Agatha Alphonsin Ganteaume, my mother-in-law, married Eugene Chen in 1899, and they had four children, Percy, Sylvia (Silan), Yolanda, and Jack

Ganteaume is a maritime family

originating from Aix en Provence region in France

The origin of Agatha Alphonsin is a matter

mentioned in documents of state

Agatha Alphonsin's father, Francois Alphonse (seated, 1898). Standing next to Alphonse is Marie Carmelite, daughter of Alphonse, mother of Stella Rooks, the cousin whose signature appears on Jack's birth certificate.

Late 1920s, the "fast set" in Moscow, from left

to right, Percy, Yolanda, Sylvia (Silan), and Jack,

here in Moscow with (left to right) Ivan Chuvelov,

Anna Sudakevich and Natasha

Photo scanned from "Footnote to History" by Sylvia (Silan) Chen Leyda

ISBN 0-87127-134-6

Marie Carmelite Ganteaume, mother of Stella Rooks (see box @ right) and half-sister of Agatha Alphonsin Ganteaume

Photo from the Rooks Family of Trinidad.

Stella Rooks

China Called Me – My Life Inside the Chinese Revolution

By Percy Chen

Published by Little Brown  (ISBN 0-316-13849-5)

Copyright 1979

... Page 9

My early education was received from a young lady, Edith McVorhan.  She was one of many daughters of the McVorhan family who lived in Woodford Street.  She tutored me until 1908, when I left for a stay in England with my mother and father, at the age of seven.  In London we lived in Earl’s Court.  My parents returned to Trinidad, and I spent a school year at Grosvenor House, a girl’s school in Bath, in company with my cousin Stella Rooks, a striking blonde.  The school was for girls only but, on account of my undoubted charm, I was accepted as a student – the only boy.  I remember that on Saturdays I was allowed to buy a box of chocolates with delicious marzipan centers.  Since then I cannot pass a shop selling marzipan, be it in Vienna, Paris, or New York, without purchasing at least an ounce or two.  Another sweetmeat to which I am partial is marrons glacés.  I got this taste from my father, who used to drive specially to a house in Woodford Street, Port of Spain, where an old lady of French extraction made these sweets.