Our son Florian was born on November 21st. I've put some picture online. We're really happy about him and sleep very little :)

Here is a link to pictures from Clara and Dan's wedding this summer

Mark told me about Albert's new email:

jalujeal@yahoo.com

After the terrible incidents on Tuesday I contacted uncle Stephen about Clara and Dan. I was delighted to hear, that both are OK. Here's the mail he has sent me:

Gottfried,

We could not get through the New York phone line until 10:00 P.M. I finally
spoke to Dan and Clara directly. Here's the count down of the events:

A round 8:45 A.M, Clara was just sitting down in her 19th floor WTC office.
She felt the building suddenly swung side way about 10 feet. She thought it
was an earthquake and went hiding under her desk. Shortly, the smoke came
out of the hall way and the whole office decided to evacuate. The Exit door
to the stair way was quite jammed and she waited to get out.

At 8:55 A.M. the Exit traffic was getting lighter and she started walking
down the stair way. About half way through, she saw the fireman walkup
against the traffic. It took her 45 minutes to walk down.

At 9:40 A.M. she reached the street lobby. It was accumulated with 6 inches
of sprinkler water. Only then, she realized how serious the situation was.
She run towards Chinatown immediately and 10 minutes later, Dan located her
at Chinatown by cell phone.

We felt so thankful for Clara and we value our life ever more than before.

Thanks for your concerns.

Stephen

Here in Europe we are also all very concerned what's going to happen next. Many think, that it's really bad luck for the world, that Bush is president now, who is regarded to be a bit of a "Cowboy". Let's hope the US is not going to start bombing random targets like in the past and start a war.

Mark told me, that Maggie is already married and lives in California now. Congrats!

Added the contacts of Titzu (?) and Maggie Chen. The twin daughters living in Vancouver now (I guess). If I'm wrong about it, please correct me.

"...my aunt and i just came back to taiwan from europe,we took a 10 days group. actually,we stayed i vienna one night. before we departure,we were thinking about connect with u ,but we think maybe time is not enough ,so we give up.we visited the palace and some sightseeing places in vienna,it's a beautiful city.i just want to tell you i have been there 6 days before.we're wellcome u to visist taiwan again!..."

"...i have also been to munich,nurnburg in germany,prague, karlovy vary,brno in czech republic,budapest ,and vienna,salzburg inaustria.i really enjoyed this trip,but my aunt was a little tired.next time i go to vienna,i won't forget to ring you up.my sister went to US last month.she plans to study the university there.now she is in a language school in central washingtin university (in washington state,near seatle),she'll enter this university 6 months later..."

Comment from Gottfried: "Seems all of the Chen family go to the USA, Why not to good old Europe :)?"

• Clara and Dan's page got updated and looks really nice. Go and have a look!
• Heidrun and I'll be going to China and Tibet for 3 weeks from July 28th to August 21st (yeah!, finally a longer holiday again). We'll post a travel report later.
• We've been in Istanbul for a 4 days short leave in May, but I didn't have the time to put up pictures yet. In a nutshell: Istanbul is really worth a trip. So for all of you who plan to come to Europe, if you have the time, then go there (and definitely come to Vienna!).

Here is a historical picture for you to post. People would be able to guess whom is who. This is probably taken somewhere around 1958 or 1959. All the uncles and aunties are in this pic. I will scan more of these B&W pics later.
God Bless,
Mark (Shing Shing)

I've started writing a game engine. Come and see at chengine.org

Added link to Peter's new homepage and corrected the last picture from Vancouver 2001

Added some new pictures Mark sent me from Chinese New Year in Vancouver

Hi everyone,
Gottfried, great web site! Sorry I haven't written yet - I have been busy getting a new job (finally!) and I also just got engaged!
We have posted some engagement pictures on Dan's Web site - http://users.rcn.com/dan-fuchs
Talk to you guys later and hope all of you are doing well!!
Love, -Clara

Heidrun and I have been skiing/snowboarding for a week in Mittersill with some of my colleagues. I'll put up some pictures, when I have time.

Added new pictures sent by Tammy and Mark.

Updated John's email address.

Added some pictures sent by Susan and Jennifer.

