By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Staff Writer
There’s something that happens when you start to learn about your ancestors. It’s like unlocking a door, or opening a treasure chest holding your personal history. Finding your family is like finding yourself.
It’s this belief that’s at the heart of the Portuguese Genealogical Society of Hawai‘i.
Though for the last three years the society has kept an office that has all the trappings of an office, it grew from the humblest of beginnings, with a dedicated few on the Big Island transcribing 20,000 names by hand from the Portuguese consul general manifest book. For years, those records were kept in someone’s home and brought out only for special events.
The society still has those cardboard boxes of hand-written index cards. In fact, it’s often the first place to look when tracking down someone’s family history.
There are also marriage records, birth records, books to track down family crests and free advice on how to continue research outside of the society’s records.
Maxine Abreu Chism is one of three regular volunteers who keep the society open. She has helped people find not only the names of their great-grandparents, but what town they came from, how long their ocean voyage took, even how tall they were or the color of their eyes.
She helps to fill in the individual stories as they unfold, describing the villages left behind in Portugal, sharing details of what it was like on the ships, talking about the quarantine that immigrants faced when they arrived in Hawai‘i.
She has watched people become overwhelmed by the powerful connection to their history and struggle to explain why knowing these things are so important and so emotional.
"You realize these people lived, they had feelings, experienced happiness and joy, sadness and turmoil. They were real people, not just names in your genealogy chart. They gave you life."
Of course, the past is full of secrets, and if you go looking, you have to be prepared for what you find. The church birth records don’t mince words. Some contain almost shocking notations, like "father unknown," or label the mother "adulturina." Sometimes, the research efforts are thwarted by the word "foundling", which indicates a baby that was left in the care of the church with no record of the child’s parents.
But the painful truths are as much a part of the story as the proud victories.
"To know that you’re here because long ago someone made a decision to travel thousands of miles," says Chism, " you see how the past brought the future."
The Portuguese Genealogical Society needs a few volunteers. The work involves helping people with their research, typing and answering the phones. The society can be reached at 841-5044.
Lee Cataluna’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Her e-mail address is lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com
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