Ai-Li Sung Chin – PhD in Sociology from Radcliffe College

Ai Li Sung arrived at the Port of Seattle as a Section Six nonquota student in September 1937. She was born on 13 April 1919 in Shanghai, China. After graduating from St. Mary’s Hall, an Episcopalian high school for girls in Shanghai, she was awarded a $1,000 scholarship for Colby Junior College, New London, New Hampshire. She received an additional $300 from her father, Sung Xau-yuen, an electrical engineer for Inniss and Riddle Company in Shanghai. Miss Frances MacKinnon, a teacher at St. Mary’s was a witness for her. Ai Li was issued a passport that expired in July 1940.

“Sung Ai Li, Precis of Investigation photo,” 1937, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, Record Group 85, National Archives at Seattle, Sung Ai Li, Box 395, File 7028/1041.

The Registrar at Colby Junior College had to report twice a year to immigration officials about non-quota immigrant students enrolled at the school. They were asked to confirm whether each student was taking a full schedule of daytime classes. They also had to report if a student had left the school and was expected to return but had not. In those cases, they needed to provide the student’s current address or the name and address of someone who could help locate them. If a student had left the U.S. or was planning to leave soon, the report had to include the departure date, the ship’s name, and the port of departure.

H. Leslie Sawyer, the President of Colby, notified the Department of Labor that Ai Li Sung graduated on 12 June 1939 and was transferring to Wellesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the fall.

  Ai Li completed her “Application to Extend Time of Admission as Nonquota Student” form in November 1939 and it was granted for two years.

  In 1941 while a student at Wellesley, Ai Li was employed as a domestic servant by Mrs. Richard Sanger in Cambridge in exchange for room and board. She also worked at the college library for .35 per hour or about $5 per month. Ai Li graduated in June 1941 and was admitted to Radcliffe Graduate School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, on a fellowship for 1941-42.

In 1941, Ai Li received an extension to September 1943. She stated that she had worked as an advertising agent for the Chinese Student Directory from December 1940 to Jan 1941 and received $40. She hoped to obtain a master’s degree in Sociology.

In September 1942, Ai Li wrote to Immigration and Naturalization in Philadelphia, telling them that she received notice from the Civil Service Commission informing her that she received permanent status with the Office of War Information (OWI). She asked if her status should be changed from student to non-student classification. [Immigration did not respond to her question.]

 Ai Li received her Master of Arts from Radcliffe in March 1943. In April she received a notice saying that since she was no longer a student she should apply for a temporary visitor status or she may continue with her status as student while she was training if her work was in the same field as her studies. She notified Immigration that she was a housewife, now married to Robert Chin, living in Washington, D.C. and waiting to be hired by the U.S. Government as a sociologist. Her student classification would expire in September 1943. If she did not receive a sociologist position by then, her status would change to temporary visitor. In May 1943, Ai Li notified Immigration that she had a three-month temporary position for the Research and Analysis Division at the OWI as a translator of Chinese documents. She was hoping to get a one-year research fellowship with the American Council for Learned Societies to make a sociological study of the Chinese family and personality.

While waiting to hear about the research fellowship, Ai Li continued to work for OWI (Office of War Information) as a Press Analyst. She now had an alien registration file, number 1456606. His husband, Robert Chin, worked for the Federal Communication Commission.

In November 1943, Ai Li applied for another extension as a nonquota student stating that she held a permanent position with OWI. It was granted through 4 December 1944. In June 1944 her annual salary was $2,600.

Because of illness she left her job in February 1945. In November 1945, after World War II had ended, Ai Li Lung Chin, who was suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, wrote from the Glenn Dale Sanatorium in Maryland asking for another extension of her student status. Her passport was expiring in a few days on 4 December. She was enrolled in a correspondence course through the University of Wisconsin. While she was recovering, her physician advised her not to travel for two years. He sent a letter to Immigration with the details of her illness. Immigration also needed to know the status of her husband.

