Clarence Sihoe 22 October 2026  

Genealogical research often takes you to unexpected places. The twists and turns on the road to discovery are numerous and family historians know this well. So I experienced during my search for LAM Ching Ling, CHEW Gore and their family. They are, of course, synonymous in Richmond’s written record with Hong Wo & Company General Merchants and were the subjects of the first story in this series about the early Chinese Canadian settlers of Richmond. https://richmondarchives.ca/2025/11/06/richmonds-early-chinese-canadian-settlers-lam-ching-ling-and-chew-gore/

My close look into their lives began in mid-2024, and uncovered facts previously unknown or forgotten. We now have the dates of their first arrival in Canada, the ships on which they sailed, the addresses of the homes in which they lived, the names and birthdates of the children–all details that add to our knowledge of their history.

Certain discoveries I made along the way however confused the picture. First, while reviewing LAM Ching Ling’s biographical file that is held within the City of Richmond Archives, I came across the 2013 obituary of Samuel Milton LAM. The statement that he was born in Steveston part of the Hong Wo Lam Family made me pause. I knew of Mary, George, Jessie and Dora, and later learned of Fannie and John, all children of LAM Ching Ling and CHEW Gore, but Samuel wasn’t, as far as I could tell, part of this family group. What was going on here?

More puzzle pieces appeared. In recent years, thousands of records related to Chinese immigration to Canada were released by Library and Archives Canada and made available to the public. Chinese Canadian historians – family and professionals alike – rejoiced, despite the dark origins of these records. 

For example, under section 18 of the Chinese Immigration Act, 1923, the Canadian government created and maintained a list of Chinese who registered as native born. The LAM Ching Ling children, all born in Steveston, B.C., were included in this list, and for each a Chinese Immigration C.I. 44 certificate was created indicating their status. Also registered was Miss Constance LAMB, born on 12 November 1904, in Steveston, B. C., and on her certificate her parents were identified as LIM Saw and LAUNG Shee. 

Was Miss Constance LAMB actually Constance LAM?  The LIM and LAM surnames share the same Chinese character.  Interesting. Here we had children who were born in the same town, around the same time early in the twentieth century, and were similar in name. I wondered, was there a connection to be made here? 

Chinese Immigration C.I.9 travel documents were also the source of valuable information.  Any Chinese person travelling outside of Canada, who had an intention to return, were required to apply for these papers. In September 1923, Constance (Connie) prepared for a trip to Hong Kong and on her document was the notation she was

personally known to LAM Ling of Steveston to whom I would refer you for correctness of statements herein made.

I thought, was this the LAM Ching Ling, proprietor of the Hong Wo & Co. store?

Other records revealed that Connie had an older sister, Nellie Lim. Nellie’s C.I.9 certificate from 1932 stated that she was born in Canada and her current place of residence was Steveston, care of the Hong Wo Store! The evidence was mounting. I was now confident in thinking that a link of some kind existed between these two families.

A search into the records of Constance and Nellie’s father, LIM Saw, revealed more clues. I learned that he entered Canada in 1894 under the name LUM Won Saw and that he was known most often in later life as LAM Tuck Yew. Admitted as a labourer, he eventually gained merchant status while operating a general store, but which one? How many general stores were Chinese operated in Richmond during the 1920s? The Hong Wo & Co. store was the best known and had reportedly been in existence since 1895.

The General Register of Chinese Immigration indicated that LIM Saw brought his wife LAUNG Shee over from China in July 1912. From a variety of documents I examined, I concluded that together they had at least ten children, including their eldest son, Samuel Milton, born in 1919 at

Lulu Island (No.3 Road, near London, B.C.)

the man whose obituary I found in LAM Ching Ling’s biographical file!  

LAM Ching Ling died in 1939 and in his death notice it was mentioned that among his survivors there was a brother living in Steveston. The brother’s name however was not given.  LIM Saw died in 1943. His obituary appeared in the newspapers of the day in September 1943, and he is identified as Tuck Yew LAM,

the proprietor of Hong Wo and Co., Steveston.

Finally, all the bits and pieces had come together. These two men were brothers, and LIM Saw had succeeded LAM Ching Ling in the running of a business. The success of the Hong Wo & Co. general merchant store and farming operation stemmed from the hard work of two families rather than just one!

All this investigative work had taken over a year to complete. I understood the basic connection between the LAM Ching Ling and LAM Tuck Yew families but of course many details were still unknown. I continued my search and in March 2025 and again in August I posted comments about my research in the Facebook page of the Genealogy for Asian Canadians group.https://www.facebook.com/groups/1923544271050858 I was puzzled about apparent disconnects in names within the LAM Ching Ling family and needed help in translation, and various members made comments and suggestions. The responses were much appreciated. What I hadn’t noticed until a few months later was a reply that read in part:

My Grandfather was the brother of Lam Ching Ling.  He also helped run the Hong Wo store and farm in Steveston.  His name was LAM Tuck Yew.

