What AU Yip’s Case File teaches about the Chinese Exclusion Era:

• Native-born women lost their citizenship when they married an alien
• AU Yip was resourceful in finding a way to re-enter Hawaii
• NARA Case File numbers in Hawaii give a clue to the applicant’s status

AU Yip’s Life (CECF 4383/011)

AU Yip’s CECF (Chinese Exclusion Case File)¹ claimed she was born in Wailua, Kauai, Hawaii, and I found a birth certificate to back this up.²

She married LAU Sing about 1902, and in 1910 was found living on Dowsett Lane just as mentioned in her CECF five years later. The 1910 Census listed her as OU Ah Hip, 28 years old, and married to LAU Sing, 38 years old.³ A city directory of the same year confirmed that this LAU Sing, residing at 933 Dowsett Lane, worked at stall #10 at the Oahu fish market just as mentioned in AU Yip’s CECF.⁴

Imagine being unable to return your land of birth because of who you married

Because she had lost her US citizenship by marrying an alien, when AU Yip wanted to visit China with her children, she had to rely on her husband’s merchant status to be readmitted to Hawaii. LAU Sing ran a business selling dried and salted fish to people locally and other islands in Hawaii. By definition, a merchant was not to do any manual labor, and because LAU Sing did “the work of salting and drying [fish] himself,” by law he could not be considered a merchant. AU Yip’s CECF ended with this rejection of LAU Sing’s mercantile status.

AU Yip visited China

Interestingly, AU Yip was recorded with three children on passenger records leaving Honolulu for Hong Kong (the port the Chinese sailed to from the United States when visiting China.) She left in November of 1915⁵ with her three children, and the four returned in September of 1916.⁶ She was the same AU Yip; her CECF noted her “scar [on her] forehead near [her] left eyebrow,” and the ship’s manifest noted the same “scar between [her] eyebrows.” Ship manifests of that era usually recorded when a passenger was denied entrance, and AU Yip was not denied. If LAU Sing was not a merchant, how was AU Yip allowed back into the United States?

The back of AU Yip’s CECF indicated there were other case files associated with her name.  One file belonged to Series 4380 representing CECFs created for “Return certificates of lawfully domiciled Chinese laborers.”⁷ (See my post about the different Chinese Exclusion series numbers in Hawaii).⁸

With LAU Sing’s merchant status denied, AU Yip sought a different and successful method to reenter the United States by re-entering as a Chinese laborer with a prior certificate. More info about AU Yip could be found if this file were requested through the National Archives and Records Administration.

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Footnotes

[1] Immigration and Naturalization Service, Honolulu District. Chinese Exclusion Case File for AU Yip. 6 October 1915. Accn # 085-86-001. Box 1. RG 085. 4383/011. National Archives and Records Administration, San Francisco.

[2] Births (PR) Hawaiian Islands. Wailua, Kapaa, Kauai. AU, Ah Yip. 13 December 1882. Collection: Hawaii Births and Christenings, 1852-1933. MF 1027542, Img 227. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FWS2-B4Y : accessed 24 April 2022.

[3] Census records. USA. Honolulu, Honolulu, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii. 23 April 1910. LAU Sing (Head). ED 25. Sheet 16A. LN 7. Collection: 1910 United States Federal Census. https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 May 2022.

[4] Directories. USA. (1910) Husted’s Directory of Honolulu and the Territory of Hawaii. Honolulu: Polk-Husted Directory Company. p. 378. Img 196/509. https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 May 2022.

[5] U.S. Department of Labor, Immigration Service. Passenger list for S.S. Shinyo Maru departing from Honolulu, T.H. for Hong Kong. AU, Yip. 15 November 1915. A3510. Roll 19. List 2. p. 123. Img 456/477. Collection: Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1900-1959. https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 May 2022.

[6] U.S. Department of Labor, Immigration Service. Passenger list for S.S. Shinyo Maru departing Hong Kong and arriving at Honolulu, Hawaii. AU, Yip. 16 August 1916. A4156. Roll 74. List 3. p. 187. Nos. 53, 54, 58. Img 423/458. Collection: Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1900-1959. https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 May 2022.

[7] U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Honolulu District. Index to Immigration Investigation ‘Chinese Exclusion’ Case Files. AU, Yip. 4380/214. Collection: Hawaii, U.S., Index to Chinese Exclusion Case Files, 1903-1944. http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 May 2022.

[8] National Archives Catalog (United States). Return Certificate Application Case Files of Lawfully-Domiciled Chinese Laborers, 1916-1938. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/628298 : accessed 3 March 2022.