Tracing Your Caribbean Ancestors: A National Archives Guide, Third Edition

239 Pages·2012·5.207 MB·English

by  Guy Grannum

Tracing Your
Caribbean Ancestors
A National Archives Guide
THIRD EDITION
Guy Grannum
LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY
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CONTENTS
ILLUSTRATIONS ix
PREFACE xi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xii
GLOSSARY xiii
INTRODUCTION xvi
Overview xvii
Further reading xx
1 FIRST STEPS 1
1.1 Be prepared 1
1.2 How do I start my research? 2
1.3 Surnames 3
1.4 The Internet 7
1.5 Archives and libraries 7
1.6 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 9
1.7 The National Archives (UK) 10
1.8 Digitised sources 12
1.9 Ancestral origins 16
1.10 Further reading and useful websites 18
2 RECORDS OF THE COLONIAL OFFICE 21
2.1 Original correspondence 21
2.2 Entry books 23
2.3 Acts 23
2.4 Sessional papers 23
2.5 Government gazettes 24
2.6 Miscellanea 27
2.7 Registers of correspondence 30
2.8 Registers of out-letters 31
2.9 Other records 31
2.10 Further reading 32
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vi TRACING YOUR CARIBBEAN ANCESTORS: A NATIONAL ARCHIVES GUIDE
3 MIGRATION TO THE CARIBBEAN 33
3.1 Emigration: general records 33
3.2 Indentured servants 38
3.3 Transportation 39
3.4 Slave trade 40
3.5 American loyalists 41
3.6 Liberated Africans 42
3.7 Indentured labourers 44
4 LIFE CYCLE RECORDS 48
4.1 Records of births, marriages and deaths 48
4.2 Censuses and other listings 52
4.3 Wills and grants of administration 55
5 LAND AND PROPERTY RECORDS 58
5.1 Land grants 58
5.2 Maps and plans 59
5.3 Plantation records 60
5.4 Further reading 64
6 MILITARY AND RELATED RECORDS 65
6.1 Army 66
6.2 Royal Navy 79
6.3 Royal Marines 83
6.4 Royal Air Force 85
6.5 Merchant Navy 88
7 SLAVES AND SLAVE HOLDERS 93
7.1 Slave Registry 95
7.2 Slave Compensation Commission 97
7.3 Amelioration 100
7.4 Manumissions (grants of freedom) 103
7.5 Acts on the status, condition and treatment of slaves 105
7.6 Further reading 105
8 THE COLONIAL CIVIL SERVANT 107
8.1 Further reading 112
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CONTENTS vii
9 MIGRATION FROM THE WEST INDIES 113
9.1 Migration to the United Kingdom 113
9.2 West Indian migration outside the United Kingdom 122
10 BRITISH WEST INDIES RESOURCES 130
10.1 British West Indies, general 131
10.2 Anguilla 134
10.3 Antigua and Barbuda 136
10.4 Bahamas 139
10.5 Barbados 141
10.6 Bay Islands 144
10.7 Belize (formerly British Honduras) 145
10.8 Bermuda 147
10.9 British Virgin Islands 149
10.10 Cayman Islands 151
10.11 Dominica 152
10.12 Federation of the West Indies 155
10.13 Grenada 155
10.14 Guyana (formerly British Guiana) 157
10.15 Jamaica 160
10.16 Leeward Islands 164
10.17 Montserrat 165
10.18 Nevis 168
10.19 St Christopher (St Kitts) 170
10.20 St Lucia 174
10.21 St Vincent and the Grenadines 177
10.22 Tobago 179
10.23 Trinidad 181
10.24 Turks and Caicos Islands 183
10.25 Windward Islands 185
11 RECORDS OF THE NON-BRITISH WEST INDIES 186
11.1 Cuba 187
11.2 Denmark 188
11.3 Dominican Republic (formerly Santo Domingo) 188
11.4 France 189
11.5 Haiti (formerly Saint-Domingue) 191
11.6 Honduras 191
11.7 Netherlands 192
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viii TRACING YOUR CARIBBEAN ANCESTORS: A NATIONAL ARCHIVES GUIDE
11.8 Panama 193
11.9 Spain 194
11.10 Sweden 194
11.11 United States 194
Useful addresses 196
Bibliography 199
Index 218
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1 Photograph of the West Indies Cricket Team xviii
who toured in England in 1906 (COPY 1/500,
registered 21 August 1906)
Figure 2 Map of the Caribbean circa 1750 6
(CO 700/West Indies12)
Figure 3 Jamaica: Petition of Sarah Bonner, free quadroon, 24
for rights and privileges, November 1783
(CO 140/66, p.57)
Figure 4 Dominica: Government Gazette, 1865, list of 25
patients in the infi rmary (CO 75/1, p.226)
Figure 5 Dominica: Government Gazette, 1920, list of trade 26
licences issued (CO 75/14, p.35)
Figure 6 Guyana: Blue Book of Statistics, 1890, list of 28–9
government pensioners (CO 116/259, pp.O1–2)
Figure 7 Bahamas: certifi cate of naturalisation for 37
Theophanis George Tiliacos, Greek, certifi cate
number O275, 19 May 1923 (HO 334/249)
Figure 8 St Vincent: list of Indians disembarked from the 46
Newcastle, 1867, and the estates they were
indentured to (CO 264/9, p.63)
Figure 9 Barbados: death notices announced in The Liberal, 52
Wednesday 30 August 1854 (CO 33/12, fo 117)
Figure 10 Cayman Islands: census of heads of households, 54
