Family Legacies: Genealogical Resources for Chinese Americans

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania will be hosting a genealogy workshop about how to verify the stories of Chinese families. Jeanie Chooey Low, author of China Connection: Finding Ancestral Roots for Chinese in America, will provide techniques for interviewing family members and deciphering gravestone inscriptions.

Jeanie Chooey Low will discuss U.S. 20th-century immigration and naturalization case files, how to find and visit ancestral villages, and how to research war and census records. The presentation is for all levels of researchers and will be presented in English.

Low is the child of immigrants and a specialist in Chinese American genealogy and 20th-century immigration and naturalization records. Her interest in family history started several years ago when she realized that the Chinese traditions and language of immigrants were gradually being lost with each succeeding generation of Chinese Americans.

Since 1993, Low has presented workshops for various organizations that include: National Archives and Records Administration, National Genealogical Society, Chinese Historical Society of America, Oakland Museum of California, New York University, and San Francisco State University.

Low is the Communications Co-Chair of SONA (Save OUR National Archives), a coalition of non-profit organizations that successfully advocated that older Alien Case Files be transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration as a permanent historical collection and accessible for public research. She holds a degree in Library Technology from City College of San Francisco and a Bachelors in Arts in Chinese Studies from San Francisco State University.