The President’s Message

In Search of Our Family Identity

For over thirty years, the descendants of Thomas Bambridge and Maraea Haumani O’Connor, residing in French Polynesia, have been working to create or strengthen the bonds between our family members through a better understanding of our history and genealogy.

At the origin of this tremendous genealogical research effort was the determination of one man, John Otevai Bambridge, who, in 1989, “felt the desire to publish a book on the Bambridge family tree.” To achieve this goal, it was necessary to rally goodwill, and John could count on the generosity of certain family members who agreed to participate in the research and information gathering from cousins, near and far, to complete the genealogy of the seventeen children of the first generation and their descendants.

It goes without saying that the task was immense and the obstacles numerous, but John succeeded in reconstructing what he called the “family puzzle,” while avoiding the clichés too often associated with the Bambridge name. In the preface of his book “The Bambridge Family and Its Allies from 1832 to 1989,” John confided: “I wanted to know who I lived with, why, and how I am here.”

The publication of John Otevai Bambridge’s book created a tremendous momentum among the descendants of Thomas and Maraea Bambridge, with the desire to better know each other and strengthen our family ties. Everyone became aware of their belonging to a large family, rich in history and strong through the diversity of its members. Thus, the Bambridge Family and Its Allies Association was born.

For more than a decade, John, known as Coco, strived to create events to maintain this family cohesion and attract new members to the association. At the time, everything was easier since we could benefit from the facilities of the Iorana Villa Hotel and the Vaima Restaurant, whose owners were also family members.

Then John Bambridge stepped back and passed the torch to Maiana Bambridge, who continued the mission entrusted to her. It is in the continuity of the work accomplished that I accepted the presidency of our family association in 2016.

I wish a long life to the Association of the Descendants of Thomas Bambridge and Maraea Haumani O’Connor. I hope it will always unite more members of our large family in search of their family identity, eager to pass on to their descendants the values our ancestors taught us and the pride of belonging to this great and beautiful family, the Bambridge family.

TE AROHA I A RAHI

La Présidente,

Antonina BAMBRIDGE

The History of the Association