Leung Sou Kam married my uncle, Lance Corporal John Douglas Haig Weaver, Middlesex Regiment, late 1941 approx in Hong Kong.
John told his mother in his final letter that he was in love and would marry Goldie, as she was known. He didn't give her age but he did say that her people in Amoy have a hotel. They met in Hong Kong in 1939. John was killed on The Lisbon Maru in Oct 1942.
The British Consulate in Amoy tracked her down, interviewed her and in a letter to my grandmother dated 1945, stated that she "appeared to be in prosperous circumstances but was unaware of his death and was genuinely distressed on hearing of his death." She didn't have her marriage cert with her, saying that it was in Hong Kong.
I would be grateful for information on how to obtain a marriage cert or if anyone has theories as to how/where they would have met in Hong Kong.
John sort of hinted at her being pregnant! I'd be thrilled to find a Chinese relative.
Comments
Applying for a marriage certificate in Hong Kong
You can apply for a search for a marriage certificate through this link http://www.gov.hk/en/residents/immigration/bdmreg/applybdm.htm
The fee is $140, I think, for a "particular search" if you know the date to within five years. A "general search" costs more.
Credit card payments are accepted for the search fee, but if you want to obtain a certified copy of the actual certificate they ask for a banker's draft in Hong Kong dollars.
Good luck!
Thanks for that, JIll. It's
Thanks for that, JIll. It's worth a try, fingers crossed.
Applying for a marriage certificate from overseas
I was wrong about being able to pay for the search by credit card, sorry. The link I posted is only for residents of Hong Kong. For overseas applicants there's a form to download and post with a bankers draft to the Births, Marriages and Deaths department, but the link I was given last year doesn't seem to be working. Sometimes it's easiest to ask for instructions by emailing gro@immd.gov.hk
Jill
Hi Jill, I poured over the
Hi Jill, I poured over the Hong Kong marriage records website and I have downloaded the form I need. The payment part is rather convoluted so I think I'll use the email address you suggested just to check the procedure and the amounts.
Thank you for your help.
Sou Kam WEAVER
If there is a narow range of possible dates for the wedding (do you know the date of that last letter?), you could also look through the newspapers to see if it was mentioned: http://gwulo.com/old-hong-kong-newspapers
And please let us know how you get on with sourcing the marriage certificate.
Regards, David
Marriage Certificate
Hello David,
I was hoping to give you good news about my certificate search but it came to nothing. If I had more details, such as Sou Kam's date of birth or the date of the marriage, I might have had more luck.
The banks all charge £20 to send a banker's draft in HK dollars, the search fee is £12. And it was a palaver to get a bank to do it in the first place, it's such an antiquated procedure but the HK registry office accept no other payment (unless one attends the office in person).
So I'm still left wondering..
It wasn't mentioned in the newspapers but I love looking through them, thanks for the suggestion.
Regards Lindsey
Search Failures at the Births, Marriages and Deaths Dept.
If it's any consolation, Lindsey, my bank charges £25 a pop and makes the same fuss - also "The Government of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong" doesn't fit into the number of boxes that they allow for the name of the beneficiary.
My search application for my grandparents' marriage also failed, despite knowing their birth dates, and I'm wondering if people were less bothered about official registration of marriages, than births and deaths, if the marriage was already registered with the relevant church.
My other theory is that a computer search depends on the search name being entered with 100% accuracy and totally corresponding to whatever has been entered. For example, if a person had three names e.g. Mary Jane Brown and you only ask for "Mary Brown" you will likely get a failure (I did until I suggested the possiblity of a third name). If your person was Chinese, then you enter the minefield of transcribing the name into Western spelling. My great-grandfather's second wife's name can be spelt "Ching", "Cheng" or "Chung". The third problem is that the original entries were handwritten and can be misread when entered on the data base. I have encountered this recently.
If this is very important to you, have you thought about applying for a General Search? I don't know what the fee is in sterling, but it's quite a bit more than $140. With persistence, I've now turned three negative results from the Births and Deaths Registry into positive ones. Supplying them with so-called "additional information" sometimes does the trick. If you have any Chinese contacts, perhaps they could supply alternative possible spellings for "Sou Kam". Perhaps Gwulo contributors also can.
Jill
Well done, your persistence
Well done, your persistence has paid off! I might look into the General Search option, I don't have any further info on Sou Kam but your successes have given me hope.
Lindsey