[The National Archives is still closed because of COVID-19. A few months ago, I emailed the staff at seattle.archives@nara.gov with my request for the files for Long Mi-Na and Long Nee-Sa. The request went into the queue and when my number came up a staff member scanned the files and emailed them to me. They are the greatest!]
“Long Mi-Na & Long Nee-Sa correspondence photos,” 1929, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Long Mi-Na and Long Nee-Sa case file, Seattle Box 334, file 7022/18-3 & 7022/18-4.
Long Mi-Na, age 23, and Long Nee-Sa, age 21, were the daughters of Long Tack Sam. They were actresses and members of the Long Tack Sam Troupe who made several tours the United States and Canada. There were twelve members of the troupe. On this trip to Vancouver, B.C. they left Seattle on 23 November 1932 by boat, returned via the Great Northern Railway, and were identified and admitted at Blaine, Washington, one week later.
The troupe was bonded by the National Suety Company granted by Department of Labor.
The initial correspondence in the files was for their 1929 tour. On that tour, they left the U.S. in March for vaudeville engagements at Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver, Canada; and reenter at Seattle in April 1929 to continue their tour in the United States. They were allowed to stay in the U.S. for six months. A bond of $1,000 was paid for each of the twelve members of the troupe. The substantial amount of the bond was to assure that all the members of the troupe would depart the U.S. at the end of the six-month period.
[Unfortunately, files for travelers such as actors, actresses, acrobats, and vaudeville members, usually do not contain much information. Most do not include a photograph. Mi-Na and Nee-Sa’s files were only six pages but each file included a photo.]
See more information about Long Tack Sam from an earlier post.
Hello Long Nee-Sa (or Poldi her English name) was my Grandmother. What made you look into these archives for information about her and her sister? I am doing some research on my Grandmother and would like to know if you possibly have any other information about her or my Great Grandfather Long Tack Sam you would be willing to share?
Hi, I volunteer at the National Archives-Seattle. We are in the process of indexing the Chinese Exclusion Act case files to make it easier for researchers to access the files. When I saw Long Tack Sam’s file I thought it was interesting and unique so I but it on the blog. There is much written about Long Tack Sam in a variety of sources. Some are listed in the blog post. He and the troupe traveled to Canada so you might look there. There are probably many newspaper articles on him in the U.S. and Canada. You could check with some of the theatres where they performed. They might have archives. If you find more information on him, I would be happy to add it to the blog. Good luck! Trish
Hello Again. Is it possible to get copies of the files that you have on Sam and Nee-Sa?
Send a request to NARA-Seattle at Seattle.archives@nara.gov. Give them Sam and Nee-Sa’s full names and the file #s that are listed in the blog post.