Notes for Jean Elizabeth BURNS

Descendants of
Captain Robert Brown
1809 – 1894

Notes for Jean Elizabeth BURNS

This is the way I remember my sister Jean and her stories. Source FWB 3rd

Jean was smart--our cousins all said she got the brains in our family. She was also independent, protective & determined. All Burns relatives have been accused of being stubborn-I donÕt know why!?. Jean was also an independent thinker. She was doing something or planning something at all times. She loved all people and animals.

I remember her being very determined that her little brothers would not be cannon fodder in the war like some of her friends had been, and wasnÕt at all happy with where we ended up.

When we were all young and spent a lot of time at Kokee, Jean was the principle organizer of our games, hikes, horseback trips, etc. I donÕt remember having horses of our own, but one of the neighbors at Kokee was the Glaser (sp?) family and they had lots of horses. The father was a Veterinarian. In any case, Jean was on the horses as much as she could manage. We were allowed to go on some hiking/horseback trips on our own. That is without a real adult. These were trips that our parents knew were reasonably safe and knew when we should be back. There were times when we all agreed to go somewhere different than we were supposed to. Then the trips took too long and we had to explain what happened to our mother. Jean was so good at explaining such things that we always let her do all the talking.

I understand another Kokee thing was that Jean had to make trips down to the Faye house to look at Alan Faye Sr. She would have been a sub teen ager. He would have been pretty old for her (maybe already married), but I guess the point is she was attracted to him at an early age. (This isnÕt something I remember--its something I was told. Possibly by Jean.)

When we lived at Waikiki her best friend was Claire Cross. Claire also had younger brothers who were Bruce and my best friends. She and Claire played a lot of tennis and got pretty good at it. They often drafted their little brothers to play doubles with them. Being boys we figured we could beat them, but most of the time it didnÕt work out that way. However, when we did beat them they were very unhappy.

One day we all went to the movies at the theater that was (is?) at the Diamond Head end of the Ala Wai canal on Kapahulu Ave. In the middle of the show a major earthquake hit. I think that was the first big modern day earthquake to hit Honolulu. We were all scared and ran out of the theater but no one beat Jean and Claire out. And we didnÕt find them until long after we got home. Since they were supposed to be taking care of us little brothers they were in trouble.

When Jean was a late teen she decided that she wanted to join the Children of the American Revolution. I think it was because one of her good friends was a member. So she researched it and traced the Burns side of the family all the way back to the Mayflower. She did it quite fast. My theory is that she got help from Marion Wilson (Cuthbert Burns WilsonÕs wife) who was interested in genealogy. She later made it into her ÒGenealogy of Descendants of Frank Westly Burns and Pearl Lydia McCarthyÓ. She must have drawn each copy of the genealogy by hand. Anyway when she got in, she absolutely hated it!! The people were snobs, etc., etc. So being old enough to make such decisions, she just dropped out. The down side for Bruce and I was that our aunt Louise was very impressed by the CAR/DAR/Mayflower Society and insisted that Bruce and I join. I have a feeling that the Cookes, Baldwins and many of the other missionary families in Hawaii go back that far--they are all from New England. Bruce and I REALLY hated it for the same reasons that Jean did. I think the only reason we got to stop going to the meetings was that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Another offshoot of this was that Mary Louise Rothwell (LouiseÕs daughter) wanted to join the CAR. So she traced her ancestry---and found that the Rothwell ancestors had been in the Revolutionary War all right---but on the side of the English. They are descended from Lord Nelson.

JeanÕs interest in the family and genealogy stayed with her all her life. After our parents died there was a break in the relations between the McCarthyÕs and the Burns. It had something to do with contributing to our support. Since Jean lived on Kauai she reestablished a relationship with our uncle Caleb Burns who was manager of Lihue Plantation at the time. She got names of relatives who still lived in Maine and when she and Alan made a trip to the east coast (maybe this was the trip Mike went on) she knocked on some relatives doors in Ft. Fairfield to try to establish a connection. However, she was not welcomed. Dorothy and I had the same experience when we went to Ft. Fairfield a few years ago. We didnÕt knock on doors but got names out of the phone book and wrote letters to those who must have been relatives--and didnÕt get any answers. We donÕt know what that is all about, but have recently gotten a clue. The clue is from a Pearl Burns WilsonÕs great grandson who still lives in Maine (Bath) and made a trip to Kauai to contact Cuthbert Wilson JrÕs. widow last year trying to establish contact with the Hawaiian branch of the family. There is a whole other story there but he said that it seemed that when a family member leaves Ft. Fairfield, they are written off.

Another successful contact she made with relatives was with Edward MorganÕs mother who was full blooded Hawaiian. The story we always heard was that EdwardÕs father was kind of disowned by the rest of the clan for marrying a Hawaiian. Jean said she was one of the most lovely women she had ever met.

Jean was raised as a Catholic and her first marriage was done with the McCarthy sisters, mainly Louise acting as the brides family. The reception was at the Rothwells home in Manoa valley. It was a very festive affair. I remember getting into the punch. The McCarthy sisters very much approved of Clyde Young. He was a great sales person. When her marriage wasnÕt working out she went on an extended vacation to Waimea where Margaret and Chick were living. And never went back to Clyde. Of course her childhood idol was the manager of the Waimea Plantation and Diary and ChickÕs boss. He was divorced. After the divorcing Clyde, she married Alan.

Probably because she was remarried outside of the Catholic church and the aunties & local priest were now unhappy with her, she studied churches and religions. When we would visit she and Alan, she talked to me about what she learned. Her conclusions made a lot of sense. Things like the world/universe, etc. could only have one Maker--not one for every nationality/culture/sect/etc. Maybe most important for her, I think she resolved any religious conflicts that she had.

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