1802 (CO 137/108, fo 272)
Figure 11 Barbados: will of Fearnot Cox dated 30 July 1784, 57
showing slaves being bequeathed to family
members (PROB 37/897)
Figure 12 Grenada: plan of Georgetown, 1765 61
(CO 700/Grenada5)
Figure 13 St Lucia: return of relief paid to persons in distress 63
following the great hurricane of August 1831
(T 1/4396, paper 6312/33)
Figure 14 Roll of the Bermuda Volunteer Rifl e Corps 70
who were attached to the Lincolnshire Regiment
(CO 318/336, War Offi ce, 24 November 1915)
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x TRACING YOUR CARIBBEAN ANCESTORS: A NATIONAL ARCHIVES GUIDE
Figure 15 Roll of 5th battalion of the British West Indies 77
Regiment comprising men mainly from British
Honduras (Belize) (CO 318/340, War Offi ce,
28 October 1916)
Figure 16 Roll of West Indian RAF recruits who trained in 88
Canada (AIR 2/6876).
Figure 17 Seamen’s papers for Cecil Percival Sealey, born in 91
Barbados in 1901 (BT 372/712/106)
Figure 18 Barbados: slave register, 1826 (T 71/537, p.148) 98
Figure 19 Antigua: list of slaves manumitted, January to 104
March 1823 (CO 7/14)
Figure 20 Application form of Walter Belfi eld Grannum for 109
the post of Medical Superintendent, Barbados
Lunatic Asylum, 1916 (CO 28/289, fo 69)
Figure 21 Guyana: Blue Book of Statistics, 1890, staff in the 110
judicial department (CO 116/259, pp.M64–5)
Figure 22 1901 census for the family of Walter Belfi eld 115
Grannum born in Barbados (RG 13/1517, fo 52)
Figure 23 Passenger list for SS Antilles, arrived Plymouth, 116
8 May 1955 (BT 26/1332/56)
Figure 24 Certifi cate of registration for Eva Juliet Borough, 120
born Jamaica in 1908, certifi cate number
R1/174547, issued 2 September 1971
(HO 334/1817)
Figure 25 Panama: list of British West Indians in the Lunatic 123
Asylum, Canal Zone, Panama, 1918 (CO 318/346,
Foreign Offi ce, 25 April 1918)
Figure 26 Curacao: return of births registered at the British 128
Consul, 1950 (FO 907/5, p.32)
Figure 27 Martinique: list of vacated sugar estates, May 1794 190
(WO 1/31, p.367)
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PREFACE
I joined the Public Record Offi ce (now the National Archives (TNA)) in
1988 and for almost 20 years I have been advising researchers on how to
make the best use of the National Archives’ services and resources. I
started tracing my Barbadian ancestors at about the same time and soon
became aware that there were no general guides to help me like those
familiar to family historians in the UK, America, Australia and Canada.
Increasing numbers of people were visiting or writing to the National
Archives for help in tracing their Caribbean ancestors and Tracing Your
Caribbean Ancestors was written to help fi ll this neglected area. The aim
of this guide is to describe the most important records in the National
Archives for the study of Caribbean genealogy and heritage. These
sources can also be used to study the social, economic and military
history of the British Caribbean islands from the time of their settlement
in the seventeenth century to the twentieth century.
The fi rst edition was published in 1995 and the second in 2002. Since
the last publication, the Public Record Offi ce has become the National
Archives following the merger of the Royal Commission on Historical
Manuscripts (in 2003) and the Offi ce of Public Sector Information (ex-
HMSO in 2006), and the Family Records Centre has closed, the resources
put online and services transferred to Kew. More signifi cantly, since
2002 there has been phenomenal growth in the Internet and in particular
for family and social historians there are online catalogues, fi nding aids
and indexes, digitised images of documents and secondary sources, and
new channels which allow researchers to store and share information
instantaneously. This edition refl ects these changes and in particular
highlights online resources useful to Caribbean researchers.
Updates to this book and complementary resources will be published
from time to time at www.caribbeanroots.co.uk.
Guy Grannum
March 2012
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To Mrs Mary Pym, my grandmother, who sparked my interest in my
ancestry and my late friend Ben Bousquet for his continual enthusiasm
in promoting Caribbean heritage.
I would like to thank Karen Grannum, Mandy Banton, Nora Talty,
Sheila Knight, Laura Simpson, Ellen Grace and numerous Caribbean
researchers for their support and advice.
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