Top 3 Locations for Marriage Registers in Hawaii

There are three places you can obtain marriage records in Hawaii: the Health Department, the Church, and the Hawaii State Archives. Read the details below.

Marriage registers in Hawaii are governed by state law, which restricts access to records less than 75 years old to only:

1. Bride/groom whose name appears on record

2. Parents of the bride/groom

3. Legal Guardians

4. Persons who descend/share common ancestors with the bride/groom

          a. Grandparents

          b. Aunts or uncles

          c. Cousins

5. Persons legally acting in behalf of qualified persons

I. Marriage Registers in Hawaii: Health Department

Marriage records are available at $10 per copy at the Hawaii Health Department's Vital Statistics Section. For inquiries, call (808) 586-4542. For your request, use the online form at this link.

Aside from being qualified to access current records, you also need to provide as many details as you can, such as:

A. Groom's complete name

B. Bride's complete maiden name

C. Complete marriage date and location (city/town/island)

D. Purpose for request and relationship to person/s on record

E. Your contact details

After the 75-year proscription period, records may be made available to any person.

II. Marriage Registers in Hawaii: Churches

Marriage registers in Hawaii are also found among church registers. Around early to mid-1800s, religious missionaries began arriving in Hawaii.

By the turn of the next century, these four groups were the biggest:

A. The Mormons

B. The Congregationalists

C. The Presbyterians

D. The Roman Catholics

Much later, another major group arose in the islands, the Buddhists, who kept their own temple records.

III. Marriage Registers in Hawaii: Hawaii State Archives

Marriage registers in Hawaii can lead you to more complete genealogical data, such as those from certificates and licenses. Certificates will provide you with the couple's race, while the license will even state the parents' race and their address at the time the marriage took place.

Older records (1826-1929) may be found at the Hawaii State Archives, but the repository's index is only up to 1910. An archival marriage license, on the other hand, would be filed in either the 1900-to-1910 or the 1911-to-1929 periods. 

The Archives published a newspaper, called Nupepa Kuokoa, from ca. 1860 to the late 1920s, which may also help those doing general research on marriages among residents of the islands. The publication has its own browser at the Archives website.

Finding your marriage records in Hawaii has been made convenient by these three channels. Feel free to browse around the Marriage Records section of RecordsSiteReviews for more information.