Jason Manzanares, Leandra, Samantha, and Cameron Kalt as well as Matthew Mori, Chucky Thomas, Jarod and I are Japanese American, our more distant ancestors once lived in Japan, but how to find them from so far away and after the passage of so much time?
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| Michie Kobayakawa |
This blog began as a journal of my geneological quest and will serve as a “Guidebook” for Matthew, Chuck, Jarod and others curious about meeting their uncles, aunts and cousins still living in that distant land.
All I knew was that I’d find my answers starting at Niimi City Hall, near where my grandparents grew up. When I departed on my first Japanese geneology expedition I didn’t know what the documents would look like that would lead me to my original Japanese family. But soon I learned that a koseki (戸籍) is a family registry where local authorities record:
- family name and given name
- date of birth
- date of records and causes (marriage, death, adoption, etc.)
- names of the father and the mother and the relation to them
- if adopted, names of the adoptive father and mother
- if married, whether the person is a husband or a wife
- if transferred from another koseki, the former koseki
- registered domicile (honseki-chi)
The Koseki document (below) from my Ishihara Family was printed out after four city hall clerks searched four hours at Niimi City Hall in Okayama Prefecture.
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