Introduction : At time of writing this blog in october2011, we have only 1 elder Mr KWAN Peng Yee from the 29th generation who is still in a healthy state of mind to recall and relate to me the family events from the 1930s uptil 1990s .
Peng Yee at the age of 85 celebrated his 65th wedding anniversary with his wife WooTupFong in October2011, who unfortunately is suffering from early stages of senile dementia & wheelchair bound. PengYee's 7 of his 8 siblings have all passed on, his last living younger brother PengMun was wheelchaired bound with mild dementia.
Weeks before, he expressed his wish to gather all the living descendants of his parents (pictured below) to attend the celebration and that we must not loose contact among family members. And so the birth of this blog to update, digitize and put online the "Family Tree" originally compiled by Kwan PengMun (youngest child of SungWai). It also spins-off to include an account of how our fore-fathers lived their life and how & when they began their journey from China to Singapore for the benefits of future generations, who might among them have an inquisitive mind to ask such questions. All direct descendants are welcome to contribute to this blog ( see chapter 20 for details on how to contribute).
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| Mr GUAN ChongHui (Cantonese KwanSungWai) & Wife Mdm WOO LoiMoi |
The story can only begin with the 28th generation 關(关)崇惠 (pronounced in Cantonese as KWAN Sung-Wai, (Mandarin Pinyin: Guan Chong Hui) at age 30+ and his wife 胡女梅 (Cantonese pronounciation WOO Loi Moi ), decided in the early 1910s, around the end of the Qing Dynasty, to leave
Upon his arrival in Singapore (exact date not available but approximated by PengYee between 1918 ~ 1921, ie 8~9 yrs before PengYee was born), ChongHui had difficulty finding work and lodging. He approached a clan 古城会館 who offered him lodging in the clan premise along Telok Ayer St. Having taken care of lodging, ChongHui still need to find work but without any marketable skill, ChongHui had little choices and decided on hawking to start a living. The clan help him secure a small space where ChongHui put up a make-shift stall (think planks on boxes) in
He stayed and worked in Singapore for about 3 years to make sure he had a stable income and a place to live before he brought his wife over. The following years , he brought his 5 children 1 by 1 over to
After several years of work, ChongHui saved enough and rented a bigger place along Trengannu Street unit #4 . They later had 4 more children born there, making a total of 7 sons & 3 daughters (1 son died shortly after birth). The wife looked after the children at home. Imagine the struggle & hardship for a sole bread winner bringing up 9 children and a wife.
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| # 4 Trengannu St , SungWai's 1st house in S'pore (click photo to enlarge) |
While working as hawker, his eldest son FunHor worked as an apprentice in KongCheong Tailor for about 3 yrs before it folded in the 70s. At the same time his 2nd son FunSwee helped looked after the hawker stall. After FunHor completed his apprenticeship, ChongHui opened a tailor shop in 1931 named KongOn Tailor in Pagoda Street unit #68 and appointed FunHor as the "Chief Tailor". At the beginning, all hands on deck in the tailor shop and siblings are the workers / apprentices. Fortunately cost of living was relatively low at that time, when 50 cents can feed a dozen people for a day. More about the tailor shop in the chapter "Family of Tailors"
ChongHui survived thru WW2 but died in 1951, due to kidney-stone, at age 60 and buried in Bishan Cemetery, later exhumed around 1975 and ashes of him and his wife (deceased in 1953) are kept in
Thanks to ChongHui (aka SungWai) & his wife, the present generations numbering over a hundred (as at Oct 2011) are now living a peaceful and blissful life in
Author : Tuck Kian , the youngest son of KWAN PengYee.
A softcopy pdf version for the entirety of this blog is available upon request, send email to the authors listed on the last page of this blog.