West Indies

Information on migration between East and West Indies.

There are many surnames common to both India and the West Indies, particularly Jamaica. "I wondered if anybody thought to look westwards when they hit a brick wall in India".

A number of families who were active in India, had in previous generations also taken part in the development of the West Indies. Some of the most effective officers in India during the 1780's and 1790's had previously served in the West Indies. The reverse also applied. Planters from India moved to the West Indies to run plantations there.

Online records

• FamilySearch, a free website, contains transcribed records relating to the Caribbean in the Caribbean and Central America collection. Also see External records below for the FamilySearch Wiki page.

Also see

• Subscription websites-online newspapers, journals and directories : Caribbean publications.

Information about the database Caribbean Newspapers 1718 - 1876, part of Readex World Newspapers Archive.

External links

• Jamaican Family Search Genealogy Research Library jamaicanfamilysearch.com
• Genealogy of Jamaica (a Rootsweb page)
• Caribbean Family History. Barbados. Includes transcribed burial records for Barbados.
• Caribbean FamilySearch (LDS) Wiki. Includes links to the pages for Barbados and Jamaica.

FamilySearch microfilms include Wills, 1756-1930 Jamaica. Supreme Court and records using keywords Jamaica. Registrar General. There may be additional microfilms. See the Fibiwiki page FamilySearch Centres for information about microfilms and digitised microfilms.

FamilySearch Genealogy Research Groups, also called Family Search Community FamilySearch Wiki. Includes links to 'closed' Facebook groups (where you must be accepted by an Administrator) for the Caribbean and Jamaica. Note, to sign up to these groups you must be a Facebook member, and then may need to be signed in to FamilySearch, and then may need to agree to conditions set by FamilySearch Community, including access to your data.

Really Useful Weblinks from London FamilySearch Centre website includes a category Caribbean.

• CaribbeanGenWeb. This site is part of the WorldGenWeb Project and is the regional resource page for research in the Caribbean.
• Rootsweb Message Boards: Carribean. Part of Ancestry. Search the Archives.

All Rootsweb Mailing Lists includes Barbados, Jamaica etc. Search the Archives.

• dLOC: Digital Library of the Caribbean includes
  • Caribbean Map Collection

from University of Florida Digital Collections

• Caribbean Views British Library Online Gallery.
• Caribbean Roll of Honour 1914-1918 1939-1945 . A page within includes a link now not active, but available as an archived page Caribbean Online - Routes to Roots. Gallery - World War One and the British West Indies Regiment, Lists of honours and awards from World War One and the British West Indies Regiment now archived. commonwealth.sas.ac.uk

Maps

• Maps of Jamaica by James Robertson, 1804 National Library of Scotland.

Historical books online

• Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies from the earliest date by J H Lawrence-Archer Index. 1875 Archive.org
• The Monumental Inscriptions in the churches and churchyards of the island of Barbados, British West Indies edited by Vere Langford Oliver 1915 Archive.org

More monumental inscriptions : tombstones of the British West Indies by Vere Langford Oliver. Reprint of The Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies. Collected and edited by V. L. Oliver. 1927. Catalogue entry with link to a FamilySearch Digital Book. Direct link. May take a few minutes to load. Catalogue entry says "Inscriptions copied from cemeteries on the West Indian islands of Antigua, Dominica, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitts, Grenada, St. Lucia, and Trinidad; on the Bahamas; and in the former Dutch colony of Demerara, now a county of Guyana. With an Index of Names at the back of the book.

• "Barbadoes Parish Registers 1678-1679", page 419 The original lists of persons of quality 
emigrants; religious exiles; political rebels : serving men sold for a term of years; apprentices; children stolen; maidens pressed; and others who went from Great Britain to the American plantations, 1600-1700. With their ages, the localities where they formerly lived in the mother country, the names of the ships in which they embarked, and other interesting particulars. From mss. preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, England. 
Edited by John Camden Hotten. 1874 Archive.org
• The Jews of Jamaica: Tombstone Inscriptions, 1663-1880 Richard D. Barnett and Philip Wright c 1997. Digital Library of the Caribbean.
• History of the First West India Regiment by A B Ellis, Major, First West India Regiment. 1885 Archive.org
• Stark's History and Guide to the Bahama Islands… by James H Stark 1891 Archive.org. Version from University of Florida Digital Collections/ Digital Library of the Caribbean which may contain better photographs.
• Stark's Guide-book and History of Trinidad: Including Tobago, Granada, and St. Vincent… James H Stark 1897 Archive.org. 2nd copy missing title page, but the photographs may be better.
• Stark's Jamaica Guide (illustrated) : containing a description of everything relating to Jamaica of which the visitor or resident may desire information, including its history, inhabitants, government, resources, and places of interest to travellers by James H Stark 1898 Archive.org
• Stark's History and Guide to Barbados and the Caribbee Islands, containing a description of everything on or about these islands of which the visitor or resident may desire information .. James H Stark Archive.org 1903 Archive.org
• The History of Piracy by Philip Gosse 1934, first published 1932. Hathi Trust Digital Library. Contains "Book III: The Pirates of the West". An earlier book was The Pirates' Who's Who Giving Particulars Of The Lives and Deaths Of The Pirates And Buccaneers by Philip Gosse, first published 1924 Gutenberg.org.