"A Story behind a Story"

I (Ai-Lin) thought that I should add "A Story behind a Story" in our site because I found it very interesting in the way how just one letter could unite two families together, Chung-Gon and Kit after many generations and how the letter had revealed much more !

My husband, Renato, and I made a visit from our home town, Florence Italy,  to see my family and friends (July-August 2002) in Sydney, Australia.   While sorting out our email one day, we came across a letter which started a chain reaction!    I have added some links so the reader may have a better understanding ....

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Dear Ai-Lin,

I want to let you know of the great interest and pleasure that my family has experienced since my discovery last week of the www.chung-gon .com website.

My name is Megan Neilson and I live in Sydney.    My mother, now 84 years old (2002) was born Audrey Kitt, daughter of Albert Kitt who left Launceston for Sydney shortly after the death of his father in 1902.   His father was Chin Kit, also known as James Henry Kitt, who arrived in Tasmania from the Victorian goldfields sometime in the late 1870s.

I have known for a while that Chin Kit and Chung-Gon knew each other well.   Firstly, I was told by an elderly Tasmanian relative, now dead, that Chin Kit had a particular friend Chung-Gon, and that they had arrived in Tasmania around the same time.   Both were associated with the 1891 Chinese festival in Launceston.  (A Launceston Advertiser advertisement for the carnival)  Chin Kit's death certificate says that he was born in China in 1830, so he was in fact a generation older than Chung-Gon.

The second reason that I know of their association stems from my having tried some years back to obtain the record of Chin Kit's naturalization.   His name was indexed in the list of persons applying for naturalization papers in the year 1900, immediately below the name Chung-Gon, but an application to the State Archives Office revealed that neither applied for naturalization at that time.   Instead, the file contained a declaration made by Chin Kit on behalf of Chung-Gon to the effect that the latter had been naturalized in 1883, but the paperwork had erroneously been issued under the name Chun Long.   The State Archivist was good enough to send me the complete text of the statement, dated the 6th December 1900, which I can copy for you later if you wish.  In any case, it verifies that they had known each other for over 21 years.   I have still not found any record of Chin Kit's naturalization but I do now have registration numbers by which I can retrieve the record of his marriage, and the births of five children, all in Victoria 1865-1877.

So, now to your website.   Having found nothing on the web concerning Chin Kit, other than the Victorian BDM listings, I tried the name Chung-Gon in search engine Google, and right away it gave me the site.   And what a surprise!  The photograph on page 5a2.htm, James with Chin Ah Kip, is without doubt a picture of James with my great-grandfather!

James Chung-Gon and Chin Kit                  Megan's portrait of Chin Kit

(Photos were added to make it easier for the reader)

I have only once seen a picture of him,  an oil portrait held by our remaining Tasmanian relatives who allowed me to photograph it - above right.   The picture that I have is precisely the figure on the right of the website .jpg.  The artist has clearly painted it from whatever the picture derives from, the face, the pose, the table leg, all are exact and the only artistic licence is an alteration in the potplant!    So obviously I am very curious about the source of your picture, and of course the name Chin Ah Kip...has it been misreported somewhere along the line, or did he perhaps have an alternative name, like Chung-Gon, of which we have never heard?