Help with birth record of my grand-father

The form appears to be in Japanese, which would fit for the colonial period, as the top line is labelled 继柄 which is apparently a Japanese term for family relationship. It has been filled in with the characters 长男, meaning eldest son.

The columns below, read from the right have father 林秀 Lin Xiu then mother 张氏尾 Zhang-shi meaning nee Zhang and Wei being her personal name I think.

The box below those two columns is labelled 出生别 which means where the child stands in relation to its siblings, think that's filled in 长弟 meaning eldest brother but might have read the second character wrong.

The blank column in the middle is labelled for rank within family again, any honorifics and profession (of parents I presume).

To the left of that is his name, Lin Jinfa, as you have said.

Column on left is for date of birth; it uses the more complicated way of writing numbers so I'm struggling to read the year, think it's 明治叁拾叁 which means the 33rd year of the Meiji reign, 1900 in the Western calendar, then tenth month and day is written with earthly branches I think, 子巳， perhaps meaning 16 but might have read that wrong or interpreted it wrong.

One interpretation of the 尾 character in his mother's name might be that she was the youngest of her siblings, it's literally tail but can mean end or last etc. Otherwise doesn't strike me as a likely personal name.

On 3/2/2026 at 10:42 AM, Anna78 said:

Concerning the birth date, except for the year, do I understand it correctly that there is no conversion to the Western calendar, meaning when you have the 10th month and let's say 16th day, that his birthday was simply 16 October 1900 ? I'm surprised that it is 'so easy', no lunar calendar conversion, etc.

According to Wikipedia, Japan adopted the Gregorian calender in 1873 as part of the Meiji modernisations. So it's not unlikely that you don't need to convert the date.

Really not sure about my reading of the characters for the day in that date part (though conversely bit more confident about the year now); but as Lu says, every chance that the tenth month is simply October rather than by the lunar calendar. If the actual date was the eleventh or twelfth, I wonder if the first character there is simply a 十 meaning ten, but then can't parse the rest of it. Hopefully someone better at this will come along.

ETA Of course, using the Meiji reign era date would seem to confirm he was born in Taiwan under colonial rule.

Also wondering if calling him 长弟 implies he had an elder sister - it's oldest younger brother in a literal reading of the characters, but we're also told he's the oldest son above.