(Seto Family Picture, circa 1925)
The following was contributed by my cousin, Pak Seto, who lives in New York City:
The
American Journey of the Seto, Yee, and Gue Clans
In the interest of tracing our roots, we are trying to gather as many facts
and background information as far back as the early 1800's. There will be a
lot of blank pages and unconnected dots, which hopefully can be filled in by
the older generations still living. We are very grateful for any information
or old stories of our ancestors in China and in America. Please feel free to
provide any tidbits or photos, etc. to us, to update our story.
In the early 1800' s, one of our ancestors took a series of competitive
civil exams, and got a job as a country executive with the Manchu
government. His official posting must have been a good one because he
retired a wealthy gentry. He bought some houses and farmland and employed
tenant farmers to work them. His offspring would become a part of the local
power structure/establishment.
However, there was a dark spot in our family history. Two or three
generations down his line, there was a dispute over the distribution of the
family fortune. In accordance with Chinese custom, the eldest son was given
the lion's share after his father's death. He would also act as the head.
Unfortunately, Tak Kuen, the second oldest son, was envious of his brother's
newfound position and wealth: He bribed a manservant to poison the breakfast
of his older brother. Following the eldest brother's death, was a long
period of costly lawsuits among the families. As a result of these lawsuits,
the clan was split into many families. Our branch of the family was left
with very little money and only a fraction of the original estate. The head
of our family was Soo Hoo Moon Jim, who was also the head man of Hoy Ping
(county) Protective Association of the Chuck Hom Market branch. Soo Hoo Moon
Jim had two wives, the first of which bore him eight children and the second
of which adopted a son.
Unfortunately for Soo Hoo Moon Jim, it was also a turbulent time for China.
Rebellions, imperialism by western nations, and natural disasters bedeviled
the Chinese people. For this reason, thousands upon thousands of Chinese
went overseas to South China Sea countries like Thailand, Vietnam, the
Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Others went to the USA,
Canada, Australia, and many other countries, to earn a living, support
wives, children, or fathers and mothers back in their homeland. There,
Chinese immigrants faced many difficulties. They had to start at the bottom
of their new land, doing mostly manual labor, farm works, or in mining, for
very little pay, and for long hours. They had to compete for the job with
other workers, both native, and non-native.
It was because of the difficulties in our homeland that our great
grandfather and grandmother decided they should send the oldest boy, Ah Kay,
to the United States. Due to the restrictions of Chinese Exclusion Acts, Ah
Kay was not permitted to immigrate. The laws limited admission of new
Chinese immigrants and separated married men with their wives for years and
years, until they saved enough money to go back to see their wives and/or
children for a short period of time, only to return to America to work
again.
Fortunately for our family, we had connections in America that would allow
Ah Kay to leave China. The second youngest daughter of Soo Hoo Moon Jim had
married the son of Mr. Dea Gin Foo, a business man in America. At the
request of our great grandparents, Mr. Dea Gin Foo bought false papers that
stated Ah Kay was the son of one of the cooks, a Mr. Yee, in Dea's
restaurant, and paid for his boat passage. Ah Kay became a "paper son",
someone who has come to America under the false identity of being another's
son. At the age of ten, he washed dishes on a milk crate and did other
chores all day, until the debt was repaid. However, a dispute between the
Dea brothers, prompted the younger brother to inform the authorities that Ah
Kay was an illegal immigrant. Ah Kay was questioned by the officials, but he
managed to give the right answers, and finally he got his legal resident
papers. After repaying the debt to Mr. Dea Gin Foo, he left Arizona, and
traveled to New York City in hopes of finding a job.
By chance he had a distant cousin, a Mr. Fong Y. Man, who was running a
"gaming shop" in Chinatown. Ah Kay worked there for years, saving his money
and sending a portion of it to support his kin in China. When he had saved a
tiny sum, he went back to China to marry Ms. Dea H. Chim. Their eldest son
was born Soon after and because Ah Kay came to America under a different
identity, their son Gene was given the family name Yee. Ah Kay wanted a full
family life. He wanted to raise his sons in America and live out his
American dream with his wife by his side. Uncle Ah Kay went by boat to San
Francisco and took the train back to New York City. He resumed his old job
in Chinatown and saved more money to buy a set of false papers to bring his
younger brother, Tony Jue to America. Though Tony's family name was Seto, he
had to take on the family name stated in the false papers. This is how our
second Uncle had to change his family name to Jue instead of his real family
name of.Seto. In 1935, Ah Kay returned to China again with the intent to
bring his wife and first born son to come back with him to America. He also
started the paper forms that would allow the immigration of his youngest
brother, Bing Q. Yee, which he claimed was his own first son. Cousin Gene
was claimed to be his second son. Finally, Ah Kay collected the live
histories of the various "paper son's" stories of the original owner/son's
to match the false identities of those he was bringing over. The reason for
this last step was to defeat the U. S. immigration officials at the U.S.
port of entry. In order to stop "'paper sons" from entering America,
immigration officials would subject immigrants to hostile, unending days of
questioning. Ah Kay's family would have to learn this new personal history
in order to convince the officials that they were indeed who they claimed to
be, and to avoid being sent back to China.