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Leong Cheong Tock family

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    Chun See (Leong Chuey Tock's wife) and three children, 1896 - 1898, courtesy of Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History).
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    Chun See Tock and unidentified Tock daughter, 24 March 1923, courtesy of S. Millard (private hands).
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    Leong Chuey Tock with children Poy and Joyce and an unidentified young man, c. 1896 - c. 1898, courtesy of Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History).
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    Mrs Leong Chuey Tock [Chun See Tock?], 1890s, courtesy of Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History).
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    Mrs Leong Chuey Tock with Violet Tock and Joyce May Tock, 1910s - 1920s, by Yeoman & Co, Bourke St, Melbourne, courtesy of S. Millard (private hands).
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Alternative Names
  • Leong Cheong Tock family (also used)
  • Leong Chuey Tock family (also used)
  • Tock family (also used)

Details

Leong Cheong Tock had two wives and families and worked in the Little Bourke Street, Melbourne in the late 19th, early 20th century (1890-1930?). His first wife was called Chun See/Chum Lee and his second, Rose/Lee Chin/See Chin. No record of either marriage can be found in Victorian records suggesting they may have married in China.

Family descendants believe the wives lived in different houses but 'around the corner' from each other. Chun See/Chin Lee and her family lived at 136 Little Bourke Street (on the same site as the family factory) till 1915 and then at 64 Little Lonsdale Street until 1920.

It is believed that Leong Cheong Tock moved to Hong Kong with his first wife and most of their family, except eldest son, George Leong Cheong Poy and eldest daughter Joyce May who married George Lew Ton. The family story is that Leong Chuey Tock set up George Lew Ton in a Little Bourke Street business before his departure. Records suggest the families left in 1920.

Tracking the children of the two wives in official records is complicated by the fact that the anglicised Chinese name is used for children and their mothers but they are mostly remembered by descendants by their English names. Variations in spellings of the mothers' names are such that they are impossible to distinguish with accuracy.

Leong Cheong Tock is known to have had six surviving children with his first wife, Chun See/Chum Lee: George Poy, Joyce May, Tony, Frank, Lum and Violet.

He is known to have had six surviving duaghters with his second wife, Rose/Lee Chin/See Chin: Lily, Alice, Evelyn, Doris, Queenie, Constance Jung.

Some of Leong Cheong Tock's children died as infants.

Sources used to compile this entry: Ah Yee family collection, 1900-1983, 1900 - 1983, LTA 801; State Library of Victoria - Picture Collection; Couchman, Sophie, ''Oh, I would like to see Maggie Moore again': Selected women of Melbourne's Chinatown', After the Rush: Regulation, Partcipation, and Chinese Communities in Australia 1860-1840 (Otherland Literary Journal), vol. 9, 2004, pp. 171-190; Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages; Bendigo Golden Dragon Museum collection; Chinese Museum collection. Thanks to Leonie Low and Shirley Millard for their invaluable assistance preparing this entry.

Prepared by: Sophie Couchman, La Trobe University

Related Concepts

Archival Collections

Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History)

  • Shirley Millard collection; Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History). Details

S. Millard (private hands)

  • Shirley Millard private collection, 1890s; S. Millard (private hands). Details

State Library of Victoria - Picture Collection

  • Ah Yee family collection, 1900-1983, 1900 - 1983, LTA 801; State Library of Victoria - Picture Collection. Details

Published Resources

Book Sections

  • Couchman, Sophie, 'Tong family networks revealed through the camera's lens', in Sophie Couchman (ed.), Secrets, Silences and Sources: Five Chinese-Australian Family Histories (La Trobe Asian Studies Papers), Asian Studies, La Trobe University, Melbourne, 2005, pp. 47-53. Details

Journal Articles

  • Couchman, Sophie, ''Oh, I would like to see Maggie Moore again': Selected women of Melbourne's Chinatown', After the Rush: Regulation, Partcipation, and Chinese Communities in Australia 1860-1840 (Otherland Literary Journal), vol. 9, 2004, pp. 171-190. Details

Images

Title
Alice O'Hoy 1917
Type
Photograph
Date
1917
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Chun See (Leong Chuey Tock's wife) and three children
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1896 - c. 1898
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Chun See Tock and unidentified Tock daughter
Type
Photograph
Date
24 March 1923
Place
Hong Kong - Stubb's Road
Details
Title
Group photograph of unknown man driving, George Tock beside him, Ettie Tock (nee Sam), Florence Sam and Miss Chinn in the back. 1910
Type
Photograph
Date
1910
Place
Australia - Victoria
Details
Title
Leong Chuey Tock with children Poy and Joyce and an unidentified young man
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1896 - c. 1898
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Mrs Leong Chuey Tock [Chun See Tock?]
Type
Photograph
Date
1890s
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne?
Details
Title
Mrs Leong Chuey Tock with Violet Tock and Joyce May Tock
Type
Photograph
Date
1910s - 1920s
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Portrait of Florence Sam with her niece, Rita Tock (daughter of Ettie Sam and George Tock) 1917
Type
Photograph
Date
1917
Place
Australia
Details
Title
Portrait of George Tock and friend. George Tock was Austalia's Consul-General in Burma (?) 1930's (?)
Type
Photograph
Date
1900s - 1920s
Place
Australia - Victoria
Details
Title
Portrait of Rita Tock with her brother
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1919
Place
Australia - Victoria
Details

Created: 7 May 2003, Last modified: 15 May 2012