“The Fabulous Holts”

The Holt family plot at Oahu Cemetery, Honolulu, Hawaii

In 1954 Clarice B. Taylor wrote up a series of articles about the Holt family in Hawaii and had them published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin from June 3^rd to September 11^th.  These stories are based on the history of the Holt family from Robert William Holt (1792 – 1862) born in England, married first in New England, and removed to Hawaii, married second to a native Hawaiian, and beyond as the numbers of descendants grew and grew.  They are not based on fact or proven by genealogical standards, but are a fun read because they are stories, not just dates, places and names.

Lisa Ululani Holt, a descendant, has transcribed all “The Fabulous Holts” articles and made them available as a PDF file.  As she states in her forward “Families all have their stories.  Much like the game‚ "telephone‚" where you whisper something to one person and it moves down the line, those stories can get distorted.  Such are the stories of the Holts.”

As Lisa, and other Holt descendants, and myself (a relative of Robert William Holt’s first wife, Ann Marie Stanwood Jones (1811 – 1832) ) all work on the Holt family genealogy, this document holds important clues as we sift through all the story details for facts, myths, and narratives.  For example, in Chapter 2, on page 2, it mentions that Robert William Holt left England for Boston, Massachusetts to be with a sister, Mary, around 1800. This is questioned on page 23.  Actually, Mary was the sister of his bride, Ann Marie.  So the story was true, just a little bit twisted over time.  This is part of the story that I helped to “untwist”, since my 4^th great grandmother Catherine Plummer Jones was the sister to both Mary and Ann Marie and five other siblings- many of these Boston born siblings had ties to Hawaiian history.

I have a word file of a transcription of “The Fabulous Holts” written up by Holt descendant Sheri Iona about a dozen years ago, and I donated a printed copy to the NEHGS manuscript department.  Some of the resources listed below were also donated to NEHGS as part of a large genealogy of the Jones, Dominis and Holt families.  I don’t know if there has ever been a published version of “The Fabulous Holts”, other than the original newspaper articles.

Note:  as you are reading through these articles, please note that there are no articles 65 and 74.  The numbering system was in error as these were published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Click this link for a PDF file of “The Fabulous Holts” transcribed by Lisa Ululani Holt:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1TNpFAo1DgeYWl3bmQ5U2ZYTFE/view?usp=sharing

Other Holt Family resources:

Recollections: Memoirs of John Dominis Holt 1919 - 1935 by John Dominis Holt, Ku Pa’a Publishing, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1993.  Also at the NEHGS library in the 7^th floor stacks.

Robert William Holt: Founder of the Holt Family in Hawaii, by John Dominis Holt, Topgallant Publishing, Co, Hawaii, 1988 (my copy was purchased at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii) A copy is at the NEHGS library in the 7^th floor stacks.

There was a Holt Genealogy manuscript written in 1974 compiled by Kaala Richardson Ridley, and expanded with notes by Sheri Iona in 2008.  It was never published in book form, but has been distributed to members of the family.   I donated a copy to NEHGS and it is available in the manuscript department.

Hawaii’s Holts Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/253651931332203/

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-fabulous-holts.html

Copyright © 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

What an 1848 letter between two 16 year old cousins taught me about my family

Ann Marie Holt's gravestone
at the Oahu Cemetery, Honolulu, Hawaii

The following letter, written in Dorchester, a village outside of Boston, to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) in 1848 was written by Ann Marie Holt.  She was my first cousin five generations removed. Ann Marie wrote to her first cousin, John Owen Dominis.  She was about sixteen years old, and John was the same age.

Cousin John had gone to Hawaii when he was about five years old with his mother, to meet up his father, a sea captain who had made Honolulu his new residence.  Captain John Dominis was lost at sea in 1846, about two years before this letter was written. The Captain had built his Boston wife a fine home out of local wood and from parts shipped from Boston to Honolulu. He was going to China to buy furnishings for the new house when his ship was lost.  Auntie Mary (Jones) Dominis (1803-1889) decided to stay in Honolulu, and at about this time John was starting out on his own in business.  The fine home, known as “Washington Place”, mentioned in the letter, is still standing in Honolulu and serves as the Hawaiian Governor’s residence.

Auntie Mary had six sisters. One was my 4^th great grandmother, Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger (1799 – 1828) who was already dead by the time this letter was written.  Ann Marie’s mother was another sister, Ann Marie Stanwood (Jones) Holt (1811 – 1832), who had also died young in Boston.  Ann Marie’s father, Captain Robert William Holt, was also a sea captain who made many trips to Hawaii.  He had remarried to a native Polynesian woman in 1835 and his second wife and children were living in Honolulu.  When Ann Marie and her sister, Elizabeth (1830 – 1865), were a bit older, they traveled to Hawaii to reunite with their father. Unfortunately, Anne Marie, the author of this letter, died on 15 May 1851, at Washington Place, soon after disembarking at Honolulu. 

This letter is especially poignant to me because I knew that these two teenaged cousins, long separated by two oceans, would meet again in a few years under tragic circumstances.  Ann Marie must have arrived in Honolulu very ill, and died in cousin John’s own home soon after.

I am also imagining how difficult it was for family members to be separated in 1848.  How long did it take for a letter to get from Boston to Hawaii?  You can guess in the last paragraph that the family must have located a ship bound for Hawaii, and rushed to get letters on board before it sailed.

The “Aunt Agnes” mentioned in this letter is a fourth Jones sister from Boston.  All the sisters grew up in Boston’s North End, the daughter of Owen Jones, a mariner.  Agnes (Jones) Hart (1816 – 1890) was the youngest daughter.  She must have taken in her Holt nieces while they continued their education in Massachusetts, waiting for the day to join their father in Hawaii.  The “Aunt Lee” mentioned in this letter is the fifth daughter, Laura Williams (Jones) Lee (1890 – 1887).  The only sisters not mentioned in this letter were my 4^th great grandmother, Catherine, already deceased, and the eldest daughter, Sarah Dargue (Jones) Snelling (1794 – 1875), whose husband Enoch Howes Snelling was a Boston glazier who provided the doors and windows for “the handsomest [house] on the Island”, Washington Place.

