Shensi is Shanxi, but what town is this? (late 19th c.)
Sorry, don’t know the town, but Shensi refers to Shaanxi, not Shanxi.
Sorry–Shansi, not Shensi.
It has been suggested that someone misread “Taiyuan-fu” for “Ziyuan-fu.”
Then Taiyuan looks like the most likely place, as it is (and was then) the capital of the region (hence the -fu). Do you have the source document yourself, or is there a chance that some misread tai for tsu in some poorly-printed, time-smudged article?
No, all I have are reports of records. Something like that is probably what happened. I’m not sure if this represents an English or a Chinese mistake, though.