It seems that the older I get the curiouser I am about my ancestors. I keep wondering what life was like for them, and I feel sad that all of their history is lost.
Here is a photo of me and my mom's mom. I actually blogged about her before here.
Couple nights ago, I decided to google my grandma's maiden name, Kikue Horiuchi.
I was so surprised when I was actually able to find something. Her family appeared in several census reports! Names and birthdates were sometimes inaccurate, but still how unreal to find a record, yah.
The 1910 census report was the most revealing.
From what I can figure out, in 1902 (8 years prior to the survey) grandma's dad Tohei (then age 28) and my grandma's mom Tsuye (age 27) left Japan with their daughter Hatsume (age 5) and their son Kenji (age 2). They settled in Koloa, Kauai. My grandma was born 2 years later in 1904. Then came another daughter Ayame in 1906 and a son Yoshitaka in 1910. My great grandfather is listed as a laborer at the sugar plantation.
The census for 1920 shows that the family had moved to Lihue, Kauai and Hatsume and Kenji are no longer a part of the household.
There is an additional daughter Shizuko who was born in 1917.
The 1930 census report showed my great grandparents to be in their mid 50's with no children left in the household. My great grandpa is now listed as a house painter.
The report from 1940 shows both great grandparents to be alive and in their 60's. I wasn't able to find out more. Hopefully, my mom will be able to fill me in.
This is the website that I ended up at that provided most of my information: Mocavo
19 comments:
Very interesting. I should research my family as well. My grandfather was born in 1909 and used to teach me penmanship. I loved how the census was so consistent...brought back memories of his penmanship books we used to copy.
Jalna, How did you get the census report copies?
You're absolutely the cutest little patootie! Seeing that old photo brings to mind my Obaban who lived next door in one of those dark-green stained plantation houses, having to put up with us snotty grubby kids. Boy, we loved her.
j: me too! I joined 23 and me and got my DNA tested. The results were totally revealing in terms of my DNA make-up. Most Japanese would be surprised to learn we have a % of Korean due to the migration routes we took. Also found a very close 2nd cousin and can only assume he is the descendent of my dad's sister whom I never knew. There are literally hundreds of 3rd and 4th cousins. Anyway I can go on and on but it's mindblowing. I also found a website that lists passengers that came over from Japan during that period of sugar workers migration.Let me dig around for that.I found out my grandpa came first then grandma followed but they were already married. -N
De, that's such a neat memory that you have of your grandpa.
Aloha Tanaka, I've added a link at the bottom of my post. It's to a website called Mocavo that really helped with my search. That's where I connected to the census reports. Good luck!
Lorna, that's da kine house we lived in back in the day.
Sooooooo interesting, N!!!
we found info from those census reports online too. if you can get info from your mom that would be great! I was lucky to get info from my gma but wished I had had a chance to talk with my grandparents on my father's side.
Hmmm. I almost don't want to know but thanks much for the resource.
As promised here is the website of the Hawaii State Archives...it has so much info on doing a genealogy search and I've spent HOURS and HOURS going thru everything. One of the probs is that when the Japanese came over they spoke no English and the immigration officials spoke no English so they got so many Japanese names. Like how Holy's Bakery really is Hori's but that's what the immigration official hearing when he heard Hori, Holy. Also in the Japanese culture if a man marries into a family of girls, he had to take their last name. So if he was a Tanaka, he had to change it to Sato. Which is what happened in my family. Grandpa married the only girl so he took her last name and my family didn't know until they had to get their birth certificate, so my dad took his dad's name and his siblings took his mom's so we're not related to others with the last name. (made things so hard!!)
"The Hawaii State Archives provides access to records of permanent value, including documents that may assist and be of interest to those doing genealogical research.
Sources that are most often used by genealogists and researchers here at the archives include: Click on the link to learn more about the resource and collection."
Vital Statistics (Births, Marriages, & Deaths)
Ships Passenger Manifests
Probates/Wills
Divorce Case Files
Obituary Index
Naturalization Records
Census Records
Genealogical Research Aid: Hawaiians
An index and list to Genealogy Books comprised mainly of royal and/or chiefly lines, and a Genealogical Index in Hawaiian Newspapers
http://ags.hawaii.gov/archives/about-us/genealogy-research-guide/
J: Sorry for the long posts but I LOVE this stuff!! Anyway most of the mainland ancestry search sites focus on the European migration to America and not so much on the asian immigration and that's why the Hawaii State archives is so valuable. Another irony was that I found a married couple with the same names of grandma and grandpa but who immigrated to Kauai! And grandma had an unusual first name even for those times and it was all at the same time. Only when I saw their offspring did I find out, wrong couple! So for a while I thought my dad had gotten the info all wrong....so just beware of that kind of pitfalls. Even the census reports got the Japanese names all wrong. I also found out a lot of Japanese immigrants went to the mainland like to places like Montana...and I was wondering what THEY were gonna there. Lots of speculation and wondering for sure...that's why I can roam for hours in them.
Here's my DNA composition and most Japanese have it but the further North there is less of the Korean I think....due to the juxtaposition of the islands to each other. That's why the Inu are white not asian. 23&me has all the migatory routes our ancestors took.......
East Asian & Native American
100.0%
East Asian
100.0%
Japanese
87.0%
Korean
11.1%
Chinese
0.6%
Broadly East Asian
1.3%
Broadly East Asian & Native American
< 0.1%
The peoples of East Asia and the Americas have a shared genetic history. Their common ancestors left the Near East as early as 80,000 years ago, migrating across Asia. The ancestors of Native Americans began to cross into the Americas 12,000 to 15,000 years ago.
Let me know if you wanna use 23&me, I get credit for it.
-N
So fascinating!...how was like when they came to the new frontier...it must be hard adjusting...Wow the photo is so cute!
Very interesting! That's some totally awesome detective work Jalna! Keep going!
The house looks like a plantation home. I wonder where that was?
I love you Jalna and your Passionate Heart! Keep going my friend and never stop! ; )
Kat, I looked up a bit on my father's side and found that the obaasan that used to be at my father's parent's house when I was small kid was my grandpa's mom, Ume. I have only a very vague recollection of her sitting in a particular chair whenever we would go visit. I wish I knew more about her.
Aunty, let me know if you find out anything interesting!!
Thank you so much, N!!! Sooooo interesting! I could spend HOURS AND HOURS too! Me too, I even wonder about our people way back to tens of thousands of years ago.
I agree Akemi!!! Must've been so hard for them.
Mark, the photo was taken in front of my house on Hiram Lane which is across the Liiiha library. We had to move around 1962 when most of the homes were torn down to make way for the freeway.
I had Art do Ancestry.com and it was really a total waste of our time because it just revealed that he was 100% Asian. Really... we could have told them that. I was hoping for something more specific. 23&me sounds intriguing.
We had a Horiuchi Store in Waipahu many, many moons ago that had the best saimin.
I remember when they tore down the houses for the H~1. All through Kaimuki too. Big stink!
Kay, I haven't had a chance to check out 23&me yet. I don't remember a Horiuchi Store . . . but "best saimin" sounds so good!
No can stop progress yah, Mark.
so so so so interesting!
I think so too, Les!
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