The Waihona `Aina Mahele database includes awarded and unawarded claims. There are more than 14,500 records for all islands except Kaho`olawe. Some 40,000 documents are included in these records, which contain claimant names, those of family members, neighbors, place descriptions, land usage accounts, house sites, boundaries, trees, cultivated plants, birds, fishponds, salt ponds, roads, canoe sheds, dams, burials and geological features, such as cliffs and rivers.
In the Mahele Database the claims are organized numerically: all documents pertaining to a specific number are included, so that Native Register, Foreign Register, Native Testimony and Foreign Testimony documents are together. Thus, the researcher avoids some problems found in original texts, where there are non-indexed documents and where numbers and names may differ, where data includes property on several islands or where data is incomplete. A report compiles a composite of claims for any query. Every user will save time.
Approximately five percent of the original archive claims claims had been assigned incorrect numbers. These documents have been placed in correct records by Waihona 'Aina.
When awardees died prior to an award affidavit, testimonies may list heirs; records note if land reverted to a konohiki. Other early maps, probate records and Tax Map Keys (note) can be consulted for more ownership information.
Please note that approximately five percent of the original Land Commission Awards(LCA's) on the Tax Maps are also incorrect, make sure to cross-check your information.
Claimants' names and place names occur with variant spellings. The letters "u" and "n" are routinely transposed in the typed testimony, i.e. Peekauai and Peekanai. Names beginning with Ma- /Na-, or Ka- /Ke-, are shown in any or all variants, sometimes within one document, i.e., the family name "I" appears as "I", "Na I", or "Nai" in the documents of one record. These variants are listed in the alternate name field.
The original texts contain errors and variant spellings. These are corrected when found. Subsequent transcriptions and translations also contain some errors. Waihona `Aina's compiler has undoubtedly added other errors. Researchers with questions about apparent erors are encouraged to e-mail Waihona `Aina with the mail button for verification and correction where pertinent.