The First Christmas Tree in Hawaii 1858

2002 Washington Place ballroom

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.  Aunt Mary’s two young daughters died in a boarding school in New York before joining up with the rest of the family in Hawaii.

Captain John Dominis was a trader who had traveled from Europe to North America, 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 Honolulu 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.  Perhaps when she lived in Chittenango, New York (near Schenectady) she learned how the Dutch celebrated Christmas. 

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 past 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.

An excerpt from a book about the first Christmas Tree party in Hawaii in 1858:

"Christmas passed off in good old fashioned style. The eve was ushered in by the assemblage of a large number of children and their parents at Washington Place, the mansion of Mrs. Dominis, where Santa Claus had given out that he would hold his court.... A magnificent Christmas Tree had been provided... and the little folks as they gathered about it...found it all lighted up with candles, and the branches bending with the weight of gifts. Prompt as old Father Time ever was, bells were heard at the windows... and in a moment old Santa Claus stood at the door before the youthful group, who greeted him with a volley of merry shouts. He was dressed in the garb in which children love to image the saintly old elf.  For an hour he bestowed his gifts with princely lavishness among the 100 children present, creating one of the happiest groups ever witnessed in Honolulu... who will long continue to talk of Santa Claus of Washington Place."  [from Hawaiian Annual for 1922, Thomas G. Thrum, compiler and publisher, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1921, page 60, available to view at Google Books.]

Washington Place, Honolulu, today

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Jones/Dominis Family Tree

Gen. 1: Owen Jones, born about 1735 in Wales, died 28 February 1798 and buried in Aberstwyth, Wales; 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 5 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.

Washington Place, Honolulu, with Queen Lili'uokalani in the late 1800s

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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) (This was a series of newspaper articles written about the Holt and Dominis families of Hawaii).

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

Paula Rath, “Recreating Hawai’i’s first Christmas Tree”, Honolulu Advertiser, ( http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Dec/03/il/il01a.html  December 3, 2004) 

And for the latest article I could find mentioning Mary Dominis’s Christmas Tree, here is one by Trustan Kekauoha, “Holiday Classic, with a Twist!”,  https://www.kaleookalani.org/3113/features/entertainment/holiday-classic-with-a-twist/ December 4, 2018.

This blog post is an update of one written originally on December 7, 2009:

https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/12/advent-calendar-christmas-in-hawaii.html

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To Cite/Link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “The First Christmas Tree in Hawaii 1858”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted December 19, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-first-christmas-tree-in-hawaii-1858.html: accessed [access date]). 

Just in Time for Summer ~ The Lawn Sprinker song written by a Queen

Liliuokalani at her house, Washington Place, in Honolulu, Hawaii

Ka Wiliwili Wai  (Twisting Water)

As I have written many time on this blog, Queen Liliuokalani (1838 - 1917) was a wonderful music composer, as were all four of her siblings.  One summer, as Queen Lili’uokalani was sitting on her lanai at Washington Place in Honolulu, she saw something new next door.  Her neighbor, Dr. McKibben had a newfangled lawn sprinkler!  The Queen watched the sprinkler spinning for a long time, and composed this tune.  This story was told to her lady in waiting, Mrs. Pukui.  I know I have been mesmerized by lawn sprinklers, and I can see this story in my mind's eye every time I hear this music. 

If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that the Queen married my first cousin 4 generations removed, John Owen Dominis (1832 - 1891) .  His parents built the house, Washington Place, in Honolulu, in the 1840s.  Many members of his mother's family, some of her sisters (but not her sister, Catherine, my 4th great grandmother who had died young before this time) sent the building materials from Boston for this house, which still stands. So this story is not just fun, it contains a lot of family history, too!

Music, photographs, and the history of household labor saving devices were all used to put this family history story together.  It took me a long time to find the book of Liliuokalani's music (see below).  I finally found it at the Iolani Palace gift shop in Honolulu.  Sometimes historic sites have hard to find books like this, or can order them for you. If you know one of your ancestors or family members composed music it can sometimes be difficult to find that music.  I'm still looking for any books or sheet music by my ancestor Caleb Rand Bill (1833 - 1902), the music professor from Salem, Massachusetts.

