Tracing your Caribbean family

Information and sources by country

Many of the Caribbean countries divided their lands into parishes where the church was responsible for the keeping the parish records which included births and baptisms, deaths and burials and marriages. They also acted as the local government for their parish. This administrative arrangement is mostly no longer in place as central government departments for those countries assumes control. It is therefore likely that the parish records (at least copies of them) will be with a government department like 'a department of archives' or 'record office' or 'genealogy office'. However, for some islands, it may still be necessary to contact the parish church to find out what records they hold. For some countries, there may be many parish churches whose records have not yet been centrally organised.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) have digitised and indexed many of the Caribbean Island's civil registration records. These are searchable via FamilySearch. There may be charges for further research. It is also possible to search microfilms at the London branch of the LDS Family Search Centre - https://londonfamilyhistory.org/visit-us/

The archives or records departments for the Caribbean countries are worth pursuing as they may hold useful documents like plantation records, old newspapers, immigration and emigration records and business records.

Page last updated: 15 September 2023

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