TENTATIVE SCHEDULE: Sunday, October 10, 2010

8am      Registration

9am      Introduction and Welcome

9:15am   Why do we work on family history projects? 

Kathy Ang, Grant Din, Michael Ho, Doug Joe; Moderator: Anne Huang

9:45am   Historical context: Migration of Chinese Diaspora (1849 to present) 

Steve Owyang, In Search of Roots Program

10:15am   How do I start my family history project? 

Christine DeVillier, family researcher

10:45am   Chinese Surnames

Michael Ho, family researcher

11:15 am  Chinese Exclusion Era Documents

Marisa Louie from National Archives; Case Study by Kathy Ang; Moderator: Grant Din

12:15pm   Sharing time and lunch roundtables

1:30pm     Family Research Techniques

Michael Ho, Christine DeVillier, Doug Joe

2:30pm     Family Research Case Studies

Kay Speaks, Kathy Ang/Roy Chan

3:30pm     Journeys to the Motherland

Steve Owyang, Christine DeVillier, Roy Chan, Al Cheng; Moderator: Anne Huang

4:15pm     Closing Remarks and Discussion – Audience feedback, follow up; informal networking.

5:30pm     Conference ends

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Kathy Ang is a 3rd generation Chinese American. She grew up in Oakland and now lives in Yuba City, California with her husband David. Kathy has had an interest in family history since her college days, but over the past 2-1/2 years she has pursued this interest at a deeper level by actively researching the history of her own family and her husband's family. Kathy has found family history research to be full of rewards -- the joy of discovery, gaining a greater understanding and appreciation for the lives of our ancestors and Chinese American history, and connecting with others who share the passion.

Roy Chan is a 2nd generation Chinese American who grew up in Oakland. He has spent the last five years researching his family roots from the Guangduong province since his 2005 visit to his mother's ancestral village in Hoi Ping. With a background in architecture/ planning, Roy currently is Co-Director at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center where he is growing a place-based digital archive for Oakland Chinatown oral histories (http://memorymap.oacc.cc).

Albert Cheng was an educator for more than thirty years before he retired. He has been involved with the Chinese American community for over 40 years. Al held the position of co-chairperson of the governing Board of Directors of the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco. He has been involved with the Center since 1988 and elected as its president for three terms. He also served as a board member of the Chinese Historical Society of America. He co-founded his family association, the Cheng Society of America...and has traced 4,703 years and 124 generations of his family history.  

Al’s love of genealogy inspired him to establish a new project. In 1991 the late historian Him Mark Lai and Al co-founded the In Search of Roots program to guide young Chinese Americans in their quest for roots and identity. The program involves a yearlong commitment to researching one's family history, which includes searching for and visiting one's ancestral village in China. 2010 marks the 20th year of the program. Albert continues to volunteer and leads the interns to China. In 2006, KQED and Kaiser Permanente named Mr. Cheng a local Bay Area hero. The old Chinese saying 飲水思源 yinshui siyuan...when drinking water, remember the source...guides much of Mr. Cheng's work with the Roots program.  Al is a fourth generation American; his paternal great grandfather was the first to migrate to the United States...and settled in Hawaii during the late 19th century. Al is married to Anne Shui-chun Chen. They have two sons, Ryan Justin and Lorens Derek. They have been long time San Francisco residents.

Christine DeVillier has been a genealogy enthusiast for ten years. What began as curiosity about her paternal lines from South Africa and Tahiti has evolved in to a serious hobby and continuous learning experience. More recently she has focused on her maternal lines from China, a different scope of work entirely. Along the way she interviewed relatives, translated headstones, collected photographs, familiarized herself with archival libraries in the Bay Area, Salt Lake City, and New York City, met and learned from fellow genealogy buffs, joined genealogical societies, created an internationally accessible web-hosted family tree, helped other researchers, and recently completed a pilgrimage to her grandparents' villages in China. Christine is a third generation Chinese American. She grew up in San Francisco with her Hoisanwaa-speaking grandmother, and currently lives in Oakland with her husband Richard and their dog Dango. She plans to pursue a Master of Library and Information Science degree.

