Facts

As a genealogist, I have come across well-known facts and facts not so well-known. And for fun, I want to share not-so-well-known facts.

DID YOU KNOW?

BUTTERFLIES HAVE THEIR OWN GENEALOGY AND FAMILY HISTORY

Helen Briggs of BBC news reported in 2018, “Scientists have found fossilized butterfly scales the size of speck of dust inside an ancient rock from Germany.” The scientists believe that these beautiful delicate creatures ancestors date back 200 million years ago. And their cousins are the moths. Butterflies and their cousins have existed on this planet well before man. (Helen Briggs, Meet the Butterflies from 200 Million Years Ago, BBC News; https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42636275#:~:text=Newly%20discovered%20fossils%20show%20that,inside%20ancient%20rock%20from%20Germany : accessed March 20, 2022; published, 11 January 2018.) Wow! What a genealogy and a family history.

SPANIARDS IN HAWAIʻI TWO CENTURIES EARLIER BEFORE THE ENGLISH

was recorded in 1555 A.D. by Juan Gaetano, a Spanish navigator. He prepared a manuscript chart now in the Spanish archives which contains a group of islands in the latitude of Hawai‘i. What corresponds to Maui is called La Desgradiada, the unfortunate.The largest, most southernly island, which should be the present Hawai‘i is labeled La Mesa, the table.Three other islands, appearing to be Kahoʻolawe, Lanai, and Molokaʻi, are called Los Monjes, the monks. (Darlene E. Kelley, Spaniards in Hawaiʻi – Part 1; http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/spaniard47nnw.txt: accessed 2013; Historical Collections of Hawaiʻi Keepers of the Culture, A Study in Time, of the Hawaiʻian Islands; 25, August 2008.)

NOTE: Several studies have disproved this claim and found it not to be credible. But questions remain such as explorers like Gaetano who most likely came upon by chance to the Hawaiʻian Islands before Cookʻs arrival.

HAWAIʻIʻs FIRST HIGHWAY

was on the island of Maui. Construction began around 1500 A.D. by the King of Maui Honoaʻo Piʻilani. And completed by his son Kiha-a-Piʻilani. It was known as Honoaʻo Piʻilani or the Kingʻs Highway. This alaloa or long road stretched 138 miles completely encircling the entire island of Maui. (Hawai‘i Nature Notes, the Publication of the Naturalist Division, Hawai‘i National Park and the Hawai‘i Natural History Association. Haleakala, Maui, Hawai‘i. June 1959.)

SAMUEL KAIALIILII KAMAKA (1890 – 1953) 2000 UKULELE HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE

was born on the island of Maui in Waiheʻe in 1890. He was the founder of what is now Kamaka Hawaiʻi, Inc., the leading manufacturer of quality ukuleles in the world. Kamaka began making ukuleles in his basement workshop in 1916. During the ukulele craze of the 1920ʻs, a large number of manufactures in Hawaiʻi and on the mainland were making ukuleles. Kamakaʻs quality hand-crafted instruments and the introduction of his patented pineapple-shaped ukulele design gave him a solid piece of the competitive market, and by the 1ate 1930ʻs he was the only Hawaiian ukulele maker remaining in business. Kamaka Hawaiʻi, Inc., continues to flourish under the direction of his sons and grandsons. (Ukulele Hall of Fame Musuem; 2012; https://www.ukulele.org/?Inductees:2000-2001:Samuel_Kamaka : accessed 16 March 2022.)

SAINT ANTHONYʻS ORPHANGE WAILUKU MAUI IN 1930.

According to the 1930 U.S. Federal Census Saint Anthony Church was an orphange housing 77 children. Ages ranging from 1 year old to 12 years old. (Year: 1930; Census Place: Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii Territory; Page: 17A; Enumeration District: 0034; FHL microfilm: 2342371; https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=try&h=104250350&dbid=6224 : accessed 4 April 2019.)