Our next stop on the archives tour takes us to the Government Office Holders index cards. Each entry in this collection includes information on folks who held office Hawaiian government and the various office names.
Go to the Government Office Holders main page.
You have three choices: Search, Office Name A-Z, and Personal Names A-Z
Click on Search. Enter any keyword you’d like to search by. Note that you can use multiple keywords with the qualifier “all” or “some”.
We’ll try surname. I’m going to search on my family surname Pacheco.
For the Pacheco search two names come up: Pacheco, David and Pacheco, Manuel C. I have no clue who these guys are. I guess they aren’t all related to me. 😀
Next, we’ll click on Office Name A-Z. Each entry in the list will either bring up an index card with information about the office and those who served within it or a cross reference card.
By clicking on the Advisory Council, I learn that it was created in 1893 and was abolished in 1895. The names nine individuals who served as head of the council and their dates of service are given.
Not all cards give detailed information. Some only give the names of those who served in the office.
Next, we’ll click on Personal Names A-Z. The first Portuguese sounding name that I see is: Aguiar, George R. I’m going to click on that one.
George’s index card doesn’t tell us alot. He served in the House of Representatives in 1947 in the 6th District.
Another Portuguese sounding name is Botelho, Manuel S. By clicking on his name, we learn that Manuel was District Magistrate for Hamakua, Hawaii in 1915. He was reappointed in 1917 and his term ended in 1919.
Though the cards don’t include alot of information, there should be enough details for further research. One might research the office to see if more information can be had, look for newspaper articles, or find the individual’s obituary. There are any number of places you could take this research to.
If you are lucky enough to have a government office holder in your tree, you are sure to find something worthwhile in this index. Be sure to check variant spellings of surnames. If you don’t find your ancestor using the search function, check each page. You never know how a surname will be spelled.
