Tracing your Jamaican family history

Tracing your Jamaican family history

CONTENTS

Home

About Us

Family Tree

Genealogy

Web Design Service

Heritage Networkers

Guest of The Month

Book Club

Profiles and Historians

Events

Folk Stories

Blue Plaques Scheme

Missing Persons

Yesterday People

The Lost Windrush

Motherland

2004 Gambia Roots Festival

Family Search Documents now Available Online
The following list of Jamaican slave manumissions between 1820 and 1825 are found in the British Public Record Office at Kew (Ruskin Ave Richmond, TW9 4DU, 0181-876-3444). This document is filed at CO137/162. The CO stands for Colonial Office papers. The background to this is that from 1815 onwards and the end of the Great War with France the British government came under increasing pressure from Abolitionist sentiment and agitation in the UK itself. The government therefore increasingly asked for information from the colonial governments on subjects which it had never previously bothered about. In CO137/162 there are other documents asking for details on slave marriages, those sold off the island for crimes, any imported slaves since the abolition of the slave trade, the number of free blacks in every parish and the number on welfare. Not all these documents give individual names, in the case of marriages for instance some parishes simply return the annual number of such. Similar questions must have been asked of other Caribbean colonies but I have not investigated other islands. Finally it is pointed out in the "Observations" that the ages of the manumitted people are not specified but it would be possible to check these names against the Slave Registers (T71) and if the name of the owner given here, which are indexed under Parishes in T71, could be found in the Registers then more personal details of the ex-slaves could be discovered.
Zipped documents available for download
Manumissions 1 \| Manumissions 2 \| Manumissions 3 Manumissions 4 \| Kingston \| Acts of Assembly Subscribers

Jamaican Family Search
GENEALOGY RESEARCH LIBRARY - Jamaica, West Indies, genealogical research site contains transcriptions from various documents for 1655 to 1947 (and a few to 1993), including nineteenth century Jamaica Almanacs. It includes images, a Glossary, Historical Background, and other Utilities to aid in putting this information into focus.
www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com

Introduction to Tracing Caribbean Roots
www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/roots/caribbean/caribbean.htm
Developed by the Public Record Office

Donald Lindo, a keen Jamaican Genealogist, has produced a CD-ROM as an aid to research on Jamaican families. The disc contains his own research over many years which he has amalgamated with contributions from others who have done research into their Jamaican roots. Some family records go back as far as 700 AD. more...

Sources for Jamaican/Caribbean Family History

Useful publications:

The Shirley Families of Jamaica
Most Jamaican Shirley's are descended form two English aristocrat brothers who went to Jamaica in the 18th century. The book gives an in-depth biography of the brothers, Henry and Bernard Shirley, and their antecedents.

Henry Shirley, had a son with a free mulatto woman named Sally Skiers. The majority of Shirley's who have lived in Jamaica since the 19th century, descend form that son, Edmund. The book gives a detail listing of many of Edmund's descendants to the present day.

Most of the Jamaica's Trelawney Shirleys, however, descend from Bernard Shirley. In addition, Bernard had three children with his German maid whose surname was Schardsmidt. The book contains Schardsmidt records and family tree.

There are over 200 pages of Jamaican birth, baptism, marriage and death records and wills from 1790 to 1920. You should be able to use these records to trace your family roots. Our researchers traveled across Jamaica collecting every Shirley record that we could find on that island. This book will be treasured by all the Shirley's of Jamaican heritage. It is the work of 6 researchers: Two full time researchers in Jamaica labored more than a year to collect the Jamaican records, Two researchers in England and France traveled extensively around those countries to uncover your ancestor's pedigree to as for back as the 1400s, and two researchers in Salt Lake City, Utah were employed.
Book is Printed - Available June 10, 2006
Notes: Only a limited quantity of books has been printed.
Paperback, has 448 pages and is 6 X 9 inches.
No re-printing is planned.
Click here to order your copy today! $29.95 + s/h

Guy Grannum Tracing Your West Indian Ancestors (PRO, 2002)

Stephen D Porter Jamaican Records: A Research Manual (Stephen D Porter, 1999)

R Kershaw & M Pearsall Immigrants and Aliens: A Guides to Sources on UK Immigration and Citizenship (PRO, 2000)

Peter Christian The Genealogist's Internet (Public Record Office/The National Archives

R. A. Barrett The Barretts of Jamaica: The Family of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Hardcover)

Every Generation are looking for case studies,tips and information on how people have been succesful in tracing their family tree. Please email us at info@everygeneration.co.uk


	Empowering and influencing the black community through history, family genealogy and heritage. Supported by the Musician Ronnie Laws