Here’s a little voyage into family history you might find of interest, prompted by a recent column by Peter Apo in Civil Beat about the Battle of Kuamo‘o (“Peter Apo: How A Violent Battle In 1819 Still Impacts Hawaii Today”).

Apo had previously observed that he only learned of the Battle of Kuamo‘o a few years ago, and believes most Hawaiians don’t know about it.

I think that’s true, and I know it was true in our family.

Follow me back in time. In the early 1950s, my mother started gathering information about her Hawaiian genealogy. One of best sources was George Kopa, a “cousin” who lived in Kahala just a couple of blocks from our house.

Consistent with his Mormon faith, Kopa had gathered many records. And, consistent with his Hawaiian culture, there were unwritten stories that he also shared. My mom wrote out her annotated summary of Kopa’s information in 1994, when she was 80.

Like many modern Hawaiians, my mother apparently did not know of the Battle of Kuamo‘o, and believed a battle that is part of our family narrative must have been prior to 1800, and that led her to discount Kopa’s account of a battle that brought his ancestors (and ours) to Maui.

This part of my genealogy is based on information given me in the early 1950s by George Clement K. Kopa, who lived for many years on the makai side of Kahala Ave near the corner of Pueo. He was then about 80 and as a devout Mormon, had gathered this information years before and recorded it on a large chart from which I copied what I felt I needed. [My mother’s guess of his age was several years off, as Kopa died in 1963 at age 83.]

His earliest known male ancestor was Kapu, whose son Kahimanapookalani was the grandfather of Mr. Kopa. Apparently Kahimanapookalani was also know as Kopa which became the surname of his sons. We know our ancestor Kina was the daughter of Kahooilimoku who, according to Mr. Kopa, was the brother of Kahimanapookalani. [Note: That would have made Mr. Kopa and my grandmother second cousins, as their grandparents–Kahooilimoku and Kahimanapookalani–were brothers.]

Mr. Kopa also related a number of family traditions which he had not put into writing. It seems to me that some of the traditions don’t fit into recorded history, probably because there seems to be some confusion as to the generation in which particular incidents occurred. For instance, the name Kahooilimoku is said to commemorate a shipwreck. There were four (?) brothers who were warriors serving a high chief on the island of Hawaii, probably Kau. Their army was defeated in battle and their chief was killed. The brothers rescued the chief’s body and escaped from the scene in a canoe. A storm arose and the canoe was blown off course, and wrecked on the coast of Kaupo, Maui. The brothers lay exhausted and injured on the beach where they were found by several young women who took them home and cared for them. The men married their rescuers and remained in Kaupo. The name Kahooilimoku is supposed to commemorate this flight and shipwreck. Mr Kopa implied that this tradition concerns the four sons of Kapu. But the sons on his chart were born probably circa 1820-1840, long after the islands were united and wars between chiefs of the districts of Hawaii had ended. It is my guess that the traditional battle took place no later than 1800. It seems more logical that Kapu was the son of the of the warrior brothers who ended up in Kaupo.

I was very new at genealogy in the 1950s and did not question what I was being told for it seemed impolite. As I review my old notes, I see that I must have been confused and considered the four sons of Kapu as the shipwrecked warriors. Perhaps only one or two brothers were shipwrecked and Kapu was the son of one of them. I leave this for someone else to explore.

My mom’s attempt to reconcile this bit of family lore with the more established dates from her genealogical research might have come to a different conclusion had she known about the bloody battle in North Kona that took place in 1819. It appears to be time to take another close look at this family tale, but I don’t know if I’m up to it.

An aside: Here’s a story that appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser on August 31, 1939, on George Kopa’s retirement. Just click on the story to read a larger version.