Digging up the family roots

An introduction to a typical Chinese family tree. Chen Xiaodong / Xinhua

An instant connection

"The feeling of connectedness was almost instantaneous. I kept saying to myself: They walked along this muddy road, washed in this crystal-watered stream, and worshipped under the giant wooden beams of this long-abandoned village hall ... not yesterday, but 150 years ago," he said.

When he shared his story, Lie was inundated by requests for help from other overseas ethnic Chinese, who had never thought such a search would be realistic. Word spread, and eventually, it seemed logical to start a business.

My China Roots has now conducted 25 successful searches, 15 of them last year. "Imagination matters as much as perseverance, although what's lying at the end of that twisting tunnel of discovery has often come as a big surprise," he said.

Lie recalled an Australian client who asked him to gather information about his maternal great-grandfather, who left China in the late 19th century to try his luck overseas. Research in the ancestral village yielded two candidates with the right name who left at about the same time. "According to the county annals, one fled as a result of having killed another person, while the other was a village doctor. No specific reason was given for his departure, and there were no other records," he said. "At first, my client thought the 'criminal' must be his great-grandfather, because he'd heard that his great-grandfather had a violent streak

"We managed to find the grave of the man's mother, with her death date inscribed on the stone. Here a problem arose: Judging by the dates, this woman's son couldn't possibly be my client's great-grandfather," Lie said. "The question was laid open again, but the discovery (that his great-grandfather wasn't a murderer) was a relief to my client."

To increase search efficiency and keep prices low, the business relies on a team of field researchers who work on commission. They are mostly young, passionate and have a strong penchant for history.

Deng Shuang, a postgraduate student at a university in Yunnan province in southwest China, is one of them. The 24-year-old's involvement with overseas Chinese looking to learn more about their family history predates his association with My China Roots, which he came across in 2014 while conducting an online search.

"I've been freelancing for a Chinese soccer magazine since 2012, and through interviews I got to know many foreign soccer players of Chinese descent. Some were quite keen to find out about their ancestors' stories," he said.

The players included Kwong-Wah Steinraht, a former professional in the Dutch league, who is a quarter-Chinese. His maternal grandfather followed the same route as Lie's grandparents - from China to Indonesia and then the Netherlands - about 70 years ago. "Steinraht told me that his grandfather actively maintained contact with his relatives in China, until one day he received a letter from home asking him not to write again," Deng said, pointing out that it happened during the height of the "cultural revolution", and the letters may have already brought trouble to his loved ones.

Some searches are bound to come to nothing, not least because China's unprecedented urbanization during the past 20 years has obliterated many reminders of the old days, but for those who discover their family history, the meaning goes far beyond words.