Kaneohe Obituary Records
A Kaneohe obituary covers a death on the Windward side of Oahu, a community of roughly 34,000 people tucked between the Koolau range and Kaneohe Bay. Families look up a Kaneohe obituary to plan a service, to check burial plots at Valley of the Temples, or to verify a death at Castle Medical Center. This page shows where to search, how to order a death certificate through the Hawaii Department of Health, and which local cemeteries, libraries, and archives hold useful obituary data for Kaneohe residents and their kin.
Kaneohe Overview
Kaneohe Death Certificates
Kaneohe sits in Honolulu County, so every Kaneohe death certificate is issued by the state. The Hawaii Department of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring keeps death records for all Hawaii counties at 1250 Punchbowl Street, Room 103, Honolulu. Hours run Monday through Friday, from 7:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The fee is $10 for the first copy and $4 for each extra copy of the same death record. A letter of verification costs $5 under HRS §338-14.3.
Access is set by HRS §338-18. Only a parent, spouse, adult child, sibling, legal guardian, or person with a direct and tangible interest can order a certified death record in the first 75 years. After that, any person may order one. Orders can go online at vitrec.ehawaii.gov, by mail to P.O. Box 3378, Honolulu, HI 96801, or in person at the Punchbowl Street office.
A mailed Kaneohe death record request can take six to eight weeks. Walk-in orders can be faster. Keep the decedent's full name, date of death, and place of death ready when you apply.
Note: Plan ahead and order extra copies of a Kaneohe death certificate, as probate, bank, and Social Security offices each want their own certified copy.
Valley of the Temples Memorial Park
The main cemetery for a Kaneohe obituary is Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. The park opened in 1963 at 47-200 Kahekili Highway, Kaneohe, HI 96744. You can call (808) 239-8811 for burial records, plot lookups, or service dates. The park holds non-denominational burials for families of every faith. Byodo-In Temple, a quiet replica of a 950-year-old Japanese temple, sits inside the park and draws visitors who come to remember loved ones.
Learn more about burial plot history, memorial gardens, and service options at the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park website.
Staff at Valley of the Temples can help confirm a burial date, plot number, or interment of ashes, which often backs up what a Kaneohe obituary notes.
Funeral services at the park include traditional Christian, Buddhist, Shinto, and secular rites. Plot types run from single lawn graves to family estate lots and cremation niches. Many older Kaneohe families have several generations buried in the same section.
Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery
The Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe is at 45-349 Kamehameha Highway. The site holds 16,064 burial records for veterans and eligible family members. An online index lists names, ranks, branch of service, and dates of birth and death. The cemetery serves vets from every branch, including the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard. Many Kaneohe families with military ties choose this cemetery for its quiet setting near the Koolau range.
You can search Kaneohe veterans burial records at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery index on Interment.net. Records go back decades and note section and plot data for each grave.
To request a flag, headstone, or plot at the veterans cemetery, contact the Hawaii Office of Veterans Services. The office is part of the state Department of Defense and can help with eligibility, burial benefits, and plot placement for a Kaneohe veteran.
A Kaneohe obituary for a service member often lists the veterans cemetery as the burial site. It pairs well with a Pacific war record or a Punchbowl inscription for vets missing in action.
Castle Medical Center Records
Adventist Health Castle, known to locals as Castle Medical Center, sits in nearby Kailua at 640 Ulukahiki Street. The hospital is the main acute care site for the Kaneohe and Kailua communities. Castle handles emergency care, surgery, and end-of-life cases, which means many Windward side deaths get their medical records here.
Medical records for a deceased Kaneohe patient can be requested by the next of kin, the estate executor, or a person named in the will. Hospital staff will ask for a death certificate and proof of legal authority before the file is released. Call Castle's Health Information Management office for current forms and fees.
Castle also works with the City and County of Honolulu Department of the Medical Examiner on any sudden or unexpected death. Those cases get an autopsy review at the ME's office on Iwilei Road.
Kaneohe Family History Center
The Kaneohe Family History Center is at 47-133 Kamehameha Highway. Call (808) 247-3134 to set up a visit. The center is run by volunteers and offers free access to FamilySearch databases, microfilm readers, and digital indexes. You can look up a Kaneohe obituary, a Hawaii death record, or a church register from the 1800s.
Volunteers can help a first-time user pull up a Hawaii vital record, check an obituary index, or walk through a probate file. The center keeps long hours on weekdays and stays open select Saturdays.
Tools at the Kaneohe Family History Center include:
- FamilySearch full access (not just the public portal)
- Ancestry Library Edition on center computers
- Microfilm reader for Hawaii vital records 1909 to 1949
- Honolulu Advertiser and Star-Bulletin Index 1929 to 1994
- Staff who can read Hawaiian-language church registers
Note: Bring a flash drive or phone to save copies of any Kaneohe obituary or death record you find at the Family History Center.
Kaneohe Newspaper Obituaries
A Kaneohe obituary most often appears in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The paper is the main daily for Oahu and covers Windward side deaths on a daily basis. Listings give the decedent's full name, age, town, date of death, date and place of birth, job or last employer, list of survivors, service details, and the mortuary handling the arrangements.
Browse current notices online at obits.staradvertiser.com. The portal lets you search by last name, date, or keyword. Older obituaries are held in the paper's archive and can be pulled up with a paid search or through a library.
The Star-Advertiser was formed from the merger of the old Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Both legacy papers printed Kaneohe obituary notices for decades. The BYU-Hawaii Joseph F. Smith Library keeps a long-running index to both titles, which helps with Kaneohe deaths from the 1920s up through the 1990s.
Hawaii State Hospital Archival Records
Hawaii State Hospital opened in 1930 on 141 acres in Kaneohe. The land came from the Keaahala Military Reservation. Early files called it the Territorial Hospital. The hospital still serves adult psychiatric patients today, and its old registers and patient ledgers hold a unique slice of Kaneohe death data.
The Windward Community College Library keeps an archival collection tied to the hospital. The archive notes patient admissions, deaths on site, and staff records from the early decades. You can browse the online finding aid at the Windward Community College Library Archives - Hawaii State Hospital page.
The library is on the Windward Community College campus at 45-720 Keaahala Road, Kaneohe, HI 96744. The hospital archive includes photos, staff rosters, and case ledgers that can flesh out an early 20th-century Kaneohe obituary.
For a death that took place on hospital grounds, the state Department of Health on Punchbowl Street holds the death certificate. But the patient file and any next-of-kin data may still live in the archive. Researchers should call the library ahead of a visit.
The archive is a key stop for any Kaneohe family tracing a loved one who died in state care. Some files go back more than 90 years.
Nearby Cities for Kaneohe Obituary Searches
Families tracing a Kaneohe obituary may also check records in nearby Oahu cities that share funeral homes, hospitals, and court services.