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.