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Subject: Re: "Chang Chew or Cheung Chew or Cheng Chew"
Date: 4 Jul 2005 09:20:31 -0600

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/iRC.2ACE/687.1.1.1

Message Board Post:

In Chinese a complete name will consist of a surname first, followed by a name for the generation and lastly the personal name. Sometimes a complete name may consist of two characters only but the second name can be a complex one in which there is commanality with others of the same generation. The A or Ah is not a proper given name but an "add-on" for ease of pronuncing a single syllable personal name.

As for your Chang and Cheung, it can be the same surname but different transliteration; here is the character in Chinese http://www.zhongwen.com/ while for Cheng it may be this character
http://www.zhongwen.com/

I take it you have some kind of document where the name is written? If so, can you scan it and post it? By the spelling alone one can detect the dialect pronunciation and hence the province. Also in the old days most of the workers who went overseas generally came from Guangdong Province. However, bear in mind that knowing the province alone will not locate a village, that is another task. For example, a Smith can come from many places in the same country or even from different countries.

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