i t s success i n earlier periods
of i t s history as well as i n the modern
world. (It i s considered one of the
f a s t e s t growing r e l i g i o n s among black
Africans today).
S t i l l , the t r i b a l unity (or rather
national unity) and family solidarity,
which was the hallmark of Islam during
i t s early centuries, continued to mani-
fest i t s e l f as the Moslem community grew
in number and importance. And although
these t r i b a l and family a f f i l i a t i o n s
existed among peoples and s o c i e t i e s
before the conversion, there i s no doubt
that these characteristics of the pre-
Islamic t r i b a l Arabs strongly Influenced
succeeding generations of Moslems who, to
express their attachment and nearness to
Islam and i t s founder, sometimes went
into extremes i n building up (oftentimes
concocting) elaborate genealogies and
detailed family trees, stretching back
several centuries, relating themselves to
real or imaginary ancestors.
THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW
SCIENCE OF GENEALOGY ('ILM AL-ANSAB)
Except for c o l l e c t i o n s of pre-Islamic
poems, and except for meager references
to B i b l i c a l genealogies contained i n the
Koran, we do not possess any written
material of a specifically genealogical
nature originating i n Arabia before Islam
or i n the early Islamic period. During
this time, a strong oral tradition kept
the events and culture of pre-Islamic
Arabia, as well as the l i f e and times of
the Prophet and his mission, alive from
generation to generation u n t i l towards
the end of the second century of Islam
when the great scribal tradition of the
Moslem writers and scholars came into
being i n order to record for posterity
the glories and achievements of Islam.
Since events and details passed on orally
from one person to another are suscep-
t i b l e to lapses of memory, or ( i n the
p o l i t i c a l climate of factionalism during
the early Moslem centuries) to downright
911/Mazzaoui
f a b r i c a t i o n and falsehood, a subsidiary
science developed to v e r i f y and a s c e r t a i n
the v e r a c i t y of the chains of narrators
( ' i l m a l - j a r h wa a t - t a ' d i l ) .
Hardly any subject, whether i t be the
Islamic sciences such as Koran, Hadith,
law, and t h e o l o g y , or the s o - c a l l e d
f o r e i g n s c i e n c e s such as p h i l o s o p h y ,
logic, metaphysics, mathematics,
astronomy, e t c . , escaped the i n q u i s i t i v e
mind of Moselm s c h o l a r s . The w o r l d
belonged to them: the world they created
with t h e i r new r e l i g i o n and t h e i r new
conquests, as w e l l as the world they
inherited i n the ancient Near E a s t . Both
of these worlds were now the all-encom-
passing and u n i v e r s a l domain of Islam.
One of the e a r l i e s t and most important
sciences thus developed was the science
of genealogy ( ' i l m al-ansab). The Moslem
w r i t e r s , proud of the tremendous achieve-
ments of Islam, wanted to f i n d out, so to
speak, how i t a l l began. To do so they
went back i n t o t h e i r past: t h e i r pre-
Islamic past, and the early past of t h e i r
Prophet and h i s times. That led them
d i r e c t l y i n t o t h e i r o l d f a m i l i e s and
tribes. And thus began the e f f o r t s to
r e c o r d the o r a l t r a d i t i o n s c o n c e r n i n g
ancestors and descendants. The w r i t e r s
developed the most elaborate system of
w r i t i n g down the names and r e l a t i o n s h i p s
of everybody whom they could track down,
organizing the names i n t o f a m i l i e s and
t r i b e s as f a r back as they could go,
r e a c h i n g i n many cases to Adam, the
father of a l l mankind.
One of the e a r l i e s t of these genealogists
(nassabahs) was Hisham Ibn a l - K a l b i who
was born almost e x a c t l y one hundred years
a f t e r the death of the Prophet and who
died at the advanced age of eighty or
more. We are t o l d that Ibn a l - K a l b i :
. . . i s so scrupulous i n h i s pursuit
of exactitude that even he quotes
his own father through the medium
of other n a r r a t o r s . . . Apart from
o r a l sources, Ibn a l - K a l b i c i t e d
s p e c i a l i s t s who had access t o
B i b l i c a l and Palmyran s o u r c e s . . . ;
he was kept informed of archae-
6
logical discoveries in the
Yemen...; he seems to have had a
secretary called D j a b a l a who
provided him with t r a n s l a t i o n s from
P a h l a v i . . . , and he h i m s e l f c o n -
sulted the archives and tablets of
the Christian communities of
al-Hira.
The l a t e German scholar Werner Caskel ( i n
c o l l a b o r a t i o n w i t h Gert Strenziok) pub-
l i s h e d i n 1966 two large volumes based on
Ibn a l - K a l b l ' s Jamharat an-nasab ( t h e
c o l l e c t i o n of genealogies), reducing the
work i n t o numerous genealogical tables i n
Volume 1 and providing an alphabetical
l i s t of names (pp. 95-614) i n Volume 2.
This i s by f a r the most detailed and
i m p o r t a n t work on Moslem g e n e ^ o g y
a v a i l a b l e to the modern researcher.
Ibn a l - K a l b i , who also wrote a famous
work on the pagan i d o l s before Islam, was
so f a s c i n a t e d w i t h genealogy t h a t he
wrote a short work on the genealogy of
horses i n pre-Islamic Arabia and e a r l y
Islam, l i s t i n g as many as 157 names of
famous horses and t h e i r pedigrees
( i n c l u d i n g the names of the f i v e horsey
that belonged to the Prophet Muhammad).
To the next generation belong two famous
Moslem genealogists, an uncle and h i s