Queen Liliuokalani's music is very popular around the world. One of her compositions, Aloha 'Oe, has been recorded by everyone from Elvis Presley, to Disney, to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.  You might not think you've heard it, but if the tune played you would immediately recognize Aloha 'Oe. After I received my copy of The Queen's Songbook, I was happy to see that she wrote music about many ordinary things, love, friendship, her garden and... lawn sprinklers. 

Lyrics

E ka wiliwiliwai		O lawn sprinkler
Ko`iawe i ka la`i		Circling quietly
A heaha kau hana		What are you doing
E naue mâlie nei		As you silently revolve?
Hui:		Chorus:
Ei nei, ei nei		Say there, say there
’E poahi mai nei		You revolving object
Ahea, ahea		When, oh when
`Oe kaohi mai		Will you slow down
O kîpau o ia la		Unusually active
Ua nihinihi		Sending out sprays like rain
Ku`u iki iho ho`i		Lessen your speed
I inu aku au		That I may drink

You can hear the Galliard String Quartet play Ka Wiliwili Wai at this link (I have this CD “Songs of Liliuokalani” and it has some of the best recordings of her music):

http://aolradio.slacker.com/song/galliard-string-quartet/ka-wiliwili-wai-the-twisting-water-folksong

This music was also recorded by Yo Yo Ma on his CD “Obrigado Brazil”

If you prefer to hear it played on Hawaiian slack key guitar, here is a link to the song played by Atta Isaacs, Al Ka’ailau and Norman Isaacs at Spotify:

https://play.spotify.com/album/2EqUIQdBvRKDdQ71hoOx20

The Queen's Songbook, by Her Majesty Queen Lili'uokalani, Honolulu: Hui Hanai, 1999

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Just in Time for Summer ~ The Lawn Sprinker song written by a Queen", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 21, 2014, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/07/just-in-time-for-summer-lawn-sprinker.html: accessed [access date]). 

Washington Place ~ Needs your help!

Yours Truly, Mom and Husband at Washington Place
built for my 4x great aunt, Mary (Jones) Dominis

Most Americans have never heard of Washington Place.  It is a historic house in Honolulu built by Captain John Dominis for his Boston born wife in the 1840s.  At a time when most people were living in thatched huts, this enormous white mansion became a showplace.  No one knows why Capt. Dominis built such an impressive home, but within a short time of its construction he died at sea in 1846. His widow was reduced to taking in boarders to help cover the expenses of running such a big household.

Mary’s boarders were mostly Americans.  One of her first boarders was Anthony Ten Eyck, the American Commissioner to the islands.  Ten Eyck nicknamed the house “Washington Place” in a letter dated 22 February 1848, on an anniversary of George Washington’s birthday.  The name stuck when King Kamehameha III liked the name and wrote a royal decree retaining the name “in all time coming”.

Mary Lambert Jones was born in Boston on 3 August 1803.  She married Captain John Dominis in Boston on 9 October 1824.  He was a native of Trieste, Italy, which is now in Slovenia.  Mary was the sister of my 4x great grandmother, Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger.  When she was building the house in Hawaii, she enlisted the aid of her brother-in-law, Enoch Howes Snelling, to send the windows and doors from Boston.  Enoch, a glazier in Boston’s North End, was married to another sister, Sarah Dargue Jones.

The glass in the windows and doors of Washington Place
were sent from Boston by Enoch H. Snelling, husband of my 4x great aunt

For some unknown reason, the Dominises removed from Boston to Schenectady, New York where their three children were born.  Mary lived with the family of Reverend Christopher Yates while Captain Dominis went on many voyages to the Pacific.

 In 1837 they sailed on board the bark Jones to Honolulu, leaving two young daughters, Mary, age 12, and Frances, age 8, at school in Schenectady.  They brought their little son, John Owen Dominis, age 5, with them to Honolulu.   The year after they left Mary died in Schenectady, and in 1842 Francis also died.  Mary Dominis traveled back to Boston and New York in 1843, but her daughters were already laid to rest in the Yates family plot at the Vale Cemetery, Schenectady.  It is hard to imagine her loss.

