Resources
- Census and city directories
- Many railroad workers dispersed to urban areas after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
- State and local resources
- Restrictive ordinances created taxes, fees, and records
- Check for Chinese specific legislation in the area you're researching to see which agency or department recorded information and collected fees
- Many discriminatory ordinances were aimed at Chinese, for example, an ordinance aimed at Chinese laundries in San Francisco fined hanging laundry on rooftops, however all others were exempt by omission from law
- Registration and fees (1850-)
- City/town annual or clerk's reports
- City/town codes or ordinances
- Voter registration/poll tax (1944-)
- With repeal of Exclusion Act could become naturalized and vote
- Local clerk's office or election department
- Land registries and Assessor's records (1848-)
- Despite discrimination, some Chinese were able to save enough money to buy property
- Local or county land registry and Assessor's office
- Military records
- Many Chinese in America served in WWII after the repeal of the Exclusion Act
- Records stored in St.Louis damaged in 1973 fire: destroyed 80% of army's records from 1912-1960 and 75% of air force records from 1947-1964
- Alternate sources could exist at state archives or state adjutant's office in the service person's state or residence
- Gravestone records
- Headstone will often name province and ancestral village, however, for married women it may list the ancestral village and home district of her husband's family
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| Gravestone for a married couple |
- Certificate of Residence
- Had to be carried on person as required by Geary Act
- Check archivegrid.org; search for "Chinese certificates of residence"
- Rare; no central repository
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