It’s been an exciting few months recently for ShakinTrees. As a Christmas present to herself, my mother ordered an AncestryDNA kit and we’ve been excited exploring new connections for her over the last month since her results came in. We’ve identified several of her matches that raises our confidence level that Naluahine Kaopua is her Great-grandfather, the biological father of Jennie Violet Keawe Hii Ku O Kalai Kauhane/ Kaopua Waiwaiole. We’ve also found paternal cousins who are very likely from her grandfather Paul Whitfield side vs. her grandmother Lola Elizabeth Brown. This St. Patrick’s Day weekend I invested in getting the Lucky Pack special and soon will be testing too.
Last month over President’s Day Weekend, it was a great experience learning more family history for our Kauhimaka side. Starting at our family chapel/cemetery Ma’eMa’e Sunday School, we continued on with visits to Oahu Cemetery, Makiki Cemetery and visited several sights along Wilder before convening on Metcalf near the University of Hawaii to learn more about our Fernandez ancestors and what life was like at Fernandez Court. Our talk story then continued over to the Windward side for a wonderful meal together where some other ohana joined us who were not able to attend the morning’s tour. I’m looking forward to the next family gathering for a Good Friday early Easter celebration.
I’ve learned that the work of figuring out DNA matches really relies on sharing and building trees. My mother has a bunch of 2nd cousin matches that perplexed us and we’ve only made some “sense” of a few of them.. figuring out which branch of the match’s family we are related to – but how that surname/family actually ties to our tree is still very elusive. So I’ve spent a great deal of time learning about our probable common ancestors Polly Gooch married to Nathaniel Pendergraft/Pendergrass/Pendergraph. It’s highly likely we come from the branch of the family that shoots off from their son Richard Pendergraft, but we’re still not sure. It is frustrating and exciting to have this new mystery to solve.
Part of solving this puzzle is really understanding the tree of Paul Alexander Whitfield. I started a note with my research and a timeline and names cluster. Some key surnames in this North Carolina part of the family include: Whitfield, Sawyer, Harris, Meeks, Edmondson, and Asby. It’s also highly likely that my great-grandfather had a first wife Viola Council prior to Lola E. Brown which resulted in the birth of an elder son, John Calvin Council Whitfield/Nipper. Viola remarried to NIPPER and her son John Calvin used his stepfather’s name Nipper as a surname on occasion.
Shakin Trees 