Posted by John Thatcher (202.12.144.21) on August 31, 2008 at 20:15:37:
In Reply to: Re: Looking for info on James Appoo / Ah Poo posted by Raymond on August 28, 2008 at 20:56:41:
Hi Raymond,
Thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated.
I know it is an almost imppossible task to track down his villiage based on the information that we currently have - one that I have been struggling with for quite a few years.
Unfortunately his grave doesnt have a tombstone - even though he was quite a prominant citizen - that would have been the best way to try and trace his villiage.
The information regarding a possible clan or tribe is somthing I discovered recently in a newspaper article mentioning James (he was in quite a few newspaper aticles in relation to his job as the local Interpreter). Here it is in full:
Bendigo Advertiser - 21 Jan 1882 - Stealing Sandhurst
Heading - A Flood of Chinese
Content:
The court was a flood of Chinese cases yesterday.
Case of theft by Ah Lun from James Ah Poo, the Chinese Interpreter. The case was heated. The court was divided into two factions or representatives of different tribes, Huy Sing and Tsing Ching.
The case was ultimately dismissed.
Names - Ah Lun, James Ah Poo, Huy Sing, Tsing Ching, Ah Goon
Obviously the names of the tribes were as they were understood by the western reported covering the court case (not an exact translation).
Theere is another article in 1877 that mentions him recently returning from a visit to China with his son Sam - probabaly to show the family back home? Unfortunately is doesnt mention where exactly he went in China.
There is one more slim hope that we may have - the Chinese Joss House (Temple) in South Melbourne (run by the See Yup Society) has many memorial tablets stacked up around its wall that mention the name of the person who died and the villiage they came from. Maurice Leong is in the process of getting them all photgraphed and indexed and translated - so I am hoping to find him in there. The work should be finished in another few months.
In the mean time - if anyone has any other ideas or happen to know anything about the tribes mentioned in the newspaper article - it would be greatly appreciated.
regards,
John