I have added a new page to explain the basics of tracing Fijian family history, called How Do I Trace My Family History? This page explains how to find birth, marriage and death certificates so that you can fill in a family tree, such as this one.
Another useful form is a Family Group Sheet. This allows you to record whole families, including all the children.
You can download some forms to help you:
There are other ways to find your family history, by copying what other people have put on Ancestry or other such sites, but you can’t be sure that what they have done is correct, or that they are tracing the wrong family.
The only way to be sure is to find the records yourself, or find someone who has found them and cites their sources for every piece of information that they have.
My own Fiji family history has names such as Riley, Whippy, Simpson, Brown, Andrews, and O’Connor. If any of these names are familiar to you please have a look at my family tree website at http://caroleriley.id.au/familyTree/, which contains details and sources of all the people in my tree who have died. I do not publish details of living people for privacy reasons.
My mother’s maiden name was Lelo/Lilo and she had a grandfather W.A.R. Evers from Hamburg Germany and one Listro Lilo that came from Luzon in the Philippines. We are trying to find any information on them as we are having a family reunion in Fiji in October and would love to share this with the family. I think that Lilo was actually his first name and I think that the last name may have been Lestro. I am LDS and will also try and go to the Family History Library to see what I can find.
On another note my Aunt Ella Duckworth married James Lelo is trying to find any information on her father Herbert Duckworth who was married to Gracie Danford and he owned a match making factory in Fiji and died in Taveuni in about January 1948. We would love to find his will as well.
Thank you.