Children and marriages even now need to be registered with the hall of records to be legal. Even distant relatives in the same “family” (more like what we call a “clan”) are discouraged from marrying. And family names are often connected to certain geographical areas in Korea, too.

The records are all over the place. The Koreans needed to safeguard their culture and identity as a people during their enslavement by the Japanese, especially, but also from threats all through their history. Each family has its own storage method and location and the records are not completely gathered together anywhere, though some attempts have been made.

nice! I’m from philippines and my mom said my great grandmother has a spanish root.. my mother’s surnames list starting from her great grandmother are Castañeda, Pura, Espiña and Escandor.. but her great grandfather has chinky eyes.. so my mother and my aunties and uncles has different features.. others have mestizo features the others are chinita… my father side is from country side and looks purely filipino,.. so in my siblings also, we didn’t look like each other.. my brother looks pure filipino, my other brother has a fair skin, my unnie looks like chinese girl and me.. they said look like a korean, some people thought i’m korean 😉

It depends on the family. My husband’s family has about 7 books – he is in the 37th generation. They are redone every 5 or 10 years- so I will be added to the book, and when we have children they will be added. Usually it’s a certain group or family within the large family that are in charge of it. I think the records are being put online as well for many families.