Happy Chinese new year to everyone!! I hope you are all celebrating. And happy birthday to uncle Philip (my mom told me its your birthday today too, so you've got to double celebrate).

Added a new picture of Mark's kids that Susan has mailed me.

Dear Gottfried,
Thank you for keeping up with the postings. Here is more info on the family tree (dear all: please correct spelling)

>From our grandfather's younger brother:
Aunt Chen Tien Shin: Hui-Hui(Vera) & Yun-Yun (twin girls), David (Chuan)
Uncle Chen Sun: Tien En & Tien Tzu (twin girls)
Aunt Chen Ping (3 Mao)
Uncle Mao Mao: Tien Ming & Tien Bai

Our grandparents also had a daughter, I do not know her name. She stayed in China when the rest of the family fled to Taiwan. I believe she is now deceased. Uncles can give more details please. Our grandfather also had a sister, who was in the black & white photo (Albert pointed it out when Peter had it on the Chen Historical Site)

Let's put those scanners to work and get more photos up on the site.
"Big" cousin, Mark

Good job on the Chen site Gottfried!
We're now connected after all these years!!! Reunion in Shiao Sha Chen Village sounds like a great idea! ....except we were just there and probably won't be able to go again for sometime... we'll see.. if the Lord provides the opportunity then we're up for the idea!!

We also have several other photos of the Village - Currently we don't have a scanner handy so we're not able to scan them all - hopefully we'll get one soon.

Oh, here's my mom's email address: chenyuan3@aol.com (Comment: is added)
She has Chinese Windows so she can read Chinese on her computer. (Comment: Under Windows 2000 you can read Chinese even on the English/German OS. Now if I just could ... :))

This is a little better - map down to the next generation:
>From Mao Shuing -
Mark & Ann Chen - Raechel & Allison
Albert & Jennifer Chen - Luke & Jamie
Susan & Lance Montague

>From Mao Liang -
Gottfried & Heidrun Chen

>From Chen Lin -
John & Jennifer Chen - Josiah, Micah, & baby #3
Jenelle & Norton Wong
Peter & Jennifer Chen
Jennifer & Mark Bello - Jacob

>From Chen Chuen
Clara Chen
Vicki Chen

(Comment: Further 2 pictures from Peter's old site were added)

Susan

To all Chen cousins:

This is uncle Mao Mao. I am so glad to hear your news from the Chen Cousins website, but I do not know who you are because all your names are not in Chinese. Who is Luke, Jenelle, Vicki, Jennifer, Clara, peter (Chen Lin's son ?) (Comment: See Susan's post). Any one of you ever count how many cousins & nieces you have? I believe its more than 15. Who want to spend some time to draw a family tree commencing from your great grabdfather. I didn't see any words in this website from other uncles, Chen Lin, Chen Chun, Chen Sun, Chen Tien Hsin.

It seems that most of you like the reunion idea in our ancestor's old place. Gottfried, please make a plan, schedule and let everyone discuss this matter. Not only you cousins, but also all uncles, aunts and family members who are interested in this matter. (Comment: Discussion is running on the Forum).

Chen Sun (4th uncle) is now in Canada, All my family members will visit him from Jan. 22 to 30, 2001. Hsin Hsin (Mark) will meet us on Jan. 28, 29 in Vancouver. Any one wants to join us?

Bye-Bye

Gottfried,
you are a great webmaster! Tien-En is one of the 4th uncle's twin daughter (your cousin). Keke is Allison's (my daughter) Chinese nick name. Vera Lee is one of Auntie's twin daughter, she is in some of my pictures along with her husband (both wear glasses).
Mark (Shing Shing)

The [two kids on the picture] are our little ones, Luke (4 years old), and Jamie (just turned 2 on 1/9).

What I am really interested now is to have a copy of the Chen's family book. One of us (that is, mark and I, or one of the uncles ) will translate it into English. Also, I have a copy of Ye ye's autobiography (written in the late 70's) that one day I will translate it into English. The reason of this is that I feel that we never have a chance to learn from our ancesters, because we are scattered all over the world.

(Comment: I'll check if we have a copy of the family book. But I think uncle Philip has one).

