A villager who lost his family records
villager · Ichon, Gyeonggi, Korean Empire · early 20th century
A man who spoke to the British journalist McKenzie in a village near Ichon that Japanese troops burned in the autumn of 1907. McKenzie writes that he looked to be of a higher class than most of the villagers. His name is not recorded.
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1907 · Heard through an interpreter in the same village. The “family papers” were presumably genealogies and records handed down through the generations.
"We are rebuilding our houses," he said, "but of what use is it for us to do so? I was a man of family. My fathers and fathers' fathers had their record. Our family papers are destroyed. Henceforth we are a people without a name, disgraced and outcast."F. A. McKenzie, Korea's Fight for Freedom (1920), chapter 8 · in place of the original: the English translation by F. A. McKenzie (1920)
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us