MS 10030 comprises Chau family correspondence from ca. 1910 to 1930. Many of the letters are addressed to Chau King-san in Canton or Melbourne. Letters to Chau King-san sometimes use the English rendering of Kangson Joe and Joe Way Doe Tong. The collection also includes family photographs from 1897-1908 (1 box).
The Acc09.205 instalment includes two formal "offer of marriage" documents, ca. 1928, from the Wong family of Fatshan near Canton, China, for their son to marry the daughter of Chau King-san. One of the documents details the ancestry of the bridegroom. There is an unrelated civil marriage document from 1948. Also included are photocopies of two official documents, one dated 1893 relating to Chau King-san's residency in Australia and one dated 1918 relating to travel on the steamship "Taiynan" by Chau's son, Jo Tong (1 folder).
The Acc10.171 instalment comprises papers relating to Jo Tong, son of Chau King-san, and his family. There are official papers, some in Chinese, including Tong's birth certificate, 1900, and a letter relating to the employment of his son, Richard Tong, 1956; letters in Chinese, ca. 1937-1980; family photographs, ca. 1920s-1930s; and, a group of early postcards of China. There is also a large decorated certificate of marriage for Ma Pei and Gan Rengin, China, 1948; genealogical information about the Tong family; and, an undated Chinese poem, written by V. Hand Lam (1 box, 1 elephant folio).
The Acc10.196 instalment comprises the Chau family genealogy, written in Chinese (1 folder).
The Acc13.137 instalment comprises photographs; autograph book; correspondence and documents relating primarily to Madam Wong Chau Yuk-Bing's clothing collection (1 packet).
Chau King-san was born in San Wui County Kwangtung. He was the son of a Qing dynasty scholar, and lived and worked in Port Darwin, Brisbane and Melbourne for several periods between the 1890s and 1920s. He was a businessman and also worked in the Chinese Consulate-General in Melbourne for more than ten years.
Find in other libraries at Trove