Department of Accounting and General Services

Introduction

The probate and wills at the Archives date from 1847 to 1917.  These records were microfilmed with the exception of the Second Circuit Court probate case files and minute books.  They were selectively filmed by the Church of the Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon Church) ca. 1970. Records were selected for microfilming based on the genealogical information content of each document.  Therefore, the microfilms may not provide complete documentation relating to each case file.  Wills admitted to probate may be located within probate case files.

Adoptions and guardianships were filed with probate cases starting in 1859 when judges were authorized to legalize adoptions.

You can search the Ulukau website for the citation that you will need to find the documents on microfilm, which is the court (First, Second, Third, etc.) and case number (i.e. 17, A11, 295).

Description

Case files generally contain:

• inventory of property
• petition for allowance of accounts
• discharge in deceased estates
• executors, administrator, guardians or trustee’s accounts
• inventory of final settlement

Information generally found:

• death date
• place of death
• inventories of personal possessions
• names of surviving family members
• names of heirs
• financial successors
• appointed executor or guardians

Documents are in Hawaiian and English. Some Hawaiian documents have been translated to English by the courts and Archives translators.

More information about Probates/Wills by Circuit Court.
Probates are accessible via our Digital Archives, Judiciary page. Probates are arranged by Circuit Court, then by Case No. Case Nos. can be found in the index.