In search of beneficiaries…

It started off with a fax: “Cheung Hsia died in New York leaving an estate of $400,000. Research needed in China.”

Cheung Hsia died leaving his estate to his brother Ha Wan who lived in Tang Gu Zhuang, Dalinggu, Jianggingtian, Zhejiang Province, China. The only other piece of information: Hsia was born in China on 19 June 1907.

At first glance, this should have been as much information as international case manager Georges Delarue could want. The Zhejian Province is near Shanghai. However, the district name Jiangingtian or Jian Ging Tian presented more difficulties. This combination of letters had to be a transcription error as Ging could not exist. Jian Qing Tian, however, is similar enough to be the most likely spelling, and this exists as a district.

Sadly, the village name of Tang Gu Zhuang and canton name of Dalinggu did not appear on any of our extensive atlases, nor did preliminary phone calls to China help. Delarue therefore traveled to Shanghai and, with a local interpreter, made further calls to the district of Jian Qing Tian. The police and local government were both convinced there was no such canton. The interpreter concluded that there was no point in continuing the search: the address must be incorrect. Delarue, however, wasn’t about to give up so easily.

After what felt like an eternity on winding roads, they arrived in Jian Qing Tian. The local police station could not provide any answers. And although a bureaucrat at the governor’s office patiently listed all the cantons of the district, nothing sounded like Danlinggu.

Back on the street, however, Delarue was approached by a lot of locals, including an elderly man who recalled that ‘Da Lin Gu’ was an ancient canton that had been divided in two. One of the resulting cantons was now called Ren Zhuang; although he couldn’t recall the name of the other.

After two days of talking to different officials, Delarue met one who had heard of the village Tang Gu in Ren Zhuang. Luckily he also knew where the head of the village lived locally.

The head of the village, however, had confusing news: “The person you are looking for died ten years ago. You’ve misspelt his name: it’s Ha Yan not Ha Wan.” He went on to explain that he had surviving children. This was progress indeed, but we had to check he was talking about the same person we were looking for, especially since the name was different. Proof was available when Delarue met the family. Hsia had left China for the US when he was 18 years old, and had not stayed in touch with his family. We were able to obtain a letter the deceased Hsia had written in New York to his brother where he had used the same address, with the same mistakes, as he had on his will.

Our conversations with the family also cleared up the discrepancies in family name. Hsia had written his brother’s name using Chinese name order, but also used the local pronunciation of ‘Ha’, which is pronounced ‘Hsia’ in Mandarin. This helped us prove the link between the two brothers and convince the New York court that the three children we had found were indeed each entitled to a third of their father’s share – which represented a fortune for villagers in rural China.

Column sponsored and compiled by Philippe Fraser of Fraser & Fraser Genealogists and International Probate Researchers. www.fraserandfraser.com