Tag Archives: Peking

Lee Tah (Tok) Fu (George Chin) – Anonymous letter, three wives, many photos

Alien Registration File Number, Anonymous letter, Marriage name, New York City file, Photographs, Section 6 Student, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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 (Tok) Fu, Section 6 Certificate, 1924, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, Record Group 85, National Archives at Seattle, Lee Tah (Tok) Fu, Box 900, 7032/790.

Lee Tah Fu 李達夫 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.

Historical black and white portrait of a young man with dark hair, wearing a suit and tie, with the words 'IMMIGRANT INSPECTOR' below his image.
Lee Tah (Tok) Fu, Form 432, 1930, CEA case files, RG 85, NARA-Seattle, Lee Tah (Tok) Fu, Box 900, 7032/790.

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.

Black and white photograph of two boys seated together, one wearing a suit and the other in a traditional outfit, both looking at the camera.
A man in a light suit sitting on a rooftop, holding a straw hat. The background features buildings and trees, with writing at the top and bottom indicating a date and name.
Black and white portrait of a young man in a suit, looking directly at the camera. The image has handwritten notes at the bottom.
A portrait of a young girl sitting on a rock, wearing a traditional patterned outfit. The background features foliage and a blurred bridge.
A young girl in a traditional dress stands next to a seated doll on a rock, with a decorative backdrop featuring plants and structures.
Photos from NARA- NY, File 134/237

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]

David Loo – Passport, father’s Hawaiian birth certificates & family photo

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David Loo Passport photo 1941

David Loo, (Chinese name Lu Min-i), age 21, and his sister, Mimi Loo, age 19, arrived at the Port of Seattle, Washington, on 7 June 1941 and were admitted as U. S. citizens two days later. David and Mimi would temporarily be staying with their sister, Marion Loo, in Hollywood, California. Their father, Teddy Loo-Tin (Loo Ping-Tien or Loo Chit Sam), was born in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, on 16 August 1884. Their mother, Chen Kwan Har, remained in China.
Loo Chit Sam Hawaii Birth Cert 1898

Loo David's father's Hawaii Birth Cert 1894

David Loo was born in Tientsin, China on 8 September 1919. Before leaving China, David completed two years of study at the University of St. Johns in Shanghai. During his interrogation, he testified that their home had thirteen or fifteen rooms and they had three servants. (The Japanese tore down two rooms and the garage when they widened the street in front of their house leaving them with two less rooms.) They had owned a 1932 Ford V-8 but sold it about 1938. Whenever they stayed in Peking, they all rode bicycles. David’s father was an agent for a rug company. He smoked Camel cigarettes and currently had a beard and sometimes a mustache. The family traveled a good deal and two on the brothers were born in Australia. David’s witnesses were his sister, Marion, and Mrs. Bessie C. Jordan of Seattle. Jordan was his teacher at the American School in Peking for two years. David’s file includes a photo of him with his six siblings: Susane, Milton, Minto, Michael, Marion, and Mimi. David was the second youngest.
Loo David Family photos group

 

 

 

 

 

 

In April in preparing to leave China, Mimi Loo wrote to the Commissioner of the Immigration Bureau in Seattle, Washington, to inform them that she and her brother were planning on traveling to the U.S. with Mr. and Mrs. R. A. Drews, her teacher at the American School in Peking. The American Embassy had advised them to leave for the United States. Their father had registered his children at the American Consulate General in Tientsin and Shanghai and filed their records with the State Department. Their brother, Michael Loo was admitted to the U.S. at San Pedro, California, in September 1935 (file #14036/87-A) and their sister, Marian Loo, was admitted at San Francisco in May 1940 [file # not included].

Marion Loo swore in an affidavit that David Loo and Mimi Loo, the children of Loo Tim, were her siblings,

David was issued Certificate of Identity No. 84834 upon arrival. Once David was settled, he registered for the draft for military service.

[A copy of Mimi Loo’s interrogation is included in David Loo’s file. Mimi Loo’s Seattle file is #7030/13572. There is no further information in the file.]

“David Loo passport photo, ca. 1941; Loo Chit Sam & Loo Tim, born 1884, copies of Hawaiian birth certificates, 1898 & 1901; Loo family photo, ca. 1926,” Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Loo David case file, Seattle Box 825, file 7030/13566.

