Pacific Island Guide to Family History Research

Pacific Island Guide to Basic Family History Work
Forward
Because Pacific Island family history is based largely on an oral tradition, we face special challenges in doing it. And we need to use special methods. These methods were not widely known among family history researchers, so in writing this guide, I needed to find Pacific Islanders who had been successful in doing family history work and learned from them how they did it.The people who shared their stories and information with me were very kind and generous, and it is their hard work that has made this guide possible. Most of their names are in the Bibliography on page XX.

I tried to find someone from each of the island groups to interview, but was not able to get a case study from all groups. My hope is that one of the case studies in this manual will be close enough to your situation to help you. Steps 1 through 7 and Steps 9 and 12 (see Contents below) are the same for everyone, and are to help us get started with our family history work. Some of the information in Steps 8, 10 and 11 are about temple work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon), but the information in the guide can be of help to people of any religion.

Contents
Introduction, Island heritage, and How to use this manual 2
Step 1. To start, write down the basic information we know from memory. 4
Step 2. Gather written records we and our family already have. 5
Step 3. Learn more about the customs and history of our ancestors 6
Step 4. Gather oral histories from our oldest relatives 10
Step 5. Organize our information onto paper forms and computer. 12
Step 6. Organize our papers and keep them safe 13
Step 7. Keep track of what we have done and plan what we are going to do next 19
Step 8. Find and record Temple Ordinances that have already been done. 21
Step 9. Do enough research to verify that the person really lived and how the person is related
to our family 23
A. Information in this manual about the islands where our ancestors lived 24
B. The Cole Jensen Collection and its Directory 24
C. Oral Genealogies from the 1970s 25
D. Records from institutions near us 25
E. Photographic collections 25
F. Family History Library Catalog 26
Table of Island names (current, historical, and native names) 27
Map of the Pacific Islands 28
Particular Island Sections (Contents) 30
Cook Islands (Includes Rarotonga) 31
Easter Island 32
Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, and Palau 34
Fiji 40
French Polynesia 43
Marquesas Islands, Tuamotu Islands, Gambier Islands, Society Islands (includes Tahiti), Austral Islands
Hawaii 59
Kiribati (Gilbert Islands) 74
Nauru 76
New Caledonia 78
New Zealand 79
Niue 94
Samoa (Western and American) 96
Solomon Islands 100
Tokelau 101
Tonga 103
Tuvalu (Gilbert Islands) 109
Vanuatu 111
Wallis and Futuna Islands 113

Step 10. We can get ready to prepare names for temple ordinances (Temple sealing policies) 115
Step 11. We can prepare names for temple submission 117
Step 12. We can share what we found and did 117

Bibliography 118