The oldest documented member of this family is Canh Thoi Tran (1930-2021), born into a poor peasant family near the city of Foshan, China. A child laborer with no formal education, Can Thoi was sold into slavery at the age of seventeen to work in Saigon, Vietnam. After years of hard work and sending money back to his parents, he freed himself and became very successful in the coffee business in Vietnam. In 1950 he married his wife, Tien T. Quach (19xx-) and had nine children. His story of perseverance, success and gratitude can be found here .

Wedding of C. T. Tran and Tien Quach, Vietnam, 1950

Photo of Tran family in Vietnam, ca 1968?

In 1979, under very difficult circumstances, the Tran-Quach family sailed from Vietnam to Hong Kong and then in 1980, they sailed to the USA’s Gulf Coast. By 2024, the extended family, led and inspired by C.T. Tran, owned a handful of seafood processing, wholesale and retail marketing businesses on the Texas Gulf Coast, with national distribution.

Rose´s Seafood in Seabrook, Texas

While the older generation and some of the offspring is involved in the seafood businesses, the younger generation includes many professionals living in USA and Canada.

Canh T. Tran, passed away in 2021 at ninety, after a long battle with renal failure and blood and bone marrow cancer. He was surrounded by his wife of 71 years, 9 children, 6 sons in law, 2 daughters in law, 22 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren.

The Tran-Quach siblings, Texas, ca 2010.

Male descendants with Tran surname.

Brother TK Tran is married to “Tina” VL with no male descendants.

Brother E. Tran is amrried to Amy and has male descendants.

Six surviving daughters.
Oldest daughter is HM Tran. She is married and has descendants.

Second daughter, “Susan” Tran, married ¨Tom¨ Nguyen and has one male descendant. Her daughter ANT, married Ricardo MH and has one male descendant.

RMH, ANT, Austin, Texas, 2022

Their daughter “Cindy” Tran is married to TCN and they have one male descendant.

More than a dozen extended family members still work in family seafood businesses that employ many people in Texas. The younger generation includes many professionals living in the U.S. and Canada.

Acknowledgement and Sources.

Given the difficulties surrounding the extended family’s departure from Vietnam and, subsequently, their sailing from Hong Kong to the U.S. Gulf Coast, there are no written records and not many old photographs. Most of the information has been gathered from interviews conducted by Angel Nguyen Tran with the help of her grandmother and aunts and from the CT obituary. The adoption of English nicknames and the American use of married names are challenges that we are gradually overcoming in the family database.