Good fortune had arrived! A LAM Tuck Yew family member had reached out and could help put the pieces of the Hong Wo & Co. store story I had collected, into their proper place.

So, since November 2025 I have met with Maisie LAM several times to hear her talk about her side of the “Hong Wo family.” Maisie is the daughter of Samuel Milton, granddaughter of LIM Saw, and grandniece of LAM Ching Ling. She expressed surprise that so much material about the LAM Ching Ling family was stored at the City of Richmond Archives and that people were interested in learning about the life and contributions of the LIM Saw family line. Some of the details were even new to her. Thanks to Maisie and her extended family, our knowledge of her grandparents LAM Tuck Yew and LEUNG Yuet Wah, and of their important contribution to the Hong Wo & Co. business, is more complete than ever.

Details about LAM Tuck Yew’s early life in British Columbia, however, are scarce. Seven years after his landing in Victoria, he is recorded as living with LAM Ching Ling and family in the 1901 Census of Canada.

LAM Ching Ling, his wife and their two elder daughters are listed on the first four lines of this excerpt from the census record, while LAM Tuck Yew, recorded as LIM Saw, at the bottom, is described as a lodger rather than a brother. They’re residing in some household in Richmond, B.C., possibly within quarters situated along the Steveston waterfront, amongst many other Chinese people. It may have been the living space above the Hong Wo store – Maisie believes the building was built by LAM Tuck Yew himself, having the skills of a carpenter – and the two brothers may have already been in partnership in the operation of their retail and farming business.

LAM Tuck Yew travelled back to China in 1911 or thereabouts, and returned in the summer of 1912 with his wife, LEUNG Yuet Wah, and according to the General Register of Chinese Immigration records, they were accompanied by a son, Gong Yim, eleven; and two daughters, nine-year-old Nellie and five-year-old Connie. Neither wife nor children were required to pay the $500 head tax as they were family of a Chinese man who had merchant status.

Gong Yim is absent from the LAM family history records, and Maisie is unsure if he was a son of LAM Tuck Yew and LEUNG Yuet Wah. Perhaps he was LAM Tuck Yew’s nephew or younger brother, or just another member of the LAM clan, and he may simply have gone his own way once he landed, losing contact with the family as the years passed. Gong Yim worked as a clerk, travelled back to China in 1921, and was last known to be living in Steveston in 1924, working as a farmer.

Nellie and Connie were recorded in the General Register of Chinese Immigration as Yong Luig and Hung Jiu. Most people registered in these ledgers were arriving as new immigrants, yet both Nellie and Connie later claimed to have been born in Canada. This was important as Chinese who were native born were permitted to freely travel outside of Canada without any time restrictions. Immigrants from China who settled in Canada could not and risked being denied re-entry if they stayed outside the country beyond the two-year time limit. Extensions to four years were sometimes permitted in times of war.

Life started anew for the family in Steveston, a place that certainly must have felt very alien from their home of Sun Chan village, Sun Woy (Xinhui) county, Kwangtung (Guangdong) province in southern China. The family expanded quickly nevertheless, with the births of May 1912, Rose 1913, Edith 1915, and Alice 1917, followed by Samuel Milton in 1919, taking place in the living quarters above the family store.

Business of the Hong Wo & Co. store and the Richmond Gardens operation also appeared to be prospering. Growing and selling cucumbers to the companies who used them to make dill pickles was well under way.

Order Book, Hong Wo & Co. Richmond Gardens 1919, City of Richmond Archives accession #2019 60 11

The business shares were divided along a five-ninths to four-ninths line, with the larger portion going to elder brother LAM Ching Ling, who reportedly established the business circa 1895. While LIM Saw may have been the junior partner in the operation, he was more than just a farmer and general store merchant. He practiced Chinese medicine and signs displayed within the store premises advertised the services and products he offered.

This glass sign announced that LAM Tuck Yew (first three characters, second column from right), was an “expert physician – external medicine/surgery – who trained under a Mr. LI Chung, covering everything from skin diseases and venereal diseases to bone-setting and pediatric ailments.   

The metal sign is a companion signboard listing specific medicines and products sold at the clinic: pills, plasters, and powders for pain relief, itchiness, cuts and abscesses. Harold Steves has collected various artefacts from the Hong Wo & Co. store, including bottles, jars, and small tins. Many have labels on which are written Chinese characters, (awaiting translation!). Perhaps some of them held the medicines used by LAM Tuck Yew?

As for any concern about adapting to life in Canada, Nellie appeared to have had little difficulty. She reportedly completed her high school education locally, but whether it was in Richmond or Vancouver has not yet been confirmed.