Finally I've added a discusssion board to the page to make it more interactive instead of just a passive browsing site! (After evaluating about a million forums I settled for UBB, since it was the easiest to handle, though the freeware version is somehow limited). So click on Forum in the menu, register a username and then start adding life to our virtual living room :) (if anybody has got questions how to use it, just ask me).

I didn't put up all news yet, since I lack the time, but I'll do that during the week.

The new cousins site looks great! It's great hearing from those who have posted so far.

I know some of you have wanted to see more of the older black-and-white photos of our ancestors and even some of us. I will send some more pictures to Gottfried in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, I will try to scan in the entire b/w album that my dad has and put it on CD-ROM for those who are interested. It will probably take a while to complete, but hopefully I'll be able to finish it later on this year.

-Cousin Peter

(Also some new email addresses were added: Jenelle, uncle Philip, Jennifer)

Hello Gottfried,

Thanks so much for putting all of this together, it's been wonderful to read up on everything that our cousins have been up to. Susan's story was great, I've never heard about many of the places and people she talks about. This web site is really a great idea!

I just wanted to up date you on Clara's email, since it seems that her link is unavailable at present. It is : Clara_chen @hotmail.com

Nothing much going on with me, yeah I'm still in med school, my third year. It's really never ending...but I love it so far. Clara's doing really well, she's now living in big city NY, and she's planning on switching careers to internet graphic design. I'm actually heading down there tomorrow for the long weekend to visit. Mom and Dad just had their 30 year anniversary yesterday! We treated them to a nice French dinner, since they don't spoil
themselves enough. Things are going very well all around.

I'm so glad to hear that all of our cousins are happy and healthy, getting married and having babies- so wonderful!

The reunion sounds like a great idea, though I agree that the time constraints on vacations will limit people from all getting out there together. Still, I think it may be possible. I'd be up for it! Let me know when we get a better time frame on this.

Best wishes to all our cousins and their families! Please keep in touch.

Love,
Vicki

(Comment by Gottfried: "Hi Vicki. Nice to hear from you again and that you all are fine! So far it seems everyone really likes this reunion idea. So uncle Mao Mao it seems that it might work out.")

Thanks for putting up the site. I think Uncle Mao mao's idea is marvellous.
My new job gives me alot of flexibility regarding vacation. Except, for the
families with little ones (see attached pictures), it would be tough.

(Comment by Gottfried: "I put up the picture, but actually: who's on it?")

Greetings from Taiwan!

This is Fred & Vera Lee. (Well, in case you wonder who we are!! my mom is your father's cousin). We just came back from Jerusalem, Israel for Christmas and Chinese New Year. It is wonderful to be in Jerusalem, God is so faithful to us. We really touched by the many landmarks where Jesus walked by in Jerusalem. It brought us ever near to our hearts to God.

When I viewed the web site "Chen's cousin", we truly feel that it is so meaningful and significant for our families. Then we just started to wonder that whether Fred & I could send you some pictures about Jerusalem and asked for the help to create the web site for us about our ministry. It is much easier for others to view the news about Israel and the prayer letter if we could have a web site. However, since we are "computer illiteraries", could we asked your help? We will appreciate so much then. Thank you so much.

(Comment by Gottfried: "Wow, some new relatives I didn't now about. The community is growing! Of course I'll post everything mailed to me on this page.")

I have a strange idea. I hope all Chen members could reunion in China at our ancester's old house built 80 years ago. Susan went there last year. Transfer this message to Gottfried and make a plan if you have time. I know it is not easy, but I do hope it would come true.

I am the youngest in the second generation and I'm now 50. Not much time left. I hope we can make this thing come true within 2-3 years. Is it possible?

Uncle Mao Mao

(Comment by Gottfried: "This is really a good idea though I think it's very hard to get all of us to take a vacation from our jobs at the same time. But I would really like a reunion! So what does the rest of our family think about this idea. And most important: how are we going to organize it?")

I added some pictures Mark has mailed me (didn't have the time to put them into pages, so there are only the plain pictures, maybe I'll write a script to automate this).

Hopefully the site looks now the same on the most popular browsers. I tested Internet Explorer 5 and Netscape 4.7. A short check with Opera 5 seemed also OK. If there are any troubles please tell me.

