Hawaiian Genealogies - Hawaiʻi - Genealogy Research - Research Guides at University of Hawaii at Manoa

Hawaiian Genealogies

Unpublished Genealogies | Genealogies in Publications | Genealogies of Hawaiian Royalty | Genealogies by Island

Unpublished Genealogies

The Hawaiʻi State Archives has a number of Hawaiian genealogy books in their manuscripts collection that available online in their new Digital Archives of Hawaiʻi website. For more information visit their Genealogy Book Index finding aid and the browse the digitized Genealogy Book microfilms.

Important note and update: There is a new project to transcribe the Hawaiian genealogy books. The project is called "Moʻopono - Hawaiian Ancestry Project," and the link to access the searchable books is here: https://hawaiianancestry.weebly.com.

Genealogies in Publications

Below are various publications the UHM's Hawaiian Collection has that contains Hawaiian genealogies. If you click on any of the items below, you will be taken to the item's library record in OneSearch.

Hawaiian genealogies : extracted from Hawaiian language newspapers by Edith K. McKinzie
Call Number: CS2203 .M35 v. 1 & 2
Publication Date: 1983
In Hawaiian with English translation. Check names in indexes. Information is from 13 Hawaiian newspapers published 1858-1920. Supplements manuscript genealogies at Hawaiʻi State Archives.
An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origins and Migrations, and the Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I by Abraham Fornander
Call Number: GN670 .F62
Publication Date: 1969
Based on genealogies gathered by Hawaiian assistants who for three years, gathered legends, chants, prayers, history and culture of Hawaiians.
Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii by Samuel M. Kamakau
Call Number: DU624.65 .K3413 1992
Publication Date: 1992
Available Online Here.
Based on Kamakau's articles in Hawaiian language newspapers, including information on ali'i to the 1840s. Numerous appendices on battles, dates, heiau, mele and chants, proverbs, genealogies.
Tales and traditions of the people of old = Nā moʻolelo o ka poʻe kahiko by Kamakau, Samuel Manaiakalani; Pukui, Mary Kawena; Barrère, Dorothy B.
Call Number: DU624.5 .K27 1991
Publication Date: 1991
"Completes a trilogy based on a series of articles Kamakau wrote in 1868 and 1870 for the Hawaiian-language newspaper Ke Au Okoa." "In this final volume, Kamakau takes the reader on a tour of the islands, stopping along the way to tell tales associated with various sites. The stories, some full of mischief, bring to life the ancestral chiefs and gods of Hawai‘i. Kamakau describes the origins of Hawai‘i and its people, taking pains to trace the genealogies of the chiefs."
Hawaiian Mythology by Martha Beckwith
Call Number: GR385 .B43 1976
Publication Date: 1976
Available Online Here
Other editions available: 1940 and 1970.
Part 1. The gods. Coming of the gods; Part 2. Children of the gods. The Pele myth; Part 3. The chiefs. Papa and Wakea - Genealogies; Part 4. Heroes and lovers in fiction. Kupua stories - Trickster stories - Voyage to the land of the gods.
Some aliis of the migratory period by Bruce Cartwright
Call Number: AM101 .B448 v.10 no. 7
Publication Date: 1933
Available online from the HathiTrust and the
Bishop Museum. Note: online version may not include foldout genealogy charts.
Provides information about the alii who came to Hawaii during the settlement "migratory period": Includes genealogy charts and summaries for: Puna line, Hema line, Nana line, Pili line.
Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen Liliuokalani by Queen Liliʻuokalani
Publication Date: 1898
Links to reprint (published after 1904) of 1898 edition. Appealing to an American audience for justice, Queen Liliʻuokalani details her diplomatic efforts in Washington D.C. to restore Hawaiian governance and stop the annexation of Hawaiʻi. Her account details the events that led to the Kūʻē petition drive in Fall 1897. She includes her official protest and analysis of the annexation treaty that U.S. President McKinley sent to the U.S. Senate on June 16, 1897. Appendices include genealogy charts.

Genealogies of Hawaiian Royalty

The royal lineages of Hawaiʻi by Anne H. Spoehr
Call Number: CS2204 .S66 1989
ISBN: 0930897331
Publication Date: 1989
Provides a genealogy chart and alphabetical listing of each individual with brief biographical data: other names, dates and places of birth and death.
America's Only Royal Family: Genealogy of the former Hawaiian Ruling House by Milton Rubincam
Call Number: CS2204 .R8 1968
Features House of Kamehameha, House of Kalakaua, and House of Kawananakoa. Includes brief biographies of names mentioned and a bibliography.
Nā lani Kamehameha : the Kamehameha Dynasty, the founding chiefs of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi by Leonard K. Kwan
Call Number: DU624.96 .K35 K43 1989
Publication Date: 1989
A Hawaiian Studies instructional supplement that provides brief biographies of prominent members in the Kamehameha 'ohana, from Kamehameha to Bernice Pauahi Bishop. Includes a detailed foldout genealogy chart.
Hawaiian royal & noble genealogies by Oukah, Emperor of Tsalagi
Call Number: CS204 .O85 1998
Publication Date: 1998
Genealogy of the ancient chiefs of Hawaii, including: an alphabetical list and individual index of Alii names; Family Charts; Rulers of the Islands; and Hawaiian Royalty Today.

Genealogies by Island

Na moʻi o Kahoʻolawe = The administrators of Kahoʻolawe : a study of the chiefly genealogies of the administrators of the island of Kahoʻolawe by Edith K. McKinzie
Call Number: DU628 .K25 no.15
Publication Date: 1993
Report verifying genealogical linkage of manuscript, "Na Mo'i o Kaho'olawe" to the main body of genealogical records. Useful bibliography and research process.
The Story of Hawaiian Royalty by Kapiikauinamoku by Sammy Amalu
The Story of Maui Royalty by Kapiikauinamoku by Sammy Amalu