This letter was found in the Hawaii State Archives.  John Owen Dominis (1832 – 1891), the teenaged boy who was the recipient of this letter, grew up to marry Lydia Kamekeha Paki, who became Queen Lili’uokalani.  Thank goodness he saved this letter, and that his private papers were preserved by his wife and passed on to the Hawaii State Archives.  Finding this letter, and others like it, have helped me to piece together the story of the Jones sisters of Boston.  None of the sisters had their births or marriages recorded in city or state vital records.  Finding their kinship and family relationships has come together from these letters, family documents, oral history, church and official death records.

Source: Hawaii State Archives, Queen Lili’uokalani Collections, M-93, Box 11, Folder 104, Letter from A. M. Holt to John Owen Dominis, dated 13 August 1848.

                                                  Dorchester Aug. 13^th 1848

Dear Cousin

                I found looking over my letters the other day

that I am in debt to you for two.  I thought that I must

do my best to pay you by writing to you this opportunity.

I am at Aunt Agnes’ visiting.  They have a very pleasant

place near Granite Bridge the house is old fashioned

but very good the fireplaces about two yards long wide

and a yard and a half long the panes of glass in the

windows about as large as a sheet of note paper.

I suppose that you have almost set up business for your-

self.  How do you like your house I should like to see it

very much as I understand it is the handsomest on

the Island.  Sarah Ann is in Boston visiting I suppose

she will write to you this opportunity we miss her

and the children very much she has two very pretty

little girls  I know that you long to see them.

Aunt Lee has left Charter St. at last and gone to

Bridgewater to live they have quite a farm I believe

keep cows hens &c.  Uncle William and Aunt Agnes send

love to your mother and she will write if she has

time but she has such a family that if the vessel

sails tomorrow she will not be able to.  Do you

-------------------------

ride as much as ever?  Write every opportunity

and believe me yours suffice

A.      M. H.

-------------------------

A.M.Holt, Dorchester

Aug. 13/48

-------------------------

John O. Dominis

Honolulu

Oahu

S.I.

For more information on the Jones sisters, see this blog post (my very first blog post in 2009!)

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/07/hawaii-boston-connection-to-royal.html     

For more information on Ann Marie Holt and her grave in Honolulu, Hawaii

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/08/hawaiis-holt-family.html     

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/03/annie-maria-holt-1832-1851.html     

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-memorial-for-annie-marie-holt-hawaii.html     

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/06/what-1848-letter-between-two-16-year.html

Copyright © 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Holt Family Plot in Honolulu

The Holt Family Plot can be found at the Oahu Cemetery on Nu'uanu Avenue, Honolulu, Hawaii.

The Holt Plot

The first members of the Holt family in Hawaii are buried at the Kawaiahoa Church cemetery in a mausoleum.  The Holt vault is the resting place of Robert William Holt and his second wife, Caroline Tauwati Robinson.  His first wife, Ann Marie Jones, sister of my 4x great grandmother Catherine (Jones) Younger, is buried in Boston.  They were the daughters of Owen Jones and Elizabeth Lambert of Boston.  Their sister, Mary Lambert Jones married Capt. John Dominis, and her son was Governor John Owen Dominis, husband of Queen Liliuokalani.

Robert W. Holt (1792 - 1862) came to Hawaii, and sent for his two daughters, Elizabeth and Annie, to join him in Honolulu.  He remarried to Wati in 1835 in Honolulu, at the Seaman's Bethel by Rev. Samuel Damon,  and had four sons, one - Owen Jones Holt (1842 - 1891) is buried in the vault.

HANAKAULANI 1842 - 1904

HOLT

OWEN JONES
HOLT
1866 - 1922

Owen Jones Holt, Junior (1866 - 1922) is buried here at this plot, along with his mother,   Hanakaulani-o-kamamalu (1843 - 1904).  The other gravestones here are his descendants and relatives. I'll list the names on the other stones in this plot:

Daniel Lorenzen Holt
Richard Harding Holt "Uncle Mick"
C. Vickars Holt "Kepoikai"
Emma Daniels Holt
John D. Holt  (1861 - 1916)
James R. Holt and Katherine C. Holt
Herbert Marshall Pereira
Hanakaulani Ahulii Ferreira
Hanakaulani
John D. Holt (1885 - 1950) and May Ellen Bailey
Samuel N. Holt
Erminie Holt MacKenzie
Ellen Holt Finlay
John Dominis Holt IV (1919 - 1993) and Frances Damon "Patches"
Lizzie H. Richardson
Arma P. Peelua
Elizabeth Richardson Hart
Owen Jone Holt

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Treasure Chest Thursday ~ A Queen's photo albums

"The Royal Album"
Endpaper of Photo Album 26

Unidentified Woman
Album 26

Unfortunately, lots of photograph albums are thrown away and lost.  But those of famous people are saved in archives and historical societies.  If you are lucky enough to be related to someone famous, or locally famous, you should search out these treasures.  I went to the Hawaii State Archives in Honolulu to see if there were any photo albums or single photographs of my great aunt Mary (Jones) Dominis, but didn't find any.  In the finding aids, and in discussions with the archivists, I found many photos of Queen Lili'uokalani, her daughter-in-law, in official files.  But they also told me that there were seven of her personal photograph albums in the vault.  This was my best bet for finding family photos.

Photo Album 28
We photographed the cover, and tag, of each album
They were old, fragile and historic, but the photos were
in very good condition considering their age. 

I brought my mother to the archives, since it was her grandmother who remembered meeting the Queen during her trip to Boston in 1897. The archivist told me that some photos were labeled, and the others are all unknown photos.  She asked if we could help identify some.  The relatives in the photos would be long dead people we wouldn't know, but we might recognize?  Fingers crossed we filled out the paperwork and waited for the albums to be pulled from the files.

"Holt, John Dominis"
Photo Album 26
[John Dominis Holt (1844 - 1922) died in Oxford, England
son of Robert William Holt and his 2nd wife, Caroline Tawati Robinson.
He was named after his uncle,  Captain John Dominis, the
husband of my 4x great Aunt Mary Jones) 

"Owen J. Holt"
Photo Album 26
[son of Robert William Holt and his 2nd wife Caroline Tauwati Robinson,
named after his first wife's (my 4x great aunt Ann Marie Jones) father,
Owen Jones b. 1768 in Wales and died 1850 in Boston]

It was very strange looking through these very personal albums.  There were photos of Lilioukalani's dogs, and her friends and relatives.  Then suddenly there would be photos of crowned heads from Europe, and we were reminded that she was more than a relative, she was a royal person herself!  Photograph album 29 had her entire genealogy, including photos going back to the Kamehameha's and earlier ali'i in her lineage.  Then we would be looking at dogs, flowers and relatives again!

