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Origin Story
Jun. 16th, 2009 01:49 pmI've been looking into my family history a bit this week, after being questioned about Dad's family by one of my supervisors... enquiring about your father may be a natural way of placing someone in a social context, but it reminded me how little I actually know about either side of the family.
Dad came from Sarawak, Malaysia. He lived in a town called Seria, Brunei, before coming over to Australia. I've never visited either place, though I would like to one day.
Until last week, I'd always assumed that all the Chinese families in that part of Malaysia were Cantonese. Supriya has actually lived over there, and told me that the majority are from Hokkien - she was quite surprised when I told her that my family is from Canton. It makes sense, though... the Cantonese moved to the area for business, and I think my relatives have been employed as draftsmen and engineers by Shell since the company was created in the early 1900s. Grandpa (Leong Shui Pak) was a draftsman. I don't know much about Grandma's family (Jao Choon Moi) - I don't know any Cantonese, and Google is much more helpful for English references.
Dad was the first of his family to emigrate to Australia, though most of his family followed over the next decade or so. He came to study accounting (his least favourite subject, but the only one with government support...), worked in a restaurant to pay the bills, and decided to stay in the restaurant business after finding that accountancy wasn't actually very interesting.
Mum's family are Bells, and Pa (Andrew Bell) grew up at Gulf Station. Nana (Vera Goff) was born in England, though she moved to Melbourne very early. Our branch of the Bells arrived in Port Phillip on October 27th 1839, on the David Clarke - the first assisted migrant ship to reach the colony, bringing 229 Scottish migrants.
Going back even further, the Bells were a small clan from the Scottish border. We managed to get an official mention in a 1587 "list of unruly clans in the West Marches". The Bell line has been fairly well explored back to the 13th century, though I suspect that the Leong name goes back much further.
Dad came from Sarawak, Malaysia. He lived in a town called Seria, Brunei, before coming over to Australia. I've never visited either place, though I would like to one day.
Until last week, I'd always assumed that all the Chinese families in that part of Malaysia were Cantonese. Supriya has actually lived over there, and told me that the majority are from Hokkien - she was quite surprised when I told her that my family is from Canton. It makes sense, though... the Cantonese moved to the area for business, and I think my relatives have been employed as draftsmen and engineers by Shell since the company was created in the early 1900s. Grandpa (Leong Shui Pak) was a draftsman. I don't know much about Grandma's family (Jao Choon Moi) - I don't know any Cantonese, and Google is much more helpful for English references.
Dad was the first of his family to emigrate to Australia, though most of his family followed over the next decade or so. He came to study accounting (his least favourite subject, but the only one with government support...), worked in a restaurant to pay the bills, and decided to stay in the restaurant business after finding that accountancy wasn't actually very interesting.
Mum's family are Bells, and Pa (Andrew Bell) grew up at Gulf Station. Nana (Vera Goff) was born in England, though she moved to Melbourne very early. Our branch of the Bells arrived in Port Phillip on October 27th 1839, on the David Clarke - the first assisted migrant ship to reach the colony, bringing 229 Scottish migrants.
Going back even further, the Bells were a small clan from the Scottish border. We managed to get an official mention in a 1587 "list of unruly clans in the West Marches". The Bell line has been fairly well explored back to the 13th century, though I suspect that the Leong name goes back much further.
