Hawaii Historical Societies

This directory lists 6 historical societies, museums, and archives in Hawaii, among them the Lahaina Restoration Foundation on Maui. Because the islands were an independent kingdom until 1893, the record trail here looks different from any mainland state, and most of it funnels through a single building in Honolulu: the Hawaii State Archives on the Iolani Palace grounds.

Hawaii was a kingdom (1810-1893), a republic (1894-1898), a U.S. territory from 1898 (organized 1900), and a state from August 21, 1959. Vital registration was ordered by law in 1842 for births and marriages and 1859 for deaths, but reporting was so thin that few records survive before 1896. There are no county recorders: deeds for the whole state have been recorded in Honolulu since 1844, and private land title itself only began with the Great Mahele of 1848.

Featured Historical Societies

Major repositories in Hawaii

The Hawaii State Archives occupies the Kekauluohi Building at 364 S. King Street, Honolulu, and is open Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Its Genealogy Research Guide walks through the collections genealogists use most: the Vital Statistics Collection, ships' passenger manifests, probates and wills, divorce case files, naturalization records, census returns, and a genealogy book index for Hawaiian chiefly lines. The new Digital Archives of Hawaii (still labeled beta) carries scans of many of these series, including newspaper birth notices 1850-1950, marriage notices 1850-1950 and obituary notices 1836-1950.

• Hawaii State Library, 478 S. King Street (opened 1913 as a Carnegie library): its Hawaii and Pacific Section is the public library system's research collection, and the system holds the 1900-1930 federal census of Hawaii on microfilm.
• Hawaiian Historical Society, 560 Kawaiahao Street, Honolulu: a library of more than 12,000 volumes and about 35 linear feet of manuscripts, strongest on the nineteenth century, plus newspaper, map, broadside and photograph files. Reading room by appointment, Thursday and Friday 10-4 and Saturday 10-2; publisher of the Hawaiian Journal of History.
• University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hamilton Library, Hawaiian Collection (2550 McCarthy Mall): maintains the Hawaii Cemetery Index for Oahu and the eVols repository that hosts scanned Honolulu city directories and Thrum's Annual.
• Bishop Museum Library and Archives, 1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu: Hawaiian and Pacific manuscripts and photographs; check the site for current reading room arrangements.

Hawaii vital records

The State Archives' Vital Statistics Collection is the place for anything before 1929. It gathers the reports of births, marriages and deaths, marriage licenses and record books that were filed under kingdom and territorial law, arranged by island, with two name indexes covering 1832-1910 and 1911-1929. The index is in the reference room and online through Ulukau. Two warnings from the Archives itself: reporting was seriously incomplete in the early years, and marriage records before 1896 do not name the bride's and groom's parents. The same guide covers divorce case files and probate files held at the Archives.

Certified copies come from the Department of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring, Vital Records Section. For genealogy requests on events before 1921 you must mail the official request form to P.O. Box 3378, Honolulu, HI 96801. Fees are $10 for the first certified copy and $4 for each additional copy of the same certificate; the Oahu office is at 201 Merchant Street, Suite 100, Honolulu. Eligibility is the sticking point: for any event that occurred 115 years or less before the current year, you must show a direct and tangible interest (immediate family or legal interest). Older events are open. Marriage licenses were and are a state function, so there is no county marriage office to visit.

Land, deed and property records: Mahele awards and the Bureau of Conveyances

Before 1840 all land belonged to the king and chiefs with no written titles. The Land Commission, created in 1845, took claims from chiefs and tenants, and the Great Mahele of 1848 divided the kingdom's lands among the government, the crown, the chiefs and the people. The paper trail runs: a claim and testimony before the Land Commission, a Land Commission Award (LCA), then a Royal Patent issued by the Minister of the Interior once the commutation fee was paid; unclaimed government land was later sold by Land Grant. The State Archives holds the award books (1836-1855), patents (1847-1961), the native and foreign testimonies and registers (1844-1854), and land files from the 1830s on; it has posted the Mahele Book itself as a PDF on its Digital Collections page. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs' Papakilo Database also indexes Mahele and Land Commission records.

Every later deed, mortgage and lease for the entire state is recorded at the Bureau of Conveyances, Kalanimoku Building, 1151 Punchbowl Street, Suite 120, Honolulu (indexes begin in 1844). Hawaii is one of only two states with a single statewide recording office. The Bureau runs two systems: the Regular System of recorded documents, and the Land Court System, where registered parcels carry a Certificate of Title; a property can be in either or both, so check both indexes. A public reference room is available, and the Bureau's site has fee and ordering information. FamilySearch has a grantor-grantee index for 1845-1909.

Newspapers and city directories

The Hawaii Digital Newspaper Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Library is the state's National Digital Newspaper Program partner; its scans are searchable on Chronicling America, where Hawaii coverage runs 1840-1922. Titles there include the Pacific Commercial Advertiser (1856-1910), Hawaiian Gazette, Hawaiian Star (1893-1912), Evening Bulletin (1895-1912), Honolulu Star-Bulletin (1912-1917), Maui News (1900-1922), Garden Island (Lihue, 1911-1922) and Hilo Tribune, plus some Hawaiian-language pages of Hawaii Holomua.

• Hawaiian-language papers are the larger body: the Hoolaupai Hawaiian Nupepa Collection (nupepa.org) covers titles published 1834-1948, and Ka Nupepa Kuokoa (1861-1927) is famous for printed genealogies, obituaries and letters.
• The State Archives' Digital Archives has browsable birth, marriage and obituary notices clipped from newspapers (1836/1850 to 1950), and the Archives keeps an obituary index.
• City directories: the Archives holds hard copies of the Polk and Husted Honolulu directories, and links scans for 1880-1881, 1884-1885, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1892, 1894-1897, 1898, 1902-1906 and 1910 on the University of Hawaii's eVols repository.

