This article originally appeared in the PCGS Researcher, vol. IV, issue 4 (Oct-Dec. 2015)
2020 Addendums:
- In the article I refer to Wong You’s daughter as “Jane” because she was still living in 2015. “Jane” was Poppy Wong Chang. She died in 2019 at 103 years of age.
- Wong You died in Culver City, California, on October 30, 1959. He was living with his son Howard Don.
2022 Addendums:
- Both Howard Hoy Don and Paul Don have been confirmed as sons of Wong You. Howard via documents, Paul by his sister Poppy Wong Chang.
Surprises abound in genealogy and sometimes we find ourselves on unexpected genealogical paths led away from familiar ground in Western Europe and the British Isles to more exotic places. In my case, I found myself researching my husband’s family, a group of Chinese grocers, some of whom arrived in Tucson as early as 1889.
A family tree, sans birth, death, and marriage dates, had been developed by one of my husband’s aunts using her personal knowledge of the family combined with interviews of older community members. She produced what has proven to be a remarkably accurate five-generation family tree preserving the greater Don family history. When I saw the tree, I knew I could contribute by researching birth, death and marriage dates as well as finding out information about the people themselves. The tree below reflects her original research with my added birth and death information.
The Don Family History Chart
Don Que Aht (China) m. Unknown (China)
- Don Yan (1857 China – after 1928, possibly in China)
- Don Kim (1863 China – 1918 Arizona)
- Wong You (1878 China – after 1944, possibly in China) m. Shee Yee (1885 China –1919 Arizona)
- Paul Don (1902 China – 1972 Arizona) *
- Howard Hoy Don (1905 China – 2012 California) *
- Jane Don (Arizona) [Pseudonym used as the person is still living.]
- Johnny Don (1916 Arizona – 1992 California)
*It has not yet been confirmed that Shee Yee is the mother of these two children.
One person stands out–Wong You. (His name is given Chinese style, last name Wong, followed by given name You. His children are all documented in the Western style with the surname last.) On the family tree his father is Don Que Aht, his brothers are Don Yan and Don Kim. Wong You’s children were, in order of birth are, Paul Don, Howard Don, Jane Don and Johnny Don. How could a man with the last name of Wong, be the son of a Don, the brother of two Dons and father to four Dons?
When researching Chinese immigrants, the legal environment must be taken into consideration. After encouraging the Chinese to come to the U.S. to help build the transcontinental railroad, the U.S. government slammed the door shut by enacting the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. It was one of the most restrictive immigration laws ever enacted and forbid the immigration of Chinese laborers; only teachers, merchants, students, diplomats, and tourists were allowed into the U.S. as were the children of U.S. citizens born in China. The act was not repealed until 1943. In response, for over 60 years, tens of thousands of Chinese entered the country illegally many using false documents. Some, but not all, came in as “paper sons” a term coined for young Chinese men entering the United States on purchased identity papers falsely claiming they were sons of U.S. citizens. Because the law was so blatantly unfair within the Chinese community, even normally law abiding, and upstanding Chinese supported and abetted the use of false documents. From 1956-1965 the Immigration and Naturalization Service ran the Chinese Confession Program which offered Chinese who had illegally immigrated legal status and the chance to reclaim their original family name for a confession of illegal entry. This was not an amnesty program but, none the less, almost 14,000 Chinese Americans took advantage of it; however, thousands did NOT. For one thing, there was a deeply ingrained fear of the government within the Chinese community. Also, many Chinese had used their false identities for decades, passing them on to their children and grandchildren and the thought of untangling the legal mess set into motion so long ago was too overwhelming for many. Today many Chinese Americans attempting to trace their family histories run into dead ends created by the false documents used by their ancestors who died keeping the secret of their true family history.
A talk with my husband’s aunt, who knew all the members of this family personally, revealed that he likely came to the United States using false papers under the name “Wong You” that stated his birthplace as San Francisco, California. Based on my research and talking with my husband’s aunt, it is likely that his oldest son, Paul Don, also emigrated from China using false papers. Although it’s too long to include in this article, he too had to be vetted as a Don family member in the same way I had to determine his father was a member of the family. Unlike his father, he consistently used the name Don on all documents after his 1922 arrival from China as a student under the name Tsang Ching Po.
While it appeared to be common knowledge among the family that Wong You was a Don, finding direct documentation was another story. My first step in investigating the identity of Wong You was searching for his death certificate or obituary. Death information for Wong You could not be found. Arizona death records were checked to no avail. Because after her marriage his daughter Jane lived in both Nebraska and Wisconsin, online death records available for those states were also checked with no luck. Because his son Howard died in California, I checked their death records but did not find a good candidate there either. He last appears in the 1944 Tucson city directory living with his son Paul. As of now, his death date is the one bit of information that is not yet part of the family history. Since I lacked his death certificate, I had to research other members of the family in hopes of finding more clues about his identity.
