An interesting discovery...

[SDragon]

I was packing today, as I am preparing to move by the end of next month, when I happened to stumble upon something I found rather interesting.

As I was going through my books, I picked up my copy of an old book plainly entitled Selected Pearls of Wisdom and Buddhism, by Tehyi Hsieh ("The author of Confucius Said It First"). I inherited this book from my grandmother years ago.

The book, in and of itself, is fairly interesting, but inside the front cover was a note (dated "19th, Feb.  1964") and two newspaper clippings, which I hadn't read before. Today, I decided to give them a quick glance.

I couldn't read most of the note, but some of what I could read really stuck out. In particular:

"Dear, dear Mrs. [My mother's maiden name],

To [illegible word] + [grandmother's first name] family ..."

and the signature, "Teddy [Chinese writing]".

There's not much there, aside from the mentioning of my grandmother, and possibly (in the parts I couldn't read) other family members. The first newspaper clipping, however, had the following to say:

""Greetings to Dr. Tehyi Hsieh, director if the Chinese Philanthropic Service Bureau, [address], who will be 70 today. Dr. Hsieh, a United States citizen, and a justice of the peace. He has tied many a knot for Dan Cupid among Chinese and others.

Dr. Hsieh, the seventh son of a seventh son, was born at 7 o'clock in the morning on the seventh of this month at Chang-Chow, near Amoy, Fukien, China, a mandarin of Fourth Rank, Blue Button (old regime). He was formerly in the diplomatic services of the Chinese government in Europe, Asia, and Australia; first Chinese lecturer at the Williamstown Institute of Politics, and for 20 years lecturer. Dr. Hsieh, 'Teddy Roosevelt' of China, is recognized as one of the outstanding consultants by American and Chinese officials, business, and cultural leaders. He is the only Chinese member of the American branch of the International Law Association."

This added some depth to the note; It had been penned by the book's author, Dr. Tehyi "Teddy" Hsieh, to my grandmother. Judging from that first clipping, he seems like he was a relatively important man, and apparently my mother's family knew him.

The second clipping revealed little more, but the second paragraph still caught my attention:

"Sunday afternoon the Rev. Mr. Megert was assisted by Dr. Hsieh at the christening ceremony of Mr. and Mrs. [grandmother's maiden name]'s granddaughter, [my aunt] of Mr. and Mrs. [my grandfather], [address]."

I tried searching Google for information on this guy, but found very little. He seems to be pretty quotable, though. I think it's really cool to find out that my grandmother was, apparently, friends with this guy.

[Drizztrocks]

Sounds interesting, its always cool to find some big family history you never knew about.

[The Weave05]

<posted under correct screenname>

[Weave]

I love finding little gems like that, things of the past. I was visiting my grandparents house on my Dad's side of the family, and he kept all his old comics and magazines as a kid (I'm sure some of them will fetch a fortune nowadays). I was drawn to a particular advertisement illustrating a floating car zooming down an interstate with an iconic family of four in the backseat as some sort of robotic head manned the wheel, or where the wheel should've been. "Coming in just four years!" It said, in big red print. I can't help but chuckle to myself at those types of things.

But finding snippets of family history? That's gold right there, in its finest form. Very cool stuff.

[SDragon]

Thanks, guys! Obviously it wasn't like in the movies where you discover a secret family fortune stashed in your great-grandmother's attic, but it's still pretty exciting.

Shortly after I made that post, I took the book to my mom and asked her if she was born yet for my aunt's christening ceremony, and she didn't know. (she was around at the date on the note, but she was very young.) She asked why I wanted to know, so I showed her the book, which has a picture of Hsieh on the cover, and explained that he was at the christening. She looked at the picture and said, "oh! That's the Chinese man your grandparents knew. From what I understand, he was very interesting."

I've always held my grandparents in high regards. My grandmother always had a story to tell about some relative or friend-of-the-family, which sometimes even included an explanation of how the person was related. I think that she would have been delighted to have me ask about this man.