But Mary returned to live in Honolulu, and raised her son there.  John Owen Dominis became the governor of Oahu and Maui.  He married Lydia Kamekeha Paki in 1862, the daughter of an ali’i family.  She became Princess Liliuokalani and later the last Queen of Hawaii.  After the Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown, she made Washington Place her permanent home. Liliuokalani lived there for the rest of her life, and died in her bedroom there on 11 November 1917.  She had lived there for 55 years.

A portrait of Queen Liliuokalani graces the dining room inside Washington Place

Washington Place was bought from the Queen’s estate by the legislature of Hawaii in 1921.  It became the governor’s mansion for the territorial and state governors of Hawaii until 2002 when a new governor’s mansion was built.  It is now a historic house museum, and the site of official events for the state of Hawaii, such as parties, press conferences, and official visits from heads of states. Tours are free, and available by appointment.

Although Washington Place is owned by the state of Hawaii, the funds for maintenance and upkeep are raised by the private Washington Place Foundation.  The house is now 171 years old, and the tropical climate has caused several maintenance problems which will be expensive to repair.  With state cutbacks and economic measures being what they are now, the house museum is seeking additional donations towards major structural repairs.  To make a donation please make a check payable to:

The Washington Place Foundation

PO Box 873

Honolulu, HI 96808

For more information on Washington Place:

Washington Place, A First Lady's Story,  by  Jean Hayashi Ariyoshi,  Honolulu, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, 2004

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

A previous blog post about Washington Place
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/12/advent-calendar-christmas-in-hawaii.html 

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Highlights of my Research Trip to Hawaii

1. Bringing my Mom and daughter to Hawaii was the biggest highlight of our recent vacation.  We toured Iolani Palace, Washington Place and met up with cousins.  We also paid our respects at several cemeteries, and went to the Queen Lili’uokalani Church in Haliewa, founded by Reverend John Emerson of Chester, New Hampshire, another distant cousin. I only wish I had called the church in Haliewa ahead of time, because it was closed when we arrived.  

Me, Mom and Hubby at Washington Place

Mom and I place leis on the graves of
Reverend John Emerson and his wife Ursula
at the Queen Liliuokalani Church, Haliewa, Hawaii

2.   I’ll never forget seeing Mom enjoy her visits with cousins and being at Washington Place.  I know how excited she was when I found out that our Hawaii connection was more than myth, and was able to place Lili’uokalani in our family tree.  Hearing the curators and the tour guides confirm the story made it even more real for her.  We found out that her grandmother was 24 years old when she visited with the Queen in Boston.  Carrie Batchelder Allen was a new bride with two small children in 1897, the year of the Queen’s visit with relatives in Massachusetts.

Mom and I chatting with the Washington Place curator
about Mom's grandmother meeting Queen Liliuokalani in Boston

3.   At the archives I found several more letters and found some Boston relatives in Queen Lili’uokalani’s photograph albums.  Some photos need identification.  Such as this photo of a Mrs. William Lee.   My first cousin 5 x removed, Mr. Lee, had two wives.  The first wife died in 1883, and the second one he married in 1888.  Which wife is this?  Can anyone tell from her dress and hairstyle which wife this might be?

labeled "Mrs. William Lee" by Sarony's, NY
in Hawaii State Archives
Queen Liliuokalani Collections
M-93 Photograph Album 26 

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Lili'uokalani's Birthday, September 2, 1838

This is my favorite photograph of Queen Lili'uokalani.  I snapped this photo of a photo inside Washington Place, the family home in Honolulu.  It is the Queen, in her very last years, with her grandchildren.  These are the children of John Owen Aimoku Dominis.  Her third grandchild was born in 1916, and the Queen passed away in 1917.  It was originally photographed in the garden of Washington Place. 

The Queen's birthday is celebrated in Hawaii with a prayer service at Iolani Palace, and the Royal Mausoleum is opened for the public to pay their respects.   Hula and mele (music) are usually performed in her honor, and often the music the Queen herself composed is played.  

Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamakaʻeha was born to her parents to High Chiefess Analea Keohokalole and High Chief Caesar Kaluaiku Kapa'akea on this day, 2 September 1838. She was raised by her hanai (adoptive parents in the Hawaiian style) Abner Paki and Laura Konia. Her royal name, upon being named Crown Princess, was Lili'uokalani.