In February 1946, Ai Li asked for another extension and answered their query about her husband, Robert Chin–he was a citizen of the United States, born in China. She was granted an extension to 4 December 1946. The final document in Ai Li Sung Chin’s file is a letter dated 5 September 1946. It stated that Ai Li Sung married an honorably discharged citizen member of the armed forces on 21 February 1943… she was found admissible on 9 August 1946 under the Act of 28 December 1945 (Public laws 271), The War Brides Act 1946 & 1946.

Extra information not in the file:
According to the 7 May 2017 issue of The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, page B7:
Ai-li Shen Chin, age 98, died 25 Apr 2017, in Lexington, Massachusetts.  She enjoyed writing, painting, playing the piano, and ballroom dancing. Her husband Robert Chin, preceded in death.


Chin Hing Chung – Kennebec, Maine

Chin Soy, a U.S. born citizen, wanted to bring his son in China, Chin Hing Chung, to the United States.

Chin Soy swore in an affidavit in March 1937 at Kennebec, Maine, that he was born in the United States about 1880 and was therefore a U.S. citizen. He was issued a Certificate of Identity in Seattle, Washington, in 1916 and was a resident of Waterville, Maine.

“Chin Soy Affidavit photos,” 1937, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, Record Group 85, National Archives at Seattle, Chin Hing Chung, Box 733, File 7030/10206.

Between 1905 and 1932, he had visited China five times. On his 1905 trip he married Dong Shee. They had six children. In 1937 Chin Soy was applying to have his son, Chin Hing Chung, come to the United States with the status as the son of a U.S. native. According to the amended section 1993 (48 Stat. 797) children born abroad to U.S. citizens prior to May 24, 1934 were citizens. The ruling stated that: 

Any child hereafter born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, whose father or mother or both at the time of the birth of such child is a citizen of the United States, is declared to be a citizen of the United States; but the rights of citizenship shall not descend to any such child unless the citizen father or citizen mother, as the case may be, has resided in the United States previous to the birth of such child.  In cases where one of the parents is an alien, the right of citizenship shall not descend unless the child comes to the United States and resides therein for at least five years continuously immediately previous to his eighteenth birthday, and unless, within six months after the child’s twenty-first birthday, he or she shall take an oath of allegiance to the United States of America as prescribed by the Bureau of Naturalization.

In 1937 Chin Hing Chung, marriage name Chin Kung Pon, was twenty years old (American reckoning). During Chin’s hearing he was reminded that it was his burden to prove he was not subject to exclusion. On 9 August 1931 he testified that he was born at Soo Oon village, Lock Toon, Sun Ning district, China on 25 January 1917. During Chin’s interrogation he was asked about his parents, their siblings, his siblings and nieces and nephews and his grandparents. He described his home as a five-room brick house with tile floors in all rooms and an open court paved with stone. It had two doors, with two windows in each bedroom. The windows all had iron bars and wooden shutters. The windows under the loft had glass. There was a shrine loft in the parlor. There were about 500 or 600 houses in the village. He was asked about the layout of the houses in the village, the width of the streets, and where the market and social hall were located. The interviewer asked specific questions, such as, who lives in the first house, fifth row, north of main street, his name and age, and number of their children and their names. Similar questions were asked about other people in the village. Did the village have an ancestral hall? A railway station? A school? Who were the teachers? Was there a fishpond? Did his father smoke? Were there any photographs or paintings in his house? Did his mother have a vegetable or flower garden? Did he attend his brother’s wedding feast? Was there anything in his house to represent his ancestors? Did his sister or sister-in-law have bobbed hair? Chin Hing Chung testified that there was a group picture taken of his mother, two brothers, sister and himself about 1922 or 1923. There were seven pages of interrogation.

Chin Hing Chung’s answers were compared to the interview answers of his father and his two previously landed brothers. It was decided that there were no significant differences. In spite of this, Chin Soy, the alleged father, and Chin Keong, the alleged brother, were interviewed again two weeks later. This time the Chinese Inspector, John A. Carney, noted these differences: direction in which the home village faces, the location of the head of the village, and the location of certain ancestral halls. The father and brother both said there was never a group photograph taken of the family. Their interviews were twenty-nine pages long. Their statements might include valuable anecdotal family information about their lives in China that may not be recorded in any other documents.

