Errors in books, part one.
Having been an active researcher since 1996, it's frustrating coming across errors in books. Since I collect Hawaiian history books, I've found a few, here's one:
My great-great grandfather was the 1st Mayor Honolulu. His name was Joseph James Fern. Here's a picture of him...
And here's a picture of Prince Kawananakoa...
Yet in the book "Hawaii:The Territorial Years, 1900-1959" we have this...
Yes, they do look similar, but what's really bad is that the editors/researchers of this book, went to the Hawaii State Archives looking for a picture of Prince Kawananakoa and they got Mayor Fern?! That means it's misidentified at the archives. I don't know how they indexed it back in 1989, but today the pictures are in folders like "people K", so it's not like they were looking through the folder "people F" folder for Kawananakoa. Of course the only way to know for sure is to go to the archives and ask to look at pics of Kawananakoa.
My great-great grandfather was the 1st Mayor Honolulu. His name was Joseph James Fern. Here's a picture of him...
And here's a picture of Prince Kawananakoa...
Yet in the book "Hawaii:The Territorial Years, 1900-1959" we have this...
Yes, they do look similar, but what's really bad is that the editors/researchers of this book, went to the Hawaii State Archives looking for a picture of Prince Kawananakoa and they got Mayor Fern?! That means it's misidentified at the archives. I don't know how they indexed it back in 1989, but today the pictures are in folders like "people K", so it's not like they were looking through the folder "people F" folder for Kawananakoa. Of course the only way to know for sure is to go to the archives and ask to look at pics of Kawananakoa.
What an amazing resemblance! But what a frustrating and upsetting error to have found!
ReplyDeleteOooooh! Did you check at the archives? If not, I will next time I'm there. That's a good catch!
ReplyDelete