This seems so Hawaii, but I suppose it could happen in other parts of the country as well.
The email arrived several days ago. It began simply as a woman who grew up in Honolulu and now lives on the Big Island introduced herself.
Aloha!
I am related to you via Kapu and Kaia.
That sent me into a bit of a spin.
Why?
Because the common ancestors she points to, Kapu (or Kopa) and Kaia, lived in Kau back in the early 1800’s, from what I can glean in the records my mother compiled during her years of genealogical research.
They were, I think, the grandparents of my great-grandmother.
So we’re talking a relatedness that dates back nearly two centuries.
My new found “cousin” was looking at a document of my mother’s that I scanned and posted several years ago, which summarizes her research into our Hawaiian family and its branches (“Our Hawaiian Ancestors“).
And now I’m being asked whether I knew more about where exactly in the Kau district Kapu and Kaia lived.
To be honest, that’s a question that never occurred to me.
This is a distant degree of relatedness that is hard for me to comprehend. Of course, these are close relationships compared to the distant ties that DNA testing turns up (as I’ve learned after paying the fee and getting results for a couple of years).
Meaningful? Not meaningful? A sense of place and history? Theoretical nonsense?
I’m just confused about how to relate to all this.
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As someone who has researched my family history for decades, I agree that after a bit it is difficult to imagine “relatedness” with someone who is a 4th or 5th cousin, twice removed. I also had a DNA search done and this organization wants to connect me with these very distant “relatives.” I decline, because I personally don’t even want to be around some much closer relatives! It’s good to know who our mutual ancestors were, but that’s as far as I want to go.
What DNA testing service would you recommend?
I’ll post about my experience in the next few days.
Your mother’s document is very valuable, and she has some fine stories. Not many people were able to consult Mary Kawena Pukui about their ancestors from Ka`u.
Since you published your mother’s research on her ancestors, it’s not surprising that people out there with some of the same ancestors would ask you for additional information. The question the woman asked, where exactly in the Ka`u district Kapu and Kaia lived, is a natural one.
I have had some very interesting email and internet discussions with cousins where the connection is that their 4xgrandparent was a sibling of my 3xgrandparent.
You probably have to be interested in the puzzle solving nature of genealogy, but I like collecting and connecting the basics (b., d., m., and children) and the family stories associated with the combined family tree.
Often, these cousins have stories that show that the people in my lineage had interactions with the people in their line that I was unaware of.
We had a reunion of people from the extended family tree a few years back that was a lot of fun.
I agree totally.
Juicy J.
I have tried 2 different DNA services: https://www.familytreedna.com
https://www.23andme.com
Both were satisfactory, although 23andme provides an interesting “Neanderthal” DNA percentage in their report!
I just came across this as I was doing further research into my ‘ohana and saw that this was about me. I wasn’t trying to be nosy, I was simply trying to find out more about where my family is from. Being that you had published the document AND a blog, it seemed like it was a good opportunity for me to reach out to a “cousin” who had so blatantly put the information out there.
I would love to hear more about what you’ve been discovering through your research! You can email me, ian@ilind.net.