🇯🇲 Jamaican Family History - Has anyone researched & if so where did you start please?! 🇯🇲

[JamaicanJamboree]

Good evening everyone,

I would be so grateful if anyone has any tips please on researching a Jamaican family tree. I need to start from the very beginning and order a copy of my Dad’s birth certificate and also my Gran and Grandad’s birth and death certificates but I’m not even sure how I go about this.

Once I’ve achieved this, if anyone has any ideas on my next steps that would be so great.

I was thrilled to find my Dad’s name on a passenger list when he first arrived in the UK but that’s as far as I’ve managed to get so far! I’m very much a newbie!

Thank you!

(I’m thinking of copying this thread into family history too just in case!)

www.rgd.gov.jm/

This would be a good place to start. Spanish Town used to be the capital (up to 1872) before Kingston so has a lot of archives and records.
Good luck

@Farle29 - Thanks so much, funnily enough I was googling earlier today and found this website.

I have completed the form to request my Dad’s birth certificate and so I’m hoping that will start me on the right track. Although I’m sure I completed the same form ages ago and never heard anything back. Finger crossed I will this time.

Hi OP, my family links are Caribbean and I started my family tree through the Ancestry website. But prior to that I took the dna ethnicity test. The results brought me closer to distant cousins which helped to build my tree. You can also use their information if it appears you have similar relatives and ancestors. Im pretty sure you can do a tree without the dna test. Another useful site is family search org, its free and it brings up death, birth and marriage certificates. Good luck, its an emotional journey!

I second familySearch as well, lots of indexed records that can help build the tree. I also used ancestry and myheritage to complement my searches. If you go on Facebook there are Jamaica specific genealogy groups - a few will mention GEDmatch which I haven't done so can't recommend. My suggestion would be to start with the free resources and only use paid elements of ancestry/myheritage when your tree is more built up.

Hi @JemInher40s and @Cherubienne, I can’t thank you both enough for your advice.
I have looked on familysearch today which I hadn’t tried before and found my Gran’s death certificate. It was emotional to find it! She passed away before I was born and I actually thought her name was spelt slightly differently. I haven’t yet found my Dad's birth certificate or anything for my Grandad. But from my Gran’s certificate I now know the right spelling for my Granddad’s name which is great.

Thank you also for the advice re: Facebook groups and myheritage, I will give those a try next.

Im pleased you found the advice useful! All the best in your journey🙂

You could post on here. Lots of knowledgable people on there....

www.facebook.com/onelovejamaica

Thank you @Iflyaway - I’ll take a look at that group.

I wanted to add something else that you may find useful and it can be relevant to your search. There is a website that allows you to check the 'compensation' that the enslaved owners received due to the abolition of slavery. The reason why I state that you may find it useful is that when I did mine the name of a freed enslaved person appeared in my lineage through my research of my tree. If you go to google and type in legacies of British slave ownership the site should appear, then in the blue 'search the database' box you put your surname and the results should appear.

Thank you @JemInher40s, this is another resource I have never heard of, much appreciated.

I’m a bit stuck at the moment because I can’t find a record of birth certificates or a marriage certificate for either of my grandparents. I have emailed the Jamaican registrar department and they have advised I need to complete a search form but I don’t have all the details they need. I’m hoping they might still be able to find something though fingers crossed.

www.facebook.com/groups/128123290548155/?ref=share
Jamaican Genealogy & Diaspora Facebook group
Also Jamaican family Search apparently they have Catholic records have never tried it though. Good luck with your search :)

Thank you Cherubienne I will have a look at those groups.

My grandad was Jamaican, my uncle did searches via one of those paid genealogy sites and got information going back a few generations.
We ascertained that our surname comes from our ansectors' slave master which is an odd thing to carry!