West Indies Genealogy

[saltedplantain]

Much to my surprise, I have recently discovered that my 4x great grandmother was from the British West Indies. It seems that her family first settled in the region in around 1640, before she came to the UK in 1790.

It’s very hard to find sources online. Does anyone have experience of doing genealogical research in the West Indies? Mainly looking at two islands called Antigua and Saint Christopher.

My DNA does not show up any Caribbean settler groups but this may be because it’s too distant.

This might help.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Antigua_and_Barbuda_Church_Records

https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Saint_Kitts_and_Nevis_Genealogy

You may also find the family mentioned as slave owners
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/project/details

I've mainly done research for friends whose families come from Jamaica and Barbados. There isn't really one site you can check and a lot of research involves looking through historical rather than standard genealogical records. I found a lot of information from slave records and it may be that your family were owners even after they came to England. The slave owner compensation records can help link British families to their lives in the Caribbean. If you're on Ancestry look for Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1813-1834.

Thank you - those links are helpful.

I took a quick look on the UCL website and the information mainly dates to after my period of research. However, the same surnames as those in my tree come up, so I can only assume that they are relatives of sorts. I never would have expected my ancestors to be plantation owners as my immediate forebears were relatively poor farmers in a very rural area of Britain. Just goes to show.

They may have gone over as plantation managers. A lot of poor people saw it as an opportunity. Also, things change. 400 years ago one of my ancestors was an advisor to the King of Denmark yet I grew up on a council estate 😀

Hello, I have lots of friends working in the genealogy community including someone from Jamaica - I know this isn't your island but she knows all about the challenges of researching in the Caribbean.

In a nutshell - there is not a lot of interest locally about genealogy. Archives are poorly funded and records deteriorate. When you can't preserve your 20th century records, anything older is quickly lost. There is not the push to digitise Caribbean records in the same way as there is in other parts of the world as the main push for digitisation is from the big US based organisation where it is mostly white people or European descent who are interested in genealogy.

A DNA test may be useful, and if you have white Caribbean ancestry the UCL Legacy of Slavery database is very very useful. I would also advise looking for a specialist Facebook group focused on research in the particular island(s) you're interested in, or searching for a professional genealogist working in the region, they will probably be affiliated to an American organisation like the APG rather than a UK one.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/project/details/

things change. 400 years ago one of my ancestors was an advisor to the King of Denmark yet I grew up on a council estate

They can change very fast when looking at daughters and younger sons. In my tree there's a senior clergyman who's an MP and Fellow of the Royal Society. Eldest son follows a similar path, younger son also clergy but ordinary vicar in a much smaller and less prestigious parish. His daughters are milliners in Covent Garden. Their sons are privates in the army and East End grocers.