The Tsao (or Cao, Tow, Tso, Cho) family name comes from the name of a kingdom, Tsao which Emperor Wu of the Chou dynasty bestowed his younger brother, Lord Zen-dou. The family name likely was established around 1100 BC during Emperor Wu's reign as the second emperor of Chou dynasty which began 1122 BC. The Tsao kingdom was in today's Shandong province in northeastern China. At that time, probably everybody in the kingdom took the Tsao name.

Our family from Hubei province traces our ancestry to the famous poet Tsao Soon of Su-Chen county, Anhui province. Tsao Soon lived during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD). He wrote the lines: "Please do not ask me how to become a noble lord, as a general's success is built on thousands of bones which have perished." He served as county commissioner of Nan-Chung county, Jiangxi province and remained after he retired. Some of his descendents moved to Ra-Chung county, Jiangxi province. Both counties still have descendents who bear the Tsao name.

Around the time Genghis Khan conquered China (early 13th century), about thirty generations after Tsao Soon's, one of his descendents moved to today's Ta-Chi village, Ta-Ya county, Hubei province to escape the war. His name is Fu-See and he had two sons. His descendents settled on eastern and western sides of the Ta-Chi mountain and were known as East-Tsao and West-Tsao respectively.

At the beginning of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), a member of the West-Tsao clan moved north to Shang-Chen county, Henan province. Many of West-Tsao descent still live there. After World War II, the descendents in Henan and Hubei reunited and traced their ancestry.