Find Death Records in Maui County
Maui County death records are maintained by the Hawaii State Department of Health and cover deaths on the islands of Maui, Lanai, Molokai, and Kahoolawe. If you need to search for a death certificate or look up a past death record in Maui County, the state vital records office handles all requests. This page explains how to get a death certificate, what the rules are, where records are kept, and what you need to bring when you ask for one.
Maui County Overview
Maui County Death Records
Maui County spans four islands in the Central Pacific: Maui, Lanai, Molokai (except Kalawao County), and Kahoolawe. The county was created on April 22, 1903, with Wailuku as its seat. Death records for Maui date back to 1852, making this one of the longer running vital records collections in the state. The Hawaii State Department of Health, through its Office of Health Status Monitoring, handles all death certificates for the county. You do not go to a Maui office to get a certified copy. All certificate requests go through the state DOH system.
The Maui County Courthouse sits at 200 S. High Street, Kalana O Maui Building, Wailuku, HI 96793, phone 808-244-2800. The Maui County Clerk is also at 200 South High Street, Wailuku, HI 96793-2155, and can be reached at (808) 984-8210. While the clerk handles county business, birth, death, marriage, and divorce records for Maui are all managed through the state DOH system, not a local county office. This is how Hawaii works statewide: vital records are centralized at the state level, not at each county.
All vital records in Hawaii fall under Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 338. Under HRS Section 338-9, a death certificate must be filed within three days of the death. The primary source for requesting certified death certificates is the Hawaii DOH vital records page. Records held there generally run from July 1909 to the present for online access.
Maui District Health Office
The Maui District Health Office is located at the State Office Building, 54 South High Street, Room 301, Wailuku, HI 96793. This office handles certain vital records services, including VEP (Vital Events Program) and home birth registration. For home birth registration, you must call 808-553-7870 to set up an appointment. Walk-ins are not accepted for this service.
One important point to know: there is no pickup service for death certificates on Maui. If you want a certified death certificate for a Maui County death, you cannot walk into the Wailuku office and pick it up. You must either order online, mail in your request to Honolulu, or visit the main DOH office on Oahu. The Maui District Health Office vital records page has more detail on what local services are available.
The online ordering portal for all Hawaii death certificates is at vitrec.ehawaii.gov/vitalrecords. Marriage license agents in Maui County are listed at the Hawaii DOH marriage license page. Starting February 1, 2026, the DOH no longer maintains divorce records, so that information must be sought elsewhere. For a broader list of Maui County vital records resources, vitalrec.com keeps a useful county-level index.
Note: Wailuku sits at the foot of the West Maui Mountains and serves roughly 13,000 residents. It is the center of county government for Maui.
Requesting Maui Death Certificates
There are three ways to get a certified death certificate for a death in Maui County: online, by mail, or in person at the Honolulu office. Each method works. Your choice depends on how fast you need it and how you want to pay.
Online orders go through the state portal at vitrec.ehawaii.gov/vitalrecords. That system covers records from July 1909 to the present. There is a $2.50 portal fee for each batch of up to five certificates. If you mail your request, send it to: State Dept of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring, P.O. Box 3378, Honolulu, HI 96801. Mail payments must be by cashier's check, certified check, or money order. No cash and no personal checks. Mail processing takes about 6 to 8 weeks. For in-person requests, go to 1250 Punchbowl Street, Room 103, Honolulu, open Monday through Friday from 7:45 AM to 2:30 PM. In person you can pay with cash, credit card, cashier's check, certified check, or money order.
Fees are set by HRS Section 338-14: $10 for the first copy, $4 for each additional copy ordered at the same time. All fees are non-refundable. Access to certified copies is restricted by HRS Section 338-18 to people with a direct and tangible interest. Eligible parties include the spouse, parents, descendants, siblings, grandparents, legal guardian, estate representative, or someone with a court order. You will need a valid photo ID such as a driver's license, state ID, US passport, foreign passport, or US military ID. The third-party service GoCertificates also handles Hawaii death certificate orders for those who prefer it.
The required info to submit a request: the full name of the deceased, the date of death, the place of death, and your relationship to the person. Without that, the office may not be able to find the record.
Note: All fees paid for death certificate requests are non-refundable, even if no record is found.
Historical Maui County Death Records
Death records for Maui County date back to 1852. Older records are not held at the DOH but are available through the Hawaii State Archives and various genealogy platforms. The Hawaii State Archives holds Maui vital statistics records from 1860 to 1864 and from 1897 to 1899. Statewide indexes cover the periods 1832 to 1910 and 1911 to 1929. In the archives system, records with an "M" designation are from Maui, while "Mo" records are from Molokai.
The Hawaii State Archives genealogy research guide is the best place to start for older records. The Digital Archives of Hawaii also lets you search some digitized collections online. For genealogy research on Maui deaths, FamilySearch has two useful collections: Hawaii Death Records and Death Registers 1841 to 1925, and Hawaii Deaths and Burials from 1862 to 1919. Ancestry.com carries Hawaii Death Certificates from 1841 to 1942.
Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library at ulukau.org, offers Maui-specific collections including Maui Island Marriages 1842 to 1910, Maui Island Marriages 1911 to 1929, Molokai Island records, and a Deaths and Probates Index for the Second Circuit (Maui County). A broader public records access tool for the county can be found at mauirecords.us.
The Index to Maui News newspapers covers 1900 to 1950 and 1951 to 1973. Those indexes are held at the Hawaii State Library, and the Kahului branch carries vital records indexes as well. A specialized collection called Hana, Maui Record of Deaths 1901 to 1902 is also available for that specific area and time frame. The University of Hawaii at Manoa library guide at guides.library.manoa.hawaii.edu covers where to find death and burial records across the islands.
Maui County Genealogy Research
If the death you are researching happened more than 115 years ago, you can request records through the DOH genealogy program. The process and fees are the same: $10 for the first copy, $4 for each additional. To set up a genealogy appointment or learn more, visit health.hawaii.gov/vitalrecords/genealogy.
To track down the information you need before requesting a certificate, start with newspaper obituaries and cemetery indexes. The Hawaii State Library has an Island of Maui cemetery directory compiled by Nanette Napoleon Purnell. Directories for the Islands of Molokai and Lanai are also available at the library. Chronicling America is a good free source for historic Maui newspaper pages, which often carry death notices and obituaries going back well over a century. Those sources can help you nail down a full name, date, and place before you pay for a certified copy.
Under HRS Section 338-14.3, you can request a verification letter instead of a certified copy if you only need to confirm that a death occurred. The verification letter costs less and does not contain all the detail of a full certificate, but it can work for certain legal or administrative purposes. For legal help with vital records matters in Maui County, Legal Aid Hawaii provides free or low-cost services to qualifying residents.
Genealogy researchers working on Maui County records often find that combining state archives indexes with FamilySearch collections and Ulukau resources covers most gaps. Start with the online index, then request the original record once you have the key details confirmed.
Note: A verification letter under HRS 338-14.3 confirms a death occurred but does not replace a certified death certificate for most legal uses.
Cities in Maui County
All communities on Maui, Lanai, Molokai, and Kahoolawe are served by the same Maui County system for local government and the state DOH for death records.
Other Maui communities including Lahaina, Makawao, and Paia are also served by the same Maui County system. Death records for all these areas go through the Hawaii DOH Office of Health Status Monitoring.
Nearby Counties
Hawaii has four counties. If you are not sure which county your records fall under, check which island the death occurred on. Kalawao County covers the Kalaupapa settlement on Molokai.