nephew: M u s ' a b i b n 'Abd a l l a h a z -
Zubayri, and z-Zubayr ibn Bakkar, whose
works go back to the second h a l f of the
second Moslem century and the f i r s t h a l f
of the t h i r d . Their compositions,
together with the work of Ibn A l - K a l b i ,
became the bas^c sources f o r l a t e r Moslem
genealogists.
The work of Ibn Durayd a l - A z d i (A.D.
838-933) on genealogy was e d i t e d by
F e r d i n a n d W u s t e n f e l d i n G o t t i n g e n as
e a r l y as 1854. Wustenfeld, two 'years
before, had published extensive
genealogical tables of Arab f a m i l i e s and
tribes.
In a s h o r t i n t r o d u c t i o n to h i s work
(which i t s editor c a l l s a "genealogical-
e t y m o l o g i c a l handbook"), Ibn Durayd
discusses b r i e f l y his method as f o l l o w s :
"We have set f o r t h i n our book the names
911/Mazzaoui
of the t r i b e s ( q a b a ' i l ) and sub-tribes
( ' a m a ' i r , a f k h a d h , b u t u n ) , and went
beyond that by mentioning the names of
t h e i r l e a d e r s , n o t a b l e s , p o e t s , and
horsemen, as w e l l as those who led t h e i r
a r m i e s , ^tJheir government, and t h e i r
affairs."
Ibn D y r a y d , l i k e many o t h e r Moslem
genealogists b e f o r e and a f t e r h i m ,
attempts to e x p l a i n why c e r t a i n names
were used to designate i n d i v i d u a l s . He
relates the meaning of the name vised to
d e s c r i b e the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the
i n d i v i d u a l so named and states that:
The Arabs had various t r a d i t i o n s i n
naming t h e i r sons. Some gave them
such names as Ghalib ( v i c t o r ) as a
sign of good fortune against t h e i r
enemies.... Some gave t h e i r sons
such names as N a ' i l , S a ' d , or S a ' i d
i n order to bring luck to the per-
sons so named, e t c . Others gave
names of f e r o c i o u s a n i m a l s l i k e
Asad ( l i o n ) to f r i g h t e n t h e i r
enemies with the use of such names.
S t i l l others used names designating
hard and course wood such as Talhah
and Qatadah, also f o r good fortune;
or the names of rocks and stones
such as Ha j a r and Sakhr. It is
a l s o s a i d t h a t a man might be
outside h i s home while h i s w i f e i s
g i v i n g b i r t h , and when t o l d of the
b i r t h of a new son he would give
him the name of the^ f i r s t object
that caught h i s eye.
The next Moslem genealogist, and perhaps
the most famous name i n Moslem genealogy,
i s the Andalusian w r i t e r Ibn Hazm ( A . D .
994-1064). H i s work, Jamharat ansab
a l - ' A r a b (the compendium of Arab gene-
alogies) , i s by f a r the largest book on
the subject so f a r published. In i t Ibn
Hazm, l i k e o t h e r Moslem g e n e a l o g i s t s
b e f o r e h i m , comments on the famous
Koranic verse dealing with the c r e a t i o n
of t r i b e s and nations (mentioned e a r l i e r )
and goes on to say:
Although God has decreed that the
most noble i s the most devout, even
i f he be the son of a black p r o s t i -
7
t u t e , w h i l e the r e b e l and the
unbeliever i s placed at the lowest
l e v e l , even i f he be the son of
prophets, He has nevertheless made
i t an a i m , by c r e a t i n g us i n
nations and i n t r i b e s , that men
should g i v e r e c o g n i t i o n to each
other. Consequently the science of
genealogy i s of negessity a science
of great d i g n i t y .
The best known of a l l Moslem genealogical
works i s that of as-Sam'ani, a t w e l f t h -
c e n t u r y descendant of an i l l u s t r i o u s
f a m i l y of scholars that h a i l s from Merv
i n Central A s i a . His work i s simply
c a l l e d K i t a b a l - a n s a b (the book of
g e n e a l o g i e s ) , and i s r e c o g n i z e d as a
c l a s s i c on the subject of Moslem gene-
alogy. The work was p u b l i s h e d i n
f a c s i m i l e with a short i n t r o d u c t i o n by
D . S . M a r g o l i o u t h i n the famous Gibb
Memorial Series i n 1912. The manuscript
i s i n 603 f o l i o s (1,206 pages); i t has no
index, but since the names are alphabet-
i c a l l y arranged i n the te^jt, i t was f e l t
that no index was needed.
Sam'ani's K i t a b al-ansab gained immedi-
tate r e c o g n i t i o n i n i t s time so that one
of the most celebrated Moslem Arab h i s -
t o r i a n s , Ibn a l - A t h i r , the author of
a l - K a m i l , (who knew Sam'ani inasmuch as
the two scholars read each other's works
together), brought out a summary of the
o r i g i n a l W^ork with additions and some
deletions. Later on i n the f i f t e e n t h
century, an equally famous Moslem w r i t e r ,
a s - S u y u t i , summarized Ibn a l - A t h i r ' s
summary i n a short volume.21
Before launching i n t o names and gene-
a l o g i e s , Sam'ani introduces h i s work with
t h i r t e e n short chapters (pp. 2b-12b) i n
which he discusses rather b r i e f l y c e r t a i n
t h e o r e t i c a l q u e s t i o n s r e l a t i n g to the
concept of genealogy i n Islam. This i s
perhaps the e a r l i e s t m e t h o d o l o g i c a l
d i s c u s s i o n of the s u b j e c t .
In t h i s Introduction, Sam'ani deals with
the f o l l o w i n g t o p i c s : 1. the importance
of the s c i e n c e of g e n e a l o g y ; 2 . the
genealogy of the Prophet ( t h i r t y genera-
tions to Abraham, ten more to Joah, and
911/Mazzaoui
eight more to Adam); 3. the genealogy of
Banu Hashim, the family of the Prophet;
4. the genealogy of Quraysh, the subtribe
of the Prophet; 5. the origin and gene-
alogy of the Arabs; 6. the genealogy of