Although work at the store and on the farm was probably life’s major focus, LAM Tuck Yew and LEUNG Yuet Wah came to know other members of the Chinese community living in the region, including other LAM families working in the farming industry. An important connection was made with THOM Tong Chue, also known as T.C. Thom, a missionary working in New Westminster, and one of the earliest Chinese Methodist ministers serving Chinese Canadians in British Columbia. He assisted the family in reporting Connie’s birth to the District Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages. A friendship also developed with WONG Kung Lai, who in 1913, founded Modernize Tailors on Pender Street in Vancouver’s Chinatown.

In early October 1919, the family, with the exception of Connie, returned to China, moving first to a home in Canton (Gwang2 zau1 or Guangzhou) before settling in Hong Kong. LAM Tuck Yew then married for the second time. This was still a common practice amongst traditional Chinese men, to have one legal wife and one or more concubines.  The name of this woman has been lost to the family, and much of her time may have been spent caring for LAM Tuck Yew’s grandmother. Three children were born from this relationship, including daughter Bo Kam, in August 1921.

To LEUNG Yuet Wah, a son, Paul, was born in December 1921, but LAM Tuck Yew was absent for this occasion, for he had returned to Steveston the preceding August. It’s likely he did so before his two-year certificate of leave expired. He did travel back to Hong Kong for another two-year period though, from February 1927 to January 1929.  Another son, Peter, was born in January 1928. The last son, Tommy, according to Maisie’s father Samuel Milton, died in a childhood drowning accident back in Canada.

For the next six years, LAM Tuck Yew lived apart from his family. Connie, after a brief stay in Hong Kong, had left Canada for the United States in December 1925. She moved to New York, then pursued studies in Sociology at the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina. After graduation in 1933, she was awarded a fellowship at the New York School of Social Work. In 1936 she returned to China, living and working in Hong Kong, assisting refugees during the war.

Back in Steveston, LAM Tuck Yew continued working alongside his brother LAM Ching Ling (also known as LAM Duck Hui). The Hong Wo & Co. store and Richmond Gardens were doing a profitable business. 

While work undoubtedly occupied most of his time, LAM Tuck Yew still involved himself in local LAM/LIM clan affairs. He joined the Lim Sai Hor Association, which was based in Vancouver’s Chinatown, but originally established in Victoria in 1908. The current association, the LIM Sai Hor Kow Mock Benevolent Association, has occupied the same building at 531 Carrall Street since 1946.

In December 1935, Samuel Milton, age 16, returned to Canada. Whether he was called back by his father or did so on his own accord, Maisie and her family do not know.   

Milton, as he preferred to be called, soon began attending class at Vancouver Technical Secondary School, travelling there by the interurban tram from Steveston. His command of the English language was good enough to enable him to enter straight into the tenth grade.  Subjects he enjoyed were many, including English, math, science, literature, history, philosophy and religion. This interest in obtaining a good education reflected his father’s similar outlook, and this road was travelled by several other of LAM Tuck Yew’s children.

Time on the weekends for Milton was often spent helping at the Hong Wo store and farm operations.

From another LAM clan family friend, he learned to drive a tractor and a truck, eventually delivering groceries to customers in New Westminster, North Vancouver and Vancouver. Perhaps this was all viewed as preparation for his eventual inheritance of a share in the family business.

On 20 August 1939, LAM Ching Ling died. His death was noted in the Vancouver press, who remembered him as a prominent merchant of Steveston. LAM Tuck Yew may have then become the senior member of the Hong Wo store staff, but the business arrangements between his family and his brother’s heirs remained unchanged. 

Maisie and her family are unaware if LAM Tuck Yew ever returned to Hong Kong and China after 1929. His wife, LEUNG Yuet Wah, had been living there since 1919, and her Canadian immigration certificate of leave had expired in 1923, making her ineligible for automatic re-entry into Canada. 

The children were all growing into adulthood and striking out on their own.

Nellie had attended Hackett Medical College in Canton, then did post-graduate studies at the New York Columbia Medical School for one year in 1930. After working at several postings in the United States, she returned to China in January 1933 to serve as a professor of gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics at the Kwang Ha Medical College in Canton. Nellie later engaged in private practice in Nanking before settling in Hong Kong.

Mae trained to become a nurse and then worked in real estate after her return to Canada in 1953.

In Hong Kong, Rose, also a nurse, befriended John Davis, a British police officer who led intelligence forces in Japanese-occupied Malaya in 1943. She had spent time there in the late 1930s. 

Edith helped her husband operate a ferry service in Hong Kong after the war and then worked as a seamstress in Vancouver. 

Alice graduated with a Master of Arts degree in psychology from New York’s Columbia University in 1950. After practicing at a private school for boys in the U.S. she returned to Vancouver for a career in the real estate industry (Family lore also has her involved in some international intrigue, perhaps a subject for a future post!)

