I found a reference to my paternal grandfather online today. I was never sure whether his name was Lewis Stephen Rapley or Lewis Stephens Rapley or Stephen Lewis Rapley etc for that matter. I stumbled on to the page at http://gwulo.com/ about Old Hong Kong and entered my surname in the search field. It discovered a number of entries form Juror lists for my grandfather (1914, 1915, 1917, 1918 & 1919) and later my father (1941).
As well as confirming the name each list tells you where they were employed and their address. So shortly before 4th March 1915 when the 1915 Jurors list was compiled my Grandfather Lewis Stephen Rapley was working as an Assistant with Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co., Ltd. and his address was 22 Kennedy Road. He was also in the longer list of Common jurors rather than the Special Jurors. This is a handy document. You can also hunt out a pdf of the original at Hong Kong Reports Online hosted by Hong Kong University.
At 19 pages it’s a handy way of tracking people. Also it indicates the cultural mix in the colony, with a massive representation of Portuguese names from nearby Macau. A search term that worked for me was ‘Jurors list for 1915’ etc. One added feature of the Gwulo list is that you can re-sort it and find out other names from the same company etc.
This data has been entered by volunteers who are organised around the Jurors list project page. I’m a great fan of this approach. Trove and the State Library of NSW with their world war 1 diaries collection. It’s a brilliant way to dive in to your history and contribute at the same time.