Sue Lee

We don't have names of Chinese workers because they were not recorded. Chinese were hired in gangs of 30. 30 Chinese names are 30 too many to write on a piece of paper when you're hiring like 5 to 10,000 of them. There are individual names of, let's say, a cook on an individual payroll. So one of the descendant stories in Voices from the Railroad is of Lum Ah Choo.

We don't have names of Chinese workers because they were not recorded. Chinese were hired in gangs of 30. 30 Chinese names are 30 too many to write on a piece of paper when you're hiring like 5 to 10,000 of them. There are individual names of, let's say, a cook on an individual payroll. So one of the descendant stories in Voices from the Railroad is of Lum Ah Choo.

He was a cook at the Summit Tunnel, and there's actually a payroll record with Ah Choo on On it, the Lamachew family claims that as documentation of their ancestor, because who's to say that wasn't him? But that's very rare. The names were simply not recorded because they were hired through middlemen, and it was the middlemen who would handle the payrolls.

He was a cook at the Summit Tunnel, and there's actually a payroll record with Ah Choo on On it, the Lamachew family claims that as documentation of their ancestor, because who's to say that wasn't him? But that's very rare. The names were simply not recorded because they were hired through middlemen, and it was the middlemen who would handle the payrolls.

He was a cook at the Summit Tunnel, and there's actually a payroll record with Ah Choo on On it, the Lamachew family claims that as documentation of their ancestor, because who's to say that wasn't him? But that's very rare. The names were simply not recorded because they were hired through middlemen, and it was the middlemen who would handle the payrolls.

The way that Chinese names were listed was with a prefix, ah, and a nickname. So rather than Lindsey Graham, it'd be Ah Lindsey or Ah Graham or Sue Lee, it'd be Ah Sue or Ah Lee. The Ah is used as a kind of informal title. How would you find people that way? It's not their full name. There are also no diaries or letters from individuals back home saying they're working on the railroad as whatever.

The way that Chinese names were listed was with a prefix, ah, and a nickname. So rather than Lindsey Graham, it'd be Ah Lindsey or Ah Graham or Sue Lee, it'd be Ah Sue or Ah Lee. The Ah is used as a kind of informal title. How would you find people that way? It's not their full name. There are also no diaries or letters from individuals back home saying they're working on the railroad as whatever.

The way that Chinese names were listed was with a prefix, ah, and a nickname. So rather than Lindsey Graham, it'd be Ah Lindsey or Ah Graham or Sue Lee, it'd be Ah Sue or Ah Lee. The Ah is used as a kind of informal title. How would you find people that way? It's not their full name. There are also no diaries or letters from individuals back home saying they're working on the railroad as whatever.

So much of this is through oral history.

So much of this is through oral history.

So much of this is through oral history.

Growing up, I don't recall my family talking at all about the railroad because that wasn't anything that my family had any association with. Coming to the U.S. as a merchant was one of the ways of getting around the Exclusion Act. So if you were a partner in a business, you could legally enter the country. So that's how my grandfather came and went into the cigar business.

Growing up, I don't recall my family talking at all about the railroad because that wasn't anything that my family had any association with. Coming to the U.S. as a merchant was one of the ways of getting around the Exclusion Act. So if you were a partner in a business, you could legally enter the country. So that's how my grandfather came and went into the cigar business.

Growing up, I don't recall my family talking at all about the railroad because that wasn't anything that my family had any association with. Coming to the U.S. as a merchant was one of the ways of getting around the Exclusion Act. So if you were a partner in a business, you could legally enter the country. So that's how my grandfather came and went into the cigar business.

which is a reason why my family didn't talk about railroads, because we didn't have any association. And also, the area where my grandfather came from wasn't an area where railroad workers came from. While there are other villages nearby that may have been railroad villages where groups of Chinese would have come as workers, the village that my grandfather came from wasn't one of those villages.

which is a reason why my family didn't talk about railroads, because we didn't have any association. And also, the area where my grandfather came from wasn't an area where railroad workers came from. While there are other villages nearby that may have been railroad villages where groups of Chinese would have come as workers, the village that my grandfather came from wasn't one of those villages.

which is a reason why my family didn't talk about railroads, because we didn't have any association. And also, the area where my grandfather came from wasn't an area where railroad workers came from. While there are other villages nearby that may have been railroad villages where groups of Chinese would have come as workers, the village that my grandfather came from wasn't one of those villages.

So there was no reference to the railroad.

So there was no reference to the railroad.

So there was no reference to the railroad.