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My family’s roots in China began in Foochow.  My great grandfather William Leyland Hunter arrived there from Manchester England on April 16, 1865. He was employed as a tea inspector with the W R Adamson Co. After 1874 when the … Continue reading →

The Diocesan Boys School (DBS) was a boarding school/orphanage that began about 1870 in Hong Kong. While it did take in orphans, it was also a paid tuition school for the ex-pat community. I found my grandfather on the list … Continue reading →

I’ve found something in common with the names above.蔡 Cài, which  is apparently not a widely used name in China overall, being something like 41st usage, but in Fujian Province, as Choy it becomes 7th. As one moves south, the name … Continue reading →

When my great aunt Emma Hunter passed away in 1933 her funeral was posted in the newspaper. It seems to have been a well attended affair and as there were a list of attendees, I thought I might find a … Continue reading →

A change of tack. When I keep drawing blanks in my search for relatives, I turn to the neighborhood, the street, and the people who lived nearby for clues. Shelley Street was in the heart of a what was a … Continue reading →

The family name “FOK” is shown below. This is a simplified text version. This is an explanation of the name I received from a friend:  Both Fok and Huo refers to  the same Chinese surname 霍 only the spelling for Cantonese ( … Continue reading →

It seems there were four children fathered by William Leyland Hunter during his time in China. My grandfather Tobias and his sister May I knew first hand as they were both alive until 1970. My grandfather I saw regularly until … Continue reading →

My grandmother Maud was a Thomson. Her father, William Mitchel Thomson was career military, having joined the Royal Engineers at 14 years of age. There were eight children in the Hong Kong family. Five were girls and three boys. Only … Continue reading →

After what seems like irrefutable evidence that my mysterious great grandmother was “Anne Hunter alias Kot Choy” there is one more little snippet of evidence that can’t be ignored.    A photocopy of a typed “Carl Smith card” from way … Continue reading →

The wedding took place at St Andrews Church on Nathan Road in Kowloon, April 14, 1909. I think the wedding photos were done at their home, 4 Humphrey’s Ave, Kowloon. Most of the women in the photo are sisters of … Continue reading →