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Theodore Kelsey was born to Helen Lucy (nee Wells) and Henry Evelyn Kelsey at Seattle, Washington on August 4, 1891. He arrived in Honolulu on January 26, 1895 aboard the S.S. Miowera, with his mother, Helen, who went to teach at Hanamaulu, Kaua‘i where her brother William Ira Wells was principal. ON January 19, 1897, his father arrived in Honolulu and joined the family on Kaua‘i.
In 1905, Kelsey began teaching himself the Hawaiian language from a Hawaiian-English language phrase book.
In 1908, Kelsey attended New Mexico Military Institute, Roswell, New Mexico to further his education. In the years that followed, he traveled throughout the western United States, Mexico, and Hawai‘i, eventually graduating from Illinois College in Effingham in 1916.
In 1917, Kelsey returned permanently to Hawai‘i; was offered a year's tuition at Yale by Bishop Museum's Dr. Herbert Gregory, but declined to accept. In November, witnessed the funeral of Queen Liliuokalani. Kelsey eventually settled in Hilo where he worked as a photographer out of a photo studio that his father helped to establish.
In 1921, Kelsey worked for creation of a Hawaiian Legend and Folklore Commission, Acts 61 and 126, S.L.H. 1921.
In 1923-1924, Kelsey assisted Padraic Colum to rewrite Hawaiian legends and helped Helen H. Roberts to record Hawaiian chants used in "Ancient Hawaiian Music," published in 1926.
In 1927, Kelsey recorded chants of George P. Kalama and moved to Honolulu residing with artist Arthur Emerson. Kelsey continued with his photography and began teaching Hawaiian.
From 1933 to 1936, Kelsey resided at George P. Mossman's Lalani Hawaiian Village recording and transcribing Hawaiian chants and lore of James. P. Kuluwaimaka and others.
From 1936 to 1939, Kelsey served as a Works Program Administration (W.P.A.) worker at the Archives of Hawai‘i with Henry E.P. Kekahuna and others. He began a serious study of the Kumulipo creation chant.
From 1939 to 1941, Kelsey resided and studied Hawaiiana with Henry E.P. Kekahuna.
In 1949, work began for the Pukui and Elbert Hawaiian-English Dictionary, published in 1957, on which Kelsey and Henry E.P. Kekahuna were committee members.
In 1956, Kelsey received the first David Malo Award, with Kekahuna, from the East Honolulu Hawaiian Civic Club.
In 1957, Kelsey and Kekahuna mapped Big Island historic sites.
In 1958, Kelsey married Mrs. Esther Kaikai Kanoa Kalaukoa; widow of John Kaipo Kalaukoa.
On April 6, 1960, wife Esther died.
In 1977, Kelsey was declared a "Living Treasure of Hawai‘i" by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission.
In 1978, Kelsey moved to Waianae, Oahu to reside with the family of Hawaiian researcher and author June Gutmanis.
In 1980, Kelsey received a certificate of appreciation from Alu Like for a lifetime of service to the Hawaiian Community.
In 1982, Kelsey received the Na Makua Mahalo ‘Ia award from Brigham Young University Hawai‘i campus.
On February 13, 1987, Kelsey died at the Gutmanis home in Waianae, Oahu.

On October 8, 1840, Kamehameha III granted the first constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, which vested the judicial power of government in a Supreme Court, consisting of the King as chief judge, Premier (kuhina nui), and four individuals appointed by the representative body. Island courts held by their respective governors functioned as circuit courts on their respective island. The island governors were given powers to appoint judges who functioned as district magistrates for the island. Chapter XLVII of the Laws of 1842 mandated that the Supreme judges assemble in Honolulu each June and in Lahaina each December to try cases appealed to them. Selection criteria for foreign and native juries were provided for in the Laws of 1842. The Third Act of Kamehameha III in 1847 titled "An Act to Organize the Judiciary Department of the Hawaiian Islands" created four levels of courts - the Supreme Court, the Superior Court of Law and Equity, four circuit court jurisdictions, and district courts.

The Vehicle Industry Licensing Board was formerly known as the Motor Vehicle Dealers Licensing Board and
was established on July 1, 1939.

The Homestead Laws of the Territory of Hawaii required the government to survey and lay out unoccupied public lands which 25 or more citizens had filed applications to homestead. Since the required number of applications had been received from persons interested in securing homesteads in Waiakea, Hawaiʻi, the Waiakea Mill Company lease was allowed to expire in 1918. The highly profitable sugar-producing land was divided into 216 cane and 231 house lots. Drawings were held on February 17, 1919, and February 3, 1921, to determine which of the 3,000 applicants would receive these lots. Because of the shortage of sugar, which led to the Wartime Agreements extending the Waiakea Mill Company's control over future crops, the first group of homesteaders weren't able to take possession of their lots until the end of March, 1919.
A majority of the homesteaders formed a "League" and appointed trustees to represent them. These trustees signed a contract on May 6, 1919, with the Hawaii Mill Company, which was shortly replaced by the League or 60/40 contract with the Waiakea Mill Company on June 27, 1919. High labor costs, lack of capital, and difficulties in cultivating crops and transporting cane were some of the problems that faced the homesteaders from the very beginning. Also, disagreements and contractual misunderstandings with the mill company and the unexpectedly low price and production of sugar resulted in many homesteaders going into debt and filing suits in the local courts from 1920 on. Things came to such a point that Governor Charles McCarthy appointed Territorial Sugar Expert Albert Horner and Public Land Commissioner Charles Bailey to investigate the situation. They presented their report to him dated March 31, 1922. Personal knowledge of the situation, confirmed by this report, prompted the Governor to bring about the preparation of the 16-Year Agreement of May 1, 1922, which was signed by individual homesteaders and the mill company as a substitute for the League contract. However, homesteaders continued to suffer financially and expressed their dissatisfaction with the terms of this new contract by appealing to the Governor and sending petitions to the legislature asking it to investigate their plight and grant them relief. Legislative hearings were held in 1924 and 1925 with different resolutions, bills and amendments introduced in the legislature. Finally on April 25, 1925, Governor Wallace Rider Farrington approved Act 88, Session Laws of Hawaii 1925, which created a three-member Waiakea Homestead Commission to investigate the situation, bring suits if proper to do so
in the name of the government, make recommendations and report to him the results of its work when completed. Four days later on April 29, he appointed William Goodale, Edgar Henriques and L. Thornton Lyman to the commission. They in turn elected William Goodale chairman at their first meeting on May 4, and appointed B. C. Stewart permanent secretary on June 1.