Emily Green Exner Chi, Sylvia and Vernon Chi – Northfield, MN

1922 Cable Act, Citizenship Act of 1934, family photo, student, USC 1489, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chi Emily Sylvia Vernon 1941
“Photo of Emily Green Exner Chi with Sylvia and Vernon Chi ,” 1941, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Chi Sylvia B case file, Seattle Box 825, file #7030/13532.

Emily Green Exner Chi and her children Benjamin, Sylvia, and Vernon Chi arrived at the Port of Seattle on 13 February 1941. Emily, Sylvia and Vernon were admitted as U.S. citizens; Benjamin was not. Benjamin’s case is complicated and will be dealt with in a later blog entry.

Emily’s Chinese name was Chi Ne Mei Lan; Sylvia Blythe Chi was Chi Po Ya; and Vernon Longstreet Chi only had a Chinese surname. They all had valid U.S. passports issued at the consulate general at Tientsin, China. Emily Green Exner, a Caucasian, was born on 8 November 1904 in Northfield, Minnesota. She married Chi Shou Yu (English name: Hilary) on 18 September 1932 at Northfield. Her husband, a citizen of China, was admitted at the Port of Seattle in 1929 with student status. They left for China a few days after their wedding. Emily did not lose her citizenship due to her marriage to an alien ineligible to citizenship because of the 1922 Cable Act and a 1931 update.

“… That no woman who was a national of the United States shall be deemed to have lost her nationality solely by reason of her marriage to an alien on or after September 22, 1922, or to an alien racially ineligible to citizenship on or after March 3, 1931, or, in the case of a woman who was a United States citizen at birth, through residence abroad following such marriage, notwithstanding the provisions of any existing treaty or convention1…”

Sylvia and Vernon Chi were born in Tientsin, China in 1937 and 1940, respectively. The Citizenship Act of 1934, Section 1993 said that a child could acquire U.S. citizenship through the mother, not just the father. There are other provisions but this was the part of the Act that pertained to them at their young ages.2

(More about this Act in Benjamin Chi’s upcoming blog entry.)

Mrs. Emily Chi does not have a separate file but since her children were so young, ages 3 and 1, she was interviewed. This information was gleaned from her interview: Her father, three brothers, and brother, Frederick S. Exner and his wife were present at her wedding. For the past eight years her husband was a manager for a manufacturer of sporting goods and they planned to employ up to 100 men. The factory was broken into three parts because of the Japanese occupation. His salary was a hundred Tientsin dollars a month with an annual bonus of 10,000 Tientsin dollars. Emily was coming to visit her elderly parents before they died and the State Department was insisting that women and children leave China [because of the war]. She and her husband owned a farm outside of Tientsin that they rented out. She was planning on visiting her brother, Dr. Frederick B. Exner, in Seattle and her father Franz Exner, a Ph.D. and her mother Hannah Blithe Exner at 100 Nevada Avenue, Northfield, Minnesota. Her mother was in poor health and Emily hope to stay about a year; applying for an extension if needed. Emily originally went to China when she was about 20 to teach in the Yu Ying School in Peking. She taught there three years and met her husband there. Her husband, Chi Shou Yu, (Seattle file 11476/1-1) was born in Wu Ching Hsien district, Man Shuang Miao village, Ho Pei providence. He studied chemistry at Cartleton College in Northfield, MN for the three years before they married.

Emily Green Exner Chi and her children Sylvia, and Vernon Chi were admitted as U.S. citizens on their day of arrival. There is no further information in the file.

1. “Title 8 – Aliens and Nationality, Chapter 12 – Immigration and Nationality, Subchapter Iii – Nationality and Naturalization, Part III – Loss of Nationality, § 1489. Application of treaties;  exceptions,”  https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/pdf/uscode08/lii_usc_TI_08_CH_12_SC_III_PA_III_SE_1489.pdf

2. Orfield, Lester B. (1934) “The Citizenship Act of 1934,” University of Chicago Law Review: Vol. 2 : Iss. 1 , Article 7. http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclrev/vol2/iss1/7