On December 11, 2003, our TAISHAN.COM staff went on a trip to research Geoff Lee's ancestral village. According to Geoff Lee, the name of his ancestral village is 
(Long Bo Chuen, Lang Bo Cun). This is shown on his grandfather's tombstone as shown on the right. The tombstone also reveals that the name of his grandfather is 
(Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen). As indicated, (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) was probably borned sometime in 1868 here in Taishan. Geoff also mentioned that (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) at some point moved to somewhere in Xinhui County before immigrating to New Zealand. Geoff is not sure whether (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) still has any relatives here in China.
(Long Bo Chuen, Lang Bo Cun) is located within Taicheng town as shown in the map below. The village is currently under the jurisdiction of 
(Baan Gong Goon Kui, Ban Gang Guan Qu). However, in the old days (before 1949), this village belonged to 
(Dung Haang Heung, Dong Keng Xiang). (Dung Haang Heung, Dong Keng Xiang) used to have jurisdiction over 60 villages. Everybody in (Dung Haang Heung, Dong Keng Xiang) is supposed to have the Lee surname. Today, a (Dung Haang Heung, Dong Keng Xiang) doesn't exist but a 
(Dung Haang Goon Kui, Dong Keng Guan Qu) exists. (Dung Haang Goon Kui, Dong Keng Guan Qu) now has jurisdiction over 20 villages only. (Most of these villages are not displayed in the map below.)
(Long Bo Chuen, Lang Bo Cun) is situated right outside of the city's downtown area and one can easily spot it as its gate is on the left side of an important highway leaving the city. The left picture below shows the gate to this village. As one enters the gate, there is a long road that goes into the village. The road is shown in the right picture below. An enlarged version of these photos can be seen by clicking on them.
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At the end of the road, there are two pavilions. Pictures of these two pavilions are shown below. The village also has a well as shown below. However, the residents probably don't use it anymore as tap-water is installed for most areas in Taicheng. Enlarged photos can also be obtained by clicking on them.
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As for finding information about
(Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen), we asked the people in the village if they could help us. Nobody in the village knows (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen). This is not really surprising as someone has to be over 100 years old before they really get to know (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) especially the fact that (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) left Taishan probably in the late 1800s. Nobody in this village was over 100 years old.
The only hope to find any information about (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) is to see if such a name exists in a Lee family book. Village family books were once quite popular in the old days as relatively accurate records were kept within each family clan. However, most of these books are lost today especially with the Cultural Revolution when they were ordered to be burned by the government. However, some people managed to hide it away from the government. Our next task is to find someone who might have such a book. Unfortunately, nobody in (Long Bo Chuen, Lang Bo Cun) village has such a book nor could they give us a hint whether if there is such a book or where this book could be found.
However, based on the information from Kevin's Lee website, a family tree book exists for the Dong Hang area. This book ("zupu") is mentioned within the Notes area in this page. Thus, we are confident that such a book exists for the larger (Dung Haang Heung, Dong Keng Xiang) area which would encompass the information contained for (Long Bo Chuen, Lang Bo Cun). We consulted with Kevin whether if he had such a book but he didn't answer it in any direct way that he could get a copy of this book for us.
Our next step was to consult with the Lee Association here in Taishan whether if such a book can be found. They said that a copy of this book does exist and is located within the Taishan Records Archive Bureau. We went to the archive bureau in August 2004 and found the book does exist. However, they only have Volumes 1 and 3 and Volume 2 is missing. Unfortunately, Volume 2 consists the information regarding (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) generation. We were disappointed as our next step was to consult with the Lee Association again. They told us that they will see if they can find someone that has it and we were left waiting.
Since (Dung Haang Heung, Dong Keng Xiang) used to encompass a large area in the old days, we feel that a copy of this book should exist somewhere within one of the 60 villages from the old (Dung Haang Heung, Dong Keng Xiang) area. (We also consulted with the leaders of the (Dung Haang Goon Kui, Dong Keng Guan Qu) but they were of no help as well.) Thus, we decided to put a classified ad on the Chinese version of our website (www.taishan.com) to see if anyone has a copy of Dong Hang family book. Our Chinese portal website gets more than 1000 hits daily as many people from this area view our website. After posting for a week or two, we were finally lucky enough that we got a couple of calls that a copy of this book does exist. One of them by the name of Uncle Neng offered to let us see the book at his house in 
(Bak Sing Chuen, Bei Cheng Cun).
As mentioned before, the Dong Hang family book consists of three volumes. The cover of this book is shown on the right. Each volume consists of about 120 double-sided pages (i.e. 240 pages). As a matter of fact, there are 36 double-sided pages that are dedicated to the 
(Man, Wen) generation which corresponds to the 23rd generation in the Lee family. Finding (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) within these pages takes some time and Uncle Neng offered to help us find this name within the book and the possibility of any remaining relatives here in Taishan.