Mudar; 7. the Arabs of Yemen, descendants
of Qahtan; 8. the genealogy of Kahlan and
Saba'; 9. the tribe of Quda'ah; 10. the
genealogy of various other tribes; 11.
Arab t r i b e s known f o r t h e i r lack of
nobility; 12. certain groups who know
nothing about genealogy, which, according
to the author " i s a reprehensible thing";
13. the knowledge by the Arabs of gene-
alogies, which i s the longest section of
the introduction (pp. 7b-12b).
To collect material for his work, Sam'ani
traveled far and wide i n the Moslem world
of his time. "Traditions were some-
times collected by him during a stay of
an hour, whereas at other times he had to
encounter d i f f i c u l t i e s and delay i n
getting ^h-e information which he
required."
The six Moslem genealogists whose works
have been treated briefly above are by
far the most noted men i n their f i e l d :
Ibn al-Kalbi, z-Zubayr ibn Bakkar and his
uncle al-Mus'ab, Ibn Durayd, Ibn Hazm,
and as-Sam'ani became the authorities who
developed the t r a d i t i o n of Moslem
genealogy and handed i t down to later
writers.
However, aside from the genealogists
themselves, other w r i t e r s i n v a r i a b l y
dealt with the subject of genealogy i n
their works, especially the historians,
for genealogy and history often went hand
in hand particularly i n works orginating
in earlier Moslem centuries.
One such historian, al-Baladhuri who died
i n A.D. 892, i n fact called his famous
h i s t o r i c a l work Ansab al-ashraf (the
genealogies of famous men), and followed
a genealogical approach i n presenting the
events of Moslem history:
He began his book with the gene-
alogy of Noah... then moved on to
the Arabs beginning with "Adnan,
the head of the genealogical column
8
of the Prophet. He then dealt with
the ancestors of the Prophet one by
one u n t i l the Prophet's birth...
taking the sons of the Prophet's
f i r s t grandfather 'Abd al-Muttalib
one by one, followed by their sons
and grandsons and descendants
recording the events and traditions
of their time. Then he went back
to the sons of Hashim, the second
granfather of the Prophet. After
dealing with the descendants of
Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf, he takes up
the sons of Abd Shams ibn 'Abd
Manaf. Thus he keeps following the
genealogical columns u n t i l he
reaches an-^Jadr known by the name
of Quraysh.
Baladhuri has an equally famous work on
the Moslem conquests e n t i t l e d Futuh
al-buldan In which he deals with the
various countries conquered by the Arabs,
the reasons for their given names, and
the leaders of the conquests. In Ansab
al-shraf, on the other hand, he deals
with individuals, their descendants, and
traditions. The latter work, therefore,
is on the one hand a work on genealogies
and on the other a book of historical
events. In fact, the f i r s t part of
Volume 1 of Ansa al-ashraf i s heavily
based on Ibn al-Kalbi's Jamharat an-nasab
with additions and commentaries.
Later Moslem writers continued to base
t h e i r genealogical information on the
earlier classical writers of the genre.
One such famous writer was al-Qalqashandi
(A.D. 1355-1418) who treated the question
of genealogy i n this encyclopedic work
Subh al-a'sha and wrote two shorter works
for his patrons entitled Nihayat al-arab
and Qala'id al-juman which dealt specif-
i c a l l y with genealogy.
In the latter work, Qala'id al-juman,
Qalqashandi starts out with an intro-
duction on the science of Moslem
genealogy i n five short chapters which
deal with: 1. the importance of the
subject i t s e l f ; 2. who the Arabs were and
their different groups; 3. c l a s s i f i c a -
tions (tabaqat) i n genealogy (Here he
distinguishes six of these: the nation
911/Mazzaoui
[sha'b], the t r i b e [ q a b i l a h ] , the
subtribe ['imarah], the branch [batn],
the subbranch [ fakhdh], and the family
[fasilah]; 4.the ancient homes of the
Arabs from which they moved to other
lands; 5. c e r t a i n important matters
required by the genealogists. He l i s t s
ten of these, often bringing the discus-
sion to his own time.
The above discussion on the science of
genealogy ( ' i l m al-ansab) shows clearly
how important the topic was f o r the
Moslem scholar: the genealogist, the
h i s t o r i a n , the geographer, the b i o -
grapher, and others. It was equally
important to those writers who dealt with
what came to be known as adab literature,
the most celebrated among these writers
being Abu a l - F a r a j a l - I s f a h a n i , Ibn
Qutaybah, al-Jahiz, and T h a ' a l i b i . The
belles letters of these and other writers
are mines of information on Moslem
genealogy.
However, works on genealogy continued to
be written in later centuries and the
i n t e r e s t i n the topic never r e a l l y
abated. In an eighteenth century work on
the genealogies of the people of Medina,
for example, a local genealogist, 'Abd
ar-Rahman al-Ansari, states "I am dealing
in particular with the genealogies of the
people of Medina who are l i v i n g at the
time of writing of this book....I have
covered in i t most of the fathers, sons,
mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers,
nephews, and grandchildren, whether they
are notables or whether they belong to
the lower classes." The book's editor
sums up his views on i t by saying, "It
depicts the Medinese society i n the
twelfth Hijrah century i n i t s various
p o l i t i c a l , social, and economic condi-
t i o n s , thus providing the researcher,
particularly the social scientist, with
the necessary material f o ^ i n v e s t i g a t i o n ,