"Mrs. William Lee" by Sarony's Studio, NY
Photo Album 26

We found many relatives.  Some were easily identified even by nicknames.  Some had us stumped because women would be listed by their husband's names only, such as our mystery photography of "Mrs. William Lee".  Our cousin, the Boston publisher William Lee, had two wives.  Which one was this?  His second wife, Sarah (White) Lee, wrote many letters to the Queen and hosted a grand party for her in Boston in 1897.  Possibly this is Sara?

I had a phone consultation with genealogist Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, about this photo.  She is certain that it dates from the mid-1870s and shows a very wealthy, well dressed woman between 30 to 50 years old.  Wife #1 was Anna M. T. Leavitt, born 1819 in Hampton, New Hampshire and died in 1883.  She married William Lee in 1861, and in the mid-1870s she would have been about 50 years old.  Wife #2 was Sarah White, born in 1849 in Hillsdale, New York and died in 1925.  She married William Lee in 1888 and in the mid-1870s she would have been in about thirty years old.  If anyone knows of a photograph of wife, I would love to compare it to this photo to see which wife this is!  I've never seen a photo of either woman, so this would be a great clue.

"Georgie Holt"
Photo Album 24
[George Hoonewaneewa Holt (1868 - 1929) son of Owen Jones Holt]

"Mr. Aldrich"
Photo Album 26
[William Arnold Aldrich (1824 - 1892) husband to Elizabeth M. Holt,
daughter of Robert William Holt and Ann Marie S. Jones (my 4x great aunt)
He was born in Westmoreland, New Hampshire ] 

My husband patiently photographed every page of all seven photo albums, and took closeup photos of the ones we knew or suspected to be relatives.  In looking through letters in the archives there are many references to "I'm sending a photograph" or "Did you get the photograph?" and I hope to match up some of these, but it is an almost impossible task since I never met these folks, and they all died almost 100 years ago.  But it is a project we can work on slowly over time, and hope that more clues will become available.

Hawaii State Archives http://hawaii.gov/dags/archives

All these photographs are from the Hawaii State Archives, Photographic Albums, Queen Lili'uokalani Collections, Albums 24 - 30, from the Lili'uokalani Estate 1921.

Maureen Taylor, "The Photo Detective" http://www.maureentaylor.com/

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

A memorial for Annie Marie Holt, Hawaii, 1851

Annie's memorial stone
installed at Oahu Cemetery, 5 July 2012

In March I blogged about a fundraising effort to raise a memorial for Oahu Cemetery for Annie Marie Holt, who died there in 1851 at the tender age of nineteen.  She had sailed from Boston with her sister to be reunited with her father, Robert William Holt.  Annie died soon after her ship, the Gentoo,  landed in Honolulu.  Annie was the first Holt to be buried at the Oahu Cemetery.  Now there are generations of Holts and other family members buried with her.

Annie's mother,  Anne Marie (Jone) Holt also died young at age 21 leaving two baby daughters.  She was the sister to my 4x great grandmother, Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger, who died young at age 27 after having at least four children.  Annie Marie Holt in Hawaii was my first cousin, five generations removed.

The fundraising effort was a great success.  In fact, Charles Holt, who was in charge of the memorial, was afraid of raising too much money!  He had to close the fundraiser after just a few weeks, since he already had more than enough to buy and install a nice memorial stone and bronze plaque.  The leftovers will be used for leis, and a celebration with the rest of the Holt family coming soon.

Since the Holt family is spread all over the Hawaiian islands, and all over the continental United States as far as Boston, technology was a great part of this fundraiser.  Email sent the word out quickly, and PayPal was used to collect the donations.  A website was set up for everyone to track the fundraiser, and to share stories and photos.  A Facebook group for the Holt family had already been up and running for a long time before the fundraiser, but regular updates were posted there, with links to the website and comments from Charles Holt and all the Holt Ohana.

I've never seen a family association jump into a project with such enthusiasm.  In a few weeks the money was raised, and in a few months the memorial was ordered, cast and delivered. On July 5, 2012, the stone was installed at Oahu Cemetery in the spot believed to be where Annie was buried in 1851, next to the current Holt family plot along the wall at Nu'uanu Avenue.  I hope to visit this spot this fall when I return to Hawaii.

To see the webpage about Annie's memorial, click here:
http://www.hawaiiholts.com/Intermission.html

To read my blog post from March 2012 about Annie Marie Holt's memorial fundraiser:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/03/annie-maria-holt-1832-1851.html

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson

1865 Dear Auntie

San Francisco, Jan. 22th, 1865

Dear Auntie,

I have got your letter,

you told me to tell you what I got on

Christmas, I got a doll, it was dressed like

redriding hood, a little wash tub and board,

a pair of gloves, a basket, and a pair of

gold sleeve buttons.  Mama has had a fire

ever since she has been here.  Mama has

a blue silk, with tails way down to the

bottom of her dress.  Mrs. Chase sent us

some pictures of our house.  On Saturday

I went to the circus.  We go to ride almost

every day.  I go to school.  I love some

friends boarding here.  Give my love

to Lydia, Jhon, Tom and Willie.

            Good bye from Annie B. Aldrich

This letter is especially poignant because it is January and nine year old Annie writes that her mother, who has recently removed from Hawaii to San Francisco “has had a fire ever since she has been here.”  This isn’t just because her mother was chilly after the move from warm Hawaii.  Her mother must have been ill, because she was dead by October of the same year.

