I wish I could research further back from my grandparents' generation and backward. But the language barriers are huge..I can't read Chinese. And right now, don't have the motivation just for the sake of geneaology.

Like some of the European countries, the huge disruptions of war, change in government probably resulted in destruction of many valuable records. Remember, in the 1960's and 1970's, Communist Chinese govn't was on a rampage to destroy anything bourgeoise and hurt people associated with such ownership of things. books were also destroyed if they contained "imperialist" ideas.. and by default probably alot of valuable records were destroyed.

However I suspect prior to my grandparents, there's a good probability that the literacy level to read and write was very low.

My father has expressed his wish that when he dies, he wants also a memorial plaque for his father near him. My paternal grandfather never came to North America. I know my paternal grandfather coordinated the building of local school in their village..a powerful effort to improve education and literacy locally.

And my father REALLY wanted all his children to become more educated than him and in order to have access to better jobs and less "harder" life. He got his wish even though sometimes we footdragged along the way..all his 6 children are university-educated.

But he himself is an inspiration, he taught himself most of his English. ESL classes was not an option, given demands of a big family and restaurant shift work.