Hi, Summit, Welcome to the list. I just wanted to let you know that most countries in the era of which you speak had no birth certificates. In the US, in fact, birth certificates didn't come into "fashion" until around 1900, if then, and they were mostly kept by county or territory back then. The same for death certificates. In some cases, one may obtain a quasi-certificate (that is, a clerk of court types up known info in their records onto a form that says "birth certificate") if there are records held by the municipality. Those doing Barbados research, help me here. I suspect there would be some remaining church records, if the warmth & humidity haven't taken too much of a toll. Do you know what religion they were? Cheers, Laura in a sunny NC On Mar 22, 2008, at 3:00 AM, [email protected] wrote: > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Christ Church Barbados (Summit) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:25:57 -0700 (PDT) > From: Summit <[email protected]> > Subject: Christ Church Barbados > To: [email protected] > Message-ID: > <[email protected]m> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > > John Robinson born 1730 Christ Church Barbados, how do I confirm who > his parents > How do I get his: > > *Copy of birth certificate or register entry for John Robinson > *Copy of his death certificate or registration which should state his > age > (so we can work out his birth date) > *Sight of his grave. A gravestone would have key information as would > the > church records. > *Anything on Thomas Robinson + Elizabeth Malloney his supposed parents > from IGI > > Do you think this can be obtained from authorities in Barbados? Or can > this be done on the internet? > > > End of CARIBBEAN Digest, Vol 3, Issue 61 > ****************************************

Hi Laura Hi Summit Prior to the establishment of a registrars system in the mid 1800's Barbados Antigua, St. Kitts etc relied on records kept by the parish churches. The specifics of what survives, how thorough or not they were and what secondary sources you may assume present the full record for such and such a parish at a particular time are just some of the challenges we face doing gen work on people in these islands in the early years. Furthermore with some exceptions, the records are not about birth but about baptism, so one must check the predominant Anglican records plus any "dissenter" records or synagogue records or.... Prior to emancipation the purpose was to document white baptisms, marriages and deaths although there are exceptions and from the 1780's there was a growing movement to baptise and record slaves and people of colour. This was part of what is now called the "amelioration" period and in places like Jamaica the C of E churchmen began "ministering" to slaves on plantations where owners were favorable to it. But do not confuse it active ministrations like those of the later work Baptists, Adventists, (later) Quakers etc. The work done was strictly in line with encouraging compliance with plantation life and bondage. 'Saving souls as it was perceived at the time.... This was real rudimentary stuff. For instance the Portland Parish records have long lists of baptisms obviously done in large groups beginning about 1800. Prior to this you may see records of individuals born of a planter and a slave mother etc but these are "rare" in comparison with the large numbers of people living and dying at the time. In my research on the eastern parishes of Jamaica there are quite a few examples recorded in ceremonies taking place AT a particular plantation rather than IN a parish church and in these cases evidently by request of the parties "sponsoring" the child or couple, the ceremony was made official and recorded as such. This likely reflects the planter family's convictions more than a general policy. Plantation ledgers and related documents often do record births and other events but are rarely preserved and rarely complete. ****** However by 1730 Barbados is pretty well organized. There is reasonably good survival of most parish records from that time. Specifics are available on World Gen Barbados Site, Most of these records are available in a work done by Joanne McCree Sanders or from the microfilms kept by the Church of Latter Day Saints. Some of the Bajans on the list can steer you to the specifics. The only pertinent documents are the parish records. No certificate as we know it was issued. In the period prior to 1680 the keeping of records of any sort was pretty slapdash and prone to loss. About 1680-90 the requirement that parishes pass on their records to colonial authorities began to be seriously encouraged or....actually done. Even so we are missing a lot. St, Mary's parish Antigua, which is one of the oldest had a nearly parish record until a hurricane blew away the church and damaged substantial portions of the vestry book. And so it goes. Perhaps some of the listers with better retention than I can point you in the right direction to some informative web-sites on this topic. Chris Cod _____ I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users. It has removed 20 spam emails to date. Paying users do not have this message in their emails. Try SPAMfighter <http://www.spamfighter.com/len> for free now!