Meeting cousins in Spain can be a joyful, enlightening and even thrilling experience. Talking with newly found cousins, even through translation and on-line, can put us in touch with our ancestral homes in a very real sense. Perhaps best of all for Spanish Hawaiian descendants, is to visit with close cousins in person in or near their Spanish ancestral home towns. Likewise for Spaniards, visiting their cousins in the USA can be equally thrilling.
 

How to Find Cousins You Never Met - suggestions and assistance

1. Use our Family Tree page and DNA testing (see bottom of this page) services to identify, make contact and chat with cousins in Spain and in the USA. 

2. Post your search on social media sites

   1. Spanish town Facebook groups such as Estepona en el Corazon - these work best for Spanish Hawaiian descendants looking for cousins in Spain 

   2. Spanish Hawaiian Heritage Association pages - Facebook and Instagram), Hawaiian Spaniards page and Hawaiian Spaniard group - these work best for Spaniards looking for Spanish Hawaiian descendants

   3. Spanish Hawaiian descendants searchers should include full Spanish Names  of ancestors’ family members (now deceased) left behind in Spain.

   4. Spanish searchers should include names of Spanish emigrants (now deceased) who sailed from Spain to Hawaii. See Spanish Surnames  

      1. Follow-up: ask locals for Family nicknames (called “motes” or “apodos” in Spain).

   5. Spanish Hawaiian Heritage Association (SHAA) will assist you with the post provided that you hold harmless and assign no responsibility to SHHA.

      1. Don’t share personal identifying information on-line

      2. Proceed with caution at your own risk when following-up on lead

3. Spanish Hawaiian descendants (USA citizens) who want to meet cousins while visiting their ancestral home towns (See below)
   
   
    

Spanish Hawaiian descendants visiting Spain - in-person visits to home towns (pueblos) in Spain.

1. Plan your trip months ahead of time. 

   1. Timing of visit: Schedule your trip for shoulder seasons April, May, Early June, Late September, October or November. Avoid August (Europe’s vacation month), Winter, Easter Week, holidays, festival dates and Sundays. Plan to be in town at least three days or longer whenever possible.  

   2. Where to stay: Aim for locations near the town center where you can walk to the main historic plaza or City Hall (Ayuntamiento), or near locations where known cousins live. Note that Spanish meet-up times are often best in evening hours. Check AirBnB, Booking.com, your favorite hotel booking services and the like.

   3. Who to include in your travel party or meet ups: Include interested family members and friends who speak Spanish and English, are experienced in Spanish travel, or who are adept at using smartphone translation technology. (Make sure you have ample Spanish data coverage on your smartphone.)

2. Identify or establish local contacts at least two months in advance: Utilize Facebook groups – Hawaiian Spaniards Page, Historical Archives, and/or request help from SHHA by completing the form after pressing this button.

   1. Local contacts can include members of the town hall (Ayuntamiento): Cultural Minister, Public Relations Representative, local radio station, local Priests (Cura), town Historian and Archivists, or even the mayor.

3. Conduct pre-trip research and begin Spanish cousin search as early as possible

   1. Gather all information known about relatives left behind when Spanish ancestors left Spain.

      1. Full Spanish names of your ancestors from that town. Make sure you understand Spanish Surnames.

      2. Street addresses of cousins past or present.

      3. Baptism records, marriage records and/or birth certificates of Spanish ancestors or their siblings

      4. If you do find leads on living cousins, follow-up by asking locally about family nicknames (Most small towns use family nicknames called “motes” or “apodos” for living family groups in place of surnames. Some of the pueblo may know motes instead of surnames.)

      5. Don’t give up if pre-trip research is unfruitful. Continue the process upon arrival.

   2. Where to find this information?

      1. Ancestry.com, Family Search, My Heritage, AI queries, social media groups, town Facebook Page, Instagram Group, WhatsApp Groups

      2. Contact family members and people you know who have visited your ancestor’s pueblo.

      3. If you need help from SHHA to complete the search for information, click the button below.

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Find cousins online using DNA testing:

1. Test your DNA on a site such as Ancestry.com, MyHeritage or 23andMe. When your DNA testing results are available, you will be able to see your DNA matches. If you share a significant amount of DNA with another user, you are considered a DNA match and a relative. The more DNA you share with a DNA match, the closer the relationship. For example, on average, first cousins share about 12.5% of their DNA. 

   1. Use Ancestry.com if you want to find cousins in the United States or elsewhere in North America. It is the most commonly used family DNA service in the United States.

   2. Use MyHeritage if you want to find cousins in Spain or elsewhere. MyHeritage testing has a huge database of people who have tested all over the world. It is the most popular option within Spain, and more broadly throughout Europe where many Spanish diaspora have landed.

2. Contact your stronger DNA matches (second, third and even fourth cousins) and see if they are interested in working together to expand your family tree. Use the DNA matching services to send messages to your matches. MyHeritage messaging will automatically translate your messages to eliminate language barriers; You write in English and they read in Spanish or the other way around. Sometimes, messaging with a DNA cousin can lead to a trip across the ocean to meet in or near your ancestor’s home town.

3. Build your family tree fully and accurately and make it available publicly on the online site where you have made your DNA results available for matching. The combination of family tree shared members and DNA match strength is perhaps the most powerful verification of relationship you will find. The more information (birth name, birth date, birth place, death date, death place) recorded for deceased relatives in the family trees of two DNA matched cousins, the easier it is to pinpoint your relationship and to connect your trees.