On 16 September 1862 Lydia/Lili'oukalani married John Owen Dominis, the son of Captain John Dominis and Mary Lambert Jones.  Mary Lambert Jones was born in Boston on 3 August 1803, the daughter of Owen Jones, a Welsh customs official, and Elizabeth Lambert.  Mary's sister, Catherine Plummer Jones, was my 4th great grandmother.  Which makes John Owen Dominis my first cousin, several generations removed.  Washington Place, the family home mentioned above, was built out of parts sent from Boston to Honolulu by ship. 

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Lili'uokalani's Birthday, September 2, 1838", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 2, 2012, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/09/liliuokalanis-birthday-september-2-1838.html: accessed [access date]).  

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

Advent Calendar- The Christmas Tree

Last year I posted a story about the first Christmas Tree in Hawaii, which was set up and trimmed by my great aunt Mary Dominis for a party in 1858. We finally got to visit her Honolulu home this past summer, but since it is now a museum house we couldn't get a photo of the parlor where that famous Christmas party took place. Photography is not allowed inside Washington Place. So you will have to be content with this photo from the Hawaii Star Bulletin newspaper, 2002, which showcased a reproduction Christmas Tree at Washington Place for the annual public Holiday tour.

The 2002 Christmas Tree
at Washington Place, Honolulu

An excerpt from a book about the first Christmas Tree party in Hawaii:
"Christmas passed off in good old fashioned style. The eve was ushered in by the assemblage of a large number of children and their parents at Washington Place, the mansion of Mrs. Dominis, where Santa Claus had given out that he would hold his court.... A magnificent Christmas Tree had been provided... and the little folks as they gathered about it...found it all lighted up with candles, and the branches bending with the weight of gifts. Prompt as old Father Time ever was, bells were heard at the windows... and in a moment old Santa Claus stood at the door before the youthful group, who greeted him with a volley of merry shouts. He was dressed in the garb in which children love to image the saintly old elf.
"For an hour he bestowed his gifts with princely lavishness among the 100 children present, creating one of the happiest groups ever witnessed in Honolulu... who will long continue to talk of Santa Claus of Washington Place."

from Hawaiian Annual for 1922, Thomas G. Thrum, compiler and publisher, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1921, page 60, available to view at Google Books.

Last year's post about Mary Dominis's Christmas Tree at this link
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/12/advent-calendar-christmas-in-hawaii.html

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Internet Searches v. A Real Library

Now, I’ve read Martin Hollick’s reasons for his not liking Google Book Search at his blog Slovak Yankee. His examples are reasonable and I understand his frustrations, especially since I worked in a library for four years. However, sometimes, to me, there is nothing as valuable as Google Book Search, but with a caveat. For example, just a few days ago I was transcribing a letter from the Hawaii State Archives written by Henry Wilson to John Owen Dominis in Honolulu in 1848. I know a lot about John Dominis, but who is Henry Wilson? My only clues were that the letter was written aboard the ship “Preble” en route to Canton, China. Even the curator of Washington Place, the Dominis home in Honolulu, couldn’t tell me much about Henry Wilson.


I first Googled “Henry Wilson” and, of course, there were a zillion hits. So I entered “Henry Wilson” “Preble” “China” and relevant hits began to appear. When I changed from a Google Web search to a Google Book Search, Bingo! There were several books from the US Navy, the US Government, etc. all with information about Henry Wilson, the purser on board the USS Preble, as part of a Naval expedition to China and the Far East in 1848. I found depositions, crew lists, biographies, and other information about Henry Wilson in two minutes. If I had been at my local library, or even at the Library of Congress, I wouldn’t have known where to start looking. Now, armed with these clues from the internet, I can approach a traditional library or archive for more information. That is the caveat. Google Book Search got me started, now I can continue with some real research at a real repository.

Remember, there are lots of schmucks out there doing research at 10:30 at night in their PJs, who aren’t near any good libraries. That’s me. Right now. In my pink jammies, fuzzy slippers and glass of wine. 10:30 at night and I wanted to wrap up this letter transcription project before midnight. Now I have a USS Preble crew list and I can name that person whose name looked like McG---- in Wilson’s 1848 handwriting, or that port that looked like W--- Island because of two minutes time at Google Book Search.

