Big Island Death Records Search

Hawaii County death records cover the entire Big Island, the largest and southeasternmost island in the state. The Hawaii State Department of Health holds death certificates going back to 1896, and you can request them online, by mail, or in person. This page walks you through how to find and obtain Hawaii County death records, whether you need a recent certified copy for legal use or older records for genealogy research. The county seat is Hilo, and all filings run through the state vital records office.

Hawaii County Death Records

Hawaii County covers the entire island of Hawaii, which most people call the Big Island. It is the largest island in the state and sits at the southeastern end of the chain. The county seat is Hilo. The island was formed by volcanic activity and is still growing. The county was created on April 13, 1905, and takes its name from Hawai'iloa, a legendary Polynesian navigator said to have first settled the islands. Population in Hawaii County has grown steadily: the 1900 census showed 46,843 residents, rising to 68,350 by 1950, and reaching 148,677 by 2000. The 2010 census put the count at 185,079.

All death certificates for events on the Big Island go through the State Department of Health's Office of Health Status Monitoring. That office handles vital records statewide, including Hawaii County death records. The state required death registration as early as 1859, but most records before 1896 did not survive. Reliable statewide death records start in 1896 and run to the present. The DOH vital records portal is at health.hawaii.gov/vitalrecords. Under Hawaii Revised Statutes Section 338-9, a death must be reported and a certificate filed within three days of the death.

Early Big Island records from 1841 to 1896 are available through the Hawaii State Archives. These predate the modern registration system and are mostly hand-written registers. If you're looking for a death that happened before 1896 in Hawaii County, the Archives is your best starting point.

Hawaii District Health Office - Big Island

The Big Island has two district health offices that serve Hawaii County residents. The main one is in Hilo at 75 Aupuni Street, Suite 201, Hilo, Hawaii 96720. You can reach the Hilo office by phone at (808) 974-6008. There is also a Kamuela office at 67-5189 Kamamalu Street, Kamuela, HI 96743, reachable at (808) 887-8114. The Kamuela location is open for pick-up on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, but only by appointment. More details about local vital statistics services are on the Big Island vital statistics page.

These offices handle a range of services for Hawaii County residents. You can order certified death certificates, get marriage licenses, register home births, and set up paternity. All orders are placed and paid online before you schedule a pick-up. The ordering portal is at vitrec.ehawaii.gov. When ordering online, payment is by credit or debit card only. A portal fee of $2.50 applies to online orders. Death certificates cost $10 for the first copy and $4 for each additional copy ordered at the same time. These fees are set by HRS Section 338-14. All fees are non-refundable.

The Hawaii County Courthouse is at 777 Kilauea Ave, Hilo, HI 96720, phone (808) 961-7440. When a death occurs at Hilo Medical Center or another Big Island facility, the hospital reports it directly to the State DOH for certificate issuance. The state's vital records office holds some records as early as 1853 for certain islands.

The above resource lists Hawaii County vital records office details, including addresses and services available for Big Island residents.

Note: Walk-in service at the Kamuela district office requires an advance appointment on the days it is open.

Requesting Death Records for Hawaii County

There are three ways to get a death certificate for a death that occurred in Hawaii County. You can order online, send a request by mail, or visit the state office in person in Honolulu. Each method has its own payment rules and processing time.

Online ordering is the fastest option for most people. Go to vitrec.ehawaii.gov/vitalrecords, fill out the form, and pay with a credit or debit card. Once the order is placed and paid, you can schedule a pick-up at a district office if you're on the Big Island, or wait for delivery by mail. For mail requests, send a written request with your payment to: State Department of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring, P.O. Box 3378, Honolulu, HI 96801. Mail orders take about 6 to 8 weeks. Payment by mail must be a cashier's check, certified check, or money order. No cash and no personal checks are accepted for mail orders.

In-person requests go to 1250 Punchbowl Street, Room 103, Honolulu. That office is open Monday through Friday, 7:45 AM to 2:30 PM. For in-person visits, you can pay with cash, credit card, cashier's check, certified check, or money order. Bring valid photo ID. Accepted IDs include a driver's license, state ID, U.S. passport, foreign passport, or U.S. military ID. More details are at health.hawaii.gov/vitalrecords.

