Every year, I dust off this photo of my Irish great-grandfather, Robert William Cathcart, and some variant of this family history for Saint Patrick’s Day.
R.W. Cathcart was born January 20, 1856 in County Down, Ireland. He was 25 years old when he arrived in Hawaii on October 24, 1881, aboard the American Barkentine “Ella” from San Francisco, according the the ship’s manifest from that voyage, now in the State Archives.
My sister, Bonnie, provided more information about the photo.
The man is Robert Cathcart, our great-grandfather. The woman is the 3rd woman by whom Cathcart had Hawaiian children, and the only one he married haole style. She is Ellen Poaha. The oldest boy is Willie (William). Edwin came next; he is the one who died young. Then Uncle Arthur, then Tony, the baby. Tony was not born until after Galbraith died in 1904, so I’m guessing that the photo may have been taken just before Cathcart, Ellen and Tony headed off to Tahiti. He was given the trip by Wilder Steamship Company — I thought when he left their employ, but I don’t know where he was working when he died.
Cathcart was naturalized a US Citizen about 1906 in preparation for that trip. He had to be a US Citizen to get himself back into Hawai’i after going to Tahiti, and he had to be married haole style (legally, by American standards) to Ellen if he was going to take her with him. They were married in Honolulu on 26 Oct 1905, per the marriage index 1832-1910, Vol 1, O-75:46, Hawaii State Archives. Tony went along, I suspect because he was still nursing, but don’t know that for a fact. I found Cathcart’s Citizenship certificate in the National Archives branch, Burlingame CA several years ago. There is a copy here in the house, but I am not even going to TRY to find it tonight! Interestingly, as noted, by this time Galbraith had died and it was established that Cathcart had written the Galbraith will. He lists his occupation on the ship manifest to Tahiti as — would you believe — ATTORNEY. I have not looked at the City Directories to see if he changed his occupation there, but did have to chuckle when I found that on the manifest for the Tahiti trip! Did the man have delusions of grandeur?
The taller of the two girls is Auntie Helen, the other is our grandmother.
I marvel about this because I never had any idea while growing up that I was Irish, and it rarely occurs to me as an adult. I was raised as “part-Hawaiian.” But, it seems, I’m as much Irish as Hawaiian, perhaps a little more because of Irish roots somewhere in both of my parent’s heritage.
In any case, I picked up a bottle of Bushmills Irish Whiskey on sale this week, and will have a drink tonight in honor of my Irish heritage.
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It’s great you have that photo, plus so much about the history of your Irish great-granddad. As someone who has researched family history, I know how rare these old photos are. If they were even taken, they somehow disappeared over the years and/or relatives didn’t share them. Then finding the history is another problem, of course. Have you ever thought of having your DNA checked? I did mine with 23 and Me and while it wasn’t totally surprising, since I’d already done so much family research, there were some interesting aspects to it for sure.
Here’s a webpage bringing together your Irish ancestry and your Hawaiian ancestry. Be sure to read the footnotes. Erin Go Bragh!
King Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III chose St. Patrick’s Day to be his official birthday. But why did neither he nor anyone else know his actual biological birthdate?
http://tinyurl.com/58ft2
My daughters are part Irish.
And Koreans are considered the Irish of the Pacific.
And then there was that lady of yesteryear ditty, Lola O’Brien, the Irish-Hawaiian.
I’m so happy to have stumbled onto your column. I , too, am a great-grandchild of Robert W. Cathcart. My grandfather was Abel K. Cathcart, his son by Keolamauloa Pakalaka. I remember Uncle Willie coming to our house in Manoa. He was a merry gentleman, full of songs, stories and mischief. We were so fond of him. My mother was Kalani Cathcart and my grandmother was Elizabeth Ana Cathcart. I will follow your stories with interest.
It is the day before Thanksgiving and I just stumbled onto this column. Ellen and Robert are my grandaunt and granduncle. I have that photo also and remember stories of my tutu Leo Kapala’au Poaha and his eldest sister Ellen. Coincidentally, I just received a message from you, Ian Lind, on my Ancestry page this morning. Elizabeth, it was nice to meet you on this site and “flesh up” the Pakalaka-Cathcart line.
By any chance does anybody know the parents of Keolamauloa Pakalaka? I am doing mo’okuauhau research and have not been able to find who her parents were. She is my great-great-great-grandmother. I would greatly appreciate if anyone knows the names and could send them my way. Mahalo nui!
Mrs.Faulkner i am so happy to have stumbled upon this as well
I can’t stop smiling!best wishe