Chin Hing Chung was interviewed again about the difference between his testimony and his father and brother’s. His answers were satisfactory; the Chairman of the Board of Special Inquiry concluded that Chin Hing Chung was the son of a U.S. citizen, Chin Soy, who had been readmitted as a native-born citizen several times. And Chin Soy was in China at the time when Chin Hing Chung was conceived. Chin Hing Chung was admitted at the Port of Seattle on 3 September 1937 as a U.S. citizen, a little over six weeks after he arrived. He joined his father in Waterville, Maine.

The Reference Sheet in the file includes the names of Chin Hing Chung’s father and two brothers and their file numbers.

The Chinese Exclusion Act Blog is Ten Years Old!

Vector image by VectorStock / oktamaulana

I started the Chinese Exclusion Act blog in May 2015. It now has 345 posts. About 325 are summaries of Chinese Exclusion Case files housed at the National Archives at Seattle. Some guest bloggers generously shared their family stories. About twenty posts are miscellaneous information including the 2021 potential sale of the National Archives at Seattle facility.

The posts are summaries of Chinese Exclusion Act files at the National Archives at Seattle pertaining to Chinese entering or leaving from Seattle, Port Townsend, and Sumas, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Helena, Montana; Portal, North Dakota; and Vancouver, B.C. Although these files are located in Seattle, the subject of the file may have lived anywhere in the United States. At this point, all but seven states are represented on the blog entries. Missing are Alabama, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, South Carolina, and West Virginia. I’ll be adding files from those states in the next few months.

CEA Files Blog Collage

This collage introduces the blog and is a small sample of photos and documents found in the case files. The files usually contain a photo, interviews, affidavits, witness statements and government correspondence. The blog is a good way for researchers to see the types of information available in the case files.

Woo Sing – Documenting Chinese American Citizenship in Virginia

“Woo Sing family portrait,” 1898.
Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Charles William Sing file, Seattle, Box 1070, Case 8787/3-8.

Jessi Bennett expands on the blog entry for Woo Sing family in Richmond, Virginia in her article “One of the Most Unique Papers”: Documenting Chinese American Citizenship in Virginia, published in The Uncommon Wealth, Voices from the Library of Virginia, on 28 May 2025.

Charles William Sing was the first Chinese baby born in Richmond in 1895. Bennett’s in-depth research and well-sourced article shows how the Chinese Exclusion Act with its renewals and amendments affected a young American-born man with Chinese parents and all Chinese living in the United States during the Exclusion period.

The original blog entry on the Woo Sing Family can be found at Woo Sing Family Portrait.

May 2025: Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month

For more information: “Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month,” National Archives News

Below is a copy of the original Act to designate May of each year as “Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month”

“An Act to designate May of each year as “Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month,” Public Law 102-450, 102d Congress, H.R. 5672, 23 Oct 1992.

Chee Tuck – Port Gamble & Port Ludlow, WA Laborer

“Eng See Fay Affidavit Photo,” 1899, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, Record Group 85, National Archives at Seattle, Chee Tuck, Box 891, File 7032/569.

The first document in Chee Tuck’s file is a 10 August 1899 affidavit. He was applying for a certificate of departure and return at Port Townsend, Washington for his trip to China. His witnesses, Eng See Fay, of the firm Lun Ying Co., and Clew Non, both swore that they were in debt to Chee Tuck for a total of $1,200.  A photo of Eng See Fay with his name written across the photo is attached to the affidavit. According to his interview, Chee Tuck obtained a Certificate of Residence in Oregon in 1894, he lived in Port Gamble, Washington; was 31 years old, and worked as a cook. He planned on leaving from the Port of Tacoma, Washington.

“Chee Tuck Affidavit,” 1904, CEA case files, RG 85, NARA-Seattle, Chee Tuck, Box 891, File 7032/569.

The file does not show when he returned but he applied to leave again in 1904. Lung Kee still owed him $1,100 and was his witness. There was no official note for the transaction, but A. F. Richardson, the Chinese Inspector, believed it was valid. A photo of Chee Tuck was attached to the affidavit. He was then living in Port Ludlow and was a cook in the Port Ludlow Hotel, making $45 a month.