Annie's letter is to her Aunt Mary (Jones) Dominis, sister to my 3rd great grandmother Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger, and sister to Annie's mother, Ann Marie (Jones) Holt.  She states that Mary wanted to know about her Christmas presents.  This is a lovely detail, because Mary is famous for bringing Christmas traditions to Honolulu from Boston.  She was known as the first person to have a Christmas tree in Hawaii.  You can read about that story at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/12/advent-calendar-christmas-in-hawaii.html 

Little Annie spells her cousin John’s name incorrectly “Jhon” just like in the last letter I transcribed.  You can read Annie’s other letter at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/05/amanuensis-monday-nine-year-old-girl.html     John’s wife, Lydia, is the future Queen Lili’uokalani.

Annie’s lineage:

Generation 1: Owen Jones, born about 1735 in Wales, died 28 February 1798 in Aberstwyth, Wales, married Anne Unknown.  Two children, Owen and Anne Jones, born 17 Feb 1769 in Boston, Massachusetts  and died 18 February 1791 in Aberstwyth.   My 6x great grandparents.

Generation 2: Owen Jones, born about 1768 in Wales, died 22 Apri 1850 in Dorchester, Massachusetts; married on 11 May 1793 at the 2^nd Baptist Church, Boston to Elizabeth Lambert.  She was born about 1775 in Boston, died 6 February 1834 in Boston.  My 5x great grandparents.  Eight children.

Generation 3.  Ann Marie Jones, born about 1811, died on 15 August 1832 in Boston; married on 7 October 1829 in Boston to Robert William Holt.  He was born about 1792 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England and died 6 July 1862 in  Honolulu, Hawaii.   My 4x great uncle and aunt.  They had two daughters.

Generation 4:  Elizabeth M. Holt, born about 1830 in Boston, died 27 October 1865 in Piedmont, California; married on 25 December 1854 at Washington Place, in Honolulu to William Arnold Aldrich, born 27 March 1824 at Westmoreland, New Hampshire, died 3 March 1892.  Elizabeth is my first cousin 5 generations removed. Four children.

Generation 5:  Anne B. Aldrich, born about 1856 in Hawaii; married Willard T. Barton. Two children born in San Francisco.  Annie is the author of the letter, and my 2^nd cousin 4 generations removed.

Hawaii State Archives, Queen Lili'uokalani Collections,
M-93, Box 11, Folder 93
Letter from Annie Aldrich to Mary Dominis, 22 January 1865

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "1865 Dear Auntie", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 4, 2012, (  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/06/1865-dear-auntie.html: accessed [access date]). 

Annie Maria Holt (1832 - 1851)

A mockup of how the Annie Holt plaque
will look after it is cast in bronze

Calling all descendants of Hawaii Holts! 

Announcing a family fundraising project that we hope you will be a part of.

Please go to www.hawaiiholts.com to learn more and hopefully donate a little to the cause!

Just a few years ago it was discovered that one of Robert William Holt's daughters lay in an unmarked grave in Oahu Cemetery. Various family members thought it would be appropriate to place a marker in her honor and to mark her final resting place.

So that as many family members as possible can participate, we have created a website that will be launched today (March 26, 2012 Prince Kuhio Day) where you can learn more about this ancestor and more about the project.

Committee Members

Charles T. Holt (Edward Holt)

Keith Ridley (Elizabeth Holt Richardson)

Chelsea Pirker (Elizabeth Holt Aldrich)

Owen J. Holt Jr. (George Holt)

Heather Rojo (Jones family of Boston)

Gretchen Killeen (James Robinson Holt II)

Hilulani Holt-Hansen (Owen Holt II)

Chris Holt Curnan (Christopher Holt)

from the website:


"Boston, early 1830s:  Robert William Holt's first wife, Ann Jones, dies, leaving him the single father of 2 young daughters, Elizabeth and Annie Holt.   When his brother-in-law, Captain John Dominis, asks him to come along on a voyage to the "Sandwhich Islands," Robert W Holt leaves Elizabeth and Annie with his late wife's family which includes three of his late wife's five sisters.  Whether he intended to send for them later or not, we don't know, but the girls remain in Boston for the next 18 years.  

Although the girls grew up fatherless, they no doubt heard about their father from their Aunt Mary Jones Dominis, wife of Captain John Dominis, who also lived in Honolulu.    Still, traveling to Hawaii at that time was no easy task.  Federated states existed only from the eastern seaboard to the Mississippi with California (1850) and Texas (1845) having just recently joined the Union.  The areas from the Mississippi to California were unorganized, undeveloped and unsafe.  The "easiest" way for two young women to get from Boston to Hawaii was to sail around South America and the infamous Cape Horn. 

Even for seasoned sailors of the 1800s, making it around Cape Horn was a high achievement.   From Wikipedia;  "A sailor who had rounded the Horn was entitled to wear a gold loop earring — in the left ear, the one which had faced the Horn in a typical eastbound passage — and to dine with one foot on the table;  A sailor who had sailed around Cape Horn was also able to brag by showing off his tattoo of a full-rigged ship.   One particular historic attempt to round the Horn, that of HMS Bounty in 1788, has been immortalized in history in the novel, Mutiny on the Bounty. This abortive Horn voyage has been portrayed (with varying historical accuracy) in three major motion pictures about Captain William Bligh's mission to transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti to Jamaica. The Bounty made only 85 miles of headway in 31 days of east-to-west sailing before giving up, by reversing course, and going around Africa." 

In the summer of 1850, these two young Holt sisters set out on a treacherous 5 month voyage aboard the sailing ship, Gentoo, for the sole purpose of reuniting with their father.   There was no refrigeration.  There was fresh water for drinking but not for showering.  There was no external communication.  They arrived in Honolulu harbor on January 13, 1851 and took up residence with their Aunt Mary Jones Dominis at Washington Place.  

Unfortunately, and with scarce details of the circumstances, Annie Maria Holt died in March of 1851, just a few months after arriving in Honolulu.  She died at home at Washington Place where her funeral was also held.  She was buried at Oahu Cemetery the same day, which could suggest that she died from a communicable disease such as tuberculosis or influenza.   Annie Maria Holt was the first Holt to be buried in Oahu Cemetery.   