analysis, and education."
Another writer, this time of the early
nineteenth century, Myhammad Amin
al'Baghdadi as-Wuwaydi (d. 1830), decided
to recast one of Qalquashandi's works on
genealogy (referred to above) and reduce
the genealogical Information i n i t into
9
genealogical tables and family trees. In
additon, Suwaydi has included i n this
work the family tree of the Ottoman
sultans with brief notes on their reigns
ending with the reigning Sultan 'Aj^d
al-'Aziz whose rule began i n A.H. 1277.
Works on genealogy, especially the tribes
and t h e i r ancestors and descendents,
continue to be written nowadays mainly
for research purposes, but also to relate
the past of Moslem society to i t s
present. 'Umar Kahhalah's Qaba'il
al-'Arab i s a multi-volume work of this
type and 'Abbas al-'Azzawi's 'Asha'ir
al-'Iraq deals with family and t r i b a l
relations i n one Moslem country.
CONCLUSIONS
Traditional Moslem names relating sons to
fathers to grandfathers ad i n f i n i t u m ,
have become cumbersome i n modern Moslem
society. Early this century, governments
passed legislation requiring individuals
to adopt specific, one-word, family names
so that they can be more easily iden-
tified. The President of republican
Turkey, Mustafa Kemal, was honored by his
people with the name of Ataturk (father
of the Turks), and the l a s t r u l i n g
dynasty i n Iran took the name of Pahlavl
which conjured up the ancient glories of
Iran. And the people followed suit,
often reviving old names i n conformity
with current nationalistic feelings.
But i n spite of the modernizing attempts
by twentieth century governments, the
tradition of genealogy i s very much alive
in Moslem society today. No self-respec-
ting wife i n a traditional Moslem family
would c a l l her husband by his f i r s t name.
To her he i s Abu Hasan or Abu Mustafa
( i . e . , the father of their first-born
son). He too would always c a l l her Umm
Hasan or Umm Mustafa ( i . e . , mother of
Hasan, etc.). Family trees are often
displayed prominently in living rooms and
added to as new children are born or new
marriages contracted. Attempts have
recently been made to publish newsletters
containing information on members of the
family: births, marriages, and deaths.
911/Mazzaoui
This i s perhaps a sign of family
cohesiveness i n view of the loss of
confidence i n the state and i t s
institutions.
It i s d i f f i c u l t , i f not almost Impos-
sible, to imagine l i f e and society in the
Middle East today without genealogy and
without mention of family t i e s and
relations. A few reasons for t h i s
phenomenon may be briefly noted:
a) The most obvious reason for the inter-
est i n genealogy and family relations i s
that these form the best topic of conver-
sation and gossip at social gatherings.
This i s a l l the more so i n a society
which i s s t i l l not highly educated ( i f
not i n many cases t o t a l l y i l l i t e r a t e ) and
not intellectually oriented. Marriages
within the family are always discussed.
F i r s t cousins, especially are expected to
enter into a marriage union. Although of
late this custom i s usually frowned upon,
s t i l l i f such marriages are not con-
tracted, nearly always there i s something
that has gone wrong, e.g., a f i g h t
between the brothers, a scandalous love
a f f a i r , etc.
b) Another more important reason has to
do with the question of inheritance and
succession. This i s handled by Moslem
r e l i g i o u s courts of law and follows
h i g h l y elaborate and complex systems
orginally promulgated i n the Koran.
c) The interest i n genealogy, hinted to
above, serves to maintain family s o l i -
darity i n the face of insecurity i n the
outside world. This i s perhaps the most
NOTES
Ahmad i b n ' A l i a l - Q a l q a s h a n d i ,
al-Hadithah, 1963), p. 7.
2
For Iranians i t i s Firdawsi's Shahnamah or Book of Kings, and for Turks i t i s
the Book of Dede Korkut.
10
u t i l i t a r i a n aspect of preserving gene-
alogical t i e s . In fact, the individual
Moslem rarely faces his government and
i t s o f f i c i a l s by himself alone. When he
has a problem, he f i r s t checks i t out
with an influential member of his family
and seeks his advice on the best course
of a c t i o n . In many cases, e n t i r e
families suffer due to indiscretions on
the part of c e r t a i n members of the
family.
d) The enlarged family or household i s
s t i l l an important aspect of l i f e i n
t r a d i t i o n a l Moslem s o c i e t i e s . The
grandparents, the parents, the unmarried
s i s t e r s , and sometimes the aunts and
uncles, remain an integral part of the
family, l i v i n g i n the same house with the
eldest son, h i s w i f e , and c h i l d r e n .
This, as to be expected, may cause
interminable f r i c t i o n within the family,
but i t has i n certain cases solved the
problem of baby-sitting and provided the
younger generation of growing children
with a happy and loving atmosphere.
For these and other reasons, the tradi-
tion of genealogy among Moslems i s s t i l l
very strong and meaningful to millions of
people throughout the world. "Moslems
are brothers i n the faith," i s an often
heard expression. And although the
modern concept of nationalism has taken
over i n a l l Moslem countries, there
certainly appears to be a supranational
feeling among Moslems that has kept them
united i n a way that does not seem to
exist i n other societies. This l i e s at
the roots of the Moslem revival in the
world today.
Q a l a ' i d al-Juman (Cairo: Dar al-kutub
911/Mazzaoui 11

