China Families

China Families is a new website launched by a team led by Professor Robert Bickers of the University of Bristol, with records of thousands of foreign nationals who lived in the 19th and early 20th centuries.  

While the site will continue to be updated, it currently contains approximately 60,000 names, with record sets including the British Supreme Court for China intestate and probate records; cemetery records; staff lists for the China Navigation Company and Chinese Maritime Customs Service; and names of Allied civilians interned by the Japanese army during the Second World War.

The largest concentrations of foreign residents were in the cities of Shanghai and Tianjin, but there were smaller communities in many of the cities that were opened by treaty to foreign trade and residence, and which were known as Treaty Ports. More lived in the British Crown Colony at Hong Kong. Missionary societies were present much more widely across the country, and as well as evangelical activity, were engaged in education and medical work. 

Family history researchers can search for an individual by name to find transcripts of the original records. The collection includes British, European, American, Australian and New Zealander families, as well as Jewish refugees who came to China to seek refuge from the Nazis.

The records were created during the publication of Robert Bickers books in the past 15 years. A companion site, Historical Photographs of China, has nearly 20,000 photographs of foreign nationals in China shared by their descendants.