A representative of the Pham clan (branch 3) in Dai Loc shared that over the past two years, this clan has organized several "field trips" to their hometown to complete a common genealogy book.

This clan determined that their ancestors followed King Le and Lord Nguyen to conquer the South, moving from Thanh Hoa to Quang Nam to establish villages and hamlets, so finding out the origin of several hundred years is very important. The clan representative sent someone to Thanh Hoa to look up the remaining genealogies and steles, and compare the available documents and literature, to accurately match the "journey to establish the clan".

“Only after checking again can we know that the process of our ancestors' wandering, according to historical events, is very complicated. There were generations who were scattered during the war, some changed their surnames, some changed their names.

Then the documents record incorrect place names, village names, not to mention that looking up Nom script with the national language is not simple nowadays. Therefore, the problem of finding the origin of a whole family lineage takes a lot of time" - the representative of this family lineage shared.

Mr. Phan Van Phuc, representative of the Phan clan in Da Nang, originally from Quang Tri, acknowledged that the story of the Pham clan in Dai Loc is also a "headache" for his family.

Although this clan has built a “14-generation family tree” in the general genealogy, there are still problems in completing the genealogy. Especially when comparing the names of previous generations, people in Nom and Han scripts, it is necessary to look up to be sure. Therefore, after nearly 3 years of re-creating the genealogy, his clan is still continuing to collect and compare…

Mr. Phan Van Phuc said that he had contacted a number of researchers on clan information to learn about the construction and updating of genealogies. However, there were problems arising with this process.

Through many wars, in regions with certain historical changes, including natural disasters, all clans have objective disturbances. Even during the period when the Nguyen Dynasty stabilized the country, the renaming of villages by kings also affected the verification of clan origins in the lands.

Second, in each clan, at different times, there are also changes and errors in information. Especially the names of previous generations, through the steles on paper and ink, it is easy to be confused. To look up the origin, avoid broken information and errors, clans must spend a lot of time and effort searching, to ensure the desired accuracy.

In recent years, many families and clans from Quang Tri to Binh Dinh have paid attention to investing in clan activities, from rebuilding ancestral temples, shrines, clan churches, to editing and confirming genealogies, clearly dividing current genealogies...

Any family whose history is closely linked to the process of reclaiming land will have an even greater need to verify and clarify what the family is like and where it comes from, in order to properly honor its family background.

What worries families is that researchers, qualified people, and those who understand regional culture, history, and communication languages ​​between generations are becoming increasingly scarce.

The representative of the Pham - Dai Loc clan confided that fortunately, there are still some people in his clan who know Chinese characters, so they can look up steles and documents. "Therefore, should cultural organizations and management agencies pay attention to this issue, and how to best meet the needs of looking up information from the clans themselves?", this person said.