After a couple of weeks, Uncle Neng told us that this book has two (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen). The first one exists on p.91 as shown below. It indicates that this (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) is the eldest son of three to a father by the name of 
(Lei Chuen Yip, Li Quan Ye). It also indicates that he married a wife with the 
(Taam, Tan) surname and has two sons. Uncle Neng said that he knows the descendants of this (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) and none of them have any relatives in New Zealand or Australia.
The second (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) is listed on p.89 of the family book as also shown below. It indicates that this (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) is the third son of four to a father by the name of 
(Lei Yip Sing, Li Ye Sheng). No further information was provided and we thought this could be Geoff's grandfather as foreign records probably wouldn't have been kept in this book (The family book was published in 1932.) Uncle Neng however was able to locate the descendants of (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) older brother, 
(Lei Ngok Man, Li Yue Wen). (Lei Ngok Man, Li Yue Wen) is the second son of (Lei Yip Sing, Li Ye Sheng). (Lei Ngok Man, Li Yue Wen) has four sons and the name of his eldest son is 
(Lei Cham Ming, Li Qin Ming). Information about (Lei Cham Ming, Li Qin Ming) and his brothers are also listed on p. 129 in the family book as shown below. (Lei Cham Ming, Li Qin Ming) has two sons and the name of his eldest son is 
(Lei Haau Sing, Li Xiao Sheng).
 (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) P.91 Listing |
 (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) P.89 Listing |
 (Lei Cham Ming, Li Qin Ming) Listing |
(Lei Haau Sing, Li Xiao Sheng) name is also listed in p.188 in the family book as shown below. He has one son by the name of 
(Lei Gwok Wang, Li Guo Hong). Uncle Neng was able to help us locate (Lei Gwok Wang, Li Guo Hong) as he is living in another village by the name of 
(Dung Sing Chuen, Dong Sheng Cun). This is a small village consisting of about 30 people and it is located close to (Long Bo Chuen, Lang Bo Cun). The people from this village reckoned that their ancestors had came from (Long Bo Chuen, Lang Bo Cun). However, no descendants of (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) are living here. As a matter of fact, the only remaining descendant living here from (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) father, (Lei Yip Sing, Li Ye Sheng), is (Lei Gwok Wang, Li Guo Hong). (Lei Gwok Wang, Li Guo Hong) said he has close cousins relatives but all of them had immigrated elsewhere. (Lei Gwok Wang, Li Guo Hong) said he doesn't know of (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) nor of any relative that is in New Zealand or Australia.
We were concerned about the validity of this finding. There were some facts that were left unexplained. For example, (Lei Gwok Wang, Li Guo Hong) or anyone in the village doesn't knows of any relatives in New Zealand or Australia. Second, according to the family tree book, (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) mother had the surname 
(Ng, Wu). This is shown in the (Lei Yip Sing, Li Ye Sheng) family book listing as displayed below. However, Geoff had mentioned that (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) mother had the Gou surname. Different English romanizations based on the pronounciation of the same Chinese character is very possible but there seems to be no correlation at all between the pronounciation of these two surnames. Third, Geoff had mentioned that (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) at some point moved to somewhere in Xinhui County before immigrating to New Zealand. We believe that any remaining closeby relatives of (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) could be Xinhui more likely than in another village here in Taishan.
Thus, we decided to conduct this search a little bit further to check the family book in more detail. We managed to get a copy of the Dong Hang family book from someone else in (Dung Sing Chuen, Dong Sheng Cun). (We didn't asked Uncle Neng to make a copy of the book because he seem to be protective about it.) Afterwards, we decided to check carefully whether if there is any record of anyone from the (Man, Wen) 23rd generation or the 
(Yip, Ye) 22nd generation that moved to Xinhui. Fortunately, we were able to locate one by the name of 
(Lei Yip Suen, Li Ye Xuan) on p.63 of the family book. The listing is shown below. According to this listing, (Lei Yip Suen, Li Ye Xuan) had two wives. The first one wife has the 
(Lau, Liu) surname and the second one has the 
(Jiu, Zhao). (Lei Yip Suen, Li Ye Xuan) has five sons and one of them listed as shown is indeed (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen). This information concurs with the information as provided by Geoff Lee. We believe (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) mother has the surname (Jiu, Zhao) and this concurs somewhat with the Gou surname as Geoff had provided if it was pronounced with a hard G.
 (Lei Haau Sing,Li Xiao Sheng) Listing |
 (Lei Yip Sing,Li Ye Sheng) Listing |
 (Lei Yip Suen,Li Ye Xuan) Listing |
We had missed this
(Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) listing previously because for whatever reason, this name was listed with a slight difference. The name listed is 
(Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) on p.87 of the book as shown below with his four brothers. It is pronounced the same way though and we believe people might have used these two names interchangeably.
