Wednesday, April 6, 2011

...in the Small World Department ....

  • I am an addicted genealogist.
  • I have lived for many years in a rural corner of central California.  A very small corner.  
  • I was born and raised in Hawaii.
While doing some genealogical research on a family that is unknown in our California community today, but which is represented by several graves in one of our two local cemeteries (not the family plot pictured here, but same cemetery)...

then found a family tree posted on the Internet including the family.  Exploring, I wandered to the anchor person on the tree ...

and found someone who was born in Hawaii.  
Curious, I burrowed a little deeper.  Lived in Waialua.  Surname Woodd.  Daughter Jennie was 7 years old in 1920.   Bells ring.  Loudly.  

My mother lived in Waialua for a year when she was about 8 years old.  Her best friend that year was Jennie Woodd.  Same Jennie Woodd?  Yes!

Jennie's grandfather was linked by marriage to a daughter of the family buried in the California Gold Country.   

I have another distant and very loose link to the community in California which I have come to love.  
The world get smaller every day.

Give thanks for friends and acquaintances who form the network within which we live and move.  
Give thanks for the bonds drawing us together. 
Don't forget to pray!  

4 comments:

  1. OMG what a fun connection and how cool that you found it!!!!

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  2. That is a very unreal connection.

    Cosmic!

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  3. It really is a small world and it's getting smaller. I believe that this Jennie Woodd, is Jennie Napua Hanaiali'i Woodd, the grandmother of Amy Hanaiali'i. She was a well known hula dancer in her day and the composer of the song "Haleiwa Hula" with Johnny Noble.

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  4. Yes, Timmy, that's exactly who she is. My mother always says, almost all in one breath, "My friend Jennie Woodd, grandmother of Amy Hanaiali'i." I didn't pay attention to the fact that Jennie Woodd was also a known and respected dancer and composer in her own right, although I have heard Amy Hanaiali'i talk about being encouraged and supported in her musical career by her grandmother.

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Your comments remind me that I am not writing into a vaccuum, or simply for personal therapy. Please comment often!