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The Ontais are many. Ontais are, for the most part,... multi-ethnic. In Hawaii they are regarded as a Part-Hawaiian, Chinese, Haole (Caucasian) clan. Mom told me to record: "Part-Hawaiian, Cosmopolitan"...when government authorities, teachers asked me what my ethnicity was. I have done so even when one of my principals confronted me for the Department of Education (State of Hawaii) in an effort to get me to check the "Pacific Islander" box. "Pacific Islander" is not a Polynesian or a Kanaka Maoli term. It was created by U.S.A. leaders; it is a fraudulent term for such as me.
We Ontais are the descendants on momma's paternal side... of a Mr. Ah Chew Ng Ontai (On Tai/TaiOn) with Number One wife, Shee Ching Zane, officially recognized in clan records as the mother of all (but one) of Ah Chew Ng Ontai's children.
Shee Ching Zane is my Chinese Genealogy Motherland mother; she is not my "Part- Hawaiian/Cosmopolitan" mother. If I were inclined to return to China and visit the Ng temple, my grandfather (Henry Ontai) would most likely be found registered there as her third, full Chinese.... son. My grandpa, Henry Ontai, is not full-Chinese. End of story.
I am not full Chinese; I am Chinese, Hawaiian, English, Irish, Portuguese, Scot, Ehu Spanish, and if the work of one computer research with a locally-known genealogical society is to be believed....part-Sephardic Jew. (In other words...at least one of my grandmothers in the Tilton clan, daddy's side...most likely was part- Sephardic Jew.)
Both Shee Ching and Ah Chew Ng were "full" Chinese. Both were born in China, but lived full lives on Maui and Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands. Shee Ching Zane was a Christian as is evidenced by the crosses (two) and the Jesus Christ sketch (on one of the crosses)....on her gravestone at the Makiki Cemetary below Roosevelt High School, Island of Oahu...of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, renamed Territory of Hawaii when it was forcibly absorbed/annexed to the U.S.A. in 1901 by America's Congress...and renamed the State of Hawaii of the U.S.A. in 1959.
However, recent research suggests that this claim of motherhood four times for four sons, rather than just once with one son, is a dynastic China/Motherland claim, because apparently three of the sons claimed as Shee Ching Zane's sons actually had Hawaiian or Part-Hawaiian biological mothers.
This is not to say that Shee Ching's claims as "mother" were incorrect or is unacceptable. Most Ontais accept this claim as a matter of honor in Chinese protocol; some even believe this claim. Others want to believe this claim as the absolute Truth...no matter what documents may otherwise suggest. It removes the polygamy stain and supplants it with the Christian certification.
Shee Ching Zane is a much-respected.....ancestress; God Almighty is the only One who knows the absolute Truth. Jesus Lord is the only One who is able to let us know...the absolute Truth.
In Hawaii the claim of both Shee Ching Zane and the Hawaiian female(s) as mothers of Carl, James, and Henry Ontai... is the subject of some discussion, but with absolutely no negativity.
Why would one be angry because a great grandfather (Ah Chew Ng) decided to honor Number One wife in accordance with Chinese/Hakka/Motherland.... custom- as well as cater to monogamous, Christian, missionary, American values in control of everything allowed in Hawaii Nei? Besides, there were other reasons for such official Oahu claims throughout the 20th century- reasons the family was not inclined to acknowledge to outsiders during the difficult territorial days under the oligarchy of western-family elite.
In other words, false "motherhood" claims by one son on Maui favoring Shee Chee Zane and more of such by another son on Oahu... plus more of such by still another son on the Big Island of Hawaii ...all engineered by great grandpa... might have been "necessary" to great grandpa.
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