Jamaica

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Jamaica is an independent island nation in the Greater Antilles Islands of the West Indies. Jamaica lies south of Cuba in the Caribbean Sea. See the CIA World Factbook at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/jm.html

Getting started with Jamaican research

Jurisdictions

Parishes were established as administrative districts at the English conquest of 1655. Though the boundaries have changed over the succeeding centuries, parishes remain Jamaica’s fundamental civil administrative unit. The three counties of Cornwall, Middlesex, and Surrey have no administrative relevance. The present parishes were consolidated in 1866 with the re-division of eight now-extinct entities, none of which will have civil records. A good historical look at the parishes as they changed over time may be found on the privately compiled “Jamaican Parish Reference,” http://prestwidge.com/river/jamaicanparishes.html (cited 2010 Jul 1). 

Research Tools

• Family History of Jamaica, West Indies
• Genealogy of Jamaica
• Jamaican Parish Reference http://prestwidge.com/river/jamaicanparishes.html  (cited 2010 Jul 1).
• Jamaica's parishes and civil registration districts  http://scholarship.utm.edu/522 (cited 2010 Jul 31).

Wiki articles describing online collections are found at:

• Jamaica Births and Baptisms (FamilySearch Historical Records)
• Jamaica, Trelawny Civil Registration of Birth (FamilySearch Hisrorical Records)

Newspapers

The Jamaican Gleaner More than 1 million historical newspaper pages from The Gleaner dating back to 1834.

Websites

Jamaican Family Search This is a virtual genealogy library for those researching family history for Jamaica, West Indies, especially for people born before 1920.

Jamaican sugar cane (history)

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