Sometime in the 1920s, the roads within and around Oahu Cemetery were widened to accommodate the new automobiles in addition to the old horse and buggies.  When that was done, dozens of individuals were moved from their original burial places to other areas within the cemetery.  Oahu Cemetery records show that Annie Maria Holt was moved to an area across Nuuanu Avenue, not far from the Hanakaulani Holt plot -- along the stone wall that borders present day Nuuanu Memorial Park near the Cunha family plot. If there was an original grave marker, it was likely damaged since it was in a location prone to foot, horse, buggy and automobile traffic.  With no direct descendants to tend to her grave site, Annie Maria Holt's final resting place has been unmarked for at least 90 years.   With no direct descendants, we are her only family."

Hawaii's Holt Family

Robert William Holt
1800 - 1862

About ten years ago, through a genealogy bulletin board, I made contact with Lisa Holt who was also searching for clues on the Jones sisters who married in Boston and went to Hawaii.  Her ancestors were Robert William Holt and his wife Ann Marie Jones, married in 1829.  She was the sister of my 4x great grandmother, Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger.  Another sister, Mary Lambert Jones, married Captain John Dominis, and also went to Hawaii, never to live in Boston again.  Anne Marie had two daughters, yet died before Holt went to Hawaii, where he remarried.   I knew I had some distant cousins in Hawaii, and some “calabash cousins”* from the Holt second marriage.

You can read about this more at this post, such an interesting story it inspired my blog (my very first post!)  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/07/hawaii-boston-connection-to-royal.html   Since then I've blogged a lot about the Holts, Joneses, Dominises and other families in Hawaii and Boston.  You can see the links in the right hand column, and click on them to read these posts.   With Lisa Holt, and Corinne Chun of Washington Place, other Holt descendants and much research I've been able to piece together how I was related to this interesting piece of American History.  I also found how two more Jones sisters stayed in Boston, but still participated in Hawaiian history (one had a publisher son, William Lee, who printed Queen Lili'uokalani's biography, and another married the man, Snelling,  who shipped the windows, doors, etc. for buildingWashington Place).

Two years ago I reconnected with descendants of the Dominis family, and we met in Massachusetts and in Hawaii.   While in Hawaii  last year I met up with several calabash cousins descended of Holt and his second wife, and they all welcomed me as warmly as my full cousins.  In Hawaii we are all considered “ohana” (family) and the warmth of extended family was overwhelming.   Last month I connected with another cousin via Facebook, a descendant of one of Ann Marie’s daughters.  We met up during my vacation in California, and went to dinner together.  It was fun to meet up with full cousins and non-cousins related to the family in Hawaii.

Just a few weeks ago, Lisa Holt started her own website at this link http://www.sightandsoundkaraoke.com/genealogy/holtTree/index.php

She reconnected with me via Facebook when she found a newspaper clipping via GenealogyBank that was an obituary for Robert William Holt published in the “Friend”, 9 August 1862 in Honolulu, Hawaii.  It listed him as a native of Liverpool, England, which was a terrific find. 

She also found this marriage record in the "Rhode Island American, 29 October 1829, Providence, Rhode Island...

It was about this time that Lisa began to mine Facebook for Holts.  She said she started with family members and their lists of friends and family members, and expanded out from there, searching lists for Holts in Hawaii, and moving on to the allied lines and married names of daughters.   Then she asked me if there should be a group for Holts on Facebook, for discussion, photos and genealogy.  I didn’t know how many Holts she would find, since most of the cousins and calabash cousins I know weren’t on Facebook.  She went ahead and started the group.  I added only two or three names.

Suddenly, within six hours there were 80 people on the Holt group.  I was amazed.  Everyone participated with a roll call naming their parents and often grandparents and siblings.  People began to post wonderful photos from the 1800, of people I had never seen before in photographs.   By this morning there were 131 people on line and a long waiting list for approval, sharing stories, posting lineages, offering scans of books, and reconnecting with cousins they hadn’t seen in years, and often with cousins they had never met!  These Holt descendants come from Hawaii, the mainland USA, England, and even Germany.

I’ve never seen a family group respond with such enthusiam.  I belong to several other family groups on Facebook, including “Descendants of John Howland”, and “Descendants of Edward Doty from the Mayflower”, and there are less active members (and less posts and participation!)  This group is strictly by invitation only, but if you are a descendant of Robert William Holt, or a “calabash cousin” like me, ask to join up, too, at “Hawaii’s Holts” at this link https://www.facebook.com/groups/253651931332203/

Thanks, Lisa!  It seems that just a few years ago I didn’t know about this branch, and now I have added over 1000 names in my family tree because of this connection.

Holt Genealogy:

Owen Jones    m.      Elizabeth Lambert
(abt 1768 - 1850)     (abt 1775 - 1834)
                     |
       Ann Marie Jones m. Robert William Holt   m. Caroline Tauwati Robinson
(abt 1811 - 1832)          (abt 1800 - 1862)         (abt 1815 - 1891)
                     |                                                                    |
            Elizabeth Holt                              Four sons 1.  Robert Lawrence Holt (1836 - 1847)
m. William Arnold Aldrich                             2. James Robinson Holt m. M. Luukia
                     |                                               3. Owen Jones Holt m. Hanakaulani-o-kamamalu
Four children:                                                4. John Dominis Holt m. Hannah Auld
      1. William Holt Aldrich m. Minnie Choate Brown
      2. Anne Aldrich m. Willard Barton
      3. Helen Aldrich m. William Dunning
      4. George Albert Aldrich

Note:  The second daughter of Ann Marie Jones and Robert William Holt died soon after reaching Hawaii in 1851.  She died at age 19 and recently her grave was found and a new memorial installed.  See this blog post http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-memorial-for-annie-marie-holt-hawaii.html

*Calabash Cousin (from Wikipedia) "In Hawaii, a calabash is a large serving bowl, usually made from a hardwood ... It is used on a buffet table or in the middle of the dining table. The use of the calabash in Hawaii has led to terms like "calabash family" or "calabash cousins", indicating an extended family grown up around shared meals and close friendships. Food is very important in modern Hawaiian culture. The expression "e komo mai - Come, let's eat" was the standard welcome to anyone approaching a home."
 

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Genealogy Trip to Hawaii, Day One

Finally, we see Washington Place in person!

This is a description of my family history related visit to Hawaii for the past two weeks. We arrived Honolulu in the early evening, bleary eyed and exhausted, so to me the Hawaii trip really started on Day Two. Our first night we checked into a hotel on Waikiki Beach, ate a bite for dinner, and I took a dip in the pool. Later, whilst walking along Waikiki Beach hubby took a dip in the ocean, too. We went to bed early. Little did I know that I would be so busy, I would only have time to swim two more times in the next two weeks!

