As far as we are aware, my great, great grandfather travelled from perhaps Shanghai in China on board a ship from America to land in Samoa in the 1800s.
From there he was able to work perhaps as a cook and worked his way in finding opportunities to acquire land, shops and married a Samoan woman of whom he had five children with.
Their eldest child was named Aialaisa and he was my great grandfather who was a ship's captain who died trying to put out a fire on the ship. My late grandmother was his eldest child and my father her eldest child.
This family reunion helped me to put the pieces together of a puzzle that I hadn't really been able to figure out in not having all the pieces until the gafa or family genealogy was shared in which I am now able to make the connections to villages and names that I hadn't understood earlier.
It was also neat to be able to meet new cousins as well as to see my elder brothers party of 16 who came from Sydney for the unveiling of the tombstone for my grandmother which was also on the weekend.
I count my family blessed for having had this time together in honouring those who had passed on, those who are the current elder leaders of our family and also looking at the generations that we currently have with plans afoot for another family reunion in Samoa in 2021.
A real blessing and privilege to be a part of...
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