Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 4, 1 April 2004 — Na wai ʻoe? Whose child are you? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Na wai ʻoe? Whose child are you?

By Lueille Meyer & Albert Tiberi Traditionally, a person's ancestry helped identify their plaee in society. The ali'i relied on their genealogy to validate their authority. For others, ancestry would define their societal role as a warrior or adze maker. More recently, proof of Hawaiian ancestry, and in some cases blood quantum, has been

necessary to qualify for certain services from Hawaiian agencies. In the future, ancestry verification will also be a requirement to participate in the establishment a selfgoverned Hawaiian nation. Because many people are unfamiliar with techniques for verifying ancestry, this article is intended as an introduction to methods of tracing and documenting a family history, or kumu 'ohana. Future articles will go into more detail

about available resources and discuss more thoroughly some of the methodology and documents that may be required to fully develop your kumu 'ohana. Modern applications As in the past, Hawaiians today need to know their family history. Depending on the circumstance, some need to know more than others. In some cases, ancestry ean be See GENEALOGY on page 18

GENEALOGY from page 1 fied birth record indicating Hawaiian blood. Other situations require proof of parents or even grandparents of Hawaiian ancestry. The push for the formation of a new Hawaiian nation may even require one to trace Hawaiian ancestry all the way back to 1893 or beyond. Modern law dictates that documents are the best evidence. Documentary evidence - such as birth, marriage and death certificates, obituaries, church records, wills, divorce papers, probate decisions, land records, census records and others - add credibility to one's research. This need for documentation requires good notes to keep track of the document sources. The researcher should have an expandable filing system that ean aeeommodate pedigree charts, copies of documents such as birth or marriage certificates, legal records etc., and a list of sources. One should also expect to make many trips to agencies throughout the state, since there are a variety of organizations that collect and maintain genealogical information. This list includes the vital records departments of various governmental jurisdictions, public archives, museums, religious institutions, cultural or historical societies, private collections, the judiciary and libraries. It is important to become familiar with the many available

resources. Research obstacles Before starting, it is important to understand that the process ean take many hours and requires a great deal of patience, and more than likely will involve many obstacles. More often than not, official family records may be incomplete or even incorrect. In the past, norms of society made it beneficial to say one was not Hawaiian or less Hawaiian than they really were. Thus, official records may indicate that one is not Hawaiian, when in reality, the family history proves otherwise. In some cases, birth or death records are not available. Children may have been adopted, or certain ancestors may be unknown. Sometimes, it is neeessary to search judicial records to find a court judgment or other legal decision that documents Hawaiian ancestry. Starting your research A good first step in any family research project is to identify what you know about your family. A pedigree chart ean be helpful. (To download a printable sample of a pedigree chart, visit www.oha.org, and look for the Genealogy Research section under the Resources tab.) In using a chart, you start with yourself and go up the family line identifying your mother and father,

with their birth dates and places if known. For both your mother's line and your father's line, you continue to move up the tree and go as far as you ean. Utilize family members to acquire as mueh information as you ean, to reduce the leg work, time and expense involved in filling in missing pieces of the tree. Commonly overlooked resources include family bibles or diaries, wills, land documents, photos, journals, financial records, scrapbooks, school records, baptismal records and many more. When charting out your family, vital information includes the following: • Name. A person's name should include the full given name, any nicknames or maiden names, other married name and any other names that person may have used. Some non-Hawaiian names were changed to Hawaiian names (i.e., Juan Bello became John Pelio). In other cases, family names have changed due to an adoption of a new name along the way, misspelling or misinterpretation. This is especially true for older documents that were handwritten and difficult to read. • Relationships. For eaeh individual, all relationships should be identified: spouses, brothers, parents, grandparents hānai children and so on. For individuals who were married on more than one occasion, eaeh spouse should be identified along with any children from that

marriage. • Date and location. Most records are categorized by date and loeation. If you have no record, but have an idea of the date and location of an event, you at least have a starting point for your research. The date and location of vital events - birth, marriage, death, divorce, immigration, military service and adoption - are very important and may help you track down documents that provide evidence of your ancestry. Vital records are often centralized based on jurisdiction. Information including the town, island, county, state, or country where an event took plaee will direct you to where you should begin your research. • Religion. Knowledge of a person's religion - or, more specifically, church affiliation - is also very useful. Church records ean be very helpful and may include baptismal records, marriage records or even burial records that may provide insight into your family's history. Hopefully, this article has provided a foundation for you to begin. The next article in this series will introduce the sources of available genealogical information in Hawai'i. Lueille Meyer is coordinator of OHA 's Hawaiian Registry Program; Albert Tiberi is an advocate in the Hawaiian Governance division. M