Fiction or non-fiction, this story bares a familiar tone for many Taishanese people -- along with hope there is an inherent sadness... These brave men made tremendous sacrifices so that their children might have a better future... Those who ventured abroad to distant lands and struggled with foreign tongues and alien ways to send all of whatever little wage they earned back to their families, they should know that they were dearly missed and greatly valued.

Throughout the years sitting by my father's side listening intently to his stories (half fiction, half fact, bits here and there) I have come to appreciate the value of family ties, which sparked my interest in tracing my genealogy. I am taking baby steps to unravel more facts as I only have bits and bits of half-truths. According to my father our surname, Kuang, is related to or descended from the Louie and Fong families. I was told (could have been misinformed) that at one time our family name was Louie/Lei, then it was changed to Fong/Fang, then to what it is today Kwong/Kuang.

Our family has been in Taishan for quite a few generations, then many moons back my parents immigrated to the USA, tagging along my two siblings and myself straight out of a small farming village (Milong) in Taishan, Guangdong Province. Some two hundred plus years ago our family migrated to Taishan from northern China (where exactly, I do not know). I haven't quite pinned down the story my father told me many years back.

A good place to start your geneological research would be to have a compilation of the clans. I happen to have a copy of the New Compilation of the Kuang Clan Geneology - Taishan Shi, Guangdong Sheng Professional Publication. It was printed in 2001 in Simplified Chinese, however, the compilation was completed in the Winter of 1999. This compilation can be equated to what I have seen as family books. I was told that the Taishan Kuang Family geneological compilation took over 5 years to put together, I suspect due to the collosal research effort undertaken. Below are more details on the publication - click on each thumbnail to view larger size...

Unfortuntately I have run out of my copies of the New Compilation of the Kuang Clan Geneology, if you are interested in obtaining a copy, you may want to visit Jimmy Tsang's page, -- A few years back when I had contacted Jimmy, I believe he was living in Taishan at the time, probably still there at this time. It's been a long time since I've visited or corresponded with Jimmy. Just noticed he's made much progress with his site. Please contact Jimmy to see if he can help. Jimmy's website is: http://www.taishan.com/english/index.htm -- you can find his email at the bottom of his website.