Lung Kee was interviewed in 1905. He testified that he borrowed $1,100 in gold from Chee Tuck in 1902 so he could build a house in China. (Eng) Lung Kee obtained his chak chi (Certificate of Residence) in 1894 at Portland.
In 1905 another witness, Ng Gow, testified that he witnessed Chee Tuck transferring the $1,100 in gold to Lung Kee in 1902.  When Chee Tuck returned from China in September 1905, he was admitted as a duly registered Chinese laborer. He testified that he was twelve years old when he landed at the Port of San Francisco in 1880. From there he went to Port Townsend.

“Chee Tuck Form 432, Application Chinese Laborer for Return Certificate,” 1911, CEA case files, RG 85, NARA-Seattle, Chee Tuck, Box 891, File 7032/569.

Chee Tuck applied to leave in 1911. He gave his married name as Ng Yee Ham. His wife was Lee She and they had a six-year-old son named Koon Dock. They were living in Gim Lung village, Sunning District, China. Chee Tuck returned in November 1912 and was admitted.
In 1929 Chee Tuck, age 61, applied for a laborer’s return certificate. Another son was born after his last visit but now both sons had died. It is assumed that his debt due from Lung Kee was paid off because now he filled the debt requirement by owning a $1,000 Liberty Loan bond. Chee Tuck returned in November 1930 and was admitted. There is no more information in his file.

“Chee Tuck Form 432, Return Certificate Lawfully Domiciled Chinese Laborer,” 1929, CEA case files, RG 85, NARA-Seattle, Chee Tuck, Box 891, File 7032/569.

Chee Tuck’s file contains nothing jarring or unusual . He fulfilled all the requirements for a returning laborer. Immigration officials reviewed his paperwork and approved it. The photos stand out—one for his witness in 1899 and photos of Chee Tuck in 1904, 1911, and 1929. It had been eighteen years between Tuck’s last visits to China and by the time he went back, both of his sons had died. How sad.

Wing Luke Museum Staff visits National Archives at Seattle

Wing Luke Staff at NARA Seattle 14 April 2025

On April 14, 2025, staff from the Wing Luke Museum was treated to a special behind-the-scenes tour of the National Archives at Seattle. During their visit, NARA staff provided an overview of the extensive collection of original historical documents housed at the facility. I had the opportunity to share details about our ongoing indexing project related to the Chinese Exclusion Act (CEA) case files, as well as the CEA blog that highlights summaries from the records. Following the tour, the group explored selected materials from various Record Groups, including notable case files and documents connected to the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The Wing Luke Museum, located in Seattle’s historic Chinatown-International District, is a vibrant art and history museum dedicated to the stories of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Founded in 1967, the museum is a proud Smithsonian Institution affiliate and remains the only community-based museum in the U.S. with a pan-Asian Pacific American focus.

Elsie Chung Lyon – International Registered Nurse and Lecturer

Elise Chung Lyon was born in Stawell, Australia, about one hundred forty miles from Melbourne. She first come to the United States in 1923 from China with her husband Bayard Lyon. They lived in Elkhorn, Wisconsin with their three children, Marguerite, Hugh, and David. Her brother Fred Mowfung Chung also lived in Elkhorn.
Elsie’s exempt status was “wife of citizen, admitted to U.S. prior to July 1, 1924.” She had reentry permits from 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, and 1934, each with her photograph attached. When she arrived in 1934, she was forty-seven years old. Her file does not have much personal information. Elsie’s 1929 Form 505, Certificate of Admission of Alien, lists her occupation as lecturer.

“Elise Chung Lyon Reentry Permit Photo,” 1932, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, Record Group 85, National Archives at Seattle, Elsie Chung Lyon (Mrs. Bayard Lyon), Box 879, File 7032/263.

Elsie’s file does record a confusing incident with immigration authorities upon her arrival in Seattle from China via Vancouver, B.C. on Saturday, 10 November 1928. She was returning from a three-month tour of China. Mrs. Lyon, a lecturer on international relations, and nine other Chinese passengers were threatened with being locked up by immigration authorities for the weekend. David Young, a representative of the Seattle Chinese consulate, managed to get Mrs. Lyon released to his custody as a matter of courtesy.

