My Chinese Origin
My mother's maiden name is Hochee. I have traced it back only as far as my greatgrandfather. What I want to know is the exact origin of Hochee. I want to know if my great grandfather spoke mandarin or cantonese.
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Replies

Venturing into uncharted waters here.
I've an idea that you haven't got your ancestor's surname here. Either that or you've got his surname and more. you need to consult someone with a knowledge of the Chinese language. It would also be useful if you knew your great-grandfather's full name; better still if you had a record of it in Chinese characters.
Nearly all Chinese family names - and there aren't many - are monosyllables. They are represented by one Chinese chaacter. I'm certain that what you have here would need two characters in Chinese. The family name comes first in Chinese, the individal name, often made up of two characters, follows. This could be confusing for English-speaking immigration officials, and sometimes the second name became the surname.
Another possibility is that HO CHEE was your ancestor's full name, HO being the family name.
So there's work to be done here, and you need some specialist help.
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I doubt it's chineseI would call it Japanese but check here just in case;
http://hua.umf.maine.edu/Chinese/search.html
try ho-chi maybe... bye.
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