China

China

Major locations

• Canton
• Hong Kong
• Macao
• Peking (Beijing)
• Shanghai

History

• The Opium Wars:

• 1st China War 1839-42
• 2nd China War 1856-60

• 3rd China War 1898-1901
• Taiping Rebellion 1850-64

Records

• See General Register Office, UK
• There are some records for China in the "World Miscellaneous" records on FamilySearch (source unspecified) which may be accessed through the following links: World Miscellaneous Births and Baptisms, World Miscellaneous Marriages, World Miscellaneous Deaths and Burials.

Additionally, Search the FamilySearch Catalog for microfilm/digitised microfilm records relating to China by using keywords such as China. As an example

"Cemetery records of old and new cemetery, 1859-1899 and Seaman's cemetery, Pootung, in Shanghai, China, 1859-1879" catalogue entry microfilm 418134 has been digitised and may be viewed at a FamilySearch Centre.

Births, deaths, marriages from Canton and Hong Kong newspapers, arranged chronologically, 1828-1862 catalogue entry microfilm 1208508 has been digitised and may be viewed on your home computer.

• Ecclesiastical Returns: Baptisms, Marriages and Burials at the British Library - Macao and Whampoa [Canton] 1820-1833, IOR N/9. These records are now available on the pay site findmypast
• Refer online Hong Kong newspapers, a free database, for birth, marriage and death notices.
• For those with access, (refer below) there may be birth, marriage and death notices in online newspapers which are part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chinese Newspapers Collection and Japan Times Archives.
• Refer China Coast Family History in External links below.
• Refer Historical books online, below.
• China: Sources in the India Office Records Guide to records at the British Library
• British and Indian Armies on the China Coast 1785-1985 by Alan Harfield 1990 is available at the British Library. Includes lists such as “List of Known Recipients of the Hong Kong Plague Medal 1894” and “List of Officers who served with the Hong Kong Regiment 1892-1902”. This link lists some “Military Commanders of Hong Kong and China” from the book (pages 483-484)

British Army and Navy

The British Army leased for a time Wei-hai-wei (a fine natural harbour) on the mainland and Liu Kung Tao island. There was a garrison of British Troops. A naval depot serviced the Royal Navy's China Squadron, whose main base was at Hong Kong. Wei-hai-wei was the summer port for the Submarine Flotilla.

Following the fall of the Manchu dynasty China was plunged into civil war and Japanese intervention, and international forces were sent to preserve foreign interests. The 30th, 34th, 47th, 55th, 59th, and 81st, all served there in the 1920s and 30s, guarding the legations in Peking and defending international settlements at Tientsin, Canton, and most importantly Shanghai. An additional regiment known to have been in China in the 1920s is the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment - there may be others.

Also see "Historical Books online", fiction, below, for Yangtze Skipper. The author served on HMS "Scarab" (river gunboat) in 1919-1920.

Also see

• China (First World War)
• Subscription websites-online newspapers, journals and directories : Other Asian publications.

Information about the English language Chinese newspaper database ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chinese Newspapers Collection, and Japan Times Archives.

