About us
HISTORY
Expansion out of the Taiwan area began 5,000 - 6,000 years ago reaching the Melanesia area around 3,300 - 3,500 years ago. It is in Melanesia that these people encountered another civilization that had been there thousands of years prior. Eventually the two groups mixed and slowly began moving towards the east into the areas of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa around 3,100 years ago. The migration further east towards the Hiva Islands (the Marquesas) and Tahitian islands happened slowly over a long period of time to where those two cultures would thrive for centuries before they would set out further north towards the Hawaiian islands and south west towards Aotearoa (New Zealand) and further east towards Rapa Nui (Easter Island) 1,200 years ago and finally ended about 800 years ago.
PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
In order to participate in this project, you must be of Polynesian ancestry and have taken one of the following tests:
1) Y-DNA [males only]
2) mtDNA Full Sequence [if you tested HVR1/HVR2 only, please contact me about your results - mamoahina@gmail.com]
3) Family Finder (autosomal) [must have autosomal matches with other Polynesians]
Aside from FTDNA's Family Finder or autosomal test, if you are a male and have a direct paternal line, that is your father's, father's, father's, father's, etc. who was Polynesian, it is encouraged that you get a Y-DNA test done. Also, either males or females can get a full mitochondrial sequencing test done (mtDNA Full) if their direct maternal line, that is your mother's, mother's, mother's, mother's, etc. was Polynesian.
IMPORTANT. In regards to Y-DNA and mtDNA testing, before testing, please be prepared for the possibility that although your family tradition indicates direct paternal or maternal Hawaiian ancestry, DNA results could indicate that your maternal or paternal ancestral line is not known to be associated with Polynesia. This would happen if you had an unknown ancestor in your Y-DNA or mtDNA line who was from another part of the world. If so, it would have occurred in one or more generations since Europeans arrived in that specific geographic area of your ancestors.
For Hawaiians, results of these DNA tests cannot assist in any of the State of Hawaii's programs compensating Native Hawaiians.
Administrators of all FTDNA group projects are volunteers and receive no compensation of any kind from FTDNA. If you are unsure if your background qualifies for this project, contact the project administrator for further details. You can do this by clicking on the REQUEST TO JOIN THIS GROUP link in the upper right hand portion of this page, or through the link below.
www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?group=Hawaiian_Ancestry&code=K51741