In search of our roots

Columban Fr Pat Colgan along with the Chute family at grave of Columban Fr Dick O'Sullivan. - Photo: Fr Pat Colgan

In 1800, in Dingle, Co Kerry, a certain John Lindsey Chute was born. After studying for the Anglican ministry at Trinity College Dublin, John served in various Church of Ireland parishes in Roscommon, Kerry and Cork.

Church biographies of the time describe his “impressive preaching” and “good labours” during the Irish Famine of 1845–52. His good wife, Jane Lucinda Burleigh, also of Dingle, had her own share of “good labours” in giving birth to seven children before dying at the age of 51. John remarried and had six more children before dying himself in 1871.

One of their sons, William (b. 1837), was sent to the healthier and warmer climes of the South Pacific, either because he developed tuberculosis or was deemed useful for colonial service after his own studies at Trinity College, or both. He ended up in the then British colony of the Gilbert Islands (present-day Kiribati), where he married Ili Tekea. They had one son called John Chute, who migrated to the larger colony of Fiji, where he had 15 children (eight from his Kiribati wife and seven from a Fijian woman, Salanieta Cakacakaimago). The family believe that it was probably in Kiribati, and due to the influence of his mother, Ili Tekea, that John embraced the Catholic faith. While the present-day Chutes obviously descend from the Fijian line, their cousins (the Reids, the Pickerings, the Simons, in fact, most of the Caqiri settlement) come from the Kiribati root.

John Lindsay is the great-great-great-grandfather of Vera, Lucy, Albert, Clara and Joe Chute from Fiji, all of whom, along with three of their children, took a trip to Britain and Ireland in late July 2025 to connect with any living relatives they could find, as well as search for any gravestone or memory of William or any of his progeny. They also came to honour the memories of many Columban priests who ministered to their grandparents, parents, and themselves in Fiji.

A series of extraordinary coincidences began almost immediately on their arrival at Dalgan Park, especially during their visit to the genealogy section of the National Archives in Dublin.

Columban Fr John McEvoy with the Chute family at Dalgan Park in Ireland. - Photo: Fr Pat Colgan

After praying at the graves of Frs Dick O’Sullivan, John Doyle and Martin Dobey - all of whom served in the parish of Labasa with their father Pat Chute often at their side (Dick had celebrated Pat Chute’s wedding to Rosie in 1965) - they discovered a living relative, Fr John (Jack) Chute, in our St Columban’s nursing home! Although Jack is from Tralee, the proximity of the counties of Cork and Kerry, along with the relative rarity of the Chute/Tuite name, certainly points to a family relationship. The (Fijian) Chutes sang a beautiful Pacific “farewell song” to Jack, in case this would turn out to be their only meeting. Jack, in return, gave a lusty rendition of “The Rose of Tralee”!

Since half of the siblings now live in Los Angeles or San Francisco, they were also delighted to meet Frs TP Reynolds and Gerry O’Shaughnessy, both of whom served in St Hilary’s Parish, Pico Rivera, California. The Chutes, along with other migrant community Columban friends (Peruvian, Korean and Filipinos), have been organising “Dancing for the World” – an annual fundraising event in Los Angeles - and other fundraising galas for the St Columban's Mission Society for many years. The Chute siblings and their families were very close friends of Serafina Ranadi, a Fijian lay missionary who sadly died in Los Angeles in 2012, and continue to support Columban Fr Diego Cabrera Rojas, the Administrator of St Hilary’s Parish.

The serendipity kept flowing on a visit to the National Archives in Dublin when, to the surprise of all, there was no long queue of expatriate relatives with similar requests to see the one Irish government genealogist on duty, nor did anyone else join the line after them, allowing a full hour of private consultation and the discoveries of not just birth, baptism and marriage records for Rev John Lindsey but also those of many of his seven children, including William Burleigh. The family, after more searching in Cork, was also able to pinpoint the location of the gravestone of Rev. John at Pembroke, as well as that of their great-great-great-grandmother, Jane Lucinda, in Dublin.

The Chute family surrounding their great grandfather John's grave at Pembroke, Co Cork, Dalgan Park, in Ireland. - Photo: Fr Pat Colgan

Their search was helped enormously not only by the Chute family’s exhaustive research before disembarking in Dublin but by the fact that many of the Chute ancestors were Anglican clergy, for whom (unlike their Catholic counterparts) records were kept (the former regarded as “State Records”).

Tears flowed in the Archives office, including from the genealogist Sandra herself, in joy at the family finally “connecting the dots”. I, too, felt privileged, as a Columban, to witness it. I could never forget the scrumptious Irish roasts that Vera’s granny, Letitia, would make for all the Columban priests and students on Sundays in Suva. I also have happy memories of spending Christmases, and particularly New Year (since their property is on the international date line) at the Chute’s ancestral island of Nakula, where the villagers would “throw” me into the sea at midnight, according to their custom, and then provide me, on my return to shore, with towels, new clothes, and fresh coconut oil with which to massage myself!

It was truly a delight to witness the Chute family’s determination to find and honour the country of their ancestors, and to see their love for both the Columbans and their Catholic faith. May this bond continue to grow across the waves and the generations as we each continue on our pilgrim path.

Columban Fr Pat Colgan lives and works in Ireland.