The Story
One Woman.
One Thousand Descendants.
Her name was Louisa Upa'i. Born in 1840 in the quiet village of Kamalo, on the island of Moloka'i โ full-blooded Hawaiian, raised by the rhythms of the ocean and the red earth of the land her people had called home for generations.
Somewhere along the way, she crossed paths with Antonio Ramos, a sailor who had traveled to the islands from the distant shores of Cape Verde. Two worlds met. A family was born.
Together, Louisa and Antonio had 11 children โ eleven branches reaching outward from a single remarkable woman. Those branches kept growing. And growing. Today, over 1,000 blood relatives trace their roots back to her. Cousins who have never met. Families scattered across Hawai'i and the mainland. All of them carrying a piece of her, whether they know it or not.
This family history was originally compiled by Father Joseph L. Priestley SM (Kahu/Iokepaokalani), Auntie Emily's son, a Marianist priest at Chaminade University. We are honored to continue his important work of preserving the Upa'i 'ohana story for future generations.
The Louisa Project exists to make sure every one of those 1,000 people knows where they came from. To gather the names, the faces, the stories โ before they are lost to time. To give the youngest generation a gift they will carry their whole lives: the knowledge of who they are.
"Na Kamali'i a Pauloa O Louisa Upa'i"
The children, completely and entirely, of Louisa Upa'i