maj 28, 2022 by Ryan - Legacy Tree Genealogists Project Manager 2 Comments

Mykoseki.com: A Helpful Site for Japanese Genealogy Research

The month of May was Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Ryan Rockwood, who specializes in Japanese genealogy research, discusses a relative newcomer to the Japanese research space that has already become a go-to resource for Japanese ancestry: Mykoseki.com.

Mykoseki.com is a not-for-profit website geared towards helping people of Japanese descent request and access their ancestor’s koseki, or family register. The koseki record is the primary place vital information has been recorded and stored in the modern era in Japan and is a gold mine for Japanese genealogical research.

Unfortunately, privacy laws in Japan preclude mass digitization and publishing of these records, making it more difficult for those of Japanese descent, especially those who cannot speak the language, to engage in genealogical research. Mykoseki.com is geared towards shepherding users through the process of acquiring their koseki by providing a number of helpful tools and resources for Japanese genealogy researchers of any experience level. Below is a tab-by-tab breakdown of all the site has to offer.

Home Page: General Research Strategies and Information

The homepage of the website mostly has general information on what the koseki is, how it differs from other record sets, and why it is essential in Japanese genealogical research. It helps users know where to start in their genealogical journey, and even provides a sample of a typical koseki document. I highly recommend the video at the very bottom, where Marty Wolf, one of the creators of the website, dives into what the koseki record is.

Koseki Search: Contemporary Equivalent of Historic Domicile

To me, this tool is the star of the show and what makes Mykoseki.com an indispensable resource. First, here’s a bit of background.

To request a koseki record, you need to know the listed head of household (usually the patriarch of the family), the permanent ancestral domicile (honseki or honsekichi), and the contemporary municipal office the record is currently housed in. Immigration files and naturalization papers, among other records, can be helpful when looking for the historic domicile and even head of household, but knowing where to request the record from requires knowledge of the extensive border and jurisdictional changes that have occurred between when the record was filed and the present day. This has historically been quite a challenge, but this koseki search tool does away with that headache!

One must simply input the historic domicile into the search bar, and you will be presented with the reporting year, historical island, prefecture, district, type, and kanji reading for that specific municipality.

Then, just click the Koseki Request Address link to see the present-day municipal office from which to request the record!

Now that the current location of the municipal office has been identified, users can utilize Mykoseki.com’s detailed Koseki Request Form Instructions to submit a formal request for their koseki.

Maps: The Prefectures of Japan

The Maps tab is a simple, straightforward view of Japan’s current prefectures. Click anywhere on the map to be redirected to Google Maps.

Helpful Links: For the Koseki and Beyond

Many an hour could be used to explore the vast amount of information on this page. It starts with helpful websites (including our very own LegacyTree.com) and is followed by a detailed PDF outlining other helpful resources. This is a great place to reference during any step in the koseki request process, whether you are stuck finding the domicile or even identifying the names of each individual in your ancestral family of question.

For those who have already accessed koseki documents for their ancestors or are just looking for a challenge, there is a simple outline of other records as well. While not detailed, it provides enough information for users to reference and then dives deeper into other sites (like the ones listed earlier on this page, for example).

About Us: Heartfelt Acknowledgements and Things to Come

While I honestly usually gloss over the About Us page of any website, this one provides a touching tribute to all those who made this website possible. It also provides a sneak-peek into what’s coming next, as it hints at optimization for Portuguese and Spanish use coming in the future.

I’m confident Mykoseki.com will prove to be a helpful resource for anyone interested in finding their koseki and learning about their Japanese ancestors, and I’m excited for all to see what this site has to offer!

If you have Japanese ancestors, and if digging into records on your own seems daunting, our expert genealogy researchers would be happy to help you through the process. Contact us today for a free consultation!

