This is my great-grandmother. Her name was Gold Shee, and in the early 20th century she moved from Taishan, China to Palo Alto, California to join my great-grandfather, Chick Chew, who had already established a home and a business there. Gold was born around 1882 and was the mother of seven children, four boys and three girls. These children included my grandmother, Lai Foon, who would later be known as Lillian. Lillian was the first of their children to be born in the United States in 1912. Her father, Chick Chew, had left China initially around the turn of the century. He came through Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay searching for better opportunities for himself and his family, like many other Chinese immigrants at the time. Chew was lucky enough to become a business owner: he set up a profitable grocery business about twenty miles south of San Francisco in the Palo Alto/Menlo Park area. He took a few trips back to China to visit his wife, and eventually he brought her and three of their children to California, going through Angel Island once again around 1908. 

– Teagan Boram

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more