Hawaii Emigration and Immigration

Online Resources

 * 1500s-1900s All U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s at Ancestry; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Hawaii; Also at MyHeritage; index only ($)
 * 1843-1900 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1893-1898 at FamilySearch - How to use this collection; index & images
 * 1895-1956 United States, Border Crossings from Canada, 1895-1956 at MyHeritge; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Hawaii
 * 1895-1964 All U.S., Border Crossings from Mexico to U.S., 1895-1964 at Ancestry; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Hawaii
 * 1900-1952 Index to Passengers Arriving at Honolulu, Hawaii, 1900-1952 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1900-1952 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1900-1952 Hawaii, Index to Filipino Passengers Arriving at Honolulu, 1900-1952 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1900-1953 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images; Also at FindMyPast; index & images ($), MyHeritage; index & images ($)
 * 1900-1959 Honolulu, Hawaii, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1900-1959 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1903-1944 Hawaii, U.S., Index to Chinese Exclusion Case Files, 1903-1944 at FamilySearch; index only ($)
 * 1906-1977 Filipino Laborers Collection, 1906 to about 1977; index & images
 * 1909-1910 Hawaii, Harbin File - Russian Immigrant Laborers Index A-Z, 1909-1910 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1912-1946 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images

Cultural Groups

 * 1920-1939 Germany, Bremen Emigration Lists, 1920-1939 at MyHeritge; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Hawaii
 * 1941-1948 Hawaii, Passenger Lists, 1941-1948 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
 * 1942-1948 Hawaii, Passenger Lists of Airplanes departing Honolulu, 1942-1948 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1946 Hawaii, Index to Filipino Arrivals to Honolulu, 1946 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1947-1948 California, Airplane Passenger Lists from Honolulu, Hawaii, 1947-1948 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * Hawaii State Archives Index to Chinese Passenger Manifests
 * Hawaii State Archives Japanese Passenger Manifests Index
 * Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild at MyHeritge; index only ($)
 * Germans Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritge; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Hawaii
 * Italians Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritge; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Hawaii

Passport Records Online

 * 1795-1925 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1795-1925 - U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 Index and images, at Ancestry ($)

Offices to Contact
Although many records are included in the online records listed above, there are other records available through these archives and offices. For example, there are many minor ports that have not yet been digitized. There are also records for more recent time periods. For privacy reasons, some records can only be accessed after providing proof that your ancestor is now deceased.

U.S. Citizenship and and Immigration Services Genealogy Program
The USCIS Genealogy Program is a fee-for-service program that provides researchers with timely access to historical immigration and naturalization records of deceased immigrants. If the immigrant was born less than 100 years ago, you will also need to provide proof of his/her death.

Immigration Records Available

 * A-Files: Immigrant Files, (A-Files) are the individual alien case files, which became the official file for all immigration records created or consolidated since April 1, 1944.
 * Alien Registration Forms (AR-2s): Alien Registration Forms (Form AR-2) are copies of approximately 5.5 million Alien Registration Forms completed by all aliens age 14 and older, residing in or entering the United States between August 1, 1940 and March 31, 1944.
 * Registry Files:''' Registry Files are records, which document the creation of immigrant arrival records for persons who entered the United States prior to July 1, 1924, and for whom no arrival record could later be found.
 * Files:''' Visa Files are original arrival records of immigrants admitted for permanent residence under provisions of the Immigration Act of 1924.

Requesting a Record

 * Web Request Page allows you to request a records, pay fees, and upload supporting documents (proof of death).
 * Record Requests Frequently Asked Questions

Finding Town of Origin
Records in the countries emigrated from are kept on the local level. You must first identify the name of the town where your ancestors lived to access those records. If you do not yet know the name of the town of your ancestor's birth, there are well-known strategies for a thorough hunt for it.
 * U. S. Immigration Records: Finding the Town of Origin

Background
Less than 1 percent of Hawaii's population is pure-blooded Hawaiian. Many immigrant groups originally came as contract laborers to work in the sugar fields. The Chinese began arriving in 1852, followed by the Portuguese in 1878, the Japanese in 1884, Koreans in 1903, and Filipinos in 1906. Those of Japanese descent presently constitute about 30 percent of the total population, and are the largest ethnic group in Hawaii. American missionaries from New England started coming in 1820, but the number of Americans was not significant until about 1875. For a summary of immigrant information see A History of Hawaiian Immigration

An especially helpful history of the many ethnic groups in Hawaii is Eleanor C. Nordyke, The Peopling of Hawaii(Honolulu, Hawaii: University Press of Hawaii, 1989) ). Family History Library records of ethnic groups are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog under the subject heading HAWAII - MINORITIES. There are published histories for the Japanese and Filipinos, and annotated bibliographies for the Chinese and Koreans.