Disclaimer: All screenshots are from Mykoseki.com. Legacy Tree Genealogists is not affiliated with Mykoseki.com.

august 5, 2021 by Ryan - Legacy Tree Genealogists Project Manager 2 Comments

5 Roles We Can Play to Help Preserve Our Family History

Genealogy is not only about researching family history, it’s about pulling the family closer together with a common interest. Legacy Tree Genealogists’ Ryan Rockwood explains how family tree research is often a family affair in which family members assume their unique and valuable roles.

A few weeks ago, my wife tragically lost her grandpa Tom after sustaining brain injuries due to a fall. It was shocking and heartbreaking, especially since he was in relatively normal health beforehand.

As is customary, my wife and I traveled to his home to gather with family, grieve, support, plan, and remember. My mother-in-law began rummaging through storage bins looking for any old pictures or belongings of her father; things she could share with her extended family members attending the funeral. She returned with a large box of photos, notes, journal entries, and mementos from Tom’s early adult years.

We spent some time passing around these photos, journal snippets, memories, and stories. Throughout that experience, I noticed each one of us unofficially assuming different roles in the process: my mother-in-law had kept all of these goods for years, and now she was pulling them out, passing them around, recollecting and reorganizing them. My father-in-law immediately downloaded an app onto his phone. He started digitizing the old photos and documents and uploading them to a shared cloud drive to store and share them with other remote family members around the country. With this shared cloud drive, other family members could upload photos they had from their location. Tom had lived in Japan when he was a young man. My wife and I had also lived in Japan for a few years. So the two of us started digging into some old documents he had collected and reading notes he had written in Japanese during his time in Japan. It was so exciting to help everyone experience this part of Tom’s life in a way they couldn’t have without us – Japanese speakers.

As we took a break from sorting Tom’s things and moved on to preparing the house to receive guests, I couldn’t stop thinking about what had just transpired. Without any coordination or planning, we leaped into specific responsibilities regarding remembering and preserving Tom’s life. Each of us was edified in performing duties we were each uniquely qualified for, and we rejoiced together as a result. Since this experience, I have taken some time to categorize the parts each of us played into five distinct roles:

The Collector
The Digitizer
The Researcher
The Storyteller
The Connector

These categories are by no means exhaustive, there is plenty of overlap between each, and one person can have more than one role. However, I think they provide direction for families who want to preserve their family legacy, all working together, just as my wife’s family did. I have expounded on each role below, and I invite you to consider how your family can fill these roles in your preservation work!

The Collector

Over the years, the collector has amassed all of the physical documents, photos, and mementos for the family. This person doesn’t just safely store these items but can also organize them and ensure they are referenced and enjoyed! In my wife’s family, this was my mother-in-law. If it weren’t for her patiently and carefully holding on to all of Tom’s old belongings, there are numberless stories we wouldn’t have known! Who in your family can focus on collecting historically significant and sentimental items?

The Digitizer

The digitizer ensures old physical photos, documents, and objects will outlive the test of time by digitizing and even indexing them for reference and use by generations to come. They should be in close contact with the collector to digitize all of those items quickly and efficiently. This role is becoming increasingly more important as our world becomes more and more digitized while older records and documents deteriorate over time. This person hedges against the adage, “When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.” In my wife’s family, this was my father-in-law. Who in your family can bridge the gap between old and new information formats?

The Researcher

This person takes all of the information from the collector and the digitizer and searches for even more details. The researcher is who we would call the traditional “genealogist.” They would need to employ sound research methodologies to verify or refute family stories, provide historical context, and identify other ancestral individuals. This family member may go so far as to specialize in a particular ancestral homeland or main timeline pertinent to their specific family. My wife and I were able to provide and expound upon information from Tom’s Japanese documents. The work we did would fall into the research category, even though her family has other members who have done more traditional research into Tom’s ancestral lines. Who in your family has the interest and expertise to find out even more about your relatives and ancestors?

The Storyteller

This person not only shares all of the stories and memories they have but, more importantly, gathers and solicits stories and memories from other family members. Then they compile and present them engagingly and entertainingly. This person leads off in doing things like gathering others to tell their stories, acting out stories with children, or applying lessons from an ancestor’s story to a teen’s life. They create scrapbooks, write biographies, and plan memorial events. In my wife’s family, my mother-in-law fills this role, but we all took part in telling Tom’s story at some point during this process. Who in your family tells your ancestors’ stories?

