The Life of Yee Jock Leong. I: Birth
MECHANICSVILLE, Va. (DML) — Yee Jock Leong was born—according to his birth certificate—on January 15, 1884, at 741 Sacramento Street in San Francisco. (I have reason to believe that his birthdate was Febuary 15, 1884, as I will explain later.) I learned this from a typed copy of his birth certificate that was in the material that was in the possession of my grandmother, Yee Jock-Leong’s daughter Yut-Seul Yee, at the time she died on June 12, 1979. The certificate said his parents were Yee Kim Wo and Wong Shee.
For years, I wondered if the birth certificate was some kind of fake, but in his CEA file I found original copies of his birth certificate, issued on June 21, 1904, by the Office of the County Recorder, City and County of San Francisco. The birth certificate refers to an affidavit of Wong Shee, but the affidavit was not included in the CEA file. Many San Francisco records were destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906, so I do not know if Wong Shee’s affidavit still exists.
The original birth certificate includes a photograph of a 19-year-old Yee Jock Leong (above). The photograph must have been taken in China, for documents with versions of the photography arrived in the United States prior to Yee Jock Leong’s return.