Wrote some descriptions to our wedding pictures so you know what is shown.

First possible reunion as a result of the Cousin's page!!:
Mark to Mao Mao: "I just read your posting on the cousin's website. I will also be in the Northwest during the same week! I will be in Seattle on business. I was planning to visit Vancouver the weekend of 1/27-28. I hope to see you all there! It will be a great re-union."

This is uncle Mao Mao. I am so glad to know you set up this homepage when Tammy told me this news. It is true that we Chen family should contact each other thru e-mail. This is really a excellent idea. Good boy, I love this idea.

On Dec. 28, 2000, Chem Tien Hsin (your elder aunt, my sister), my wife and myself went to China, Chou San Island, to attend San Mao Memorial House opening ceremony. It is set up in my grandfater's (your grand grandfather) old house, built eighty years ago, a old Chinese style house, repaired by the Chinese local government. There are about two hundreds of officials and visitors attended this ceremony. I want to send you some photos about our trip so that you could put them on your homepage and let other chen families to see.

During the Chinese New Year days from Jan. 22 to 30, 2001, all our family members will visit Canada to see Chen Sun (my brother) who moved to Vancouver, Canada two years ago.

I received X'mas cards from Hsin Hsin, Rong Rong, San San and their photos. I am glad to know Chen's next generation have grown up and have a good life around the world.

I will contact the Chen family thru your homepage and hope to receive more information from all of you.

Heidrun is a nice girl, you must treat her well. This is an order. (Comment by Gottfried: I'll do my best!)

Hoping to receive letters from Chen Lin, Chen Chuen. I do not know their son or daughter's name or what they look like. I'll contact Tien En and Tien Chi's e-mail and tell them this homepage. I hope that you could gather all the photos from the Chen family so that we could know each other thru your homepage.

See you. Bye-Bye. 23:30 Jan.8,2001

Since Susan asked who Tammy is. Tammy (or Tien Min) is the older of Uncle Mao Mao's two daughters. She is currently studying law in Taipei (so seemingly the only one who keeps up the Chen's law tradition!)

When I have time, I'll draw a family tree (with pictures and names of everyone in it) to let everyone know who is who (e.g. uncle Mao Mao hasn't seen all of the American cousins yet). So please mail me some up to date pictures of all of you.

Added a link to Susan & Lance's homepage.

Added Tammy Chen from Taipei to the Contacts section.

I'll just give a short summary of news happened in 2000 that I can remember (If I missed something then please let me know):

• Jennifer & Mark got their Baby Jacob.
• Heidrun & I got married in June.

Upon a suggestion of Mark I initiated this Chen Cousins (and of course also Uncles and Aunts) homepage. It should provide a forum, where all of us can come together and check some news that happened to anyone of us. E.g. Susan's travel diary from her trip to China is posted here. Not to forget Heidrun and my wedding this year :)!!!!

I hope this page helps us keep closer contact than before. When I have more time left I'll try to improve the page so that news can be posted directly on the page. Until then anything you want to tell the other Chen Cousins (including pictures) can be mailed to me.

Since I'm not really a web designer I'd appreciate any suggestions how to improve this site. (I also didn't test the page with other browsers than the Internet Explorer.)

Hello Chen family!

We just came back from China yesterday afternoon - it's 4am right now and I'm a little jetlagged - but I can't wait to tell you all what happened on Zhousan -> Shaio Sha - the place on the island where our Great Grand Father's tomb lies.

The journey began when we took an overnight boat from Shanghai to Dinghai as John and uncle Philip told us to do. It turns out - in the short 6 years they have improved quite a bit in transportation from the mainland to the island. There is now an airport on the Zhousan island. You can also now take a bus via ferry directly from Shanghai to Dinghai.

Anyway, we got there in via the boat in the morning and checked into a hotel. Then we took a bus to Shaio Sha. We went into the government buildings there and told them that I was related to San Mao. They immediately took us there in a government van. The remanent buildings are currently getting a face-lift. They had someone there painting the outside when we visited. San Maos documents are over in one of the large buildings. On the other side of these buildings still live a Chen family. The dad in this family is from the line our great-grand father's brother. So we share the same great-great-grand father. We happened to arrive there at their lunch break so we got to visit with them. The dad there works hard as in building construction, he has the Muo middle character in his name. He has a son with Chao as middle character. The son is currently 24 and works in the fabric factory in town. I have both of their names written down in chinese characters. Anyway, the family has built recently a new home next to the old shack and they now live there. The old shack is still occupied by this uncle's step mom. Very primitive living conditions.