The Connector

The connector takes all of the hard work put in by the other members and ensures it gets out to the masses! They don’t produce anything on their own but are instead focused on sharing information with the family and friends who would benefit from the work already done. They make sure the old photos and images kept by the collector are accessible to all. They also ensure everyone has access to the digitized and published works put together by the Digitizer, Researcher, and Storyteller. In this day and age, social media is The connector’s best friend. However, good old-fashioned mailed packages, letters, phone calls, text messages, and emails are still options to share memories with other family members. In my wife’s family, nearly all of them made a post on social media highlighting a picture of Tom, a story from his life, and a note of gratitude for the positive effect he had on their individual lives for family and friends to see. Who in your family can connect one with another by sharing your ancestors’ legacies?

Everyone Has a Role to Play

Although Tom’s death was tragic, the experiences that came, as a result, taught me valuable lessons about how families can engage together to remember and preserve the legacy of those who came before them. It taught me that through Collectors, Digitizers, Researchers, Storytellers, and Connectors, everyone, young or old, regardless of traditional genealogical experience and skill, can play their part and come together in this great work! This experience benefitted my wife’s family greatly, and I know that all families’ efforts in this regard can help them just the same.

We at Legacy Tree Genealogists love our primary roles as Researchers and Storytellers. We may not be a part of your family, but we often get so engrossed in the research that we often feel like we are. Get a free quote today, and let us help you preserve your family legacy!

november 6, 2020 by Ryan - Legacy Tree Genealogists Project Manager 2 Comments

Stories Worth Telling: The Saibara Story in Texas

What untold immigration stories are waiting to be discovered in your family history? We share the story of Japanese immigrant, Seito Saibara.

The history of America is an interlacing web of immigration stories from all over the world, many still untold. Every pioneer, either celebrated in life or silent to the grave, has a story worth telling—you just need to know how to go about telling it!

Such is the case with Japanese immigrant, Seito Saibara, a name largely unknown outside of the Japanse-American community. His life reflects the pioneering aspirations that many of our immigrant ancestors also experienced. As our ancestors weaved their way into the American dream, Seito saw his opportunity in the rice industry of Texas. His narrative below is one of perseverance, economic opportunity, and determination.

Seito Saibara, circa 1906. Wikimedia commons.

Seito Saibara

Seito’s early life before coming to America isn’t as well documented as would be preffered, but a study of Seito’s diary by Kiyoko Kurosawa of Hitotsubashi University corroborated with other anecdotes left throughought history helps explain a number of key, important details.

Born in about 1860, Seito Saibara was raised during a political revolution in Japan that saw the fall of the Samurai ruling class and the rise of a centralized, more westernized governing power. His interest in the Western world and a new structure of government was evidenced by his enrollment in an English school in 1877 and eventual practice of law in Kōchi in 1886. His career continued to progress as he moved to Osaka to be one of the members of the Osaka District Court, a position that eventually aided him in becoming a member of the Japanese National Diet (essentially the Japanese equivalent of Parliament) in 1898. While still serving in the Diet and living in Kobe, Seito converted to Christianity. Seito’s religious conversion would lead him to becoming the President of Doshisha University, a Christian sponsored university, during the Summer of 1899.

Life in America

The more accessible paper trail of Seito’s life started when he left his comfortable and successful life in Japan to visit America, later deciding to stay long term and attend the Hartford Theological Seminary in February of 1903. He then left Hartford for Houston, creating a Japanese Christian rice cultivation community in Webster, Texas in 1904.

After arriving in Webster, he indicated in his diary that his wife Taiko and son Kiyoaki joined him later that same year. Seito and Taiko then returned to Japan in order to bring the rest of his family and other community members back with him. Seito, Taiko, Kiyoaki, Seito’s father Masuya and mother-in-law Hide and others are found on a Canada to U.S. border crossing manifest indicating that they had arrived in Victoria from Kōchi en route to Webster on 24 May 1907.