The next day we were up early for a ten o’clock appointment at Washington Place in downtown Honolulu. This is the home Captain John Dominis built for his Boston wife, Mary Lambert Jones. Their son, Governor John Owen Dominis lived there with his wife, Lili’uokalani. It became the Queen’s residence after she was forced from the throne, and her adopted son John Aimoku Dominis lived there also. His three children were all born at Washington Place.

I’ve had an ongoing online email conversation with the Washington Place curator, Corinne Chun for several years. Corinne saw my posting on line for information related to Mary Dominis, and she sent me copies of several very good letters from the Hawaii State Archives that helped further my research in to the Jones sisters. You can read about this in some of my early blog posts last year. It was very nice to meet her in person.

We were able to tour the house, sit on the lanai and chat, and go up to Corinne’s office (the old governor’s bedroom) for more chatting and exchanging information. I saw the Queen’s bedroom, which had been lovingly restored, some of her personal effects, and other family mementos. It was very moving to be in Washington Place after reading about it for thirty years! We didn’t leave until 1:30 in the afternoon, and I was quite surprised that Corinne would spend so much time with me!

Corinne Chun, curator, me and a photo of

Queen Lili'uokalani with Aimoku's two eldest children

on the lanai of Washington Place

After leaving Washington Place, we met a Dominis cousin at her place of business and made arrangements to meet again with her the following week. This was as much fun to me as seeing Washington Place. I had previously met up with her sister last year in Massachusetts. We were surprised to see that Washington Place was right across the street from the Hawaii State Capitol building, and one block from the Iolani Palace and Hawaii State Archives. Everything was very close together and easy to find.

Our next step was to cross the island of Oahu for the North Shore community of Haleiwa. This is the town where the Queen Lili’uokalani Protestant Church is located. I had blogged about it at http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/12/rev-john-smith-emerson.html last year. I was meeting another distant cousin there in the church cemetery. We arrived a bit early, so I knocked on the pastor’s door for permission to view the church. Reverend Kahu Neal MacPherson was very gracious, and showed us around a bit, but it was only his second day at the church! The church secretary gave us a wonderful tour.

The church was organized in 1832 by the Reverend John Smith Emerson of Chester, New Hampshire. He was another distant cousin who arrived with the Fifth Company missionaries to the Sandwich Island. Just by coincidence, Chester is only one town away from Londonderry, where I now live. The first church was a grass hut, attended by over 2,000 native Hawaiians. The first actual building was erected about 1841 with a bell carried on the shoulders of Hawaiian men from Honolulu to Haleiwa. The third church was built in 1890, and this was the building attended by Queen Lili’uokalani when she stayed at her nearby beach house. She donated the chandeliers, books and the famous clock. In 1961 the current building was erected. The bell still hangs in the tower above the front door.

It was fun to finally “meet” my cousin, who had been my internet pen pal for several years. She has supplied me with much information on the Holt family, descendants of a third Jones sister. She also is the person who has been telling me about the Queen Lili’uokalani church for years, and we together laid some leis on the graves of the Emerson family. It was another emotional moment. We happily made plans to get together at Iolani Palace the following week.

We went home the long way, driving all along the north shore coast and returning to Honolulu through the very scenic mountain pass of the Wilson tunnel. The green, steep, volcanic mountains could take your breath away with their beauty, and the beaches were picturesque beyond description.

We knew that there was going to be an event at the Iolani Palace at 7PM that evening for a panel discussion for the recently released movie “Princess Kaiulani”. I had seen the movie, and blogged about it several times earlier this year. We didn’t know if we’d be home to Honolulu in time, but we actually drove up to Iolani Palace right at 6:30 PM, just in time to get a seat right next to my Honolulu cousin!

The panel discussion was chaired by Nanette Napoleon of the Iolani Palace; Desoto Brown of the Bishop Museum; Leo Anderson Akana (she played the Queen in the movie); Jeffery Au and Richard Galindez, producers, and moderated by Wanda Adams formerly of the Honolulu Advertiser. Blaine Kamalani Kia and Sonny Kalua sang a feature song from the film. I was fascinated by the presentation, and equally admired the passion of the Hawaiian people who questioned, complimented and also skewered certain historical points in the movie.

Desoto Brown (standing) archivist from the Bishop Museum

We didn’t leave the discussion until after 10:30 PM. We were exhausted and fell into bed. What a full first day in Hawaii!

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Chronicling America and Hawaiian Cousins

If you arrived at this post via the website www.nhgsoc.com (The Native Hawaiian Genealogy Society) please look at the right hand column for keywords such as HAWAII or DOMINIS to click and find over 50 other blog posts about Hawaiian genealogy.


According to fellow genealogy blogger, Randy Seaver, “Genealogy Research is like a box of chocolates- you never know what you’re going to find….” Well, Randy, not only do I like your quote, but I like the Library of Congress “Chronicling America” website you wrote about last week.

At the Chronicling America search page, you can find newspapers from 1880 to 1922 from only the following states: Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington. There is also a search directory to find out about newspapers on line from the United States from 1690 to the present. This will point you to other libraries and websites that carry online newspapers.

My ancestry is 95% New England back to the 1600’s, so I was initially disappointed at the list of states. Then I remembered that I had cousins in Hawaii in the 1800s. I’ve been researching the Dominis, Holt and Jones families of Hawaii for several years, trying to find all the Boston connections. Newspapers have been a huge part of this, and usually I go down to Boston to look at microfilms. Now I had the chance to stay home by in New Hampshire in my PJs and continue this research on Hawaii….

First, let me say that these families were certainly newsworthy people. My 4x great grandmother, Catherine Plummer Jones, had a sister, Mary Lambert Jones, who became the mother-in-law to Queen Lili’uokalani. I’ve read biographies, the Queen’s autobiography, local history books, and the Boston newspaper accounts of the Queen’s visits to Boston. The Boston press was not supportive of the Queen, especially after she lost the throne in 1893. During her visit after being deposed, the newspaper accounts were even less flattering. They were racially prejudiced against the marriage, and supported the United States taking over the sovereign nation of Hawaii.

