An increasing number of websites contain resources of value for people with Caribbean roots. Most of these relate to sources for West Indian migrants to the USA, Canada and the UK, but there is limited amount of information on Caribbean resources.

Some of these sites are free to use but most require you to register and pay a subscription to make full use of the search facilities and to download images.

Books

  • Paul Crooks, A Tree Without Roots: The Guide to Tracing African, Anglo and Asian Ancestry in the Caribbean (Blackamber Books, 2008)
  • Guy Grannum, Tracing Your Caribbean Ancestors, 3rd edn (Bloomsbury, 2012)
  • Geraldine Lane, Tracing Ancestors in Barbados (Genealogical Publishing Co Inc, 2006)
  • Madeleine E Mitchell, Jamaican Ancestry: How to Find out More, revised edn (Heritage Books, 2009)
  • Jennifer O'Sullivan-Sirjue and Pansy Robinson, Researching Your Jamaican Family (Arawak publications, 2007)

Videos

  • Bob Cumberbatch uses Google+ hangout to describe how to use Barbados parish registers on familysearch on Youtube (41:31 minutes)

Online records and indexes

www.familysearch.org (free) - Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints

  • indexes of baptisms, births and marriage records and some digitised images for the Caribbean, Central and South America including: Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Panama, Grenada, Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica
  • index to 1881 censuses for England & Wales and Scotland
  • index to 1881 Canadian census
  • index to 1880 and 1830 US censuses
  • index to US social security records
  • indexes to members' submissions
  • runs projects where you index archival sources and so help future researchers find information

www.movinghere.org.uk (free) - partnership project with stories and histories also many digitised resources including selected indexed passenger lists from the Caribbean to the UK, 1948-1960.

www.ancestry.com (subscription site - free index and search but cannot see full descriptions) - vast resources - mostly relating to the USA but there are sister sites for Canada, Australia and UK but all are available via the worldwide subscription. Includes:

  • slave returns for most British colonies in the Caribbean, Sri Lanka and Mauritius, 1812-1834 (this is free but you need to register to access the images)
  • UK censuses 1841-1911
  • US censuses 1790-1940 includes Panama and US Virgin Islands
  • Canadian census, 1851, 1901, 1911
  • passenger lists to the US (1800s-1950s)
  • passenger lists to the UK (1826-1869, 1878-1960)
  • US naturalisations
  • US military service papers
  • WWI British army service records - includes soldiers of the West India Regiment, British West Indies Regiment and West Indians who served in British imperial regiments
  • WWI Canadian army papers
  • runs projects where you index archival sources and so help future researchers find information

www.findmypast.co.uk (subscription site - free index)

  • passenger lists from the UK 1890-1960 - includes migrants and people returning to the Caribbean
  • UK births, marriage and death indexes 1837-2005
  • UK overseas births, marriages and deaths (eg consular returns of British subjects)
  • UK censuses 1841-1911
  • British army pension records, 1760-1913 - includes soldiers born or who served in the Caribbean in British infantry, cavalry, artillery, garrison, pioneer and engineer regiments and companies including the West India Regiments
  • merchant navy service records, 1835-1857 and 1918-1941 provides information such as dates and place of birth and ships served on; many of the later collections have photographs

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline (pay per view)

  • Wills for England and Wales 1300s to 1858, includes absentee landlords and plantation owners with estate in the UK and Caribbean
  • Royal Navy Service records 1853-1923
  • Merchant Navy WWII medals
  • WWI army medal indexes

www.caribbeanfamilyhistory.org (free) brings together a number of former websites - not all the content from those sites has migrated yet but it will include:

  • volunteer project to transcribe tombstones and burial records in Barbados & Antigua
  • list of over 300 manumissions (grants of freedom) in Barbados, 1831-1834, compiled by Geraldine Lane
  • database of plantations and owners/managers compiled by Ronnie Hughes in Barbados
  • index to compensationn awards made to slave owners or their representatives following emancipation in Barbados & Antigua

www.familyrelatives.com (subscription)

  • indexes to births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales
  • browseable indexes to overseas births, marriage and deaths (regimental, consular and high commissioner returns) - consular returns covered British subjects in Foreign sovereign countries such as West Indians in Curacou. Free but you need to register.

www.thegenealogist.co.uk (subscription)

  • searchable indexes to the General Register Office registers of overseas birth, marriage and deaths (consular and military returns)
  • digitised miscellaneous overseas registers including some British consular returns for St Thomas
  • Census returns for England and Wales, 1841-1911

www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com (subscription but some free) - indexes and transcriptions to a variety of Jamaican records and publications

www.newspaperarchive.com (subscription) - hundreds of newspapers digitised and indexed. Mostly America but includes the Jamaica Gleaner, 1834-.

www.ellisisland.org (free but need to register to see images) - index and digital images to passengers lists of ships which arrived at Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924. Ellis Island was the main entry point for migrants to the USA and includes thousands of people from the Caribbean.

www.caribbeanaircrew-ww2.com (free) - contains information on Caribbean aircrew who served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. You can add further information to the site.

www.caribbeanrollofhonour-ww1-ww2.yolasite.com (free) - information on Caribbean servicemen who served in the First and Second World Wars.

Comité de Liaison et d'Application des Sources Historiques - Educational resources website dedicated to the history of St. Bartholomew and focusing on the slave trade, slavery and abolition and their impact on this island of the Lesser Antilles

Transatlantic slave trade database includes the names of 67,000 Africans liberated from illegal slavers tried at the Mixed Commission Courts in Sierra Leone and Cuba. Many of those liberated in Cuba later settled in Trinidad, Guyana and Belize as apprentices; many liberated in Sierra Leone migrated as free migrants in the 1840s to Jamaica and other islands.

Online and offline groups and discussion groups

Surname lists

Family websites

Downloads