The family is descended from
Kwee Giok San, a Chinese migrant who left his native
Fujian in the 1820s for
Nanyang – the 'South Sea' – before finally settling down around the 1840s in
Ciledug, a small town in the
Residency of Cirebon on the border of
West Java and
Central Java. In 1884, Lieutenant Kwee Boen Pien died in office and was succeeded in both his Chinese lieutenancy and Djatipiring by his second son, Kwee Keng Liem. The latter was, like his cousin, also the owner of an important sugar factory, that of Kalitandjoeng. In the fourth generation, Lieutenant Kwee Keng Liem's eldest son Kwee Zwan Hong succeeded his father in 1908 as Lieutenant of Sindanglaut, Losari and Ciledug, and was further elevated to the higher rank of Kapitein-titulair in 1924. Kapitein-titulair Kwee Zwan Hong was in office until 1934, when the institution of Chinese officers was abolished in Java, and was the last sitting Chinese officer in Cirebon. The Kapitein's half-brother, Kwee Zwan Lwan, won a seat on the Regency Council of Cirebon in 1925, and by the 1930s had succeeded his eldest brother as a de facto head and Chinese community leader of Cirebon. Like their ancestor Kwee Giok San, successive generations of his descendants contracted strategic marriages with other families of the Cabang Atas. The third generation typified this web of alliances: Lieutenant Kwee Keng Eng was married to Tan Oen Tok Nio, Majoor-titulair Tan Tjin Kie's sister, while the former's cousin, Lieutenant Kwee Keng Liem was married to the Majoor's cousin, Tjoa Swie Lan Nio. On his first wife's death, Lieutenant Kwee Keng Liem then married the much younger and western-educated Tan Hok Nio, grandniece of Lieutenant Tan Kong Hoa of Batavia and Lieutenant Tan Yoe Hoa of
Bekasi. In addition to Kapitein-titulair Kwee Zwan Hong from his first marriage, Lieutenant Kwee Keng Liem had one daughter and three sons from his second marriage: Kwee Der Tjie, Kwee Zwan Lwan, Kwee Zwan Liang and Kwee Zwan Ho. In the fourth generation, Kapitein-titulair Kwee Zwan Hong married Lim Ke Tie Nio, daughter of Lim Goan Tjeng, Lieutenant der Chinezen of Batavia, while his half-sister, Der Tjie, married Han Tiauw Bing, son of Kapitein Han Hoo Tjoan of the
Pasuruan branch of the powerful
Han family of Lasem. Their brothers, Zwan Lwan, Zwan Liang and Zwan Ho were married respectively to Jenny Be Kiam Nio, daughter of the bureaucrat and courtier
Be Kwat Koen, Majoor-titulair der Chinezen of
Surakarta; to Roos Liem Hwat Nio, heiress of a
Surabaya family and grandniece of Lieutenant Liem Bong Lien of Pasuruan; and to Betty Tan Ing Nio, granddaughter
Tan Goan Piauw, Kapitein der Chinezen of
Buitenzorg and Landheer (or landlord) of the vast Tegalwaroe domains. ==Pioneers of modernity and an international outlook==