A 13 November 1928 newspaper article titled, “Chinese Wife of American is Held Here”1 is included in her file. The article quoted Elsie Chung Lyon, “I’m rather sorry now that I did not suffer myself to be locked up because I would be better able to understand the indignation my countrymen feel on entering this country.” She noted that her papers were in order and she had been admitted two times previously without a problem. She promised that she would take the matter up with Secretary Kellogg in Washington, D.C. [Frank Billings Kellogg served in the U.S. Senate and as U.S. Secretary of State.] The article or the 1928 forms in her file do not say exactly why Lyon was being held or what happened to the other Chinese passengers.

In September 1929, Mr. J. J. Forster, Steamship General Passenger Agent of Vancouver, British Columbia wrote a letter to Mr. Luther Weedin, Commissioner of the U.S. Department of labor in Seattle concerning a compliant of Mrs. Elsie Chung Lyon about the ports of entry for readmittance to the United States. Mrs. Lyon was complaining that she had not been told the requirements covering her entry. Forster explained:

1. All Chinese ports of entry are not advised when return permits are issued.
 2. The Vancouver office did not know where the permit was issued or which port she departed to China from.
3. Chinese with return permits are entitled to admission to the U.S. through any port designated as a port of admission for Chinese.

Rules of October 1, 1926, governing the admission of Chinese gives the following on Ports on Entry:
“No Chinese person, other than a Chinese diplomatic or consular officer, shall be permitted to enter the United States at any seaport other than at the ports of Port Townsend or Seattle, Wash.; Portland, Oreg.; San Francisco, San Pedro, or San Diego, Calif; New Orleans, La.; New York, N.Y.; Boston, Mass.; San Juan or Ponce, P.R.; and Honolulu, Hawaii.”

According to her file, Elsie Chung Lyon continued traveling without any problems. The last entry notes that she left from San Francisco on 19 October 1936. “See Imm. File 117/9/36.”

Other information not included in the file:
On 12 September 1947, Elsie Chung Lyon’s letter to The New York Times criticizing General Wedemeyer’s statement on China was published. Lyon had recently worked seventeen months with the Chinese Nationalist Army in China and thought she was more able than Wedemeyer to evaluate the miserable and dehumanizing condition of the Chinese people and their need for honest leadership. She did not want America to continue “to grant aid to the present tyrannical regime…”

Death Information and Obituary for Elsie Chung Lyon:
Elsie Chung Lyon, the daughter of Mow Fun Chung and Mow Fung Huishe of China, was born in Australia in 1887. She died at Fort Worth, Texas on 16 Dec 1963 at age 76 years.2
Elsie graduated as a registered nurse from London School of Nursing and Medical Administration in England and was a registered nurse at the American Bureau for Medical Aid to China. She served as a lieutenant colonel in the Nationalist Chinese Army during World War II. After her return to the U.S., she translated English language nursing texts into Chinese. Her translation of Midwifery for Nurses (Hu shi jie chan xu zhi ) by Henry Russell is listed in the National Institutes of Health library catalog.3
Elsie Chung Lyon became a U.S. citizen in 1947. She was survived by a son David in Missouri, a son Hugh in Virginia and a daughter, Mrs. Margaret McHarg of Bellevue, Washington.4

[This file is the combined effort of the Chinese Exclusion Act Indexing team at the National Archives at Seattle. Rhonda Farrer indexed the file. She was intrigued by the story and shared it with Joyce Liu. Joyce found the NYT’s article. They gave me a copy of their findings. From there I obtained Elsie’s death certificate and obituary and wrote it up for the blog. THN]