So we visited a bit with this family and they took us to Great Grand father's tomb on the hill. When we came down, we visited a bit and the uncle told me that we should go visit his older sisters in Dinghai. There was somewhat of a language barrier since their Ningbo accents were strong. Good thing their son was there to help us translate to Putonhua. I was a little hesitant at first but they insisted that I should meet her and that auntie was going to bring us there. So we went.

We arrived in Dinghai again via the bus and got to the apartment where an old grandma lives. Turns out this grandma was our grandfather's (yeh-yeh) cousin's wife. And her daugher is cousins with the uncle in the village. So when they say "sister" it could mean "cousin". Anyway, this auntie was very glad to see us. Her mother is currently 97 but her mind is still quite clear and was able to give quite a bit of information. Good thing later that evening this Dinghai auntie's son came and was able to translate for us. We got a lot of this on video. Here are some things that she told me. Uncle Philip you might know some of this information already:

Our Great grandfather was the 2nd son in his family. His older brother was a farmer (he's the grandfather of these relatives still in Zhousan) When our great-grandpa was 14 he went to work in a vegitable farm out in Shanghai/PuDong. Then when he was around 20, he worked for some foreigners on a ship. It was hard dirty work, polishing shoes, emptying urine, etc. and he was abused by these foreigners quite severely. She told me that one time the foreigner kicked him out of the ship and onto mud. Soon after great grandfather made some money he quit. From the foreigners he leared of cement, so great grand father started a cement business in China and he monopolized the cement business in 3 years. He had over 90 homes in Nanking and he was named the Chu-Chong (area governor?). Then he bought land in Shiao Sha (little sand) and build the homes there which we visited. He died in 1947 at 72. Great Grand mother used to work in the match factory.

She also said that our grandpa (yeh yeh) was born in Shanghai. At the time that Great-grand father died grandpa was in Nanking and my dad (muo shuing) was already there. The grandma telling me all this says she remembers my dad when our yeh-yeh and nei-nei went back to Shiao Sha for the funeral. They had no idea that my dad had passed away so young.

Great grand father had 3 wives. The first wife gave birth to 5 children: our yeh-yeh, grand uncle (san mao's dad), and three grand aunties, two of which also fled to Taiwan, one stayed in China. His second wife did not bare any children. His third wife gave birth to yet another son (they did not have information as to where he is).

Apparently San Mao (our famous writer aunt) went back to Dinghai in 1989 and met up with these relatives I met. Great Grandfather's tomb was moved from a farm down where the government buildings are now. Since at the time when it got dug up (less than 10 years after it was buried) the families still in Dinghai did not know how to get in touch with our grandpa they were not able to contact us. When they finally got a hold of our grand-uncle in Taiwan in the late 1980s, he sent $1000 US to re-build great grand father's tomb. It completed just before our famous aunt went to visit and they showed me pictures of crowds following our aunt to the tomb and everwhere else. I never knew she was so popular in China.

There's more stories to tell I'm sure, but I'm a little brain dead right now...

The next morning another aunt came to meet me. This aunt spoke better Putonghua (Mandarin) than the other two so communication was a little less painful. She is the blood sister to the uncle in the village. She seems to be better off financially too. We were going to be on our own merry way and visit the beaches out there but she insisted to taking us around. Her daugher's husband had a company van that drove us all over the islands and she paid for everything! Then in the evening they took us out to a banquet. I felt so bad having barging in on them out of no where. But they insisted that in the future if anyone from our family goes back to visit they need to contact them. I have all their addresses and phone numbers.

Ger - you need to go back again sometime and visit - you'll probably understand their Ningbo hua much better.

Anyway, that's all for today's brain dump. John or Uncle Philip, if you have more family history information I would love to hear. Thanks!!

Love, Susan