By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

You probably read Saturday's obituary about golfing great Tura Greig Kahaleanu Nagatoshi, whose funeral is today. What you haven't read about is her genealogy, which is a classic example of Our Honolulu's extended families.

Genealogy here can be fascinating, with complicated connections that contribute to a person's hereditary history.

If all of Nagatoshi's relatives came to the funeral, there probably wouldn't be room in Aloha Stadium.

According to Jimmy Ho, a cruise-ship lecturer on Hawaiian history, the story begins during the reign of King Kalakaua when Len Wai, age 28, came from China, leaving his wife and three children behind.

Len Wai opened a dry-goods store in Lahaina. The Len Wai store is still there.

Len Wai took a Hawaiian wife, who was childless. He sent to China for his two sons, but not his Chinese wife and daughter. He and his Hawaiian wife also adopted two hapa-haole children, a boy and a girl, and gave them Chinese names.

The Hawaiian wife was Catholic so the adopted boy, Akim Len Wai, went to Saint Louis and the girl went to Sacred Hearts.

The daughter who was left behind in China married and had children, who also moved to Hawai'i. They started the Golden Palace Chinese Seafood Restaurant on King Street. It is still run by members of the family.

While attending Saint Louis, Akim Len Wai met a girl named Lena Greig who was going to St. Andrew's Priory. They fell in love and got married.

Lena Greig was the youngest daughter of William Greig, "king" of Fanning Island, a Scotsman whose family came to America during the potato famine in 1848. He set sail to join them but got on the wrong ship and ended up in Chile. The next boat brought him to Honolulu.

Greig was multitalented. A baker, he opened a bakery in Chinatown but couldn't compete with the Chinese bakers. He helped found the Masonic Lodge in Makiki. Then he took off for the Gold Rush and made some money.

With his gold, he returned to Hawai'i by way of Scotland to open a tailor shop in Chinatown. However, nobody wanted to wear the wool cloth he brought from Scotland, so he went broke again.

A brother Mason told him he could make money working for a plantation. That's how he got to Fanning Island, where a man named English, ancestor of state Sen. Kalani English, owned a coconut plantation.

English sold the plantation to Greig, who became rich from coconuts and guano.

He married a woman from the Cook Islands. They had five boys and five girls. One boy, William H.C. Greig, was a friend of Robert Louis Stevenson.

Nagatoshi, the golfer, is a descendant of a daughter of Akim Len Wai and Lena. The daughter married a sea captain and moved to San Francisco. I hope you've got all of that straight.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073 or at rkrauss@honoluluadvertiser.com.