If you are,
you may have a part to play in solving an Australian mystery!
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| How to write the surname. Courtesy of Wiktionary. |
The
earliest documented Chinese migrant to Australia arrived 201 years ago. His
name was Mak Sai Pang 麥世鹏.
There are
two important things we don’t know about him:
1 – Where exactly
in China did he come from? and
2 – Where
did he go later in his life?
Pretty
important questions to find answers for.
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| A Qing Dynasty official ponders his ancestry. Image via Wikipedia. |
His significance
was celebrated across two nations last year, but the mysteries still remain. However, if you’re
also a Mak 麥 you may be able to help solve them. Perhaps you may also learn more
about your own family along the way.
My article The mystery of Mak Sai Ying unpacks these issues and
sets out where to go to from here. There are still some documentary trails to
follow but even with these, we may still not be able to resolve the two questions outlined above.
These are,
to be sure, family questions but they also have historical significance if they
can help us understand more of this individual and his particular
circumstances. The large mosaic which is Australian history is made up of many individual tiles.
The ‘Mak project’ aims to resolve the family history questions. As
the documents so far have not resolved these, DNA testing could well help.
Results for
the Y-DNA test (which traces the male line) are now in and have yielded one
match. This leads to a man who was adopted in the early part of the last
century by a different family in Guangzhou. His descendants now know that they
have a Mak connection. But where exactly is this connection? How far back does it go?
The fact that this family lived in Guangzhou – provides some hope as that is certainly
where it looks like 'our' Mak originated.
So, what next?
The first
thing is to find more Mak males with ancestors who lived in Guangdong to do the
YDNA test. This collective activity should give all
participants some insights into their ancestry and in particular locate those
who have the same male line ancestry as our mystery Mak.
Perhaps you’re
a Mak who already knows where you people came from. Wouldn’t it be great to be
connected with a significant Chinese Australian?
The next
DNA test is the ‘family finder’ the results of which will help find Mak’s
cousins whether male or female. The test is about to the done for our Mak descendant and will yield some more connections, perhaps with distant cousins in
Canada, Malaysia or the UK and even China.
If you’re a
Mak man (also pronounced ‘Mai’ in standard Chinese) and would like to take part in
the Y-DNA test, please look at FamilyTreeDNA. You can sign up for the Y-DNA test and if you also join the Chinese project at the same time,
you may get a discount.
Females who
have Mak ancestry can still take part via their 'family finder' test.
Let me know
if you have any questions and please share any thoughts on Mak
origins.
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| The ancient version of the surname. Courtesy of Wiktionary. Can you see a happy face? |