Ciet Nio (Tan) Poei (1914 - 2000)

Born 14 Sep 1914 in Sukabumi, Jawa Barat, Indonesia

Ancestors

Died 4 Aug 2000 at age 85 in Jawa, Indonesia

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Biography

Tan Ciet Nio (also Tjit Nio, Dutch spelling) was born in 1914 on the Munjul tea plantation in the Sukabumi Regency. She was the youngest and seventh daughter of Tan Tek Soey and Thung Gin Nio, and her name, Tjit, means “seven”.

She married Poei Kiem Gwan.

Tjit trained as a hairdresser and eventually had her own salon in a room at the front of their house.

They had four children: Alphonse (1938); Andrew (1943); Linda (1944); and Wanda (1952).

Their first house had been inexpensive to buy because a hadj - a friendly ghost of a person who has been to Mecca - was living there. Tjit saw the ghost, who told her that they would prosper if they didn’t sell the house again. They did sell it, however, yet prospered nevertheless.

Poei was a tailor who specialised in making uniforms for the armed forces. During the Japanese Occupation and revolutionary war years they remained in their (second) house, which was situated in Djalan Kebon Jukut, just on the north side of the railway and so in Dutch territory.

In the 1960’s, when the Indonesian government made it mandatory for Chinese families to take an Indonesian name, the family adopted a noble Indonesian surname, Poerwantoro.

Sources

• Unsourced family tree handed down to M Theng.
• Written notes from Judy Theng, from recollections of Benny Theng.