Access to Hawaii County death records is not open to everyone. HRS 338-18 limits certified copies to people with a direct and tangible interest in the record. That includes the spouse, parents, children, grandchildren, siblings, grandparents, legal guardian, estate representative, or anyone with a court order. If you don't qualify under those categories, you may still be able to get a verification letter under HRS 338-14.3. Legal Aid Hawaii at legalaidhawaii.org can help if you need guidance on access or eligibility.

The Hawaii District Health Office Big Island page lists current services and hours for Hawaii County vital records requests, including death certificates.

Note: All death certificate fees are non-refundable regardless of the method used to order.

Hawaii County Historical Death Records

Historical death records for the Big Island go back further than most people expect. Hawaii Island registers of births, marriages, and deaths from 1841 to 1896 are held at the Hawaii State Archives. These include Hawaii Island reports from 1851 to 1896 and county death record indexes from 1896 to 1903 organized by island. There are even some very localized records, like the Hana Maui Record of Deaths from 1901 to 1902. The State Archives vital statistics guide is at ags.hawaii.gov, and the digital collection is at digitalarchives.hawaii.gov.

FamilySearch has free digitized records for Hawaii, which include Big Island deaths. The collection "1841-1925 Hawaii Death Records and Death Registers" has both an index and images. A second collection covers "1841-1942 Hawaii Death Certificates and Indexes," hosted at Ancestry with images. The "1850-1950 Hawaii Births, Marriages, Death Cards" collection at Ancestry is also worth checking for Hawaii County deaths. These databases make it much easier to search old records without visiting an archive in person.

The Hilo branch of the Hawaii State Library carries vital records indexes through 1909. That's useful if you need to confirm a name or date before ordering a certified copy from the DOH. The University of Hawaii at Manoa Library has a guide to Hawaii genealogy research at guides.library.manoa.hawaii.edu. For finding unknown death dates when no other records exist, the U.S. Social Security Death Index is a reliable secondary source.

Cemetery resources are another way to confirm or find death dates. Sites like BillionGraves, Find a Grave, Hawaii HI GenWeb, and Interment.net all have Big Island burial records. If you're researching a death that made the news, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald at hawaiitribune-herald.com covers local news including deaths on the Big Island. Traffic fatalities and other notable deaths are often reported there. The paper reported, for example, on Hawaii County's first traffic fatality of 2026, a 20-year-old Hilo man who died in a solo crash on Mahiai Street; incident report inquiries can be directed to Officer Jerome Duarte at (808) 961-2339.

Hawaii County Genealogy and Death Research

If the death you're researching happened 115 or more years ago, you can request records through the DOH genealogy portal at health.hawaii.gov/vitalrecords/genealogy. The fee is the same: $10 for the first copy and $4 for each additional one. These older records may have less detail than modern certificates, but they are still the official state record.

Before you order, you need a few key pieces of information. To request a death certificate, you need: the name as it appears on the certificate, the date of death, the place of death, the father's name, and the mother's name. If you're missing any of that, start with newspaper obituaries or cemetery indexes. The Hawaii State Archives has an obituary index for newspapers prior to 1950, covering papers like the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, the Honolulu Advertiser, the Hawaiian Gazette, and the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. The Ulukau Hawaiian Electronic Library at ulukau.org also has digitized Hawaiian-language newspapers that may have death notices not found elsewhere.

GoCertificates offers an alternative ordering channel at gocertificates.com for those who prefer using a third-party service. Keep in mind that if you only need to confirm a death occurred rather than get a full certified copy, HRS 338-14.3 allows for a verification letter in lieu of a certified copy. That can be faster and less expensive in some situations.

Note: For deaths before 1896, no state-issued certificate exists; use the Archives registers and FamilySearch collections as your primary sources.

Cities in Hawaii County

Hawaii County covers the entire Big Island. All death records for communities across the island go through the state DOH system, regardless of which town the death occurred in.

Other Big Island communities including Kailua-Kona, Waimea, Captain Cook, and Pahoa file death records through the same Hawaii County system but do not have individual city pages.

Other Hawaii Counties

Hawaii has four other counties. Each one handles death records through the same statewide DOH system, but the district health offices and local resources differ by island.