Another mystery that keeps cropping up, is the relationships of the fours children of William Leyland Hunter and Anna Hunter ( alias Kot Choy ) The connection between my grandfather Tobias Hunter and his sister May, just two years his junior, has never really been in question. They were close their whole lives were in constant contact. Uncle George Hunter, my grandfather’s elder brother by two years, was also well connected both in business as well as personally. Tobias and May had similar looks as brother and sister might and George could well have taken more after his father which would not be unusual.
This brings me to Uncle James of whom there was little if any mention throughout my lifetime. I vaguely recall my mother’s mentioning “Uncle Jim” but little was ever said. My interest became a little more concentrated after finding other records and news items regarding the passing of his wife in 1933 and he himself not long after his mother passed away in 1937. His daughter remained in the family residence at 11 Shelley Street in Hong Kong through the war years and she passed away there in 1944.
All four Hunter offspring; James, George, Tobias, and May are listed in the death notice of Anna Hunter in January 1937 SCMP. Their ages are also given and all match. I’ve always wondered if there was a possibility that not all the children had the same parents but they may all share at least one. DNA has given me a positive link to the Hunter side which also has living links to both George and May. Further, May’s granddaughter did a mitochondrial DNA test and it returned with a C7a2 group which is almost exclusively Asian. This points to Anna Hunter alias Kot Choy as the source. All our living testers share a small amount of Asian in the autosomal DNA test and that would appear to unite us as one family.
The one unknown exception is James Hunter. We know nothing about him really, other than he had also had a Chinese alias. His wife Emma’s origins are another mystery as we have no maiden name or marriage documents. Their daughter Ellen also had an Chinese alias and the fact that she was NOT interned in Hong Kong during the war might indicate she was more Chinese in appearance. As I have no pictures of James, his wife, or his daughter this presents another “Jade Wall” that needs to be penetrated.
I’ve recently found two small items that might shed some light. One is an excerpt from a letter written by my grandfather to my mother when I was young and at a troublesome stage. He was suggesting I be packed off to a boarding school since I was about 10 and he thought that acceptable unlike his own circumstances where he was sent to the Diocesan School in Hong Kong at age 5 1/2. He wrote of James, who had apparently been a handful and his mother did not handle it correctly as per the illustration below:
What I find interesting is that when my grandfather refers to “Uncle James” that would be correct, as he was my mother’s uncle. What’s odd, is that he calls him granny’s “eldest son” and not “my brother” which may signify that he and James were not of the exact same parentage. To my knowledge James and his wife had only the one child, Ellen however she may also have had discrepancies in her family relationships. I will delve further into this in my next post.