Song Family History
- Song Name Meaning
- Korean: there are two Chinese characters for this surname, covering sixteen clans. The smaller clan is the only clan to use one of the two Chinese characters, and it has only one or two households. The remaining clans all descend from a common ancestor, Song Chu-un, who seems to have migrated from Tang China to Korea sometime during the Shilla period. Sixty percent of the Songs live in southern Korea. Korean (Song): there are two Chinese characters for the surname Song, but one of them is registered for just a single household. Only the common Song clan, the Ch’angnyong clan, is treated here. This was founded by Song In-bo just prior to the establishment of the Koryo kingdom in 918. According to legend, Song In-bo died in Seoul. His son set out to transport his father’s body back to Ch’angnyong, but, the weather being poor, he decided to stop for the night and finish the journey in the morning. When he awoke, he discovered that his father’s body was missing. Upon investigation, he found that a tiger had dragged the body to a secluded grave site in the mountains near Ch’angnyong. It was there that the son buried his father and established his home. Many of the members of the Song clan today live in the Ch’angnyong area of Kyongsang province. Chinese : from a place name, the state of Song. After the Zhou overthrew the corrupt king of the Shang dynasty, Zhou Xin, in 1122 bc, the new Zhou dynasty granted the state of Song to the overthrown king’s half-brother, Wei Ziqi. His descendants eventually adopted the place name Song as their surname. This name was that of the Song dynasty, (960–1279), and in more recent times was borne by the powerful Soong siblings: T.V. Soong, once one of the richest men in the world; Soong Ch’ing-ling, wife of Sun Yat-Sen; and Soong Mei-ling, wife of Chiang Kai-shek.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press
- 57,754 Historical Documents with Song on Ancestry
- 29,713 Birth, Marriage, and Deaths
- 12,445 Census and Voter Lists
- 4,485 Military Records
- 8,724 Immigration Records
- 2,387 Member Trees
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Number of Song families
 25 - 47  9 - 24 |
 1 - 8  |
from the 1891 England and Wales Census Data
| Sorry, we couldn't find geographic distribution information for the Song last name |
from the 1851 Canada Census Data
Song census records
You can see how Song families moved over time by selecting different Census years.
Census records can tell you little-known facts about your ancestors such as birthplace, occupation and value of personal estate.
from the New York Passengers List
Click on a place to view Song immigration records
The information for this chart came from the U.S. Immigration Collection at Ancestry. You can find out where the majority of the Song families were living before they immigrated to the U.S and learn where to focus your search for foreign records.
Immigration records can tell you an ancestor's name, ship name, port of departure, port of arrival, and destination.
from the Canadian Passenger Lists
Click on a circle in the chart to view Song immigration records
You can find out when most of the Song families immigrated to Canada. You can focus your search to immigration records dating from that era.
Immigration records can tell you an ancestor's name, ship name, port of departure, port of arrival and destination.
from 1881 CA Census Data
Song census records
Census records can offer a lot of little known facts about your Song ancestors, such as occupation.
Occupation can tell you about your ancestors' social status and economic status.
Did the Songs fight in a war? Military records can tell you a lot
about your ancestors including birthplace, occupation and even physical descriptions.
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