On 26 Jul 2000, at 11:47, Trev Sue-A-Quan wrote with great flare and wits: > Posted on: General China Query Forum > Board URL: > http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/China/General?read=226 > > Surname: > ------------------------- > > Dear web readers: > > During the period 1853 to 1879 there were 13,541 Chinese who were taken to > work as indentured labourers on the sugar cane plantations of British > Guiana (now Guyana). Several of them are shown to have come from the > village of Kwee Sin, which is the way the Chinese sound was written in > English. Spelling variations of the name also appear as Kwee Sen, Kwee Sum, > Kwee Sun, Kwee Sing, Kwei Sin, Kwai Sin, etc. It is possible that the > letter "K" was used to depict the sound "G" so that the Chinese > pronunciation may be closer to Gwee Sin, Guai Sen etc. Most of the people > from this village departed on boats leaving from Hong Kong and a lesser > number were on boats leaving from Canton so this suggests that the village > may be closer to Hong Kong than Canton. As yet I am unable to locate this > village and suspect that the name may have been changed since the 1870s. > Any information about this village would be welcome. > Trev, I think the village you are looking for may actually be Canton or Kwangzhou. The city is on the bank of the Pearl River so the city is sometimes referred to as the Pearl City. Pearl in Chinese is gee and city is sing. Kwangzhou is also known as Wei Sing and Yeung (goat) Sing. Since most villages were and still are inhabited by people from the same family thus they all have the same surname. If the people in question don't have a common surname than most likely they wouldn't be from a village but a city or town. Another possibility is these people may not actually be from "Kwei Sin" but from that general area. An example would be a resident of Queens when asked will most likely give New York as the hometown. Hope I'm not mudding the water further for you. Kevin Lee http://www.geocities.com/u_got_jokes ICQ: 41912308 __________________________________________________________ If speaking is silver, then listening is gold. -- Turkish Proverb