Records Housed In San Bruno

SAN BRUNO, Calif., Jul. 27, 2007 (KGO) (KGO) -- Tracing your family roots can be a long and difficult journey, especially if your ancestors came to the Bay Area by way of Angel Island. Now, there's an important, yet little-known resource on the peninsula to help you access the records that could hold the key to your family's past.

Barry Wong was born and raised in San Francisco, a city firefighter. He has his mother, wife and three daughters, and two brothers including TV and stage actor B.D. Wong. They form a tightly knit family, but its past is clouded by mystery.

Barry Wong: "Ever since my father passed away I feel like I'm missing out on a part of my family history that I may never know anything about... Was my grandfather born here? I don't know. Was he one of the many Chinese immigrants who after the earthquake stood up and said, 'Yes, I was born here,' and got papers to bring their families over? I don't know."

Barry's search for answers led him to The National Archives in San Bruno. It's one of several centers in the country where the federal government stores documents deemed important enough to save before computers came along. They include the records of the one million immigrants who came through Angel Island.

From 1910 to 1940, Chinese, Japanese, Russians and others stopped at the Ellis Island of the west before stepping foot on the mainland.

The vast majority of Angel Island immigration records available to the public are in San Bruno, among the 200 million documents kept in rows and rows of files at The National Archives.

Barry hopes these files will shed light on his ancestral roots. He provided his father and grandparents' names and I.D. cards from Angel Island. With that, archive researcher Bill Green pulled up a treasure trove for Barry and his mother, Roberta.

They discover a picture of Barry's grandfather with his parents and some siblings Barry never even knew existed.

Barry Wong: "Two extra siblings. I knew only of three of them. So now there's two more that I am going to do some more research on and find out where they are and where they ended up."

And then, another stunning find. A letter written in English by Barry's grandfather to Barry's great grandmother who was apparently living in San Franciso's Chinatown in 1922.

The letter reads, "sending you a few lines to let you know that father went back to the village on April 30 and died of sickness on May 20, but there is too much trouble and robbery in the village for us to go back."

Roberta Wong: "Oh my goodness, that is just amazing!"

Barry Wong: "I didn't even know they could read or write English.

Researcher: "A letter like this is a strong indication that your great grandmother was born here."

Barry was stunned. He came looking for information on his father and grandparents and found files on five other relatives. Archives Director Daniel Nealand says that happens a lot.

Daniel Nealand, The National Archives Director: "There's a cross reference sheet at the back of most files that can lead to lots of other files. And once they get going, sometimes a family will uncover a lot more files about different relatives."

Barry Wong: "The most surprising thing was that our family does in fact date back to the late 1800's. They were actually living here and had been here for quite some time."

More interesting facts could be uncovered when the Wongs dive into the masses of documents they photocopied. They plan to put together a family tree, now that they finally know their roots.

The Angel Island Foundation teams up with The National Archives to hold workshops every few months on how to search the files. The next one is a week from Saturday, August 4, but you have to put in a records request by Tuesday, July 31. You can make a reservation by calling (415) 561-2160 or by sending an e-mail to info@aiisf.org

>> LINK: The National Archives (www.archives.gov)

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