The Spanish Hawaiian Heritage Association provides you information and tools to assist you in finding out more about your Spanish Hawaiian ancestors and related cousins. Read below to begin exploring the possibilities.

 

The Spanish Hawaiian Immigrant Ship Index

This worksheet is frequently referred to more briefly as the “Ship Index”, but it is also a doorway to much more information including home towns, public family trees, images of the original manifest, and a path to finding cousins and your family history. It is an enhanced transcription of the original manifests (passenger lists) of the ships that brought our ancestors to Hawaii. After being painstakingly typed into the worksheet over ten years ago, it has undergone many reviews, corrections, and enhancements including:

• Links to images of the original ship manifests stored in Family Search 

• Links to public family trees and information on Ancestry, MyHeritage, and Family Search

• Corrections to names of people, towns and cities incorrectly written on the original

 

The Ship Sailing Reference and Birth Year Estimator

This is a companion to the Ship Index.  Because the information in the Ship index references ages and other information relevant to sailing date, it is important to know when and from where the ships sailed to fully understand the journeys and to estimate the year of birth for any given immigrant. You can type in the age of a given immigrant, and the estimated year of birth will appear.

 

Understanding Spanish Surnames and How They Changed

You might feel that you know the name of your grandparents, and your great grandparents. However, if they were born in Spain, the name on the Ship Index, manifest, and/or birth documents may be different from the names you knew them by. In order to find Spanish born ancestors in these documents and in some family trees, you need to look at this part of the guidance we offer.

 

Working with Family Trees 

Finding cousins you don’t already know is easier than you think. You can find and contact cousins in the USA, Spain and internationally through DNA matches and family trees. Read this section for tips and hints that could have you in personal contact with your long lost cousins.

 

Finding Cousins and Growing Your Family Tree with DNA

DNA testing through sites such as My Heritage, Ancestry.com and 23&Me is a powerful tool for finding cousins. If you test with one of these sites, your DNA matches are proof of “blood” relatives. The trick is figuring out exactly how you are related, and when you and your DNA matches both make your family tree public the determination of relationship becomes much easier. In fact, the combination of DNA and family trees is the most powerful combination of tools you can use for finding your long lost cousins throughout the world. Your DNA matches may also have the family tree information you are looking for.