Monday, December 28, 2015

Well travelled

 we always assume that our ancestors stayed put pretty much the whole time, that long distance travel is a modern thing.
We certainly don't think of them crossing halfway round the world in the 1800s, I know relatives on Dennis side had been to Australia and were back home in Suffolk by 1861, his great grandfather and great uncle were both living in Baylham with their grandfather as teenagers, one born Stonham, the other born in Adelaide S.A. You can imagine the surprise when I found it in the 1861 census!
  I also know that Duncans GG grandfather stayed put in Wiltshire, presumably because he had a job at GWR in Swindon, whereas several other members of the family were "sent" to Lower Canada for being on Brinkworth village poor relief register. They spread west and south with some of themy making it to Kansas at a time when Buffalo still roamed the plains.


Anyway, it turns out that the Hawaiians did a bit of travelling themselves, king Kamehameha II Went all the way to London to see king George IV.... bearing in mind that the next nearest land to the East is Los Angeles a mere 5hrs flying time or 2500 miles.... that must have been some sea crossing never mind crossing 3500 miles of the US coast to coast followed by another sea crossing of around 2500 miles to Britain.

unfortunately the 2 kings never got to meet, arriving as he did 144 years before the invention of the vaccine, the king and queen of Hawaii both caught measles and died in 1824

Another of the Kings, Kamehameha IV and his wife queen Emma were friends of Queen Victoria who was godmother to their son, they visited her for her jubilee which was again a huge voyage.
 As the Hawaiian royal family became increasingly well travelled the names became. more westernised Emma, Bernice, Mary, all queens and princesses of Hawaii!!

Bernice 's house is now a museum







Queen Emma 's summer palace








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