Pacific Island Guide to Family History Research

= Pacific Island Guide to Basic Family History Work =

Forward by the author, Noel Neville Cardon
Because Pacific Island family history is based largely on an oral tradition, we face special challenges in doing it. And we need to use special methods. These methods are not widely known among family history researchers, so in writing this guide, we found Pacific Islanders who had been successful in doing family history work and learned from them how they did it.The people who shared their stories and information with me were very kind and generous, and it is their hard work that has made this guide possible. Most of their names are in the Bibliography.

I tried to find someone from each of the island groups to interview, but was not able to get a case study from all groups. My hope is that one of the case studies in Step 9 will be close enough to your situation to help you.

Contents
Steps 1 through 7 and Steps 9 and 12 are the same for all Pacific Island researchers. They will help you get started with your family history work.

Some of the information in Steps 8, 10 and 11 are about temple work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon). Just use the information in the guide that will be of help to you in your needs. You will find that you will be skipping back and forth from one step to anohter as you do your research. this is normal, so feel free to do it Latter-day Saint Pacific Island heritage

Step 1. To start, write down the basic information we know from memory.

Step 2. Gather written records we and our family already have

Step 3. Learn more about the customs and history of our ancestors

Step 4. Gather oral histories from our oldest relatives

Step 5. Organize our information onto paper forms and computer.

Step 6. Organize our papers and keep them safe

Step 7. Keep track of what we have done and plan what we are going to do next

Step 8. Find and record Temple Ordinances that have already been done.

Step 9. Do enough research to verify that the person really lived and how the person is related to our family

A. Information in this manual about the islands where our ancestors lived

B. The Cole Jensen Collection and its Directory

C. Oral Genealogies from the 1970s

D. Records from institutions near us

E. Photographic collections

F. Family History Library Catalog

Map of the Pacific Islands
Particular Island Sections (Contents)

Cook Islands (Includes Rarotonga)

Easter Island

Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, and Palau

Fiji

French Polynesia

Marquesas Islands, Tuamotu Islands, Gambier Islands, Society Islands (includes Tahiti), Austral Islands Hawaii

Kiribati (Gilbert Islands)

Nauru

New Caledonia

New Zealand

Niue

Samoa (Western and American)

Solomon Islands

Tokelau

Tonga

Tuvalu (Gilbert Islands)

Vanuatu

Wallis and Futuna Islands

Step 10. We can get ready to prepare names for temple ordinances (Temple sealing policies)

Step 11. We can prepare names for temple submission

Step 12. We can share what we found and did

Bibliography