Chinese immigrant family tree, created for Stanford Chinese Studies department
Case Study: Family Tree
Early immigrants to this country were often sequestered from family members and questioned about their families and their living situations (names of neighbors, types of businesses in the area, etc.). Officials compared relatives’ answers to verify immigrants’ identities.
This family tree began in the early 1920s as a crudely-drawn chart presented to San Francisco immigration authorities. It shows the family’s members through the 1950s.