External links

• China Wikipedia
• Weihaiwei under British rule Wikipedia.
• Chinese Maritime Customs project University of Bristol. Includes
  • China Coast Family History. Hints for "locating details about foreign residents in the Chinese treaty ports (excluding Hong Kong). As well as pointing to the location of various public records (probate details, marriage, birth and death registers) it contains a number of cemetery lists and other lists culled from public records and printed sources". Includes a searchable Burial List.
• Visualising China 1850-1950. Associated with the University of Bristol. Access to more than 8000 digitised images of photographs of China taken between 1850 and 1950.
  • Contains a link to Historical Photographs of China, also associated with the University of Bristol.
  • Also contains a Blog category.
    • Who took the photographs? by Robert Bickers August 19, 2013
• History, empire, China, and things found on the way. Professor Robert Bickers’s website
• Blogs tagged China, from SOAS Archives includes "200 years of Swire: The China Navigation Company", September 25, 2016. Scroll down for others. SOAS, (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London.
• Register and Index of the Regiments and Corps of British Territories in China. Regiments.org, now an archived website.
• The Regiments in China and Hong Kong 1860 - 1935 The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment.
  • The Queen's join the China Station 1927 queensroyalsurreys.org.uk
• On China Station: Gunboat Diplomacy in China steelnavy.com
• "Plymouth military graves desecrated in China" November 02, 2013. plymouthherald.co.uk. British Naval base graveyard at Weihaiwei. Includes photographs of submarines c 1931. Same story dailymail.co.uk 4 November 2013.
• Listen to the 2008 interview with Gawain Thomas Alexander 'Gavin’ Douglas , born 1914. Reel 1: Background in Tiensin, (now Tianjin), Hong Kong, China and GB, 1914-1933: memories of early life in Tiensin; Imperial War Museums.

Historical books online

• Article in the Asiatic Journal, Volume 13, January-June 1822. "A Succinct Historical Narrative of the East India Company’s Endeavours to Form Settlements and to Extend and Encourage Trade in the East and of the Causes by which those Endeavours have been Frustrated":
  • Section 1 Sumatra, Borneo, Java, the Eastern Islands, etc . pages 1-11
  • Section 2 The continental kingdoms of Siam, Cochin-China [Southern Vietnam], Tonquin [Northern Vietnam], Pegu [Burma], and Ava [Burma]. pages 11-20,
  • Section 3 Japan and China pages 105-118
  • Section 4 China pages 209 -220
• Chronicles of the East India Company trading to China, 1635 to 1834 by Hosea Ballou Morse 1926. Five Volumes. Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4 are available to read online on the Digital Library of India website, as TIFF images (single pages), or as pdf downloads: Volume 1, Volume 2 (volume no. not catalogued), Volume 3, Volume 4, with mirror versions Vol. I, Archive.org version, Vol. III, Archive.org version, Vol. IV, Archive.org version. All volumes are also available as pdf downloads from GIPE Digital Books-Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), Pune. Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Volume 5, Supplementary, 1742-74 Hathi Trust Digital Library.
• "Canton" page 97 An account of the trade in India: containing rules for good government in trade, price courants, and tables: with descriptions of Fort St. George, Acheen, Malacca, Condore, Canton, Anjengo, Muskat, Gombroon, Surat, Goa, Carwar, Telichery, Panola, Calicut, the Cape of Good-Hope, and St. Helena... To which is added, An Account of the Management of the Dutch in their Affairs in India by Charles Lockyer 1711 Archive.org Contents
• A Voyage to the East Indies in 1747 and 1748. Containing an Account of the Islands of St. Helena and Java. Of the City of Batavia. Of the Government and Political Conduct of the Dutch. Of the Empire of China, with a Particular Description of Canton ... 1762 Google Books. The Preface states the author was an officer in the service of the East India Company.
• The Portugues Asia: Or, The History of the Discovery and Conquest of India by the Portugues; Containing All Their Discoveries from the Coast of Africk, to the Farthest Parts of China and Japan; All Their Battels by Sea and Land, Sieges and Other Memorable Actions; a Description of Those Countries, and Many Particulars of the Religion, Government and Customs of the Natives, &c. ... by Manuel de Faria e Sousa, a Portuguese historian. Translated into English by Cap. John Stevens 1695

Volume I Google Books. Volume II, Volume III Qatar Digital Library. Two different pdf downloads are available from the University of Ghana Digital Collections , volume numbers not stated Download A, Download B. There was a three volume reprint edition published in 1971.

