Regional Root-Seeking

Find Your Historical Homeland from Today’s Location

Match old place names in genealogies and ancestral residences passed down orally by elders with today’s administrative divisions, then follow the migration timeline to look for clues in local gazetteers, genealogies, and inscriptions.

Start by Region Search Local Gazetteers

Regional Entry

Narrow the Scope Step by Step by Where the Sources Are Located

This entry connects existing regional, surname, and local gazetteer materials. Areas that have not yet been cataloged do not display false counts.

Provincial, Municipal, and County Local Gazetteers

Prioritize records on administrative changes, people, clans, villages, ancestral halls and temples, inscriptions, and migrations.

Enter the Local Gazetteer Library

Regional Distribution of Surnames

Check surname pages for common distributions, branches, hall names, and publicly available migration materials.

Enter the Surname Culture Library

Regional Genealogy Catalogs

Search existing genealogy catalog records and available materials by genealogy title, surname, and region.

Browse Genealogy Materials

Key Points for Verification

Pay Special Attention to Places with the Same Name and Changes in Administrative Divisions

Record the Original Text

Preserve the full place names from old genealogies or inscriptions, rather than first rewriting them as today’s addresses.

Confirm the Time Period

The affiliation of a place name must be assessed together with the date of the source; the same county may have belonged to different prefectures or subprefectures in different periods.

Look for Adjacent Evidence

Combine rivers, post roads, market towns, ancestral halls, neighboring villages, and people from the same branch to improve the credibility of location matching.