Census, immigration and statewide indexes

Hawaii does not appear in a federal census until 1900 (annexation came in 1898), and no territorial or state censuses were ever taken. The kingdom and republic counted their people, but the Archives notes that returns survive only for 1866, 1878, 1890 and 1896, none of them complete; name schedules exist for 1878 (Oahu, Maui and Hawaii island), 1890 (all islands except Niihau) and 1896 (Honolulu only). They are browsable, unindexed, in the Digital Archives census collection, and FamilySearch has imaged them. Federal schedules 1900-1950 follow the usual rules.

• Passenger manifests: the Archives indexed every manifest in its collection for 1843-1900 by nationality and then by surname (FamilySearch has this as Hawaii, Collector of Customs, Ships' Passenger Manifests, 1843-1900). The federal government took over immigration in 1900; the Archives' copy of manifests for February 1900 to January 1921 is on the Digital Archives, and Honolulu passenger lists 1900-1953 are indexed on FamilySearch.
• Chinese immigration: labor permit records 1893-1898, entry permits 1888-1898 and departures 1852-1900 are on FamilySearch from Archives microfilm.
• Naturalization and probate: both are Archives series described in the genealogy guide; printed indexes to marriages 1826-1929, divorces 1848-1915, probates, naturalizations and passports are online through Ulukau.
• Cemeteries: the University of Hawaii's Hawaii Cemetery Index covers Oahu burials.

Researching a house or building in Hawaii

The State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, with offices in Kapolei, administers both the Hawaii Register of Historic Places and National Register nominations and posts a downloadable list of listed and nominated properties. Its library does not circulate: email the Kapolei office for an appointment, and expect $0.50 per page for photocopies. Because Hawaii has no county recorders, the title chain for a house is assembled at the Bureau of Conveyances (Regular System and Land Court), and it ends in a Land Commission Award, Royal Patent or Land Grant number that you can trace in the Archives' land series or the Papakilo Database. Fire insurance maps for Honolulu and other towns are in the Library of Congress Sanborn collection. Hawaii has no statewide roadside marker program comparable to mainland states, so rely on register files and local societies for building histories.

Our general guides apply with those substitutions: tracing a deed chain, researching an old building, and using city directories (the Honolulu Polk directories listed above).

Visiting Hawaii's historical societies

Organizations here are island-based rather than county-based, and most small ones are volunteer-run; the Lahaina Restoration Foundation on Maui, for example, is both a museum operator and a preservation body, and its holdings were directly affected by the August 2023 Lahaina fire (the State Archives now maintains an August 2023 Fires collection). Email ahead for appointments, allow for inter-island travel when planning research trips, and remember that the Hawaiian Historical Society reading room is appointment-only on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Many Hawaiian-language sources are untranslated; the Ulukau electronic library's dictionaries help with place names and record terms.

Additional Hawaii History Resources

• Hawaii State Archives - State archives on the Iolani Palace grounds; genealogy research guide and indexes
• Digital Archives of Hawaii - Scanned vital statistics notices, passenger manifests, census returns and land records
• Hawaii Department of Health, Vital Records (Genealogy Requests) - How to order pre-1921 birth, marriage and death certificates; fees and eligibility
• Bureau of Conveyances - Statewide deed recording office in Honolulu; Regular System and Land Court
• State Historic Preservation Division - Hawaii Register and National Register programs, DLNR
• Hawaii Digital Newspaper Program - University of Hawaii partner for Chronicling America, Hawaii newspapers 1840-1922
• Hawaiian Historical Society - Research library in Honolulu and the Hawaiian Journal of History
• Hawaii State Public Library System - Hawaii State Library and its Hawaii and Pacific Section
• Ulukau Hawaiian Electronic Library - Hawaiian-language dictionaries, books and genealogical indexes

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find a Hawaii birth or marriage record from the 1890s?

Start with the Hawaii State Archives' Vital Statistics Collection, which has name indexes for 1832-1910 and 1911-1929 arranged by island (online through Ulukau and in the Archives reading room). Then mail a genealogy request with the official form to the Department of Health, P.O. Box 3378, Honolulu, HI 96801; certified copies are $10 for the first copy. Events older than 115 years are open to anyone; newer ones require proof of direct interest.

What is a Land Commission Award and where do I find one?

After the 1848 Great Mahele, people who claimed land filed with the Land Commission; approved claims became Land Commission Awards, which were converted to Royal Patents once a commutation fee was paid. The Hawaii State Archives holds the award books (1836-1855), patents (1847-1961) and the native and foreign testimonies, and has posted the Mahele Book online. The Papakilo Database also indexes these records.

Were there censuses of Hawaii before 1900?

The kingdom and republic took censuses, but only the 1866, 1878, 1890 and 1896 returns survive, and none is complete. Name lists exist for 1878 (Oahu, Maui, Hawaii), 1890 (all islands except Niihau) and 1896 (Honolulu). They are unindexed in the Digital Archives of Hawaii; the first federal census is 1900.

Where are deeds recorded in Hawaii?

At the Bureau of Conveyances, 1151 Punchbowl Street, Honolulu, which records documents for the whole state (indexes begin in 1844). Property is in the Regular System, the Land Court System (registered title with a Certificate of Title), or both, so search both. There are no county recorders in Hawaii.