One of the brilliant things of a visit back to family is hunting down your past, and one of the most interesting photos I’ve obtained is the one taken above in 1927! The lady and the man in the center would be my great, great, grandmother and great great grandfather, or basically the parents of my mother’s father’s father (who is pictured as the fourth son in line with half of his body cut off on the top right corner). The three guys to his left are his older brothers. Of these, the third is probably most successful, and started the first sauce company in Shanghai, which was by all accounts, properous till the Japanese invasion. I guess that’s why he’s the only one wearing a suit! 

So what about my direct ancestor? Well he basically worked the company tell it collapsed, and then moved to Beijing to become a telegraph operator, allowing communication between Germany and that new Empire of the Rising Sun… the knowledge of which he passed to the underground resistance. Well, that’s enough family history for now! More to come.