  1. Alice Elinor, “Chinese Wife of American is Held Here” Seattle Post Intelligencer, Seattle, WA, p3. ↩︎
  2. Elsie Chung Lyon, 16 Dec 1963, Texas Department of State Health Services; Austin Texas, USA; Texas Death Certificates, 1903–1982, Ancestry.com ↩︎
  3. Henry Russell Andrews, Hu shi jie chan xu zhi [Midwifery for nurses], (Shanghai : Guang 1941), National Library of Medicine, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/101541743. ↩︎
  4. “Native of China: Pioneer in Nursing Dies Here,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas, 17 Dec 1963, p.32. Newspapers.com ↩︎

Rev. Shiu Chiu Yiu – Vancouver, BC; Los Angeles, CA; Portland, OR

In September 1925, C. Y. Shiu, age 37, applied to the American Consular Service at Vancouver, British Columbia for a nonquota immigration visa. He was 37 years old and was born at Canton, China. He had lived in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada since 1920 and was a Methodist minister. He had eight children, Mary, age 11, born in China, and seven younger sons all born in Canada. His church would be paying for the family’s passage from Vancouver, B. C. to Los Angeles, and they expected him to minister to his congregation for about five years.

His birth certificate, a letter of recommendation, a letter from his church and his Section 6 certificate were reviewed by Immigration and his application was approved and his photo was attached to the form.

Shui was ordained as a minister in the Methodist Church at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in June 1922 and a member of the British Columbia Conference since 1923. Rev. S. S. Osterhout, Superintendent of Methodist Oriental Missions in Canada, confirmed that Shui had been a missionary for the past nine years and a member in good standing. A letter from Rev. D. H. Klinefelter, superintendent of Pacific Coast Methodist Episcopal Chinese Missions, confirmed Shui’s transfer to Los Angeles and Pasadena with a salary of $100 per month and a house to live in.

In his letter of recommendation, George Bell stated that Shui carried out his missionary duties faithfully in Kamloops and the District of North Saskatchewan for nine years.
The nonquota visa issued to Shiu Chiu Yiu contained photos of him, his wife, and their eight children.

“Shiu family photos,” 1925, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, Record Group 85, National Archives at Seattle, Shiu Chiu Yiu, Rev., Box 858, file 7031/581.

Top row: Tai Duck, wife; Rev. Shiu Chiu Yiu, baby Andrew (b. 1925)
Middle row: Paul (b. 1917), Timothy (b. 1923), Luke (b. 1922)
Bottom row: Peter (b. 1919), Mary (b. 1914), John (b. 1920), overlap: James (b. 1921)

The family arrived at the Port of Seattle on 26 September 1925 and were admitted.
In his Board of Special Inquiry interview, Shiu testified that his marriage name was See Wai and that he was born on 1 October 1888 in Canton, China. His parents were David Shiu and Leong Shee. He had one brother and three sisters. His mother had died but his father and sisters were all living in China. His brother, Shiu Chiu Chung, a Presbyterian minister, was living in Winnipeg, Canada. After their arrival was approved, the family left for Los Angeles on the Princess Marguerite.

The ship must have stopped in San Francisco. Although Shiu intending to on going to Los Angeles, he found out he was needed in San Francisco. He and his family were there three years, then went to Sacramento for five years and had been in Portland for two years. In 1935, his salary was $120 a month.

In 1935, Shui applied for a reentry permit. It was approved, and he spent two weeks in Canada.
In June 1937, Shiu Chiu Yiu and his daughter, Shui Kuo Ying (Mary Shiu) applied for re-entry permits. Shui gave his marriage name as Chew Lui. By then he had ten children, eight living. His sons John and Andrew had died. His children Thomas and Ruth were born in California. Shiu’s wife and the children were living in Portland, Oregon. Mary, now 23 years old, was going to China to teach for two years. She graduated from Albany College in June 1936 and her father had been teaching her Chinese. Mary had a separate file, 4009/1-3. Her father planned to go to with her as far as Vancouver, Canada and then return to Portland within two months. Mary presented her diplomas from Albany College in Albany, Oregon; Oregon State Teachers Certificate, Sacramento High School, and Junior High School in Sacramento. Their reentry permits were approved.

Shiu Chiu Yiu returned to Portland in August 1937 and was admitted.

The reference sheet in the file gives the file numbers for his wife, eight sons, one daughter, and his brother.