How one Jamaican Traced his Roots to Africa

[Blackstar*]

This genealogy business is hard work. Still, I've managed to work out two branches (partially). This site, ancestry.com has lots of info.

[Tropicana]

Great I have been working on this since I was on a trip to Jamaica when I was 18....so for the past 2 years. The new online databases are really making it possible to uncover a ton of information some of it is a bit but...oh well...soh it go.

[Tropicana]

Another tip. If was child is born out of wedlock during the 19th century, sometimes only the mother's name shows on the birth certificate. There are some baptismal records on sites like Jamaicanfamilysearch.com You can find the child's name, the mother's name and address and match it with what is on the birth certificate. Sometimes the father's name and occupation and address is listed. Search on http://familysearch.org for siblings with the same father and at the same address and you will uncover a lot of information. More and more documents are being photocopied and uploaded all the time.

[Xavier]

Some great tips. I hope to venture on a similar search later this year.

[Tropicana]

http://www.familysearch.org has added significantly to it Jamaican data base.

Tremendous resource. You're likely to find documents you've been looking for for years without success.


Quick tip, leave parish off in your searches. It is surprising how often people you might expect to find in one parish show up in another.

[Tropicana]

Gloria Reuben Discovers African Ancestor

....you can too

She was born in Canada and her mother is Jamaican. Her half brother is the Jamaican-born actor, the late Dennis Simpson.

Good for her. With her parent's separation when she was 5, her father's death when she was 12 Dennis dying of a brain haemorrhage just 4 years ago, another brother committing suicide, plus other traumatic experiences, nice for her to have some good news.

Here is how you can do it too. Trace back as far as you can and then when you have the name of the ancestor born during slavery, try a search here:

http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1129

Records indicate Creole or African and also affix such archaic terms as mulatto, quadroon, sambo, octoroon and mustee. So do some Christening records.