However, to read about Mary Lambert (Jones) Dominis in the Hawaiian newspapers was very different from the views expressed in the Boston papers. I was able to find Mary’s obituary from 1889, and the descriptions of her state funeral. This was the mother of the Prince Consort, and she was also one of the first American women to build a home in Honolulu. I blogged about her in my very first blog back in July 2009, and again at Christmas time about her hosting the very first Christmas party with a Christmas Tree in Honolulu.

I also found an article reporting on a celebration of Mary Lambert (Jones) Dominis’s 50th anniversary in residence in Honolulu: “Reception to a Worthy Lady: Saturday last was the fiftieth anniversary of the arrival at these Islands of Mrs. Mary Dominis, mother of the Lieutenant-General John O. Dominis, and the event was fittingly observed by her numerous friends. Mrs. Dominis has continued to reside here-with the exception of a visit to Boston, in December 1841, returning to the islands in March, 1843- since her first landing on the Islands. An interesting letter, partly in this connection from the pen of the Hon. S. N. Castle appears in this issue. At 8 o’clock a. m. the venerable lady was serenaded by the Hawaiian Band, which continued to discourse sweet music on the premises throughout the day. At half-past 2 o’clock Mrs. Dominis held a reception, which was continued until close on to 6 o’clock, and a constant stream of friends and visitors called to pay their respects and tender their congratulations to this much respected lady, who received them all graciously and made them all welcome. A large number of the leading citizens of Honolulu were present, among whom were noticed Hon. A. S. Cleghorn and the Princess Ka’iulani, also the members of the Diplomatic and Consular corps. During the afternoon light refreshments were served to all present. From “The Hawaiian Gazette (Honolulu) 1865 -1918, April 26, 1887, page 8.

I found these articles to be of great value in identifying more extended family. The Mr. Archibald Cleghorn mentioned above was married to Queen Liliuokalani’s sister, and Princess Ka’iulani (Cleghorn’s daughter) would have been her niece. I blogged about Ka’iuulani a few months ago. She would have been Queen Lili’uokalani’s heir to the throne. At the time of this party, Lili’uokalani was still a just a princess, and her brother was the King. Later Washington Place, her home where this party took place, became the residence of the Governor of Hawaii.

In the above article, there is a reference to a letter from a Mr. Castle. I haven’t identified him yet, but his letter stated: “It is stated that since that time she has not left the island. On the 3d day of December, 1841, she embarked on the Ship Wm. Gray, Capt. Stickney, for Boston. On the 18th, fifteen days out, at 2 o’clock a. m., it being a bright starlight night, the ship barely escaped being wrecked upon Pennryhn Island. She arrived at her destination April 28, 1842. Mrs. Dominis returned to Honolulu in the bark Behring, Capt. B. F. Snow, sailing from Boston Nov. 2d, 1842, and arriving at Honolulu March 17th, 1843. Captain Dominis finally left the Islands in the brig Henry Neilson on the 5th day of August 1846, instead of 1848, as per Polynesian of Aug. 8, 1846. The writer was a fellow passenger with Mrs. Dominis and her son by both the Gray and Behring ….. S. N. Castle -April 25, 1887” also from The Hawaiian Gazette (Honolulu) 1865 -1918, April 26, 1887, page 8

I don’t know much about Mary Dominis’s trip to Boston in 1841-3, but I know that she had left two school aged daughters at home in Schenectady, New York to be educated while she went to Hawaii with her husband Captain Dominis. One daughter died in 1838 at about age 12, and the other died in January 1842, also at about age 12, just before she arrived in Boston. Did she know about their illnesses and try to come home to see the second little girl before she passed away? How sad because Mary lost her husband just three years later, in 1846.

Another newspaper article described her funeral in 1889. “Interment took place at the Nuuanu Cemetery. The chief mourners were Hon. John O. Dominis and Princess Liliuokalani, and Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Aldrich. The pall-bearers were Hons. H. A. Wildemann, W. F. Allen, C. P. Iaukea, S. Parker, and M. P. Robinson, and Messrs. S. C. Allen, J. O. Carter and A. Herbert.” The Hawaiian Gazette (Honolulu) 1865-1918, April 30, 1889, front page. Allen and Robinson are names from the extended family. My Mom was an Allen. Now I only have to decipher the initials, and figure out who might have been in Hawaii at this time period. Iaukaea and Wildemann were government officials. This article told me the cemetery she was buried at, and the place where the funeral was held. The rest of the article of the attendants had the names Dominis, Holt, etc. and gave me further clues about the extended family.

Later this year I will be visiting Honolulu for the first time. I will be the first person in my lineage from the Mary’s sister to go to Honolulu, in over 100 years. I will be looking for the Nuuanu Cemetery, Washington Place and other sights I uncover through these newspaper articles. Randy, I’ll be reading more newspapers tonight in my PJs!


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Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

The Library of Congress Home Page http://www.loc.gov/index.html

Randy Seaver’s “Genea-Musings” Blog www.geneamusings.com and his posting on Chronicling America Genea-Musings: Using the Library of Congress "Chronicling America" Site

Photo of Washington Place, Honolulu, former home of Captain John Dominis and his wife Mary Lambert Jones, their son and daughter and law, Governor John Owen Dominis and Queen Lili'uokalani of Hawaii, and some of their descendants.

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Christmas in Hawai'i 1858

A recent Christmas Tree at
Washington Place, Honolulu

My great aunt (sister to my 4x great grandmother) was Mary Lambert Jones. She was born in Boston in 1803, married a sea captain, and removed to Chittenango, New York where her children were born. On April 23, 1837, aboard the bark “Jones” she arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii with her husband, Captain John Dominis, and their little boy, John Owen Dominis. They had left two daughters in New York at school. Her brother-in-law, Robert W. Holt preceded her to Hawaii, but her sister, Ann Marie, had died in Boston, and her own two young daughters died in New York before joining up with the rest of the family.

