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

• Also see External links and Historical books online, below.
• FamilySearch, a free website, contains transcribed records relating to the Caribbean, and in addition many images. From the list of all Historical Record Collections, use the filters on the left hand side of the webpage to select "Caribbean and Central America". Also see External records below for the FamilySearch Wiki page.
• Digitised records from the Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library, London. Note the digitised images are in TIFF format. If you cannot see the images you will need to download a plug-in, see Online books - Digital Library of India for suggestions.
  • Inventory of archival holdings in Jamaica (EAP148) Includes
    • Angela Reid Collection (Birth, Baptismal, and Death Registers) [1795-1965] Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston, Jamaica records
  • Digitising the endangered archives of Grenada (EAP295)
  • Coming, not yet available online (at 2019/01) Digitisation of Wills, Deed Books and Powers of Attorney for St Vincent, 1785-1865 (EAP1013). Related completed digitised projects are EAP345, which includes one Book of Wills, and EAP688 Deed Books.
  • Coming, not yet available online (at 2019/01) Preserving and digitising the historic newspaper, The Barbados Mercury Gazette (EAP1086)
• Findmypast: Search A-Z of record sets (located as an option under the Search tab). Findmypast is a pay website. Use Search terms such as Caribbean, or individual island names such as Barbados, or Jamaica. Depending where you live, these records will generally require what was previously called a World subscription, now called a Pro subscription.
• Ancestry Card Catalogue of all Record Databases (located as an option under the Search tab). Ancestry is a pay website. Use Search terms such as Caribbean, or individual island names such as Barbados, or Jamaica. Includes databases from the books Scots in the West Indies, 1707-1857 by David Dobson 1998 (there was subsequently a Volume 2 published in 2006, which appears not to be included in the Ancestry database) and The Original Scots Colonists of Early America. Caribbean Supplement 1611-1707 by David Dobson 1999

Other records

• The Society of Genealogists holds some records relating to the West Indies. Search the catalogue to see what is currently available. The holding at November 2012 is set out in the archived webpage Overseas: West Indies. Some of the sources are from Caribbeana - most of these volumes are available online, refer below. Also includes the book Tracing your West Indian ancestors: sources in the Public Record Office: PRO readers’ guide, no. 11 [by Guy Grannum, 1995, subsequently republished as Tracing your Caribbean ancestors : a National Archives guide 2012]

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.

• Caribbean family history: An introduction to tracing your Caribbean ancestors. Caribbean Roots website. Includes information about Civil Registration, and addresses of Registry Offices. For example, births were registered from 1890 in Barbados, and 1880 in Jamaica.
• 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
• Caribbeana : being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies edited by Vere Langford Oliver. There appear to have been six volumes published, together with one supplementary volume, total seven. Generally there is an Index at the back of the book.

Vol. I 1910, Contents; Vol. II 1912, Contents; Vol. III 1914, Contents; Supplement to Vol.IV The Registers of St Thomas, Middle Island, St. Kitts 1915; Vol. V 1919, Contents; Vol. VI Commences page 41, no Contents or Index. All Archive.org.

All seven volumes of Caribbeana are available online at The University of Florida Digital Collections including Volume IV, Contents; and Volume VI, no Contents or Index. Print may be darker in these volumes compared with the editions on Archive.org, and therefore easier to read.

• 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 to read online or download. You need to be registered and sign in first, see Family Search. Direct link. 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
• “Some Extracts relating to West Indian Families...” page 245, Miscellanea genealogica et heraldica and the British archivist, Volume V, Fifth Series 1923-1925. Archive.org. Only one page.
• Genealogies of Barbados families : from Caribbeana and the Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society by James C Brandow. 1983. Archive.org Lending Library
• The Jews of Jamaica: Tombstone Inscriptions, 1663-1880 Richard D. Barnett and Philip Wright c 1997. Digital Library of the Caribbean.
• Comments about "The registers of Persons Baptised etc Abroad: The West Indies" page 237 Registrum ecclesiae parochialis : the history of parish registers in England : also of the registers of Scotland, Ireland, the East and West Indies... by John Southerden Burn 2nd edition 1862 Archive.org. Refers to some early Baptisms and Burials from Barbados in the "State Paper Office", now The National Archives at Kew, but it is unknown whether these records are still available. See Other records above.
• The history, civil and commercial, of the British colonies in the West Indies by Bryan Edwards. First published 1793. 1806 volumes have additional title To which is added A general description of the Bahama islands by Daniel M'Kinnen

1806 edition in four volumes Vol I, Vol II, Vol III, Vol IV

1807 Fourth edition "with considerable additions", in three volumes Vol I, Vol II, Vol III. All Archive.org

Additional editions Archive.org

• Jamaica: its Past and Present State by James M Phillippo, Baptist Missionary 1843. London Edition 1843, USA Edition 1843 Archive.org.
• 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.