Seito and family listed of border crossing manifest, 24 May 1907. Ancestry.com

The 1910 census indicates that many members of this same travel party were still living with Seito and his family in his Webster colony by that time as well.

Seito’s family and colony members in Webster, Texas, in the 1910 U.S. census. Ancestry.com

Aggregate census data of Texas as a whole also suggests that many other Japanese immigrants came to the state during the same time period, as there were only 13 Japanese people in Texas in 1900, but 340 Japanese people there by 1910. Harris County Texas was turning into a Japanese rice cultivation hub, and Seito was the face of it.

With help from his son Kiyoaki, Seito attempted to subsequently expand his farms and nurseries outside of Webster in what seems to be a pattern of never wanting to stay in one place for too long. Kiyoaki took his family to New Mexico in order to start a nursery and farm there, while Seito opened up a nursery in Mobile, Alabama in 1920.

Venturing Abroad

Despite two decades of success in America, Seito’s prosperity took a turn for the worse when the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924 barred new Japanese immigrants from entering the country, indefinitely stalling Seito’s main stream of new employees. This unfortunate setback may have frustrated his progress in America, but Seito’s vision was too great to be halted for good. It is therefore most likely not a coincidence that he set his sights on a new location for cultivation: Brazil.

Poster advertising Japanese migration to Brazil. Public domain.

Seito heading to Brazil followed a trend of Japanese immigration into the country during this time. Brazil loosened immigration restrictions as the rest of the world was tightening them, making it a welcoming place for Seito’s new venture. He didn’t last long there, however, as he later returned to Asia in 1932, at which point his wife Taiko returned to Webster. He lived briefly in Formosa (modern day Taiwan), and then continued on to Tokyo, Japan, where he unfortunately fell very ill. He decided then to go back to Texas, leaving for Los Angeles via Kobe, Japan on 22 September 1937, arriving in the U.S. on 10 October of that same year.

1932 New Orleans passenger manifest indicating that Tai[ko] Saibara, wife of Seito, was returning to America after having temporarily lived in Brazil.

Seito remained in Texas with his family for another year and a half before his passing on 11 April 1939 at the age of 78. His death was recognized not only locally by friends and family, but also by those in many other states, from Hawaii to Florida.

Obituary for Seito Saibara indicating that he had lived in both South America and Formosa before returning to Texas.

Obituary for Seito Saibara published 12 April 1939 in the Honolulu Examiner.

Obituary for Seito Saibara published 12 April 1939 in the Palm Beach Post.

Seito’s Legacy

Seito’s legacy lived on long after he died. Not only did his son Kiyoaki continue the rice cultivation business for many years, but Seito and his family have also been memorialized both domestically and abroad. His life has been studied by scholars from Stephen F. Austin Universtiy in Texas to Hitotsubashi University in Japan. A historical marker now stands near where Seito’s farm was, and his Japanese-American descendents have been featured in a publication by his Presidential Alma Mater Doshisha University. Seito was certainly a pioneer for both countries in life, but his memory has also served as a bond in death.

Excerpt from Doshisha University publication telling Seito’s story and highlighting the significance of his great granddaughter studying abroad at the University. Property of Doshisha University.

Texas historical marker near the original location of Seito’s farm in Texas. HMDB.org, image taken by Jim Evans, 4 April 2009.

Stories Worth Telling

One would think that a figure as prominent, influential, and downright interesting as Seito would be well-known, but unfortunately, this is not the case. However, his is certainly a story worth telling, and the same can be said for your ancestors!

Ideally, every immigrant ancestor’s story is perfectly preserved in the wealth of records they’ve left behind, but more often than not (and much like Seito’s case) greater historical context is needed in order to help fill in the blanks where vital records go silent. You may be surprised by the details reputable universities, historical societies, and religious institutions can provide by way of local histories and general narratives. It can be frustrating to realize that pieces of your ancestor’s lives seem undocumented, but it can be helpful to instead view those instances as opportunities to better your ancestor’s general time period, location, or historical trends as a whole.