• "China" page 1 The New Universal Traveller: Containing a Full and Distinct Account of All the Empires, Kingdoms, and States, in the Known World by J Carver 1779 Google Books
• The View of India Extra Gangem, China, and Japan by Thomas Pennant 1800. Archive.org. Contents. Index. Volume III in a series Outlines of the Globe but sometimes catalogued as Volume III in a series The View of Hindoostan.
• Travels in South-Eastern Asia, embracing Hindustan, Malaya, Siam, and China: with notices of numerous missionary stations, and a full account of the Burman Empire; with dissertations, tables, etc by Howard Malcolm 2nd edition 1839 2 volumes in one. Book 2 with index follows page 276 of Book 1 Google Books. A chapter on China commences page 141 of book 2
• Six months among the Malays, and a year in China by Dr Yvan, Physician to the scientific mission sent by France to China, 1855 Archive.org. The book appears to be translations of extracts from the book De France en Chine by Melchior Yvan 1855 Archive.org. This expedition departed France December 1843.
• A residence among the Chinese inland, on the coast, and at sea. Being a narrative of scenes and adventures during a third visit to China, from 1853 to 1856 by Robert Fortune 1857 Archive.org
• Shanghai Almanac 1856 Hathi Trust Digital Library
• ‪The Hongkong Directory: With List of Foreign Residents in China‬ 1859 Google Books
• Morris's Directory for China, Japan and the Phillipines, etc. 1870 Note: this appears to be a reprint edition, and only includes those sections relating to China, excluding Hong Kong. Hathi Trust Digital Library
• The Desk Hong List; A general and business directory for Shanghai and the Northern and River Ports etc. 1882, 1884 Archive.org
• The Directory & Chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, &c

This publication had many titles over time and with different publishers: The China Register (1862, 1863, 1874). The Chronicle & Directory for China, Japan & the Philippines (1873, 1879). In 1889 included Corea, Cochin-China, Annam, Tonquin, Siam, Borneo, Straits Settlements, Malay States. In 1889 included Indo-China (replacing Cochin-China, Annam, Tonquin). In 1899 included Netherlands India. By 1905 the title had changed to The Directory & Chronicle…

Editions are available to read online on the Hathi Trust Digital Library, or on archive.org (Previously most/all browsers could not read the online versions on archive.org, but this problem appears to have resolved.)

In addition,

The digital collection of the University of Macau, Books on China Online, 16th – Early 20th Century, contains various titles for 1865, 1868, 1870 and 1875, using the Search term Directory.

1862	1863	1873	1874 1874 archive.org	1879 1879 archive.org
1889 1889 archive.org 1889 FamilySearch	. 1892 archive.org	1894 1894 archive.org	1899 1899 archive.org	1902
1905 1905 archive.org	1908 1908 archive.org	1917 1917 archive.org	. 1920 archive.org	1922

• The London and China Telegraph. Published in London. Covers China, Hong Kong, Japan, Straits Settlements (Singapore, Penang), Batavia and perhaps a wider area. There are two series of digitisations, both on Google Books, one from the Bavarian State Library, the other from Cornell University, the latter labelled A. Links for both series are provided, in case the digitisation quality varies.

1860	1861	1863	1864	1865
1866	1867 1867 A	1868 1868 A	1869 1869 A	1870 A
1871 1871 A	1872 1872 A	1873 1873 A	1874: Jan-June 1874: July-Dec 1874 to Dec. A	1875 to Dec. 1875 to Oct. A

