---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Hodapp, Minnie Iverson
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 23
number: 11
published: 1920-09
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Hodapp, Minnie Iverson, "Attuned," *Improvement Era* 23, no. 11 (September 1920): 960–961.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera23011unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera23011unse
start_page: 960
end_page: 961
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1920-09)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera23011unse
  publication_year: 1920
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1920, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Attuned

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Genealogical Records Relationship

Condensed from The Honolulu "Star-Bulletin" and Letters to the "Era*'
     from Duncan McAllister, Temple Recorder, and President E.
              Wesley Smith of the Hawaiian Mission.

    [The "Era" is indebted to Elder D. M. McAllister, recorder of the
Laie Temple, for a letter and a copy of the article in the Honolulu Star-
Bulletin of June 5, 1920, from which the data embodied in these paragraphs are taken. The distinguished party referred to arrived in Salt Lake
City about July 7, and spent a pleasant time here. On July 16, a farewell
reception was given in their honor at Liberty Park, on which occasion
many of the Church authorities were in attendance. President Heber J.
Grant, President Anthon H. Lund, and President Charles W. Penrose
made brief addresses in the evening during the banquet at which the
Maoris were guests of honor. Editors.]

      A recent visit of a distinguished company of fourteen
Maoris to Honolulu seems to have attracted unusual attention
there. The reason is that two of the gentlemen of the party,
Wiremu Karaka and Wiremu Duncan,                    trace     their   ancestral
lines, through  divergent branches, back to Kaitangata, or Aikauaka, the father of Puna and Hema, from whom, according to
Fornander's Genealogical Table, King Kamehameha I. descended.
     This is a remarkable genealogical record, going back for
                                         —
one hundred and ten generations something over 2,000 years
— but interest is added by the fact that it confirms the traditions of the Maoris, that their ancestors came from the Hawaiian
Islands.    Here are extracts from the three pedigrees, for comparison:

      Kamehameha:              Wiremu Karaka:              Wiremu Duncan:
 1. Aikanaka, father of    1.   Kaitanagata, same     1.   Kaitangata, father of
the two following:        as Aikanaka.              the    following:
 2.   Puna (male).         2. Puna.                   2.   Puna.
 3.   Hema (male).         3.   Hema.                 3.   Hema.
 4.   Kahai, son of Hema.   4. Tawhaki, same as   4. Hapairangi (woman)
  5. Wahieloa,    son  of Kahai.                from whom Wiremu Dun-
Kahai.                      5. Wahieroa,   same can has descended, as
   6. Laka, son)  of Wa* as Wahieloa.           evidenced by an unbrokhieloa, from whose fam-     6. Rata,  same   as en genalogical table in
ily line Kamehameha de- Laka.                   his possession,
scended.

    In the Maori tongue the Hawaiian "L" is "R" and "K" is
"T," which accounts for the apparent divergence in the spelling of some of the names.
    It may be stated here that in New Zealand the family his-

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GENEALOGICAL RECORDS RELATIONSHIP                       963

tories, as recited  from generation to generation before the advent of civilization, are now recorded and filed in official
ledgers, and that in the Archives Building in Hawaii are found
a number of Genealogical records that go back for scores of
generations.    It was while Mr. Duncan was running over his
record and comparing it with Hawaiian annals that he discovered a family tree identical with his own from Hema upwards, except for minor differences in spelling. That was the
family tree of Emma K. Lewis, a native of the Island of Hawaii
but now a resident of Honolulu. It was, presumably, while
similarly engaged that Mr. Wiremu Karaka found the roots
of his family tree in Hawaiian soil. And thus the Maori tradition concerning their origin has received strong confirmation.
     Ethnologists have adopted various theories regarding the
source of the Pacific peoples. One is that they came from India
by way of the Malay peninsula. According to another, they
are the remnant of the inhabitants of a large continent which
at one time sank, leaving only the highest points above the
engulfing water.     A third holds that the Polynesians came
from America by way of the Hawaiian Islands.
     The proofs of the last-mentioned theory are found in racial
characteristics, similarity of languages, tradition, folk lore, and
now in genealogical records.
        1.   Languages. The following list of words points to a common origin of the Hawaiian and Maori languages, and a philologist might be able to tell, without hesitation, which of the
two is the stem and which the branch:

English        Hawaiian     Maori      English      Hawaiian     Maori
Love           Aloha        Aroha      Head        Poo         Upoko
Father         Makua       Matua       Stomach     Opu         Kopu
God            Akua        Atua        Sea         Moana       Moana
Heart          Naau        Ngakau      Heavens     Lani        Rangi
Man            Kanaka      Tangata     Above       Luna        Runga
Woman          Wahine      Wahine      Come here....Hele Mai   Haere Mai
Mouth           Waha       Waha        Outside     I waho      Ki waho
Nose           Ihu         Ihu         Give here   Ho mai      Ho mai
Foot            Wawae      Waewae      Water       Wai         Wai
Face            Maka       Mata        Hawaii      Hawaii      Hawaiki

        2.    Tradition.   The Maoris, we are told, have a tradition
which they express thus:          Tawhiti nui, tawhiti, rao, and tawhiti
pamaomao. This phrase is said to mean:      "Long distance, longer distance," and "still longer distance," and it is, further, explained that it refers to three different migrations by the forefathers of the Maori race.
     The first mentioned, though last in history, Tawhiti nui,
is thought to refer to a migration from the Hawaiian Islands
to New Zealand, some time between the years 400 and 600 of