3
Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-Lubnani, 1961), pp. 225
f f . ; Franz Rosenthal's translation, The Muqaddimah, (Pantheon Books, 1958), I: 264 f f .
4
D. de Santillana i n The Legacy of Islam, ed. Arnold and Guillaume (Oxford
Univ. Press, 1965), p. 284.
Lecerf, " ' A ' i l a , " Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed., I; 305-306. See also
by the same writer, "Note sur l a famille dans le monde Arabe et islamique," Arabica 3
(1956): 31-60.
6
Koran, 49;13.
7 2
'Hasab wa-Nasab, contributed by the editor, E.I.
8
Tabari, Tarlkh (Leiden edition), VII: 111 f f .
9
Michael M. Mazzaoui, the Origins of the Safawids (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner,
1972), pp. 46 f f .
On 'ilm al-ansab and the earliest genealogists see Ibn an-Nadim, al-Fihrist
(Cairo; al-Maktabah at-Tijariyah al-Kubra, n.d.), pp. 137 f f .
11 2
W. Atallah, "al-Kalbi," E.I. , IV: 494-96, based on information from Tabari
and others.

^"^erner Caskel, Gamharat an-Nasab: das Genealogische Werk des h i s am ibn

Muhammad al-Kalbi, 2 v o l . (Leiden: E. J . B r i l l , 1966). In volume I , see "Die
Genealogie vor dem Islam," pp. 23-24, and "Die Genealogie im Islam," pp. 25-47.
13
I b n al-Kalbi, Ansab al-khayl f l al-Jahiliyah wa al-Islam..., ed. Ahmad Zaki
(Cairo: Dar al-Kutub, 1946).