• Japan Directories
  • The "Japan Gazette" Hong List and Directory, for 1874 Archive.org. Note: some of the text is missing- it is not clear whether this relates to the filming, or the original publication.
• The China Sea Directory by the Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, London.
  • The China Sea Directory Volume I. Containing directions for the approaches to the China Sea and to Singapore, by the straits of Sunda, Banka, Gaspar, Carimata, Rhio, Varella, Durian, and Singapore by J. W. Reed , R N and J. W. King, R N. 1867 Google Books. 3rd edition 1886 Archive.org.
  • The China Sea Directory Volume II. Containing directions for the navigation of the China Sea, between Singapore and Hong Kong by J. W. Reed , R N and J. W. King, R N. 1868. British Library Digital Collection.
  • China Sea Directory Volume III. The Coasts of China from Hong Kong to the Korea etc Edited by Captain Charles J Bulloch, RN. 1874 Archive.org. 2nd edition 1884 Archive.org
  • China Sea Directory Volume IV. Japan Islands etc by F W Jarrad, R N.1873 Archive.org. 2nd edition 1884 Archive.org
• A directory for the navigation of the Indian Archipelago, China, and Japan, from the Straits of Malacca and Sunda, and the passages east of Java. To Canton, Shanghai, the Yellow Sea, and Japan, with descriptions of the winds, monsoons, and currents, and general instructions for the various channels, harbours, etc by Alexander George Findlay 2nd edition 1878 Archive.org
• The Educational Directory for China: An Account of the Various Schools and Colleges connected with Protestant Missions 2nd Issue 1905 Archive.org
• Who's Who in the Far East, 1906-7, June Archive.org
• Directory of Protestant Missions in China 1921 includes "Alphabetical List of Names", page 257. Archive.org
• The China Who's Who 1922: A Biographical Dictionary compiled and published by Carroll Lunt. 1922 Archive.org
• Record of Services Given and Honours Attained by Members of the Chinese Customs Service, War 1914-1918 Published 1922, Shanghai. Archive.org
• Online Directories Chinese Maritime Customs Project, University of Bristol: Department of History.
• Reports from Committees: Mortality of Troops (China) Session 1 February-10 August 1866 Volume XV. Ordered to be printed by The House of Commons 24 July 1866. Google Books.

British Parliamentary Papers: Mortality of Troops in China 1863 and 1866 Reprinted 1915 Archive.org

• ‪The Treaty Ports of China and Japan: A Complete Guide to the Open Ports of Those Countries, Together with Peking, Yedo, Hongkong and Macao. Forming a Guide Book & Vade Mecum for Travellers, Merchants, and Residents in General‬ by William Frederick Mayers, N B Dennys, and Charles King 1867. Note: The maps have not been filmed. Google Books
• The 'Fan Kwae' at Canton before treaty days, 1825-1844 by An Old Resident [William C Hunter] 2nd edition 1911 (First published 1882) Archive.org [Fan Kwae= Foreign Barbarians, Devils]
• The Morning of My Life in China: comprising an outline of the history of foreign intercourse from the last year of the regime of honorable East India Company, 1833, to the imprisonment of the foreign community in 1839 by Gideon Nye 1873 Archive.org
• Reports of Missionary Society Hospitals at Amoy, Canton, Chinkiang, Foochow, Hankow, Shanghai, Swatow, Tientsin. 1848-75 Google Books
• A Cruise in an Opium Clipper by Captain Lindsay Anderson 1891 Archive.org. He joined the opium clipper 1859 at Shanghai.
• Canton and the Bogue. The narrative of an eventful six months in China by Walter William Mundy 1875 Archive.org. A visit in 1874.
• Bits of Old China by William C Hunter 1885 Archive,org
• English Life In China by Major Henry Knollys, Royal Artillery. 1885 Hathi Trust Digital Library. Also available as a pdf download, Digital Library of India, Archive.org version.
• China, Past and Present by Edward Harper Parker 1903 Archive.org
• China; Report on a Journey from Peking to Shanghai Overland. Presented to both Houses of Parliament June 1898 HMSO 1898. Hathi Trust Digital Library
• The China Martyrs of 1900. 
A Complete Roll of the Christian Heroes Martyred in China in 1900, with Narratives of Survivors 
compiled and edited by Robert Coventry Forsyth 1904 Archive.org
• Twentieth century impressions of Hong-kong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China: their history, people, commerce, industries, and resources by Arnold Wright 1908 Archive.org
• Treaty Ports in China (a Study in Diplomacy) by En-Sai Tai 1918 Archive.org
• With the Chinks by Daryl Klein, 2nd Lieutenant in the Chinese Labour Corps, 1919 Archive.org
• The Empire at War edited for the Royal Colonial Institute by Sir Charles Lucas, in five volumes, with a catalogue contents description. (Volume 1 British Library Digital file) Volume 5, 1926, covers WW1 The Mediterranean colonies ; Egypt and Palestine ; Aden ; India ; Ceylon ; Malaya ; China. Volume 5, British Library Digital file, Contents. Also available as a pdf download from the Digital Library of India Vol-vth, Archive.org version.
• The Trade and Administration of China by Hosea Ballou Morse, sometime Commissioner of Customs 3rd Revised edition 1920 Archive.org
• The Travelers' Handbook for China (including Hongkong) by Carl Crow Third Edition, Revised 1921 Archive.org. Index. Includes maps.
  • 1913 Edition Hathi Trust Digital Library
• Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce in Pigtail and Petticoats; or, An Overland Journey from China towards India by T T Cooper, late Agent for the Chamber of Commerce at Calcutta. 1871 Archive.org. Contains a map.
• The River of Golden Sand: being the Narrative of a Journey through China and Eastern Tibet to Burmah by Captain William Gill R. E. Volume I 1880, Volume II 1880 Condensed [memorial] edition 1883 Archive.org
• Mandalay to Momien : A Narrative of the Two Expeditions to Western China of 1868 and 1875, under Colonel Edward B. Sladen and Colonel Horace Browne by John Anderson 1876. Archive.org version, also available British Library Digital Collection with rotatable images.
• Visits To High Tartary, Yarkand, And Kashghar (formerly Chinese Tartary), and Return Journey Over the Karakoram Pass by Robert Shaw 1871 Archive.org
• Kashmir and Kashghar. A narrative of the journey of the embassy to Kashghar in 1873-74 by H W Bellew, Surgeon-Major, Bengal Staff Corps 1875 Archive.org
• A varied life: a record of military and civil service, of sport and of travel in India, Central Asia and Persia 1849 -1902 by Gen. Sir Thomas Edward Gordon. 1906 Archive.org. Appointed to the Indian Army Indian Staff Corps 1862, appointed to the Kashgar Mission in 1873.

