Conducting Genealogy Research in Hawaiʻi

Things to Keep in Mind

The microfilms for the early censuses (before 1900) are located at Hamilton Library, the Hawaiʻi State Archives, Hawaiʻi State Library Main Branch.  The later censuses (after 1900) are located online in a family genealogy database through the Hawaii State Public Library. You will need to have a library card to access the database.

The census are organized by island, then by district. The first thing you want to do is generate a list of your kūpuna that you think would be alive during a certain census, then think of where they would be located. For the early censuses (before 1900), you will need to manually search through each census: page by page, line by line, family by family on microfilm. For the later censuses (after 1900), you can actually do a keyword search for your kūpuna online.

Enumeration sheets are the forms used by census enumerators to gather information from people. Information may include the following:

• the person's name
• place of residence
• sex
• age
• occupation
• educational level
• language spoken
• country of origin

Hawaii was included in the U.S. decennial censuses beginning in 1900.  For privacy reasons, the U.S. Census Bureau does not release enumeration sheets until 72 years after the census has been conducted. The most recent enumeration sheets available for Hawaiʻi are from the 1940 decennial census, released in 2012. Enumeration sheets from the 1950 decennial census are scheduled to be released n 2022.