Archive for the 'Hawaiian Roots Blog' Category

Case Study: Hanai Relationships (Part 3)

Posted on April 1 2012 by admin

4/1/12 Christine Hitt I just recently helped a family learn more about their great-grandmother who had been hanai. The family was uncertain of her maiden name or who her real birth parents were. At the end of the study, I was able to find information on the great-grandmother’s two marriages, her maiden name and even [...]

Hanai Relationships (Part 2): In the matter of the Estate of Nakuopu, deceased, widow of Puhalahua, deceased.

Posted on March 14 2012 by admin

3/14/12 Christine Hitt As I was researching hanai relationships at the Hawaii State Archives, I ran across this newspaper article published in the Hawaiian Gazette 1869, July 21, p3 c2. It’s a supreme court case involving rights of a hanai child, whose adopted parents were deceased. It is interesting to see the explanations of the [...]

Hanai Relationships (Part 1): Adoption in Ancient Hawaii

Posted on March 11 2012 by admin

3/11/12 Christine Hitt Many emails that I receive are in regards to a hanai or adopted relative. Depending on whether it is a hanai adoption or a legal adoption with an agency, genealogy tactics will differ. Soon, I will follow-up this post with a case study of a hanai adoption I worked on. And, I [...]

An Update: Kalihi Family History Center, Hanai Family Members and the 1878/1895 Hawaii Census

Posted on February 26 2012 by admin

2/26/12 Christine Hitt I have been researching a few families and reacquainted myself to the Kalihi Family History Center. For anyone researching their family, I recommend beginning at the the Mormon Family History Centers in your area. Here are the Hawaii locations. And, they are manned by people who have been involved in genealogy research [...]

Northwest Coast Hawaiians and the Hudson’s Bay Company

Posted on January 27 2012 by admin

1/27/12 By Christine Hitt I’ve received requests over the years asking for information about Hawaiians who joined the Hudson’s Bay Company and settled in the Pacific Northwest. Many people are still not aware that there is a large community of Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest, who descended from ancestors who traveled there in the early [...]

Fishponds, Then and Now

Posted on December 5 2011 by admin

12/5/11 By Christine Hitt “Pre-contact Hawaii had 350-450 fishponds. Today, there are only 50 in the state that are still useable,” explained Kelii Kotubetey coordinator of Paepae o Heeia. As I was browsing the archives for historic fishpond photos, you can see first-hand how fishponds were filled in. The first photo, taken in 1930s over [...]

Heeia Fishpond Restoration Project

Posted on December 3 2011 by admin

12/3/11 By Christine Hitt I helped put together this video for http://www.honolulumagazine.com. It was great to learn first-hand the Hawaiian traditional practices of building a Hawaiian fishpond. In ancient Hawaii, the entire community (thousands of people) lined up and worked together to build these by handing rocks person-to-person, as we did in the video. It [...]

Mid-19th Century Kahoolawe and Lanai Banishment

Posted on December 3 2011 by admin

Kahoolawe and Lanai: Tiny Isles, Were Homes of Exiles Kings banished men to one inhospitable spot, and women to the other, but lonely males crossed the water and rescued or captured the ladies, so they all became one settlement. From THRUM’S HAWAIIAN ANNUAL of 1903 Among the events and conditions of dawning Hawaiian civilization that [...]

Kamehameha’s Burial

Posted on November 20 2011 by admin

November 20, 2011BY Christine Hitt While interviewing Bill Kaiheekai Maioho (see previous post), he shared this painting depicting Hoapili and Hoolulu taking Kamehameha’s iwi to its final destination. Share on Facebook

A Family’s Kuleana

Posted on May 5 2010 by admin

May 4, 2010 BY Christine Hitt I wrote this story for HONOLULU Magazine’s May 2010 issue… you can view it here. A Family’s Kuleana Caring for the bones at the Royal Mausoleum is a responsibility passed down through generations. I have some extra notes I’m going to post for this story in a future blog… [...]