The Roof of the World : being a narrative of a journey over the high plateau of Tibet to the Russian Frontier and the Oxus Sources on Pamir by Lieutenant-Colonel T E Gordon, Honorary Aide-De-Camp to the Viceroy of India, lately attached to the Special Mission to Kashghar 1876 Archive.org. Includes Kashghar.

• Across Chrysê, being the narrative of a journey of exploration through the South China border lands from Canton to Mandalay by Archibald R Colquhoun, Executive Engineer, Indian Public Works. Volume I 3rd edition 1883 (probably first published also 1883), Volume II 1883 Archive.org. Also available Volume I, Volume II 1883 British Library Digital Collection with rotatable images. Chryse (Chrysê) is the Greek short name of gold-producing Chryse Chersonesos (The Golden Peninsula) in the East Indies (Wikipedia)

Report on the Railway Connexion of Burmah and China ... with account of exploration-survey by H. S. Hallett. Accompanied by surveys, vocabularies and appendices by Archibald R Colquhoun 1888

• An Australian in China, being the narrative of a quiet journey across China to British Burma by George Ernest Morrison 2nd edition 1895 Archive.org. Also available British Library Digital Collection 1895 [1st edition?] with rotatable images.
• A Yankee on the Yangtze; being a narrative of a journey from Shanghai through the central kingdom to Burma by William Edgar Geil ... With one hundred full-page illustrations 1904 London edition with a map Archive.org
• Ernest H. Wilson Plant Hunter [1876-1930] by Edward I Farrington 1931. Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection.
• Lauterbach of the China Sea : the Escapes and Adventures of a Seagoing Falstaff by Lowell Thomas, 1930 Archive.org. Julius Lauterbach Wikipedia Google Translate English] [1877-1937], Original German version. From c 1900 to the start of WW1, Lauterbach sailed the China Sea, becoming Captain, with the initial chapters covering this period.
• See Fiction below, for Yangtze Skipper, set in 1919 Shanghai.
• Macartney at Kashgar: New Light on British, Chinese and Russian Activities in Sinkiang, 1890-1918 by C.P. Skrine and Pamela Nightingale. 1973. Link to a pdf download PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. Macartney’s wife Catherine wrote of her time at Kashgar in An English Lady in Chinese Turkestan first published 1931. A later biography is The Diplomat of Kashgar: A Very Special Agent. The Life of Sir George Macartney, 18 January 1867-19 May 1945 by James McCarthy.

Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia by Ella Sykes and Percy Sykes, 1920 Archive.org. Covers the brief period in which Percy Sykes relieved Macartney at Kashgar while the latter was on leave in 1916 but is really Percy's sister Ella Sykes’s travel account and says little about consular affairs.

• Includes a Map, in two sections.

Chinese Central Asia by C P Skrine. Indian Civil Service, British Consul General in Chinese Turkistan 1922-1924. First published 1926 Archive.org. Index.Hathi Trust Digital Library version where images are rotatable. The Consulate was at Kashgar. Clarmont Percival Skrine Wikipedia.

Also see Norperforce for more about the Kashgar Mission during WW1 prior to 1922.

The Antique Land by Diana Shipton 1950. Archive.org Lending Library. A memoir by the wife of Eric Shipton, the last British consul in Kashgar before the consulate closed in 1947.

• The Old Burma Road 1945. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org version. Full title: The Old Burma Road. A journey on foot and muleback. From the diary, notes and reminiscences of Doctor N. Bradley. The author spent many years in China as a medical missionary. This is an account of a journey taken in March, 1930 on the granite slab road along which, 650 years earlier, Marco Polo had ridden with his escort of Kublai Khan's horsemen from Yunnan-Fu to Bhamo.
• Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. North appears to have been dropped from the title for a period.
  • New Series No I December 1864, New Series No II December 1865, New Series No III December 1866 Google Books
  • Multiple volumes Archive.org
  • Multiple volumes Hathi Trust: A, B, C
  • Multiple volumes as pdf downloads, Digital Library of India
• Digital Initiatives from the University of Hong Kong Libraries. Some databases are restricted to members of the University. For those databases which are freely available, click on Browse to see the titles available.
• Digital Collection of the University of Macau Library, Books on China Online, 16th – Early 20th Century.
• Chinese Maritime Customs publications available online. Chinese Maritime Customs project, University of Bristol
• Bibliotheca Sinica 2.0 Online books. "This project is an addition (and a new horizon) for "Western Books on China in Libraries in Vienna/Austria, 1477-1939"". univie.ac.at
• Fiction: The Flying Boat: A Story of Adventure and Misadventure by Herbert Strang 1912. Gutenberg.org. Young British traders in China. An adventure story for younger readers.
• Fiction: Yangtze Skipper, by Thomas Woodrooffe 1937. HathiTrust Digital Library. Set in 1919 Shanghai, Toby Warren is First Lieutenant on the "Beetle", a (fictious) Royal Navy river gunboat. The author served on HMS "Scarab" (river gunboat) in 1919-1920, and it is stated elsewhere, in respect of another book, that he wrote about things actually seen and experienced.

Note, this title may be the American title as it appears to be the same book as River of Golden Sand by Thomas Woodrooffe. A review of River of Golden Sand

Japan

• A Diplomat in Japan; the inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored by Sir Ernest Satow 1921 Archive.org. The author was in Japan from September 1862, when he was initially appointed to the British legation as a student Interpreter at Yedo/Yokohama. Includes the 1864 Shimonoski Naval actions, including British, page 102
• Young Japan. Yokohama and Yedo. A narrative of the settlement and the city from the signing of the treaties in 1858, to the close of the year 1879. With a glance at the progress of Japan during a period of twenty-one years by John R Black formerly editor of the Japan Herald. Archive.org. Volume I 1880, Volume II 1881