Hawaiʻi - Census 1896 Enumeration Sheets: Home

Introduction

Aloha! This partial digital collection of the 1896 census was created to help the lāhui find their ancestors in the census and to explore how we can build stronger pilina or connections with the places that our ancestors called home. Unlike other censuses of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the enumeration sheets in this census were grouped by street names in Honolulu on the microfilm reels. Some of these place names were familiar while some were not. When an enumeration sheet did not list a place name, we used the name of the preceding enumeration sheet. We also standardized the use of place names since they were not written consistently in the census, such as Kula for instances when School and Kula street were mentioned as well as Kona for instances when Honolulu or Kona were listed. This digital collection is different from the other census collections available through the library because we strived to better understand these place names and to find the locations listed on the census enumeration sheets using the 1896-1897 and 1898 city directories and a historic map of Honolulu from 1901. We then annotated that map to highlight the locations to help show where one may be living during this time. A selective glossary of some of the place and street names can be found here.

Census sheets in this collection are listed in alpha order by the person who signed the enumeration sheet as the mea noho hale (occupier) or mea malama hale (person in charge) or Hope Luna Helu (sub enumerator). While these enumeration sheets will usually list the family and other members of the household, or possibly tenants of the person who signed the sheet, there are oftentimes another families and individuals listed. It is recommended to browse through each of the names listed if you are not finding your ancestors and think they were living in the Honolulu area during this time. You can also keyword search for names in this census using Family Search's collection Hawaii Island Census Records, 1878-1896.

Important note: The 1896 census is available online on two digitized microfilm reels, MFL62-1 and MFL62-2 in the Hawaiʻi State Archives's Census Collection. The enumeration sheets in this digital collection are only of the microfilm reel MFL62-2. In the future, we will incorporate the enumeration sheets from the microfilm reel MFL62-1, which you can currently browse online through the Hawaiʻi State Archives Digital Archives.