As from the Hakka origin article, we mentioned that Hakkas tends to have a 'true Han" attitude or mentality, and were most diligent in keeping clan/family genealogy records.

If we could trace the records back close to Yellow Emperor time, then most likely our ancestors were not just neighbor, but were relative; like an elder said, they eat the dinner at the same table(family members)! According to my clan/family genealogy, I am 148th generation now. In Fukien province, we lived for 20 generations. I have seen my grandfather's grave, grand grand father's grave all the way back to 20 generations ago.

I did not know a thing about my origin until I came to USA and saw a
Vietnamese oversea Chinese family's clan genealogy dated back to Han Dynasty's Han Wu Ti. I went back Malaysia and visited a few relatives with my mom to search for my root thinking if I could trace 2-3 generations, that is good enough. When visiting one relative in Butterworth, he refered to another relative in Taiping, and that is where I got a copy of the family genealogy dated 148 generations. That copy was brought out by the third brother of my grandfather when he brought my mother to be married to my father(They never seen each other before and there was no picture!).

On my subsequent visitation to my dad's home village, China, I discovered that essentially all the people in that village have the same last name. The sons and daughters are to marry other villagers, not within the same village. They have the ancestors graves buried around the vilage and usually there is a "clan temple" to pay respect to the ancestors. When there is a intellect gaining good position or passed certain exam, they would elect a Wen pillar. If there is a military officer, they would elect a Wu pillar.

Some villages have great many pillars in front of the "clan temple" boasting the "greatness" of their village. As for my village, the pillars were all torn down during cultural revolution and the "clan temple" were turned into "revolutionary factory" whatever it mean. The "factory" was eventually converted back to "clan temple" but the pillars were all gone. I visited surrounding villages, some of them have magnificant pillars and grand "clan temple".

There is usually 1 person in charge of keeping track of the clan/family genealogy, and would add name as births were reported to him. He is usually good at calligraphy or have good handwriting. When a child is born, they would stick the name of the baby in the "clan temple" to annouce his/her birth "official"(villagewise), and was added to the clan/family genealogy.

If there is some unusual event happen in that person, a short paragraphy will describe the event. In my clan genealogy record, I read events such as: so & so was killed during a robbery raid, so and so went to America and whereabout unknown(that is unusual event a hundred years ago), so & so went to Burma and resides at this address, so & so marry a Macau's girl names Barbara(That is unusual event back in Chin dynasty), so & so join the army to fight with the Japanese etc.

As you read each short paragraph, you realized these are people, you own people and that were their stories, revealed by just a few lines. Most of them would So & So marry So & So, they have 3 children each named(in order of eldest to youngest), X, Y, Z.

There is also a collection of clan/family genealogy records grouped by last name. Sinorama magazine has a publisher that sell the genealogies under each major last names. You should be able to get that kind of information from Guo2 Xue2 Wen2 Xian4 Guan3 and Lian2 He2 Bao4 Wen2 Hua4 Ji1 Jin1 Hui4. (National Studies Documentary Archive and Union Journal Cultural Foundation) in Taiwan (1982).

Armed with the knowledege of your mainland China's ancestor registry, and knowing a few names of your elders would give you a fair chance to reconnect with your root. Dig hard! if you asked long enough, chances are someone in your relative have a copy of family genealogy especially if you know your dad's village in China.