My Grandma Shellabarger told me that she had 4 siblings. They were Margaret, Julia, Viola, and a brother, John, who died as a baby shortly after the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. I went many years thinking of the poor John dying so young. But, John didn’t really die in 1906. He was the boy…
Author: Melody Lassalle
52 Ancestors: The Pachecos And The Train Photo
Not many people know that the Kilauea Sugar Plantation was one of the first to begin using trains to move their sugar cane around. So, when Bev, my cousin’s wife, sent me a copy of the train photo with these Pacheco brothers in it, I was so excited. Surely, they had been a part of…
52 Ancestors: I’d Like To Meet My Great Grandmother
As I spend more time putting context to what I know about my ancestors, I realize that my great grandmother, Anna Jacintha (de Mello) Pacheco, left me many questions in between the documents. I’d love to meet her, ask her a few questions, and have her tell me her story. She had quite a journey. …
AncestryDNA’s Parent Sorting Features
In October, AncestryDNA added a new feature building off its SideView Chart. It can now sort your matches into maternal and paternal sides of your tree. It’s taken me awhile to play with the feature and these are my impressions. First off, this is what SideView looks like. I’m fortunate that my parents had very…
That’s Old News: Portuguese Immigrants Charged A Fee In Hawaii
I thought I had a pretty darn good idea of the process Portuguese immigrants went through during the sugar plantation era. They signed a contact to work on a plantation while still at home. The applied for a passport. They got on the ship and were listed on the ship manifest. They arrived in Honolulu…