Captain Dominis was a trader who had traveled from Europe to North America, from Alaska, and to China. He wanted to build the finest house in the Pacific for his wife and family. She wanted a house in the New England style, and he wanted to furnish it with imported pieces from China. Windows, doors and trim work were imported from Boston, from the workshop of a great uncle Enoch Snelling, a North End glazier (married to another Jones sister). In 1846 Capt. Dominis left for a voyage to China to buy her items for the new house, and his ship disappeared. He was never heard from again.

Mrs. Dominis moved into the house in 1847 and, because of her reduced circumstances, she had to rent out rooms to dignitaries and visiting Americans. One boarder, Commissioner Anthony Ten Eyck, suggested the name “Washington Place” for her mansion, since it looked like the first president’s home at Mount Vernon. King Kamehameha III said "it has pleased His Majesty the King to ... command that they retain that name in all time coming." And so the name has remained as Washington Place for Aunt Mary’s house.

In 1862 her son moved his new bride into his mother’s home at Washington Place. Her name was Lydia Kamaka‘eha Paki. After her mother-in-law’s death in 1889, Mrs. John Owen Dominis was also known as Princess Lili’uokalani, who became the Queen and last monarch of Hawai’i in 1891. Washington Place was her home during her monarchy, and since 1921 it has become the home of the Hawaiian Governors. It is now a museum in Honolulu, open to the public for tours.

Washington Place is a much beloved landmark in Honolulu, but it is also famous for being one of the first places where Christmas was celebrated in Hawai’i. The New England missionaries in Hawai’i were descendants of Puritans. In the Calvinist tradition Christmas was not celebrated, especially not with Christmas trees and parties. But Aunt Mary was not a missionary, and she was the daughter of a Welsh immigrant to Boston.  On Christmas Eve in 1858 Mary Dominis brought 100 children to Washington Place to see her Christmas tree and Santa delivered gifts to each child. The Christmas tree was an imported Douglas fir. The children were later sent home and the parents held a grand ball and dinner. The missionaries frowned on her display, but it was the beginning of a Victorian Christmas tradition in Hawaii. Four years later, in 1862, the same year that John Owen Dominis married his royal bride, King Kamehameha IV proclaimed Christmas a national holiday in the Kingdom of Hawai’i. The current curator of Washington Place, Corinne Chun, said that Mary Dominis’s Christmas tree may have been the first Christmas tree in Hawai’i.

In 1863 there was another Victorian era style Christmas celebration at the home of Elizabeth Holt Aldrich, the daughter of Robert W. Holt, and niece of Mary Dominis. It is described in a series of articles written for the Honolulu Star Bulletin named “The Fabulous Holts.” Article number 17 is titled “An Aldrich Christmas” and it outlines how Elizabeth Aldrich had a Christmas tree arranged by building a wooden form and decorating it with maile and fern wreaths. Colored candles, toys and dolls were hung on the tree. There were 18 different dollies dressed in handmade outfits. According to the article “Thirty-eight children and forty adults attended the Aldrich party at 7 p.m. Christmas. The children let out many squeals of delight when the parlor folding doors were opened to display the lighted tree. Elizabeth Aldrich took Puritan Maria Rice to attend Episcopalian Christmas Eve services and the two hour high church service on Christmas day. Maria Rice thought the lighted candles and singing were beautiful.” Maria Rice was the wife of missionary William Harrison Rice who had come to Hawai’i in the ninth missionary company.

I recently received a very fun email from a distant cousin in Hawai’i, a Holt descendant. We were comparing notes on how we celebrated Christmas- she in the warm Pacific and me here in chilly New Hampshire. She said that the cousins and whole family had a large outdoor party, and last year they counted 108 people for dinner, and more arrived for additional celebrating later in the evening. I guess Christmas is a tradition that is still going strong in Hawai’i! Maybe someday I can experience a Hawaiian Christmas!

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Jones/Dominis Family Tree

Gen. 1: Owen Jones, born about 1735 in Wales, died 28 February 1798; married to Anne (maiden name unknown) served as a customs inspector for some time in Boston where his daughter, Anne was born in 1769.  My 6th great grandparents.

Gen. 2. Owen Jones, born about 1768 in Wales, died 22 April 1850 in Dorchester, Massachusetts; married on 11 May 1793 at the 2nd Baptist Church in Boston to Elizabeth Lambert, born about 1775 in Boston, died on 6 February 1834 in Boston. Eight children.  My 5th great grandparents.

Gen. 3: Mary Lambert Jones, born 3 August 1803 in Boston, died 25 April 1889 in Honolulu, Hawaii; married on 9 October 1824 in Boston to Captain John Dominis, born in Trieste (now Slovenia) and died in 1846 at sea. Three children.  Mary is my 4th great aunt, sister to my 4th great grandmother, Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger (about 1799 - 1828).

Gen. 4: Governor John Owen Dominis, born on 10 March 1832 in Chittenango, New York, died on 27 August 1891 at Washington Place, Honolulu, Hawaii; married on 16 September 1862 in Honolulu to Lydia Kamekeha Lili’uokalani, daughter of Caesar Kaluaiku Kapa'akea and Analea Keohokalole, born on 2 September 1838 and died on 11 November 1917 at Washington Place, Honolulu, Hawaii. They had no children. John O. Dominis also had a relationship with Mary Purdy Aimoku, and one son.

Gen. 5: John Owen Aimoku Dominis, born 9 January 1883 in Honolulu, died on 7 July 1917 in Honolulu; married on 27 June 1911 in Honolulu to Sybil Francis McInerny, daughter of Edward Aylett McInerney and Rose Kapuakomela Wond. Three children.

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Sources:

“Hawaiian Annual for 1921” by Thomas G. Thrum, Honolulu, 1920 (see pages 59 – 60 for information on the first Christmas party)

Honolulu Star Bulletin “The Fabulous Holts” (date unknown)

http://hawaii.gov/govnat/washington_place/ Official Website of the Hawai’i Governor’s office

http://www.washingtonplacefoundation.org/  The Washington Place Foundation

See my blog post on July 27, 2009 for more information on the Jones family of Boston

The photo is courtesy of the Hawaiian Star Bulletin, 2002, showing the Christmas Tree at Washington Place for the annual Holiday public tour.

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Christmas in Hawai'i 1858", Nutfield Genealogy, posted December 7, 2009,  (  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/12/advent-calendar-christmas-in-hawaii.html: accessed [access date]).