On Wednesday I posted a story on how I used the internet to find out more about Peter Hoogerzeil, my 2x great grandfather http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/08/not-so-wordless-wednesday-peter.html   In this case, since Peter was an inventor, I used the internet to investigate his patents. The caveat is that not all the information was online, but it was a good place to start. Using the internet indexes was much simpler than using the book indexes at the Boston Public Library. However, in the end, I needed the Boston Public Library to actually look at many of his patent records. You would, too, for patents before 1976.

Without the internet, some of my biggest breakthroughs would never have happened. A series of stories I did in April on Romanus Emerson all came about because of a story I found in an internet newspaper database. http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/03/madness-monday-odd-romanus-emerson-part.html   I never thought of looking for Romanus there because I thought he was just an average New England yeoman, with no life events worth looking for in the newspapers. After finding the initial clue on line, or course I hit the library and archives for more information. I’ve written about ten blog posts on Romanus Emerson, and I have enough other interesting information now to fill a book on just this one man.

Because of the internet, bulletin boards, Google Book Search and other online databases I’ve had contact with cousins and complete strangers. In the story http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/02/missionary-to-new-zealand.html Missionary to New Zealand, a complete stranger in Australia told me what happened to my 2x great grandfather’s brother during a gold rush (it wasn’t mission work!). In the story http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/08/mystery-of-jonathan-batchelder.html The Mystery of Jonathan Batchelder, a complete stranger read my bulletin board posting and mailed me an ancestors account book dated 1847, which gave me clues to his death in an insane asylum. Stranger yet, in my post http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/10/jabez-treadwells-will.html another complete stranger mailed me the 1781 will of Jabez Treadwell. An original folded up into an manila envelope! There are a dozen more stories like this in my notes, and I’m working on putting them on my blog as fast as I can.

Regular readers of my blog will now that I have an ongoing research project on the connection between the Jones sisters of Boston and the Kingdom of Hawaii. In my very first blog post on 27 July 2009, “Hawaii- The Boston Connection to a Royal Lineage” http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/07/hawaii-boston-connection-to-royal.html I explain how for years I had been writing to the archives and curators in Honolulu for information on the Joneses. Finally a new curator at Washington Place saw my post on line and mailed me copies of several letters, and I broke through my brick wall. This has been an ongoing project that not only led to many blog posts and a research trip to Hawaii, but also to a collaboration with Leah Allen “The Internet Genealogist” and her connection with the Mott sisters who also boarded at Washington Place. You can check out those blog posts by hitting “Hawaii” or “Dominis” in the labels listed in the right hand column of my blog. There are too many to list here.

Of course, us regular schmucks sitting at home doing internet genealogy research in our PJs can’t be complacent. In every example I gave above, my clues from the internet were followed up with real old-fashioned research at libraries and archives. However, which library? Which archive? What federal, state or local agency? Those answers came from the internet.

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Genealogy Trip to Hawaii- Day Seven

This is a continuation of the story of my family history research trip to Hawaii. It was our second to last day in Honolulu, and we had a second appointment with the curator at Washington Place. This was the home built by Captain John Dominis for his wife, Mary Lambert Jones, sister to my 4x great grandmother, Catherine Plummer Jones. The Jones family was from Boston, and so he built her a grand, New England style home in Honolulu. We had visited Washington Place the previous week, and were happy to see it one more time before returning home.

After driving by Washington Place all week, I began to appreciate its location and its architecture even more at the second visit. It was within walking distance of where our cruise ship docked, and so imagine that in the 1830s Capt. Dominis could see or walk to his shipping interests in Honolulu harbor. Now, it is near the Hawaii State Capitol building, Iolani Palace and other governmental offices downtown. It certainly is a prime location. And it certainly looks very grand, so in the 1840s it must have been considered very palatial for Honolulu!

We went over the family tree in detail with the curator at this meeting, and I’ll be sending her my updated descendant report on all the Jones family. We also explored the family tree of the Emersons who are buried at the Queen Lili’uokalani church in Haleiwa, and some of the other names of early Honolulu settlers who came from Boston. There may or not be family relationships between some of these folks. Now I have letters from people like Captain Charles Brewer and Reverend Andrew Yates to Mary Dominis, and I hope to find out how they are or aren’t family.

