2. Search these resources that may have information about the person | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

2. Search these resources that may have information about the person

Which resources are useful depend on what you know about the person:

If you know their name ...

  • Gwulo.com: Type their name into the box at the top-right corner of this page, and click the 'Search' button to see if we already have any information about them. If you're lucky, a search for a full name (eg David Richard Bellis) will return an exact result. You'll usually want to search again using just their family name (eg Bellis), to catch more matches (David Bellis, D R Bellis, Mr. Bellis, etc.)
  • The Carl Smith Collection, now viewable online.
  • Google. You've probably tried this already. If you get too many results, try Google Books. The advantage of Google Books over the basic Google search is that it lets you specify a range of years you want to search over. This is very helpful if you're researching a popular name, and Google returns too many years. To specify a range of years, click the 'Custom range...' option near the bottom of the menu on the left of the Google Books search screen.
  • Old Newspapers. See if they made the news.
  • Hong Kong Government Records Online (HKGRO). This one is less likely to turn up a result, but is worth checking, and is quick to search.
  • The Hong Kong Government Records Service / Public Records Office. Search their online catalogues.
  • CO129. This is an index to the correspondence between the British Colonial Office in London and the Hong Kong Government, covering the years 1842-1951. It's surprising what's included - marriages, etc - so it's worth a search.
  • The UK's National Archive may have some relevant information if the person was a British citizen. Their 'Looking for a person?' page is a good place to start.

They worked for the government ...

They didn't work for the government...

They were born / baptised / married / died in Hong Kong ...

  • For a fee you can request searches of the government's register. Here are the relevant government web pages to request a search for births, deaths, or marriages. Jill has written about applying for a death certificate. Christine Thomas also has some notes about the process.
  • In the case of baptism / marriage / death, their church would probably have records too. Here are links to records for: St John's Cathedral (includes the Peak Chapel).
  • If they died and were buried in Hong Kong, their gravestone may give you useful information.
    • If they were buried in the Hong Kong Cemetery in Happy Valley, there's a good chance they appear on this list.
    • The findagrave.com website is also worth checking.
    • Familysearch.org have detailed records for Hong Kong's cemeteries. You'll need to create an account and login, then go to this page and choose from the district in Hong Kong where the cemetery is located. (The links are in pinyin, so Jiulong 九龍 = Kowloon, Xianggangdao 香港島 = Hong Kong island, and Xinjie 新界 = New Territories)

They (or their ancestors) were from Macau...

They were adopted in Hong Kong...

  • The Fanling Babies Home website may be able to help. They write:
    Our mission is to discover and network with individuals connected to Hong Kong orphanages and children homes such as, Fanling Babies Home, Pine Hill Babies Home, Shatin Babies Home, Precious Blood Babies Home in the New Territories, Evangel Children's Home, Ling Yuet Sin Infants Home, St. Paul's Creche, Yuen Long Children's Home, Eric Bruce Hammond M. Orphanage, St. Christopher's Home and Po Leung Kuk.

They did something newsworthy in Hong Kong ...

  • We've already mentioned searching the Old Newspapers for the person's name. But unfortunately that search is only as good as the quality of the text. For many of the old newspapers with small print, the computer can't reliably recognise the name your searching for. In that case the only option is to manually read the newspaper for the few days around the date of the incident you know about. eg if you have a relative who died on 1st August 1892, it would be worth searching the newspapers by date and reading the papers for 1st-4th August 1892 to see if there was any obituary published.
  • Or if they were really famous you'll find them in the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography. It gives biographies of over 500 people from Hong Kong History. They're all listed on this page.

They lived in Hong Kong during 1940-45 ...

They traveled to / from Hong Kong by sea ...

They received a medal or other award...

They were well off ...


If you know any more resources, please leave a comment below to tell us about them.

Regards, David

Comments

You didn't have to be well-off to be listed in these! You just needed to have worked (in a not too junior position) in a company which wanted to appear in a directory.

Bristol University's scanned collection can be accessed here:

https://www.bris.ac.uk/history/customs/ancestors/directories.html

but you may find that they have only extracted the pages about Shanghai.

Hong Kong University Library has a comprehensive collection of Directories, though only a small number are accessible online. They are on the open shelves in Special Collections, and a vast number are held on microfilm. You need to make a good case to gain access, which is a pity when you can get into academic libraries quite easily in, say, the UK for reference purposes.

Thanks to Sharon Oddie for this tip:

Using a will search at PRONI and including nothing but "Hongkong" in the abstract field (all other fields blank) yielded 15 names (some details beneath): go to http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/search_the_archives/will_calendars.htm and then click "Search the Will Calendars", http://apps.proni.gov.uk/DCAL_PRONI_WillsCalendar_IE/WillsSearch.aspx 

Sample results - PRONI Will index:

  •     Edwards Robert Campbell of 278 Antrim Road Belfast and of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Bangkok in Siam died 12 February 1927 at Bangkok Probate London 10 June 1927 to William Edwards and Andrew Leslie Porter. Effects in Northern Ireland £2237 2s. 7d. Re-sealed Belfast 11 October.
  •     Handcock Arthur Frederick of Capri Dublin Road Sutton Dublin in the Republic of Ireland and care of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation 9 Gracechurch Street London retired banker died 20 April 1951 at Mount Vernon Hospital Northwood Middlesex Probate Belfast 5 February to Hongkong and Shanghai Bank (Trustee) Limited. Effects £609.
  •     Middleton Delia of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation 9 Gracechurch Street London and of 32 Normanton Avenue Bognor Regis and of The Gables Fishbourne Chichester both in Sussex widow died 19 September 1957 at saint Richard's Hospital Chichester Probate Winchester 2 December 1957 to Joyce Irene Stewart married woman and Gavin Burton Stewart engineer. Effects in Northern Ireland £668 16s. 3d. Re-sealed Belfast 16 January.
  •     Buckland Frederick Mackintosh of The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank (Trustee) Ltd. 9 Gracechurch Street and of 6 Old Court Mansions Kensington both in London W. Died 30 June 1958 at 6 Old Court Mansions aforesaid Probate Exeter 14 August to Hongkong and Shanghai Bank (Trustee) Limited. Effects in Northern Ireland £2670 16s. 9d. Re-sealed Belfast 21 October.

Using the same method, with "hong kong" instead of "Hongkong" yielded 25 more names. I didn't note them - not germane to my work. Many mariners.

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