^Mus'ab ibn 'Abd Allah az-Zubayri, Kitab Nasab Quraysh, ed. E. Levi-Provencal
(Cairo: Dar al^ía'arif, 1953); and az-Zubayr ibn Bakkar, Jamharat Hasab Quraysh
wa-Akhbariha, ed. Mahmud Muhammad Shakir (Cairo; Dar al-'Urubah, A.H. 1381.).
15
I b n Durayd al-Azdi, Kitab al-ishtiqaq, ed. F. Wustenfeld, Ibn Doreid's
genealogisch-etymologisches Handbuch (Gottingen, 1854); F. Wustenfeld, Genealogische
Tabellen der Arabischen Stamme und Familien, (Gottingen, 1852).

*^Ibn Durayd, Kitab al-ishtiqaq, p. 3.

7
^ I b i d . , pp. 4-5.
18 2
R. Arnaldez, "Ibn Hazm," E.I. , I I I : 790-99.
19
" A b d al-Darim ibn Muhammad Abu Sa'd a l - S a m ' a n i , The Kitabal-ansab,
reproduced i n facsimile from the manuscript i n the B r i t i s h Museum Add. 23,355 with an
introduction by D.S. Margoliouth, Gibb Mermorial Series, XX (Leiden: E . J . B r i l l ,
1912).
2 0
' I z z ad-Din Ibn a l - A t h i r , al-Lubab f i tahdhib al-ansab, 3 volumes (Beirut:
Dar Sadir, n . d . ) .
911/Mazzaoui

21
J a l a l ad-Din 'Abd ar-Rahman as-Suyuti, Lubb al-lubab f i tahrir al-ansab, ed.
P. J . Veth (Leiden, 1840, 1842?), reprinted by Muthanna, Baghdad, n.d.
22
On Sam'ani's travels see "Introduction" by Margoliouth referred to i n note
19 above; and Munirah Haji Salim, these on Sam'ani (Cairo, 1976), pp. 141-238.
23
Sam'ani, The Kitab al-ansab, Introduction, p. 3 (based on material extracted
form Sam'ani's own work).
24
Pp. 25-26 of the introduction by 'Abd as-Sattar Farraj to v o l . 1 of
Baladhurl's Ansab al-ashraf, ed. Muhammad Hamid Allah, (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1959).
25
Qalqashandi, Qala'id al-juman, pp. 7-23.
26
'Abd ar-Rahman al-Ansari, Tuhfat Al-muhibbin..., ed. Muhammad a l - ' A r u s i
al-Matwi (Tunis: 1390/1970), p. 3 of the text, and p. w of the introduction.
27
Muhammad Amin al-Baghdadi as-Suwaydi, Saba'ik adh-dhahab f i ma'rifat qaba'il
al-'Arab, based on Qalqashandi's Nihayat al-arab f i ma'rifat ansab al-'Arab (Cairo:
al-Maktabah at-Tijariyah al-Kubra, n.d.).
 WORLD
CONFERENCE
ON RECORDS
PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE
August 12-15,1980

Genealogical Records
of Medieval India
S. A. I. Tirmizi
Series 912
 The statements or
opinions expressed by
speakers at the conference
either verbally or
in written form
are those of the speakers
and do not
necessarily represent
the official position
of the sponsors of
the conference

Copyright © 1980
All Rights Reserved

Published in the
United States of America
Corporation of the President of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
 GENEALOGICAL RECORDS OF MEDIEVAL INDIA

S. A. I. Tirmizi

Born i n I n d i a . Resides i n New D e l h i , I n d i a . D i r e c t o r , Khtional Archives of India and

v i s i t i n g professor of h i s t o r y , U n i v e r s i t y of D e l h i . M . A . (Persian and Urdu),
U n i v e r s i t y of Bombay, I n d i a . M.A. ( h i s t o r y ) , A l i g a r h Muslim U n i v e r s i t y . Author,
lecturer.

The aim of the present study is times. In ancient I n d i a , h i s t o r i c a l

restricted: i t i s to draw the a t t e n t i o n
of scholars to some genealogical records
of medieval India which have not received
the attention they deserve. The reasons
f o r t h i s phenomenon are not hard to f i n d .
The study of genealogy has been
considered a sign of an obsolete, e f f e t e ,
and worn-out n a t i o n . M o r e o v e r , many
jest at what i s c a l l e d pedigree-hunting.
There have, however, been not a few who
have been more or less interested i n
knowing something of t h e i r own genealogy,
however humble i t might be. This i s
proved by the number of those who have
taken some pains to trace t h e i r pedigree
and place i t on permanent record.
records were c a l l e d vamsas or d y n a s t i e s .
Their t i t l e ^Indicates t h e i r o r i g i n as
genealogies. A c c o r d i n g to the Vayu
Purana, i t was the special duty of the
s u t a s to p r e s e r v e the g e n e a l o g i e s o f
gods, r i s h i s , or sages and most glorious
kings. From the time of the Imperial
G u p t a s , the r o y a l a r c h i v e s kept the
genealogical l i s t s . This i s evident from
the e p i g r a p h i c a l r e c o r d s t h a t g i v e
s t e r e o t y p e d l i s t s o f k i n g s o f some
dynasties f o r generations together, and
i n some cases witb^ regnal years, exactly
as i n the Puranas.
Ill