After this meeting we finally found the statue of Queen Lili’uokalani. It was right behind Iolani Palace and the Hawaii State Archives, actually tucked next to the State Capitol building. It was easy to miss, because of several huge banyan trees growing nearby. We had been to Iolani Palace three times, so this was our fourth trip! I had meant to ask a cousin for directions, but it had always slipped my mind.

I was quite emotional when we were finally standing next to this statue. We were alone and the area was so peaceful and quiet. Many other people had left flower offerings at her feet. Suddenly I felt compelled to remove the leis I had been given the previous day, and draped them on the Queen’s outstretched hand. I was so grateful to finally find her, and see her home, and find all the family letters and cousin connections. I’ll never forget that moment.

Later that day we drove along the west coast of Oahu, making an almost complete circuit of the island. There is one small place where the roads do not connect. It was near the end of our vacation and seeing (almost) the entire shoreline of Oahu was my Hubby’s goal. Of course, we had been upgraded to a nice Volvo convertible by the rental company, so driving anywhere in Oahu was fun!

We ended the day with our usual walk along Waikiki Beach, and had dinner at another hotel’s poolside grill. The sun was setting over the water to the west, which is something we don’t see back home in New England, and the last surfers of the day were catching a few last waves. The duet of singers at this restaurant ended their set of music with Lili’uokalani’s “Aloha Oe” which was a very nice end to our beautiful day in Hawaii.

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Copyright 2010, 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

Cousins Collaborate ( and more relationships appear!)

Washington Place, Honolulu

Last week Leah, from "Internet Genealogist" and I collaborated on a story that involved our great-great aunts meeting in Hawaii in 1848. Her distant relation, Estelle Charlotte Mott, was a teenaged boarder at my distant relation’s (4x great aunt), Mary L. (Jones) Dominis’s boarding house in Honolulu. This story came about because a third person, Edna Haley Pace, wrote to me about my blog postings on the history of the Dominis family home, Washington Place, in Hawaii. The internet played a big part in putting this together, and of course, Leah and I used our blogs on the internet to write two complementary stories.

Soon after the stories were posted, I received a lot of email, and several were from other bloggers, such as Carol from “Reflections from the Fence”, who told me that her husband was also a Haley descendant. The Nova Scotia Haley/Healy family is part of my and Edna Haley Pace’s family tree. We are all descendants of Comfort Haley, born 1754 in Massachusetts and died 15 May 1821 in Chebogue, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. My great great grandmother was Mary Etta Healy, Comfort’s great granddaughter.

Also, Barbara Poole, at “Life from the Roots” had a distant relation, Anthony Ten Eyck, who was also a boarder at Washington Place, and in fact, he is famous for having suggested to Mrs. Dominis that her new home in Honolulu looked like Mount Vernon, so she should call it “Washington Place”. This name stuck when King Kamehameha IV agreed with the name and so it went down in history. Anthony Ten Eyck was in Honolulu serving as commissioner to Hawaii for President Polk, until he was replaced by Charles Eames in December 1848.

I have passed along Essie’s memoir to members of the Dominis family, descendants of Mrs. Mary Dominis, and to the curator at Washington Place. The curator wrote “the Mott Diary, a significant document that records and important slice of time…I love it…green shutters, pantelettes, contraband custards and stolen pies!” She also said that the museum has copies of letters of reproach “regarding John Dominis and the young Mott girls…” We can’t wait to see these copies! Another possible blog post in the making!

This story and the internet seem to have been made for each other! Please stay tuned to "Internet Genealogist" as Leah posts the rest of Essie's journal, including more pages about her life in Honolulu in 1848.

My story about Essie and Mrs. Dominis is at http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/04/cousins-collaborate-on-genealogy-story.html

Leah's post with the first part of Essie's story in Honolulu is at http://shbwgen.blogspot.com/2010/04/transcription-mott-memoir-part-11.html

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

More Hawaiian Relatives via the Chronicling America Website

Photo of Queen Lili'uokalani and John Owen Aimoku Dominis



So far, over the last few nights I’ve learned quite a few facts about my cousins from the Hawaiian newspapers. From obituaries I’ve learned their burial places, information about their arrival in Hawaii, occupations, funeral arrangements, etc. I also learned a few other interesting bits of trivia…

