Help me find my family history without paying?

Question

I'm fully chinese and my parents emigrated to UK agges ago

My grandfather was a fisherman.

Is there anything i can do to find out my family history because they don't seem to know much themselves and my granparents are deceased.

Answer 1

http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.p...

I think this is an excellent site for you to start with.  My step grandfather was from China, and I have wanted to know his origins.

The problem is that compared to the UK or US, very very little Chinese genealogy is ON THE INTERNET.  That does not mean it does not exist.. Chinese ancestry was very important in history, and family records kept.  The downside is that not all of those survive, since the Communist regime was considered anti family/ anti- past, and many records destroyed.

Since your parents were the immigrants.. your first thing is to fully locate any UK records to see if you can find the village or province. From there, you'll know where to focus your research, but I'd say it is unrealistic to think it will be free.

My understanding is that the main library in Shanghai has a collection of the family records that survive. They do have a website, for contact purposes, but the records are not online.

Answer 2

you need a book on the subject-as you have to look at chinese records of births and deaths etc I doubt anyone on here will know.Try your library they may point you in the right direction.

Answer 3

Without any names, places, or dates, it would be impossible for us to try!  :o)

Do you know about what year your parents emigrated to the UK, and/or can you provide any other information?

Unfortunately, I don't believe Ancestry.com has much information available for China, but it is possible a distant relative of yours has posted information that would be useful to you.

You might try this link, I went to Ancestry.com and did a search for "Chinese" on the message boards and got 2,920 results (unfortunately, some of those mention "Chinese restaurant," etc.!) but you could try some key words pertinent to your family:  http://boards.ancestry.com/SearchResults...

I hope that helps!