Ancestral Research · Source Interpretation · Published 2026-10-05

Clues in the Li Family Genealogy of Yiyang: From Migration from Xinhua to Branch Generation Characters

A fragmentary surviving volume of the Li Genealogy, revised for the third time in the fifth year of the Tongzhi reign, records clues that Li Jiuwan moved from Jiangxi to Xinhua and that Li Siming later moved to the Yiyang area. It also preserves generation-name characters for the sixth, eighth, ninth, and tenth branches, and can serve as a starting point for tracing the roots of the Yiyang Li clan and checking genealogical records.

Regarding Li family genealogies in the Yiyang area of Hunan, existing materials indicate that a surviving fragment of the third revision of the Li Genealogy, compiled in the fifth year of the Qing Tongzhi era (1866), may preserve important clues about related branches. The genealogy consists of three volumes and includes illustrations and lineage tables. Its hall name is given as “Jingshu Hall,” and the surviving content mainly concerns the sixth, eighth, ninth, and tenth branches. As it is a fragment, its contents, including the table of contents, lineages, and biographical records, may not be complete. It should therefore still be cross-checked against other genealogy volumes.

The founding ancestor in Hunan recorded in the genealogy is Li Jiuwan of the Ming dynasty, who is said to have migrated from Jiangxi to Hunan in the first year of the Hongwu era and settled in Baoqing Xinhua. Several branches later emerged from his descendants: one branch of Li Qianliulang settled in Huangshaping, Dayang, Xinhua; one branch of Li Qianbalang moved to Cangxi and later divided and relocated to Datian in Shaoyang, Xiashanpu in Wugang, and other places; one branch of Li Qi anjiulang settled in Pingqing, Xinhua; and one branch of Li Qianshilang settled in Daijiachong, Xinhua, with some family members later establishing separate settlements in Beixichong, Ningxiang, and elsewhere. These place names and branch information can help later generations compare orally transmitted migration locations with genealogical records item by item, but a shared place name alone cannot establish that two people belong to the same branch.

The key figure associated with Yiyang is the fifth-generation ancestor Li Siming, courtesy name Kezhao and style name Guiyuan. The genealogy records him as a descendant of Li Yingming, who first moved from Xinhua to Lijiaping in the Yiyang area and later relocated to Egongzui. Whether the “Yiyang Branch” corresponds to a specific village or town in today’s administrative divisions still requires confirmation through local gazetteers, old maps, tombstones, ancestral hall records, and documents from the same period. The genealogy also records the generation sequence of the Yiyang Branch: “Qian, Ying, Tian, Wen, Si; Meng, Ting, Zheng, Chu, Shang; Guo, Tai, Min, An, Le; Xu, Yun, Reng, Jiu, Chang.” The sixth, eighth, ninth, and tenth branches each have their own older generation sequences. Some of the sequences are similar, suggesting that the branches may share a common ancestral source, while also reflecting the genealogical tradition of establishing separate branch sequences during later revisions.

The genealogy also lists the names of the people who revised it, including Li Guangfeng, Li Zuoyun, Li Huaxi, Li Di huai, Li Rongxin, and Li Rongshi. These names can serve as search entries for locating other versions or traces of local holdings. Family members who have records of the “Jingshu Hall” hall name, memories of migration to Lijiaping or Egongzui, or the generation sequence “Qian, Ying, Tian, Wen, Si,” should first record the original wording, generation, place of residence, and marriage and burial information, and then compare them one by one with lineage nodes in online genealogies. Surname databases, family memoirs, and local gazetteer collections can help supplement information about where individuals lived and their historical context. However, any final determination of ancestral relationships should still be based on a continuous lineage, clear parent-child relationships, and multiple physical or documentary forms of evidence. Sharing a surname does not mean sharing the same ancestral line; whether Li branches in different parts of Yiyang share a common origin cannot be concluded solely from the surname, hall name, or a partly identical generation sequence.

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