Looking for your great-grandmother's village? Start with her husband's koseki
Looking for your great-grandmother's home village? The answer is often in your great-grandfather's koseki.
Between about 1908 and 1920, thousands of young Japanese women crossed the Pacific as "picture brides" (shashin hanayome, 写真花嫁) to marry men they knew from photographs. Their marriages were registered in Japan before they sailed, so each bride had already moved into her husband's koseki.
Why her records give his village
That is why her travel papers and arrival records often give his family's village, not hers. On paper, she was already a member of his family when she left Japan.
Her own family has not disappeared, though. It is written in his register: her entry names her father and the village she came from.
Where to start
So if her village is the missing piece of your family story, start with the register of the family she married into. Once you have his koseki, her entry leads you to her family's register in her home village.
Find the village your family came from
No koseki needed to start. Send us your Issei ancestor's name and roughly when and where they arrived. Our Village Finder searches the records for the one that names the home village. You pay only if we find it.
Sources
- Densho, "Classic novel by Yoshiko Uchida chronicles dreams and struggles of Japanese picture brides" (2023)
- Picture bride (Wikipedia)