II
It i s pertinent to point out i n t h i s
connection that a l l races of men seem to
possess an i n s t i n c t i v e f e e l i n g that a
l i n e of honorable ancestry i s a subject
of legitimate p r i d e . It i s true that
t h i s f e e l i n g has been exaggerated i n t o
what may be termed ancestor-worship, and
with those people with whom i t does not
a t t a i n such a form, the family trees of
t h e i r kings are u s u a l l y deduced from a
god or at least a demigod. It was so
with the Greeks and the Romans. It i s so
with the Indians, who claim d i v i n e o r i g i n
p a r t i c u l a r l y f o r t h e i r k i n g s , whose
pedigrees they trace back to the Sun, the
Moon, and the F i r e .
The idea of preserving genealogies seems
to have appealed to Indians since remote
As i n a n c i e n t I n d i a , so i n m e d i e v a l
t i m e s , h o n o r a b l e a n c e s t r y was h i g h l y
esteemed. This i s shown by the attention
given to genealogy i n medieval Indian
chronicles which usually include
shajarat, or family trees, and
nasabnamas, o r g e n e a l o g i c a l f a b l e s o f
kings.
At the very beginning of the Turkish r u l e
i n north I n d i a , Fakhri Mudabbir wrote
Shajara-i-Ansab-i-Mubarak Shahi
c o m p r i s i n g m a i n l y the g e n e a l o g i c a l
t a b l e s . The one hundred and t h i r t y - s e v e n
genealogies r e l a t e to Adam and Eve and
t h e i r descendants, the prophets mentioned
i n the Q u r ' a n , the G h a s s a n i d s , p r e -
I s l a m i c and I s l a m i c p o e t s , the p r e -
Islamic Persian k i n g s , the Umayyads, the
Abbasids and t h e i r nobles, and so on down
to the Ghaznavids and the Ghorids. The
912/Tlrmizi
author was probably a native of Multan
and went to Lahore a^fter the G h o r i d
occupation i n 1186 A . D .
An anonymous w r i t e r composed i n about 968
A.H./1561 A . D . a sort of d i a r y or note-
book c o n t a i n i n g , among o t h e r t h i n g s ,
genealogies. It i s e n t i t l e d T a f s i l i
Salatin i Delhi. It comprises a series
of short notes on the emperors of D e l h i
from 602 to 1206 A.H./960 to 1561 A . D .
H a l f a century l a t e r , i n 1016 A.H./1607
A.D., Fursi compiled Nasabnama i
Shahryari which i s a poem on the h i s t o r y
of the Qutb Shahi dynasty extending to
the beginning of Muhammad Q u l i ' s reign
(989-1020 A.H./1581-1611 A . D . ) .
U n l i k e the Nasabnama i S h a h r y a r i , the
Nasabul ansab i s i n prose. It i s a
general h i s t o r y of India which comes down
to 1210 A.H./1795 A.D. Five years l a t e r
the Nasabnama i r a j a h a i M a i s u r was
translated from Kanada i n t o P e r s i a n . It
i s a l i s t of the r u l e r s of Mysore from
the time of Timaaraj to the time of
Haidar A l i with the dates of t h e i r b i r t h ,
the names of t h e i r wives and c h i l d r e n ,
and the t e r r i t o r i e s over which they
r u l e d . It was translated i n t o Persian at
the instance of Tigu Sultan by Asad Anwar
and Ghulam Husain.
S i m i l a r l y the Nasabnama i J a r e j a h i s
based on the o r a l statements of a c e r t a i n
Upadhyah K u r j i Jadev M i r , an inhabitant
of Virah i n the Pargana of B h u j . It i s a
h i s t o r y of a r u l i n g t r i b e of Kutch from
i t s o r i g i n t o 1819 A . D . I t was
translated from G u j a r a t i into Persian by
the o r d e r o f M r . W a l t e r ,
1
assistant
resident of Kutch.
IV
The s h a j a r a t and nasabnamas d e t a i l e d
above correspond to r a j a w a l i s and bakhars
compiled d u r i n g the m e d i e v a l p e r i o d .
Banwali Das W a l i , munshi or secretary of
Shah Jahan, composed R a j a w a l i , which i s a
short account of the Hindu rajas of Delhi
from J u d h i s h t i r to the i n v a s i o n o f
Muizzud Din ibn Sam Ghori, followed by a
t a b u l a t e d l i s t of subsequent Muslim
10
r u l e r s to Shah Jahan
Likewise Kanji Mal compiled a chronologi-
c a l l i s t of the Hindu rajas from
Judhishtir to P r i t h v i r a j Chavhan and of
the Muslim rulers from Muizzud Din ibn
Sam Ghori to the accession of Akbar I I .
Akin to rajawalis are bakhars, which
began to be w r i t t e n during the
seventeenth century and continued down to
the nineteenth century. They usually
start with the age of the Pandavas of
Hastinapur and, tracing genealogies from
the mythological heroes, come down to
Prithviraj Chavhan and then to the Rajput
kings of Udaipur and their descendants.
These men traveled south, took the name
of Bhonsle, and became, the founders of
the family of Shivaji.
Equally important are the vahis and the
pindhiyawalis. The former were compiled
by the Charans and Bhat s, the family
bards of the Rajput families. The origin
of the institution of family bards i s
s t i l l uncertain, but i t s efflorescence
seems to extend from approximately the
fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
The hereditary genealogists and bards of
the Rajputs of e a r l i e r periods were
Brahmans known as Bhats. The development
of bhasa or vernacular literature at that
time and the replacement of Sanskrit by
the vernacular resulted i n the populari-
zation of epic poetry. Gradually even
the Brahman-^hats began to compose i n the
vernacular.
These bards preserved the genealogical
records of their Rajput patrons and paid
them periodic v i s i t s carrying with them
vahis or ledger-books containing their
patrons' family registers. Every bard
maintained one vahi or section of the
vahi for each lineage of his patron. I f
the patron was tilayut or head of the
lineage, the vahi traced his descent as
far as the founder of the clan, who i n
many cases was a legendary figure. But
i f the patron happened to be a member of
phutayo or cadet branch, his descent was
912/Tlrmizi