#1 Being the Prince Consort to the Queen of Hawaii doesn’t mean that certain legal obligations can be forgotten. It was very interesting to read in the legal notices of the The Hawaiian Gazette (Honolulu) 1865-1918, October 20, 1891:
“Executor’s Notice
Notice is Hereby given to all persons having claims against the estate of John Owen Dominis, late of Honolulu, deceased, to present the same to the undersigned within six months from the date of the publication of this notice, or they will be forever barred. And those indebted to said estate are requested to make immediate payment at my office, over the bank of Bishop & Co., Kaahumanu Street.
W. F. Allen
Executor Will of John O. Dominis,
Honolulu, Oct. 1, 1891 1395-4t 2887-1w”

#2 Since Governor John Owen Dominis had a son born out of wedlock, I wonder if there were any legal documents in the court records after his death, especially since his legal wife adopted the child, John Owen Aimoku Dominis. I found no clues in the newspapers, but in some passenger lists for ships leaving Honolulu I did find his name with Queen Lili’uokalani. For example:

The Independent (Honolulu) November 4, 1903, page 5 “For San Francisco, per S. S. Sonomas, Nov. 3….Queen Liliuokalani, Miss Myra Heleluhe, J. D. Aimoku, John Aea.” This was prior to 1910 when she adopted John and his name changed from John Dominis Aimoku to John Owen Aimoku Dominis. There were many times he was listed in the newspapers, accompanying her on board ships.

#3 It is well known in Hawaii, but perhaps not elsewhere, that Queen Lili’uokalani was a talented musician. She wrote several famous songs, including the beautiful “Aloha Oe” that I remember learning to sing in grade school in Massachusetts. If I had only known then what I know now, what a tale I could have told my classmates!. She must have provided a musical education for John Aimoku, he appears in several social pages under recitals and concerts, for example in The Hawaiian Gazette, December 24, 1897, page 1, “Santa On Deck - Christmas Cheer Abounded in Several Places….. Iolani College had an entertainment and Christmas tree. Head master Fenn was in charge. This was the program:…[several musical offerings listed] Duet- All’s Well…. By Brahms, J. Aimoku and P. Hatsfield….Musical Selection [many children listed including J. Aimoku]”

#4 Since Aimoku was an unusual name, I tried it in the Chronicling America search engine to see if it would come up in places other than Hawaii. Of course, I saw it on the passenger lists in San Francisco newspapers, but also in Washington DC . From the Washington Times (Washington DC), December 16, 1909, page 13 in an article entitled “Queen Lil’s Will Causes Surprise - Property All Disposed of AS She Desires Before Her Death – Favorite Cut Off With Small Sum……” Further down inside the article described “John Dominis Aimoku becomes the heir of the bulk of the property…John Dominis Aimoku is to get Washington Place for his lifetime and the lifetime of his lawfully begotten heirs, or so long after the death of John Dominis Aimoku as the law will permit, with reversion to the trustees. He is also given an annuity of $5,000.” Much of her estate was left to an orphanage for native Hawaiian children.

#5 In 1908 the Queen visited Washington DC to petition president McKinley for a reversal of the annexation. The University Missourian (Columbia, Missouri) December 15, 1908, page 3, has an article “Liliuokalani is Here- Washington DC, Dec. 13- Ex-Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii, accompanied by Prince and Princess Kalanianaole and her secretary, Aimoku, have reached Washington from Honolulu. Hawaii’s former ruler is here to appear before Congrss and urge the passage of Delegate Kalanianole’s relief bill to indemnify the queen for certain lands which were confiscated by the United States…She contends that at the time the lands were confiscated- the period of occupation by American troops in Hawaii- property of the crown yielded an income of $50,000 a year.” I had read about this in Washington and Boston newspapers (the Boston newspapers carried her news because of her husband’s link to Boston) but I didn’t expect to read about it in Missouri newspaper!

Yes, Randy, I’m still in my PJs and I’m enjoying this online ride in time back to Hawaii in the days of the Kingdom!
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The Library of Congress Chronicling America Website http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

Randy Seaver’s blog posting about the Chronicling America Website is at http://www.geneamusings.com/ Genea-Musings: Using the Library of Congress "Chronicling America" Site

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo