Whenever i talk to people about doing research in the Hawaiian-Language Newspapers or in any historical material for that matter, i try to prepare them saying that you never know what you will find in its pages. History, after all, is not only made up of heroes and patriots, but it also inevitably includes thieves and charlatans as well.

Let us be brave and search out connections great and small. Granted, you may very well find that one of your ohana embezzled money from one of the king’s trusts or another actually signed the Provisional Government’s annexation petition. On the other hand, what if you found that one of your ohana saved another person’s life, or another was sent to jail for participating in the rebellion of 1895.

Regardless of what we may find, the past cannot be changed, but what we can do by better understanding history is to learn from its mistakes and to emulate its successes, and to use this knowledge to work towards making a better Hawaii, and a better world for the new generations to come.