For instance, when it comes to immigrant ancestors, passenger lists and naturalization papers can often come to life when one searches the possible reasons people moved where they did and when they did. You may find patterns emerge when you compare your families known information to similar families that are better documented. Further benefits are gained when a search in the ancestral language is conducted to find out details from the perspective of the ancestral homeland. When direct evidence from original sources are hard to find or non-existent, techniques like these won’t produce hard facts for each individual, but they may provide clues into possible ways of life and motivations, leading you one step closer to sharing those stories that are worth telling.

How did your ancestor contribute to the development of their community? Let Legacy Tree Genealogists and our team of researchers develop that story. No story is too small, and all ancestors mattered. Request your free quote today!

1. Kurosawa, Kiyoko. “Seito Saibara’s Diary of Planting a Japanese Colony in Texas.” Hitotsubashi Journal of Social Studies 2, no. 1. Aug 1, 1964: . http://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp. Accessed October 2020.

2. Hartford Courant Editors, “Will go to Texas. Hon. Seito Saibara of Japan will Grow Rice and Silk”. 7 Aug 1903. Hartford Courant. DIgital Image, Newspapers.com. Accessed October 2020.

3. Glasrud, Bruce A. “Asians in Texas: An Overview, 1870-1990 ” East Texas Historical Journal 39, no. 2 (2001). https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu. Accessed October 2020.

4. The Deming Headline Editors, “Experimental Farm and Nursery”. 27 September 1912. The Deming Headline. DIgital Image, Newspapers.com. Accessed October 2020.

City of Mobile Alabama, City Directory, 1920, Mobile, Alabama. Digital image, Ancestry.com. Accessed October 2020.

5. Office Department of State, Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. “The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act)”. Milestones, 1921-1936. Online article, history.state.gov. Accessed October 2020.

6. Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, List of Alien Passengers Applying for Admission, “Tai Saibara”, 10 July 1932, New Orleans, Louisiana. Digital Image, Ancestry.com. Accessed October 2020.

The Baltimore Sun Editors, “Former Japanese Diet Member Dies in Texas”. 12 Apr 1939. The Baltimore Sun. DIgital Image, Newspapers.com. Accessed October 2020.

7. Tigner, J. Japanese Immigration into Latin America: A Survey. 1981, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, 23(4), 457-482. doi:10.2307/165454. Accessed October 2020.

8. Tyler Morning Telegraph Editors, “…Lawmaker Dies in Texas”. 12 Apr 1939. Tyler Morning Telegraph. DIgital Image, Newspapers.com. Accessed 20 March 2020; Also in Kurosawa, Kiyoko. “Seito Saibara’s Diary of Planting a Japanese Colony in Texas.” pg. 63. Accessed October 2020.

9. Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, List of Alien Passengers Applying for Admission, 10 Oct 1937, Los Angeles, CA. Digital Image, Ancestry.com. Accessed October 2020.

10. Texas Department of Health, “Standard Certificate of Death: Seito Saibara”. Bureau of Vital Statistics, 11 April 1939. Harris, Texas. Digital Image, Ancestry.com. Accessed October 2020.

11. The Honolulu Advertiser Editors, “Saibara Dies”. 12 Apr 1939. The Honolulu Advertiser. DIgital Image, Newspapers.com. Accessed October 2020.

The Palm Beach Post Editors, “Japanese Liberal Dead”. 12 Apr 1939. The Palm Beach Post. DIgital Image, Newspapers.com. Accessed October 2020.

12. Kiyoaki Saibara, Petition for Naturalization. 30 Apr 1953. The National Archives at Fort Worth; Fort Worth, Texas; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Pg. 108, No. 9241. Accessed on Ancestry.com. Digital image 666 of 1500. Accessed October 2020.