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您姓甄?

Is your Chinese Surname (姓) written using one of the following transliterations? That is, are you a ...

Chin, Gin, Ginn, Gyn, Gean, Gen, Gene, Jen, Jin, Ying, Yan,Yen or Zhen ?

Note that in Indonesia, the transliteration of our surname 甄 is differentto the rest of the world. According to Muliawan Tjindra (甄麟兒) and Jerry Chendarma of Indonesia, in March2011 they advised us that in Indonesia,there are at least two transliterations of the surname : Chendarma andTjindra or Cindra. ("Tj" adopted from Dutch is theold form of "C"). More about the story of how some of our clanmembers migrated to Indonesia from China will be published later in the page Stories.

To be more precise, is your Chinese Surname 甄 ? If so, then in all likelihood you are interested in this Home Page. This is a Home Page dedicated to Gin Sun Hall (甄舜河), the progenitor, that is, the Ancestor of the Gin Family. But it is not a genealogical web site per se -- it is much more, as you will discover when you spend some time to navigate through our modest, but hopefully useful and informative site.

This Web Site is "owned" by the Gin Sun Hall Benevolent Association in San Francisco, California USA ( 美國三藩市甄舜河堂) and usually referred to as "The Gin Family Association". And yet we recognise that whilst we legally own this Site, the site belongs to all the members of the Gin Family with interest in our history, our development across the world and our aspirations for our people.

The need for a Gin Family Home Page was recognised by many over the years. In fact there have been attempts by some to develop such a site. Well done to those who tried. In 2004, the concept of an official Gin Family Home Page was first discussed between two families, separated by the Pacific Ocean, but related by a common ancestor, Gin Sun Hall, and a vision that "One day we will have our own Home Page, where folks across the world can meet, at least on cyber space". This is beyond physical meetings at Gin Family Associations. The benefits and logistics of mounting such a project were discussed at Sunnyvale, California right in the heart of the Silicon Valley, arguably a home for many Venture Capitalists as well. This concept was further developed in discussions with a number of key people at the First World Gin Family Conference held at The Garden Hotel, Kaiping, Guangdong, People's Republic of China, in November 2005.

The two families were: 甄炳俊 Jerry & Peggy Gin of Sunnyvale and 甄如文 Mun & Ivy Chin of the Chinese Heritage Interest Network (CHIN) a Not-for-profit Chinese heritage research organisation based in Melbourne, Australia.

Following the Gin World Conference in 2006, working closely with the President of the Gin Family Association, Dr. Hal Gin (甄國輝) with the support of the Gin Family Association Elders, the concept and benefits for the Home Page were presented to Gin family members by Jerry Gin at the 2006 Gin Family Chinese New Year Banquet, San Francisco. A Steering Committee for the Home Page Development ( Hal Gin, Jerry Gin, Harry Gin, Tim Ginn ) was formed and results of the venture are now unfolding.

The Home Page development is undertaken by Mun Chin ( 甄如文) with full support of his fellow Founder Directors of CHIN. Further, with a Memorandum of Understanding between CHIN and the Gin Family Association, the two organisations agreed to share information of common interest. This is in recognition that the Chinese Heritage Interest Network has already conducted a number of researches relating to Chinese heritage, including Gin Family heritage, which have enjoyed Social historians peer reviews.

The act of publishing this Home Page is the first step in what we hope to be a productive journey for the Gin Family. The web site is modest for now, but in time it will improve as we gather more information of use to the curious and serious family history researchers alike.

Curious about the origin of our Clan Surname? Then visit our page on "Surname Origin". This research was by a well-regarded Chinese Heritage researcher and author, Al Chinn.