French Polynesia Genealogy: Difference between revisions

*''Austral Islands <br>Papeete, Tahiti ''of the ''Society Islands&nbsp;''is the capital. The population is about 92,000. About half of the people in French Polynesia &nbsp;live on the island of ''Tahiti.''

'''1. The first thing I did was to ''talk to my mother ''and ask what information she had.'''  

My mother’s people were born in ''Taega'' (pronounced Taenga), which is in the western part of the '''''Tuamotu Islands'''''to the east of the island of '''''Anaa.'''''  

A powerful sect which combined Tahitian traditions with Christian ideas called the '''''Mamia'' '''rose up in the island of ''Tahiti'' in about 1827. They were rebelling against the teachings and power of the Christian missionaries. They had ''Mana, or power''. This sect did not keep the ways of ''Mana ''according to the ''Tup`una,'' who are our ancestors. ''Mana'' is like the priesthood, and they did not keep the rules of it. To gain more power, the ''Mamaia'' told people they had to join them or be killed. The other choice was to flee. This sect and others, along with drought and over-population and seeking for freedom caused many of the people to migrate to other islands.  

There is also a picture of the Mission Schooner. It was in use from 1950 to 1956. I sailed to all of the islands with the mission president when I was a member of the Church Band. He organized it and I was in it for 3 years. I later became a teacher in the elementary schools of our Church. Our home is now in ''Moorea, Tahiti''.  

&nbsp;Ives Perrin served as LDS Mission President in Tahiti, and as a Church educator in the islands of French Polynesia for several years. His suggestions for the steps a person from French Polynesia should take to get records after interviewing family members are as follows:&nbsp;  

An important collection of compiled genealogies for the Pacific Islands is found in the <u>''Cole-Jensen Collection: Oral Genealogies and Genealogical Information Collected from the Polynesian Peoples and from the Pacific Islands.'' </u>These records were collected over a 50 year period and microfilmed in 1984 by the Genealogical Society of Utah. The original collection consisted of 51 binders. The original materials no longer exist as an intact collection. However, there are nine microfilms of the binders available at various family history centers. They are numbers '''1358001-1358009'''. This collection contains family group records, pedigree charts, and oral genealogies collected from the islands of ''Hawaii,New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Cook Islands, ''and ''French Polynesia, ''including the ''Society, Marquesas, Austral Islands, and the Tuamoto Archipelago. ''Look for the Mciorfilm numbers for French Polynesia by isalnd group, listed below.  

[[Austral Islands|Austral Islands ]]<br>[[Gambier Islands|Gambier Islands ]]<br>[[Marquesas Islands|Marquesas Islands]] <br>[[Society Islands (includes Tahiti)|Society Islands (includes Tahiti)]]<br>[[Tuamotu Islands|Tuamotu Islands]]&nbsp;