covered over 300 years, and must have required at least 10 generations, even counting at a 30-year generation gap. Reading back from the end of the Ming, and assuming that the recorded ancestors are those living at the end of the Ming, the first recorded Ming ancestor cannot have been born earlier than about 1430-1450. Three or four generations have been omitted, it is clear, from the Tsuk Po, from the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. This is not unusual. Usually the Tsuk Po was only brought up to date at long intervals, and, when it was, the oldest unrecorded ancestors were liable to have been forgotten, the oldest remembered ancestor being entered as the son of the last recorded in the old Tsuk Po. It is, therefore, likely that the Tsuk Po was brought up to date very early in the Ming, and then again very late in that dynasty.
Of the ancestors recorded from the Ming, the third is Chan Chiu-yin (UK). His date of birth is likely to have been about 1510-1530. The Tsuk Po claims that he was the first ancestor to settle in Nga Tsin Wai: the date must be somewhat close to, or shortly after, the middle of the sixteenth century.
The Chan clan Tsuk Po records four ancestors who died after 1644 before an ancestor whose dates are given as 1828-1891. Again, at least one or two generations have been dropped out of the record. Errors in Tsuk Po from the New Territories from the early years of the Ching are very common. The years 1662-1668 were the years when the residents along the coast were driven inland by Imperial troops, to deny support to Koxinga and his Ming remnants on Taiwan. Villagers were unable to take much with them. Records were lost, even if the Tsuk Po itself was saved. The first ancestor recorded after the Coastal Evacuation in the Chan clan Tsuk Po is the founder of the Tseung Kwan O branch of the clan, Chan Kwan-fu (M). This village was founded in the early eighteenth century. This Founding Ancestor cannot have been born earlier than about 1690-1700 (his oldest great-great-grandson was not born until 1828). Long generation gaps (30-33 years) are possible here because of the time needed to recover from the traumas of the Coastal Evacuation and the difficulties involved in founding the new village at Tseung Kwan O: the clan may well have married late in these years. But, if Chan Kwan-fu was born about 1690-1700, he cannot have been the son of Chan Pak-wai (1), the last Ming recorded ancestor, who died before 1644. One or two generations have been forgotten, probably men who died during the Coastal Evacuation, or the decades