Talkmeme - 11th Dec - my family's immigration history

[tielan]

alphaflyer asked: "In Canada and Australia, the majority of current inhabitants are the descendants of immigrants. Can you talk a bit about your family's history and arrival in Australia?"

My family were in the post-WWII wave of immigrants: both grandfathers were businessmen who brought their families out from China (paternal) and Hong Kong (maternal).

Comments

[alphaflyer]

So many stories touched on in one post! Thank you so much for opening those books for me. :-)

The cultural revolution has so much to answer for. It's fascinating to see the current Chinese government trying to reclaim that history, through restoration and preservation (while at the same time razing dozens of hutongs to make room for shiny buildings).

I'm glad your family got out intact so that we could meet (if only virtually). *hugs*

[tielan]

I really do regret not questioning my grandparents further - the generation that came out here, that remember that time are dead or so old, and all I'm getting these days are the stories that they passed to their children.

I tried 'interviewing' my grandmother about her adolescence/childhood some 10 years ago while she was still alive, but my computer crashed shortly thereafter and I didn't manage to keep the data. I tried looking for it on the old SATA drives that I salvaged from the wrecks of those computers, but couldn't find it. :(

Maybe this holiday season I'll try to get in contact with some of the aunts and uncles for interviews.

[b36]

Thanks for sharing that, Sel - it was very interesting.

[tielan]

Thanks, Daz. Do you know your family's immigration history to Australia? (These questions don't usually get asked of whites, I know, but unless they have Aboriginal background, they must have stories, too.)

[b36]

My father's side of the family began with a Welsh naval lieutenant who came out with either the First Fleet or one of the following fleets.

My mother's father was German and arrived with his family in the 1890s when he was an infant - he was in his early fifties when Mum was born, and her mother was of English and Irish heritage.

It wasn't until I was in my early 20s when I learned that my paternal grandmother's mother, who along with her husband died when I was a kid, came from a Jewish background of English and German heritage.

One of my second cousins had a Chinese father, although I never met him because he was gone from her life not long after she was born in the early 1960s (it's a sad story that I don't know many details about).

I also have a distant family branch in California. My paternal grandmother had a brother who settled in Oakland after his American wife tried living in Australia for six months back in the '40s or '50s but didn't like it.

[crazy4orcas]

Thank you for sharing!

I have some of the same regret over not getting more of my family history. Especially on my dad's side now that both he and my aunt have passed.