Margaret taught music after immigrating to San Francisco.

Paul transferred from school in Hong Kong to UBC and graduated in commerce circa 1946. At some point, he provided bookkeeping help at the Hong Wo & Co. business, tracking sales and orders. He proceeded to Temple University in Philadelphia for graduate studies in business administration and finished his PhD course work at New York University. One of his classmates at Temple was David Lam, who went on to experience great success in business and became the 25^th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. By the mid-1950s, Paul had established his import-export business, Continental Trading Enterprises Ltd. in Vancouver’s Chinatown. He returned to Canada permanently in 1957. 

Peter went to McGill University in Montreal in the early 1950s and graduated with a Civil Engineering degree. Some of his early employment included work on dam projects in Quebec and then in B.C. with Alcan and B.C. Hydro. 

LAM Tuck Yew did not live to see how his children born after Nellie and Connie prospered later in life. He surely would have been pleased to know about the schools they attended, the training they received and the degrees they earned. He died on 27 September 1943 in Steveston.

At the time of his death, his son Milton was the only immediate family member who was living in Canada. Milton had enrolled in engineering at UBC circa 1941, along with Jack and Bill Wong, whose father was operating Modernize Tailors in Chinatown. Maisie remembers her father recalling the times he and the brothers commuted to school together and how he once drove them all to UBC in a farm vehicle. Their mathematics professor was very much amused at the sight. The Wong brothers graduated circa 1946/47.  Their degrees however essentially proved worthless, for a Chinese person could not legally enter the engineering profession in BC during these years. To obtain a license required being eligible to vote in the provincial election, which the Chinese were denied until after 1947.

Upon LAM Tuck Yew’s death, Alice volunteered to lead the family in fulfilling their responsibility in the running of the Hong Wo & Co. store and Richmond Gardens. Milton however left his studies at UBC to take on this role.

He continued to do so until he married in 1948, at age 28. Milton had met LAU Mo Ying at a party hosted by friends he had made during one of his trips to Hong Kong to visit his mother.

They returned to Canada soon after and LAU Mo Ying was introduced to life on the farm in Steveston. 

The transition to this new way of living proved to be a challenge however, and so, Milton retired from the Hong Wo & Co. and Richmond Gardens business. In early 1950, the LIM Saw (LAM Tuck Yew) family shares were sold to the LAM Ching Ling family, and Milton’s cousins George, Mary and Jessie Lam took over the operations of the firm. 

The doors of the Hong Wo & Co. store closed permanently in 1971, and the building sat vacant for another six years.  Demolition occurred in 1977.

Milton had sponsored his mother’s application for immigration to Canada and approval was granted by the Canadian government in November 1949. LEUNG Yuet Wah however passed away in 1950 in Hong Kong. She had lived a full life there, strongly connected to a wide variety of people including those in business and government, who accorded her great respect.

Milton and Mo Ying, who had adopted Maureen as her name, began raising their family. By the early 1960s there were five children: Eunice, Nathan, Michael, Brian, and Maisie. Maureen found employment as a nurse’s aide at Vancouver General Hospital and volunteered her time playing piano at the Christ Church of China in Chinatown and then the Vancouver Chinese Pentecostal Church.

After leaving the Hong Wo & Co. store, Milton worked at the Post Office sorting mail.  He later began training as a social worker, taking some classes at UBC and working for a variety of federal, provincial, and local agencies around the province. His job was eventually centred in Vancouver’s Chinatown and Downtown Eastside (often referred to as Skid Road during Milton’s time working there) where he assisted many elderly Chinese with pension and social services applications and language translation services.  He was well suited to this work, as Milton was an intelligent, honest, kind, generous and compassionate man.

Maureen died in 1999, and Milton passed away in 2013.

Today, the family of LAM Tuck Yew and LEUNG Yuet Wah has grown to its sixth generation.  The key role their elders played in this important chapter of Richmond’s history was remarkable, but knowledge of these events has mostly been confined to LAM family conversations and memories. With Maisie and her brother Michael‘s great help however, the connection between the LAM Ching Ling and LAM Tuck Yew families and their partnership during the first half of the twentieth century have now been revealed.

The LAM family records, photographs and artefacts they have donated to the City of Richmond Archives have been received with much gratitude and these will soon be available for research purposes. And though it has been exciting to receive so much new information about the Hong Wo & Co. store, there is more to learn and tell. The City of Richmond Archives looks forward to working with the extended LAM families in this endeavour.

The next instalment in this series of stories about the early Chinese Canadians settlers in Richmond will focus on YUEN Jae Tong and his family. The land they farmed was located at Jacombs Road and Bridgeport Road, the site of present-day Richmond IKEA.