DAGS Receives Records of Portuguese Arrivals in Hawaiʻi

HONOLULU - The Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS) now has several thousand immigration records of the Portuguese who migrated to Hawaiʻi from 1878 to 1934. DAGS' Hawaiʻi State Archives division received the gift from the Consulate General of Portugal in San Francisco on February 20.

San Francisco Consul General Dr. Filipe Ramalheira was in Honolulu and signed over the scanned copies of its consular records to the archives so they can be made available to the public for genealogical and historical research. This includes the consular logs of arrivals of Portuguese immigrants during the plantation period.

Hawaiʻi State Archives Administrator Adam Jansen, Ph.D., details, "These logs have the names of all Portuguese citizens who, upon arrival, registered with the consulate. Because they are chronological, they correspond generally to the arrival of the various plantation-era ships."

Ramalheira says, "Hawaiʻi was a very important destination for migration of the Portuguese islands of the Azores and the Madeira. People came to Hawaiʻi to work in the sugarcane following a treaty signed between the king of Hawaiʻi at the time and the Portuguese king. It's really one of the most remarkable diasporas we have."

He noted that the 150^th anniversary of the Portuguese immigration to these Islands is coming up in two years and that the consulate, together with Honorary Consul of Portugal in Hawaiʻi Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, is working with Portuguese clubs on each island to coordinate festivities.

Dos Santos-Tam, who was also at Friday's handover, found two of his ancestors in the logs. "It's really neat to see their names written out in this beautiful old script. For a lot of people who have Portuguese descent, it'd be nice to see their ancestors' names, where in Portugal they came from and other information."

Jansen says the archives is excited to add this to its collection. "It was some of these very same immigrants that, after their three-year contracts working the fields expired, stayed and not only contributed to society, but invented the 'ukulele by combining their native Portuguese instruments - specifically, the rajão and machete. The Hawaiʻi State Archives has a massive collection of vintage 'ukulele and partnered with the 'Ukulele Hall of Fame to document this story and make these resources available to musicians, luthiers and researchers."

The archives is now working on uploading these documents to its website for public use.