 * Hawaii. Bureau of Immigration, 7.7.1898-6.14.1900 NARA Administrative History Note

Immigration Records
Immigration refers to people coming into a country. Emigration refers to people leaving a country to go to another. Immigration records usually take the form of ship's passenger lists collected at the port of entry. See Online Resources.

Information in Passenger Lists

 * Before 1820 - Passenger lists before 1820 included name, departure information and arrival details. The names of wives and children were often not included.


 * 1820-1891 - Customs Passenger Lists between 1820 and 1891 asked for each immigrant’s name, their age, their sex, their occupation, and their country of origin, but not the city or town of origin.


 * 1891-1954 - Information given on passenger lists from 1891 to 1954 included:
 * name, age, sex,
 * nationality, occupation, marital status,
 * last residence, final destination in the U.S.,
 * whether they had been to the U.S. before (and if so, when, where and how long),
 * if joining a relative, who this person was, where they lived, and their relationship,
 * whether able to read and write,
 * whether in possession of a train ticket to their final destination, who paid for the passage,
 * amount of money the immigrant had in their possession,
 * whether the passenger had ever been in prison, a poorhouse, or in an institution for the insane,
 * whether the passenger was a polygamist,
 * and immigrant's state of health.


 * 1906-- - In 1906, the physical description and place of birth were included, and a year later, the name and address of the passenger’s closest living relative in the country of origin was included.

Information in Passports
Over the years, passports and passport applications contained different amounts of information about the passport applicant. The first passports that are available begin in 1795. These usually contained the individual's name, description of individual, and age. More information was required on later passport applications, such as:


 * Birthplace
 * Birth date
 * Naturalization information
 * Arrival information, if foreign born

Records
The principal port of entry for immigrants into Hawaii is the Honolulu Harbor. *The names of early passengers and the ships they came on are indexed in Bernice Judd, Voyages to Hawaii Before 1860, Reprint (Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1974) *Hawaii Collector of Customs, Ships' Passenger Manifests, 1843-1900 (SLC, Utah, 1976-1977)  On these films there are separate indexes for the Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese, and a general index for the rest of the passengers. *The Family History Library and the Office of the Consulate General of Portugal in Honolulu have microfilm of passenger lists of Portuguese immigrants for the years 1878 to 1913. These two pages were omitted in error from previous filming; *Hawaiian Sugar Planter's Association, Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Passenger Manifests of Filipino Contract Laborers (SLC, Utah, 1977-1978) Digital version No longer available through FamilySearch Catalog entry. You can find microfilm at the FHL by doing catalog search for film 1,002,824 or 1204590. The BYU index will read up names in the keword-all http://lib.byu.edu/digital/filipinolaborers/  as of Mar2014. Do not click on pix. Click on name hits in blue. Cards include the migrant and his family's vitals, as well as the emmigration ship/dates, and sometimes a fingerprint card. An alphabetical index of immigrant Filipinos for the years 1906 to about 1977. *For immigration records for various nationalities which are available through the Family History library see

On Line Resources

 * 1874-1898 - at FamilySearch — index


 * 1900-1952 FamilySearch Historical Record Collection A wiki article describing this collection is found at: Hawaii, Honolulu-Index to Passengers, Not Including Filipinos - FamilySearch Historical Records


 * 1900-1952 at FamilySearch — index and images


 * 1942–1948 at FamilySearch — index and images


 * 1942-1948 at FamilySearch — index and image


 * 1940-1948 Hawaii, Passenger Lists, 1942-1948 Ancestry.com ($)


 * 1900-1959 Honolulu, Hawaii, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1900-1959 Ancestry.com ($)


 * Index to Chinese Passenger Manifests, (Hawaii State Archives)


 * Index to Portugal Passenger Manifests, 1843-1900 (Hawaii State Archives)


 * Filipino Laborers Collection, Sugar Plantation Assoc index