Grant Din has been researching his family history and genealogy for over twenty years and loves to share his findings with family and friends. He is the proud grandson of a paper son and great great-grandson of a railroad worker (according to family lore) and is frequently amazed at what his ancestors had to do to get to this country. His work as director of special projects for the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation gives him great satisfaction by helping families learn more about their immigration experiences. Grant, an Oakland native and resident, has spent his career working with nonprofits serving the Asian American and low income communities and also serves on several nonprofit boards of directors. Visit www.tonaidin.net to see some of his research. Keeping a love for history in the family, Grant is married to Rosalyn Tonai, executive director of the National Japanese American Historical Society, and they have two children, Kiyoshi and Charlene.

Michael Ho is a 4th-generation Chinese American who has spent over two decades researching his family roots.  He has made numerous trips to his ancestral villages in China, and assists other family history researchers to interpret both English and Chinese records.  Michael works as a marketing consultant. He volunteers as a docent at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles.

Anne Huang is the former executive director of Oakland Asian Cultural Center and former project director for the Oakland Chinatown Oral History Project (OCOHP).  Being involved with OCOHP inspired Anne to investigate her own family history.  As a first generation immigrant from Taiwan, Anne is particularly interested in the cultural experiences and family stories of Taiwanese Americans.

Doug Joe has been involved in the study of his personal genealogy for about 10 years.  Participating the past 2 years with the Siyi Chinese Genealogy Forum, Doug was invited to moderate the subforum Software for Chinese Genealogy.  Whereas all of Doug’s training is informal, he takes great interest in teaching others the techniques he have acquired.

Marisa Louie joined the staff at the National Archives at San Francisco in 2009. She primarily works with researchers interested in Asian American genealogy to identify their family's immigration and naturalization records. Marisa will also manage the pending transfer of Alien Case Files ("A-Files") to the San Francisco facility.

From 2004-2007, Marisa was Program Coordinator at the Chinese Historical Society of America in San Francisco. As an undergraduate at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Marisa studied under Dr. Judy Yung, who served as faculty advisor for her thesis *Mounting Gold Mountain: A Critique of Exhibition Practices in Chinese American History Museums*. Marisa is also an alumna of the In Search of Roots program, which brought her to her maternal grandfather's village in Hoiping. Much to the delight of their grandparents and program founder Al Cheng, Marisa and her now-fiancé Gilbert met on their Roots trip. Their wedding is planned for July 2011.

Steven Owyang is a lawyer and administrative law judge.  He served as the executive officer of California’s civil rights commission for more than 20 years.  Owyang is a fourth generation Chinese-American and majored in history and Chinese studies before attending law school.  Having attended the University of California during the height of the ethnic studies movement, Owyang has had a continuing interest in American race relations, the Chinese diaspora, and Chinese-American history.  He has hosted Chinese lawyers, judges, and law professors in visits to study the American legal system.  Owyang has served as a lecturer and co-leader of the In Search of Roots Program since 2007.  He speaks Cantonese and Mandarin at a level "not bad for a fourth generation ABC."

Kay Speaks, a California native, is first generation Chinese American on her father’s side. Her mother’s ancestry is Irish. She began her genealogy journey over twelve years ago while trying to solve a murder mystery never talked about by the elders of her family. Through her research, she finally “meets” her Chinese grandfather, a paper son, and discovers he was so much more than the photo hanging on her parent’s wall--his silent stories waiting discovery. Her adventure includes the serendipity of ancestors found, solving the 1928 murder mystery cited in case law today, and the opportunity to “meet” the Boy Emperor of the Sung Dynasty while at the Family History Library in Salt Lake. Speaks teaches genealogy research techniques and methodology, writes articles for the Roots Tracer journal, co-teaches a software genealogy class, as well as organizes genealogy workshops and seminars for the Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society located in the East Bay of San Francisco and for other organizations in the area. She is a member of numerous local, state and national genealogy and historical societies, and lectures on various genealogical topics in Central and Northern California. Professionally she has been a corporate controller, director of information technology and is currently an information technology manager for a Pleasanton based company.