Lee Tah Fu (George Chin)’s file is a reminder that these files usually pertain to a small portion of a person’s life. Lee’s file brings up many questions and gives us few answers.
Lee Tah Fu first came to the U.S. as a Section VI student in 1924. He was born on 15 January 1899 at Hen Mee Village, S.N.D. (Sun Ning District), China, son of Lee Nie Wee and Moy Shee, and attended school at Chi Chu Middle School in Peking. Lee went to New York City after his arrival in Seattle and went to Mission School for one year before working in a laundry.
Ng Fook, marriage name Ng You Chung, was a witness for Lee Tah Fu in 1930. Lee and Ng Fook were both laundrymen living in New Brunswick, New Jersey. They had known each other three or four years. Ng borrowed $1,000 from Lee in August 1930 filling the requirement Lee needed when applying for his return certificate to visit his family in China. Lee’s application was approved.
When Lee returned through the Port of Seattle in September 1931, he received his Certificate of Identity #66912. Sometimes his name was spelled Lee Tah Fu and he also went by George Chin.
In October 1937, Mrs. George Chin wrote to Immigration and Naturalization in Seattle asking for more information about Lee Tok Fu. She said she was married, going to have a baby and would like to know about Lee’s married life in China. She did not say if she was his wife. The Seattle office wrote to the New York office for information contained in Lee’s New York file 134/237 and suggested that they contact Mrs. Chin. She was not contacted by Immigration until 1942.
In late January 1942, the immigration office at New York received an anonymous complaint about Lee. Gilbert M. Hall, U.S. Chinese and Immigrant Inspector at Ellis Island, New York, interviewed Lee Tok Fu. Lee gave his marriage name as Lee Soon Moon. His parents were both deceased and they had never left China. Lee married Ng Shee, who died in China in 1934. They had a son and daughter. He married Caroline Greger, a Caucasian, in October 1935 at Church of All Nations in New York City. They had two sons, both born in New York City. Lee was registered under the Alien Registration Act and belonged to the Chinese Benevolent Association and had his Certification of Identity. Inspector. Hall decided that Lee had been legally admitted to the U.S.
Mrs. George Chin (Caroline Greger), a Caucasian, also known as Mrs. Lee Tok Fu, was then interviewed. Caroline was born on 29 October 1918 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. When asked for a copy of her 1935 marriage license, she said her husband tore it up while in a crazy fit. They had two sons, William, born 1939, and Joseph, born 1941. Their son George, born 1938, died in 1941, a few months before Joseph was born.
About 1937 or 1938, Caroline found out that her husband had another wife. Lee’s father-in-law, Charlie Sing, came into their laundry and told Caroline her husband was married to his daughter who was alive and living in China. They had three children together. Caroline found wife #1’s name and address in her husband’s effects and wrote to her. Lee’s eighteen-year-old son in China wrote to Caroline telling her that his mother was alive and sent her several photographs. Caroline confronted Lee and he told her he had two living wives in China. She separated from him but returned because she could not manage on her own. She planned on terminating her marriage.
Immigration filed this information in Lee’s file but no further action was taken. Alien Registration number 2860497 was handwritten on the final page in his file. Copies of the photos and Chinese letter from Lee’s N.Y. file were sent to Seattle and included in his file. No other follow-up information was included in the file.
Photo information:
Top row: Chin Tah Fu’s sons by his 1st wife: Chin You Tong, age 18 and Chin You Hing, age 13, taken ca. 1937; Chin Tah Fu; Chin You Tong
Bottom row:
Chin Tah Fu’s common law wife, Lin Sue (wife #3)
Chin Tah Fu’s daughter, Chin Sue Kin, age about 22, with her baby
[I was unable to find more information on Lee Tok Fu or his children by Caroline but according to Ancestry.com, Caroline Virgina Greger married Henry Keuvir on 12 April 1942, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. phn]