According to the family book, this (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) had two wives. The first one has the 
(Wong, Huang) surname and the second one has the 
(Leung, Liang) surname. This information concurs with information Geoff had also provided as he knows that his grandmother has the Leong surname. The listing also shows that (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) has three sons. However, later in the family book, it shows that (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) has four sons as shown on p.136 of the family book indicated below. The names of (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) four sons are 
(Lei Ting Jong, Li Ting Zhuang), 
(Lei Ting Wan, Li Ting Wen), 
(Lei Ting Jaak, Li Ting Ze), and 
(Lei Ting Jan, Li Ting Zhen). No further information about (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) four sons is provided.
 (Lei Paak Man,Li Bai Wen) p.87 Listing |
 (Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen) Sons Listing |
This information matches with Geoff's information as Geoff knows he has two uncles that were borned in China with the names of Ting Jack and Ting Jin. As for the other two sons,
(Lei Ting Jong, Li Ting Zhuang) and (Lei Ting Wan, Li Ting Wen), they probably came from the first wife with the (Wong, Huang) surname. The last son (Geoff's father) was not included in the family book because he was borned in 1944 which is after the family book date of publication.
Given all this information, we can use the family book to trace Geoff ancestry back to the first Lee ancestor for the Taishan area, 
(Lei Dung, Li Dong) who was borned sometime during the early 1100s. The entire lineage is shown below.
 Lei Dung, Li Dong
(First Generation) |
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 Lei Chun, Li Xun
(Second Generation) |
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 Lei Git, Li Jie
(Third Generation) |
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 Lei Sung, Li Song
(Fourth Generation) |
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 Lei Wan Hon, Li Yun Han
(Fifth Generation) |
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 Lei Kwan Yam, Li Kun Ren
(Sixth Generation) |
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 Lei Chung Sin, Li Cong Shan
(Seventh Generation) |
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 Lei Jeung Wa, Li Zhang Hua
(Eighth Generation) |
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 Lei Yeung, Li Yang
(Ninth Generation - Founder of Dong Hang) |
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 Lei Kuen, Li Quan
(Tenth Generation) |
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 Lei Lok Po, Li Le Pu
(11th Generation) |
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 Lei Chun Lam, Li Chun Lin
(12th Generation) |
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 Lei Haan Soh, Li Xian Suo
(13th Generation) |
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 Lei Lin Saan, Li Lian Shan
(14th Generation) |
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 Lei Yeuk Hin, Li Yao Xuan
(15th Generation) |
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 Lei Yuk Haang, Li Yu Hang
(16th Generation) |
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 Lei Maang Faat (?), Li Meng Fa (?)
(17th Generation) |
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 Lei So Ting, Li Xu Ting
(18th Generation) |
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 Lei Sik Boon, Li Shi Ben
(19th Generation) |
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 Lei Yuk Doi, Li Yu Dai
(20th Generation) |
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 Lei Dun Ji, Li Dun Yi
(21st Generation) |
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 Lei Yip Suen, Li Ye Xuan
(22nd Generation) |
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 Lei Gwai Man, Li Gui Wen (23rd Generation) |
 Lei Kiu Man, Li Qiao Wen (23rd Generation) |
 Lei Haau Man, Li Xiao Wen (23rd Generation) |
 Lei Paak Man, Li Bai Wen (23rd Generation) |
 Lei Haai Man, Li Xie Wen (23rd Generation) |
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 Lei Ting Jong, Li Ting Zhuang (24th Generation) |
 Lei Ting Wan, Li Ting Wen (24th Generation) |
 Lei Ting Jaak, Li Ting Ze (24th Generation) Also known as Harry Lee |
 Lei Ting Jan, Li Ting Zhen (24th Generation) Also known as Peter Lee |
Ting Woon (24th Generation) Borned in New Zealand Also known as Therin William Lee |
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 Lei Wa Pooi, Li Hua Pei (25th Generation) Also known as Geoffrey William Lee |
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It should be noted that the Lee surname is the second most common surname here in China. Its origins are dated back 4000 years ago in the Xia Dynasty. This page gives a good description of it. However, there seems to be no written records showing (Lei Dung, Li Dong) family tree record back to that era. Kevin's webpage shows three generations back though.
As for locating any possible close relatives of Geoff Lee here in China, we have to go to Xinhui City to do this. The family book describes (Lei Yip Suen, Li Ye Xuan) burial place rather than where the family had moved to. Furthermore, it is written in a style that is cryptic which is not commonly used by people today. We will probably consult with Uncle Neng for help when we do this part of the research.
This concludes the ancestral village report for Geoff Lee. Portions of this report may get updated as we gather more information in the future.