t r a c e d o n l y as f a r as the branch periodic c i r c u i t s from v i l l a g e to v i l l a g e

a n c e s t o r , and the i n f o r m a t i o n on the
remoter ancestors was obtained from the
vahi of the senior l i n e . The vahi i s a
record of authority by which questions of
c o n s a n g u i n i t y were determined when
marriage was on the t a p i s , and by which
d i s p u t e s r e l a t i n g to the d i v i s i o n o^
ancestral p r o p e r t y were d e c i d e d .
Despite the richness of these records,
the material has to be sifted
judiciously. S i n c e the r e c o r d s are
recopied from time to time, a degree of
i n t e r p o l a t i o n cannot be r u l e d o u t .
Sometimes anachronisms may be g l a r i n g ,
and separation of a kernel of truth from
l i t e r a r y hyperbole can prove a daunting
task.
More accurate than vahis are
pindhiyawalis, or genealogical t a b l e s ,
which are generally i n the form^of l i s t s
of bare names without dates. These
o r d e r l y and accurate pindhiyawa]is do not
appear to be the work of the ancestors of
the bards, whose rough and disconnected
genealogies compare most unfavorably w i t h
the s y s t e m a t i c p i n d h i y a w a l i s . I t i s
probable that while the bards went on
with t h e i r genealogical s c r i b b l e s , other
men b e t t e r t r a i n e d i n m e t h o d i c a l and
accurate work compiled the pindhiyawalis
i n the c a p i t a l , probably i n part from the
v e r y d a t a f u r n i s h e d to them by the
t r a v e l i n g bards.
In sum then, medieval India can claim
i n s t i t u t i o n s which have bequeathed to us
a f a i r l y r i c h heritage of genealogical
records. Such records include shajarat,
nasabnamahs, r a j a w a l i s , bakhars, v a h i s ,
and p i n d h i y a w a l i s . These records go a
long way i n providing clues to the myths
of origin, individual life-style,
intercommunity r e l a t i o n s , i n d i v i d u a l acts
of beneficence and m e r i t . Apart from
queens and princesses, women by and large
receive only i n c i d e n t a l notice i n these
records. It may be doubted whether any
I n d i a n g e n e a l o g i s t ever c o m p i l e d a
p e d i g r e e which i n c l u d e d female l i n e s .
Though r i c h i n genealogical data these
records have tended to be u n d e r - u t i l i z e d
by researchers, and i t i s imperative that
attempts should now be made to document
them before they are l o s t to p o s t e r i t y
through disuse.

NOTES

"^R.C. Majumdar i n H i s t o r i a n s of I n d i a , Pakistan and Ceylon, ed. C. H . P h i l l i p s

(London, 1962), p . 56.
2
I b i d . , p . 15.
I b i d . , p . 16.

Peter Hardy i n Historians of India, pp. 116-17.

\ . Ethe Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts i n the Library of the India Office I

(Oxford, 1903), no. 412.

^C.A. Storey, Persian Literature, v o l . 1, part 1 (London, 1927), p. 746.

Ibid., p. 493.
8
I b i d . , p. 774.
9
Ibid., p. 733.
10
I b i d . , pp. 451-52.
 T. N. Dave, "The Institution of Bards i n Western India," The Eastern
Anthropologist, 4(151):168.

Haimendorf in Historians of India, p. 80.

A.K. Forbes, Rasmala I I , ed. H. R. Rawlinson (London, 1924), p. 264.