American Samoa Genealogy

United States American Samoa

Six Polynesian Islands
American (Amerika) Samoa is a group of six Polynesian islands in the South Pacific. Fourteen degrees below the equator, it is the United States' southern-most territory. It is known as the heart of Polynesia. If you drew a triangle from Hawaii, New Zealand and Tahiti you would find Samoa in the middle. Western Samoa is a neighboring independent country that shares the same culture. American Samoa became an unorganized U.S. territory in 1900.

The Samoans arguably represent the largest population of Polynesian people and they take pride in a strong culture that has survived outside incursions amazingly well. For more information about Samoa see Samoa (Western and American).

Research Tools

 * Pacific Island Guide to Family History Research (Wiki article)

Jurisdictions
As a territory of the United States there are no first-order administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there are three districts and two islands at the second order: Eastern District, Manu'a District, Rose Island, Swains Island, Western District.

Websites

 * http://www.kindredtrails.com/samoa.html
 * http://www.accessgenealogy.com/samoa
 * http://www.rootsweb.com/~samoawgw

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