I wanted to determine if Don Kim and Don Yan were Wong You’s brothers. I had no luck with Don Yan, but I did with Don Kim. Don Kim’s 1918 Arizona death certificate states his father was Don Que Aht, matching the oral family history documented by my husband’s aunt. I found Wong You’s oldest son Paul Don in the 1930 census enumerated as working for Don Kim’s widow, Louise. She is given as head of household; Paul is listed as nephew to head. A newspaper article from the Arizona Daily Star in 1935 also refers to Paul Don as nephew to Mrs. Don Kim. Because the family name “Don” indicates their relationship is to Don Kim not his wife, Paul Don was Don Kim’s nephew not his wife’s.
In researching son Howard Don in the oral history, I found that he had been enumerated as “Hoy” in the 1920 census as a 14-year-old in his widowed father’s household under the family name Wong. Entries for his siblings, Jane, and Johnny, also both reflected what was told to the census enumerator by their father – their name was Wong. In the 1940 census Howard is enumerated as H. G. Wong, head, with Wong You, enumerated as father to head. A cross-check of the address in the census with the city directory for 1941 shows both a Hoy Wong and a Wong You at 1940 census address. However, his record in the Social Security Death Index, confirmed by his birth date in other sources as well as where it was issued, reveals that he obtained his Social Security number in Arizona before 1951 under the name of Howard H. Don not Wong. When he died in 2012 at the age 106 it was under the name of Don.
I was able to find Arizona birth certificates for four of Wong You’s children born in Arizona. Jane and Johnny, along with two infants who did not survive, had certificates issued under the name of Wong not Don; their mother was Yee Shee. Because Jane and Johnny had their Chinese names on the birth certificates, I had to correlate addresses on the birth certificates with the addresses of Wong You’s grocery stores found in Tucson city directories to determine they were for the correct family. Then I cross checked the birthdate on Jane’s birth certificate with the birthdate found on her pre-need engraved tombstone located on Find A Grave. The tombstone had her American name and was shared by her husband. Everything matched. Johnny’s birth date was confirmed in his record in the Social Security Application and Claims Index, 1936-2007 as matching the other child’s birth certificate. These were the same children listed on the 1920 census.
Wong You’s daughter Jane was enumerated under the name Wong when found living with Louise Don in both the 1930 and 1940 censuses and in both she is listed as niece. In the Arizona Daily Star for 16 Apr 1943, under the name Wong was the record of Jane’s marriage license to the man named in the family history compiled by my husband’s aunt and on the tombstone she will eventually share. She may have been personally known to my husband’s aunt and in the Tucson Chinese community as a Don but legally she was a Wong until her marriage in 1943.
However, youngest son Johnny was different story. I was not able to definitively locate Johnny on the 1930 or 1940 census, but newspaper article from the Tucson Citizen from 1945 refers to Johnny Wong as nephew to Mrs. Don Kim. In the Social Security Application and Claims Index, 1936-2007 I found a record for “Johnny Wong” with the note: “Jul 1937: Name listed as JOHNNY WONG; Jul 1950: Name listed as JOHNNY W DON,” his father’s name was listed as “Wong Y. Don” and his mother’s name as “Yee Shee.” In the California Death Index 1940-1997, I found Johnny’s death record (12 Dec 1992) under the name of Don: “Name: Johnny Wong Don”; “Mother’s Maiden Name: Shee”; “Father’s Surname: Wong.”
Then I looked more deeply into the story of Yee Shee, wife of Wong You. She died from liver cancer on 22 June 1919 at the age of 34. However, the informant of her death certificate was not her husband, it was a Lee Pak Lin and his address, 337 N. Court Street, did not match any address used by Wong You from the census or city directories. To be sure she was the right woman I reviewed all Arizona death certificates for Pima County for 1919 and 1920. There were only two Chinese women who died in those years; Yee Shee was the only one of childbearing age. She was the right woman.
I had one more task to complete – getting Yee Shee’s tombstone translated. Chinese tombstones have at least three columns of characters giving the deceased’s name, date of death and place of birth. A photo of Yee Shee’s tombstone located on Find A Grave has the name and date of death, both of which matched her death certificate, given in English. There were also three columns of Chinese characters that I needed to get translated. I got the name of a reputable translator who revealed that her place of birth was “Longtou Village, Taishan, Guangdong Province.” Her name was “Woman with the last name of Yu (Yee) in the Zeng (Don) family.” I had another confirmation that the family name was Don. Because Wong Yu used Chinese characters on his wife’s tombstone, something almost no American could read, he was honest about his wife’s married name.
By conducting a reasonably exhaustive search, analyzing and correlating all information, both documentary and in the family tree thankfully preserved by my husband’s aunt, as well as resolving any conflicts, I was able to arrive at a reasonable conclusion: Wong You was born in China, he was the son of Don Que Aht, and he illegally immigrated to the United States using false papers under the name of Wong You. He passed the false name of Wong to Jane and Johnny, his surviving American born children. Wong You’s oldest son, Paul Don, assumed the family name as soon as he came to Tucson from China in 1922 and legally returned to being a Don in 1947 when he became an American citizen. Howard reclaimed the name of Don between 1941 and 1951. Johnny reclaimed the family name of Don in 1950. All of Wong You’s sons died legally as Dons and the family name survived the era of Exclusion.