Snapshots of the Migration Estrangement That Tore My Asian-American Family Apart

Two consolation letters, two fathers lost across the Pacific divide

My great-grandfather Herbert Trescott, circa 1890, and my grandfather Liu Chengyu, circa 1943. Courtesy of author.

In an unmarked manila envelope that smells of mildew, I discover letters from opposite sides of my family’s Chinese-American divide. One is from my paternal great-grandfather W. Herbert Trescott, the other from my grandfather Liu Chengyu. These two consolation notes are emblematic of the divisions within families that so often occur as a result of what I’ve come to call migration estrangement.

Especially in the last century, when one generation set sail for a foreign country, many lost forever the family members left behind. In my family, this estrangement began even before geographic migration, with the crossing of cultural boundaries.

Letter from my American great-grandfather to my grandmother, 1911. Image courtesy of author.

Lost in America

The note from Doc Trescott, penned on stationery labeled “Naturopath Physician, nervous and chronic diseases,” is addressed to his daughter, my grandmother Dolly, in Berkeley, California. It’s dated March 1911, five years into Dolly’s marriage to my paternal grandfather, Liu Chengyu, a.k.a. “Don…