Jamaica Genealogy

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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 about Jamaica.

Getting started with Jamaican research
Wecome

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).

Cornwall County
 * Hanover Parish
 * St. Elizabeth Parish
 * St. James Parish
 * Trelawney Parish
 * Westmoreland Parish

Middlesex County
 * Clarendon Parish
 * Manchester Parish
 * St. Ann Parish
 * St. Catherine Parish
 * St. Mary Parish

Surrey County
 * Kingston Parish
 * Portland Parish
 * St. Andrew Parish
 * St. Thomas Parish

Research Tools

 * Family History of Jamaica, West Indies
 * Genealogy of Jamaica
 * Jamaica Genealogy
 * Antique Jamaica Maps http://prestwidge.com/index.php?/project/introduction/
 * Jamaica's parishes and civil registration districts http://scholarship.utm.edu/522 (cited 2010 Jul 31).
 * Listing of all records collections for Jamaica available on FamilySearch.org.

Wiki articles describing online collections are found at:


 * Jamaica Births and Baptisms (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts (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 Genealogy This blog is a resource for those researching their Jamaican (West Indies) Family History.

Jamaican sugar cane (history)

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