An English-language genealogy group founded by a Singaporean will be celebrating its first anniversary in July with about 15,000 members worldwide.

To the members of the Chinese Ancestry Research (CAR), founder Nathan Co is a tomb reader and ancestor whisperer. 

The self-taught genealogist, who is in his 50s, shares the same Chinese surname as the 17th-century war admiral Shi Lang and traces his ancestry to Fujian province in China. He started CAR as a blog and repository for findings on his own ancestry, but it has evolved as he receives more requests for help.

His Facebook group has members from more than 100 countries, with most coming from North America, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. There are also Singaporeans, who form about 10 per cent of the members, as well as people from Malaysia and the Philippines.

Some of his earliest members are from Liverpool, England.

The fintech and banking professional told The Straits Times: “Someone from Liverpool found me and the word spread among Chinese descendants as I was helping them locate some of their lost fathers and grandfathers who were deported by the British after World War II.”

That someone is Ms Kellie-Ann Flower, a boatyard owner from a community of more than 30 half-Chinese Liverpool families. The 53-year-old found CAR when she randomly typed “Chinese genealogy”.

You can read more in an article by Chin Soo Fang published in the straitstimes.com web site at: https://bit.ly/4eqfho6.