The upheavals of revolutions, wars, famines and floods have destroyed many of the government records which could be useful genealogical resources in Taishan County, and in Jiangmen Prefecture and Guangdong Province, of which it is part.
Province:
A small portion of the Kwantung Provincial Imperial Archives was removed from the Viceroy's Yamen in Canton (aka Guangzhou) by British Forces during the second Anglo-Chinese War (aka The Arrow War) in 1857. Of the some 2000 documents dating from 1765 to 1857, only 376 concern the central and local administration of Kwangtung Province, and these are covered by document references FO 931/74 to FO 931/350. Among the more useful documents are the Kwangtung Gazette of the Governor General and his Yamen, lists of those in arrears with their taxes, annual reports on civil and military officials, lists of those conducting the imperial civil service examinations, and some mortgages and title deeds.
More details can be gleaned from A Critical Guide to the Kwangtung Provincial Archives, Deposited at the Public Record Office of London by David Pong, London 1975, which can still be ordered from Amazon.com.
This archive survived to the present day in one form or another. However many items were burnt or carried away by the KMT before they fled to Taiwan in 1949. Hence any search for missing material must be focused on Taipei, especially the National Central Library and the National Palace Museum.
Their addresses are:
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National Central Library 20 Chungshan South Road Taipei Republic of China |
Books and Documents Department National Palace Museum 221 Chihshan Road Section 2 Wai-shuang-shi Shihlin Taipei 111 Republic of China |
Today this archive is known as the Guangdong Provincial Archives, and is run by the Guangdong Archives Bureau. It was established in this form in 1958, but was abolished during the Cultural Revolution and then restored in 1979. About 50% of its holdings are from before the Communist Revolution of 1949. There are three major collections: Revolutionary History (1921-1949), Old Regime (pre 1949) and Post Revolution (post 1949).
The Old Regime Collection includes the Customs archives, as well as material from hospitals and some schools for 1861-1949. There are records from the KMT government and its departments, the Guangdong Supreme Court (1927-1949) and Guangdong Security Department archives (1948-1949), as well as records from banks, companies, railroads, shipping firms and university archives (1930-1949).
Prefecture:
The Bureau of Archives of the Jiangmen Prefecture has over 21,000 volumes, most since the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949, a large number from the days of the Republic and a few from the dynasties of the Ch'ing and Ming emperors. Census results are also stored here, but whether that is just the statistics gleaned from them or the enumerators' lists themselves is not known. Unfortunately their web site is now missing from the Internet. If you know where it is, please contact me.
County:
The Bureau of Archives of Taishan County was founded in December 1958, and is still a small institution of 909m2 with some 422 metres of records.
There was a catalogue accessable through the Internet, but that is no longer available. If you know where it is, please contact me.
It is located in the county capital at:
Bureau of Archives of Taishan County
21 Zhongshan Road
Taicheng Township
Taishan City
Guangdong Province 529211
People's Republic of China
Tel: (0750) 5522247
Access must be in person, and is 8:00-11:30 and 14:30-17:30 business days, with other days by appointment only. Foreigners must have written approval from the relevant government department to use these facilities. The most appropriate is probably the Bureau of Overseas Chinese Affairs for the County (qv), though success has been achieved with written commendations from the Wuyi University in Jiangmen.
There are two collections, pre-1949 and post-1949, the former going back to the Ch'ing and Ming Dynasties.
According to the book, Chinese Archives: An Introductory Guide (qv) ...
(p107) "An American researcher surveyed these archives in 1984 through arrangement with the State Archives Bureau. Materials shown included records of the county court (1937-1948), materials on the Overseas Chinese founder of a local railway, a history of Taishan volleyball, and voluminous material on Overseas Chinese."
However their catalogue notes that there are marriage records, census details, cancelled land titles, arboricultural titles and construction permits. It is unknown whether the census details include enumerators' lists, and date ranges were vague.
The National Statistical Bureau is responsible for all censuses and surveys in the People's Republic of China, summaries of which can be purchased from them. Since the Communist Revolution, nation-wide population censuses have been conducted in 1953, 1964, 1982, 1990 and 2000. Any enumerators' lists which survive are probably with the local Bureau of Archives and/or Bureau of Public Security.
The addresses of the Bureau in Beijing and Guangzhou are:
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National Statistical Bureau 75 Yutan Nanjie Sanlihe Beijing 100826 People's Republic of China |
Guangzhou Statistical Bureau Fuqian-lu 1 hao 4 lou Guangzhou 510032 Guangdong Province People's Republic of China |
The local Bureau of Public Security (ie. the Police) maintain a card-based register of all local families. Families are required by law to register with the local police whenever they move to a new address. The local police for their old address are then supposed to attach the new address to that family's card, so people can be traced if necessary.
In July 1999, the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing announced that this was to be replaced by an Internet-based registration system for everyone over 16 years of age. This ambitious project was to be completed within three years, and record the existing identification details, as well as a photograph and a unique identifier for each person. This may well be a boon to family research, but I shudder to think of the privacy and political implications.
The Bureau also issues passports, which can be useful in identifying emigrants, as well as obtaining dates and places of birth and other personal details.
Births, deaths and marriages are also registered by the Bureau, with records being held locally, often at the county or municipality level. These records are maintained through a system of household registration, and are supposed to be cross-checked with the enumerators' lists. Coverage is said to be only 90% complete, due to the high rate of migration from the countryside to the cities, and the harsh enforcement of the national government's "One Child One Family" policy.
The Registrar may possibly be contacted at:
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Registrar Department of Population Registration Bureau of Public Security Jiangmen Prefecture Guangdong Province People's Republic of China |
Registrar Department of Population Registration Bureau of Public Security Taishan City Guangdong Province People's Republic of China |
There are also separately run registries for Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan which can be consulted if your research ranges that far. As they are beyond the scope of this site, no details have been provided.
The Bureau of Overseas Chinese Affairs handles ex-patriate and foreign business. They are therefore normally your first port of call when dealing with government departments and institutions at all non-party levels.
In Taishan County their contact details are:
Bureau of Overseas Chinese Affairs
38 Huan-cheng Nan Back Street
Taicheng Township
Taishan City
Guangdong Province
People's Republic of China
Tel: (0750) 5513565
In Guangdong Province their contact details are:
Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the Guangdong Provincial Government
8 Haishan Street
Ersha Island
Guangzhou
Guangdong Province 510105
Tel: (020) 87353828 or (020) 87352537
Fax: (020) 87352896
Email: gdsfqb@gdnet.com.cn
Website: gocn.southcn.com/english/
Taishan Genealogy
Copyright: ©2001-8 Jon Kehrer, Canberra