Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;gckimm, post: 9577502, member: 83519&quot;]I appreciate the conversation about the polka dots.</p><p><br /></p><p>Family history, as well as the history of the Chinese in America, makes it very unlikely that the photo was taken in China.&nbsp; Most of the early Chinese in America, including my ancestors, were peasants from small villages in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong (formerly known as Canton) Province. They lacked the resources for travel to large cities or luxuries such as photographs. This is why they wanted to come to America, where they believed they could make enough money to improve the lives of their family members back in China or to establish new lives in a land of greater opportunity.</p><p><br /></p><p>In addition, most of the Chinese immigrants during the 1860s-70s were men who became railroad workers or miners. Some already had wives in China, while some traveled back to China at some point in order to get married and then perhaps returned to the U.S. to continue working, leaving their wives behind. Marriages that took place in the U.S. were uncommon, a) because most of the men intended to return to China permanently and b) there were few Chinese women in America at that time (most were servants or worked in the &quot;oldest profession&quot;). As far as I know, the practice of sending a photo of a prospective bride to a prospective groom was not followed.</p><p><br /></p><p>Although I have little information about my great-grandfather&#039;s second wife (I am a descendant of his third wife), I have no reason to believe that she was ever anywhere in China where such a photograph could be taken. As I mentioned earlier, her husband became prosperous in America and could have afforded the cost of having a fancy photograph made for his wife. While it is possible that my great-grandfather traveled back to China to marry his second wife, we have no evidence of that. And he already had a wife in China--wife #1--that he probably married before coming to the U.S. around 1853.</p><p><br /></p><p>Greg[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in