HOW TO FIND JAMAICAN FILMS
©2008 by Donald R. Snow
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This page was last updated 2008-06-24.
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WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION TO CLASS
TIMELINE AND HISTORY OF JAMAICA
- Short Timeline of Jamaican history -- modified from
http://users.pullman.com/mitchelm/jamaica.htm#dates
- 1494 3 May Columbus landed in Jamaica
- 1655 10 May British Capture Jamaica from Spanish
- 1662 Oct Population 3,653 Whites, 552 Negros, Total 4,205 (Blacks= 13%)
- 1664 Jun Four hundred planters came from Barbados
- 1664 Jul Sir Thomas Modyford came with 200 planters
- 1670 Year There were 70 Sugar Works in Jamaica
- 1673 Year Population 7,768 Whites, 9504 Negros total 17,272 (Blacks= 55%)
- 1675 1 Sep 1100 Surinam Settlers Arrived (to St Elizabeth)
- 1693 Jun Kingston was laid out
- 1722 28 Aug Free School founded at Walton, St Ann
- 1728 Jun Coffee introduced in Jamaica from French West Indies by Sir Nicholas
Lawes at Temple Hall, St Andrew.
- 1739 Year There were 429 Sugar Works in Jamaica
- 1754 7 Dec Moravian Mission Founded
- 1755 Year Kingston became the capitol
- 1758 Year Spanish Town restored as capitol
- 1764 Year Population 20,000 Whites, 146,454 Slaves, Total 166,454 (Blacks = 88%)
- 1768 Year There were 651 Sugar Works in Jamaica
- 1775 Year Population 12,737 Whites, 4,093 Free Coloured, 192,787
Slaves, Total 209,617 (Blacks= 94%)
- 1781 1 Aug Hurricane, 120 vessels wrecked in Kingston
- 1785 Year Population 30,000 Whites, 10,000 Free coloured, 250,000 Slaves, Total 290,000 (Blacks=
90%)
- 1794 Feb Breadfruit brought from Tahiti to Jamaica
- 1807 Year Population 319,351
- 1814 23 Feb Baptist Mission Founded
- 1816 Year Methodist Conference started
- 1819 Year Methodists in the Island - 6,540
- 1824 Year Presbyterian Church Founded
- 1824 Year Episcopal See Established
- 1834 1 Aug Slavery Abolished
- 1834 13 Sep First issue of The Daily Gleaner Newspaper
- 1838 1 Aug Apprenticeship abolished
- 1844 Year Census Total 377,433
- 1845 21 Nov Jamaica Railway established
- 1845 Year 253 East Indians came to be indentured on sugar estates
- 1850 Jun Asiatic Cholera epidemic, 32,000 died
- 1854 Year 472 Chinese came to Jamaica from Panama
- 1871 Year Population Total 506,154
- 1881 Year Population Total 580,804
- 1887 Year Outbreak of Small Pox to 1888
- 1889 Year Population Total 639,491
- 1917 May Women won the right to vote
- 1939 1 Apr Telephone connected in Jamaica
- 1959 Year Cayman Islands no longer a dependency of Jamaica
- 1962 6 Aug Independence from Britain, Cayman Islands choses to remain a Crown Colony
- 2008 Year Population today 2,772,000
HISTORY AND MAPS OF JAMAICA BY PARISHES
- History of Parishes and Registration Districts
- When Civil Registration started in 1878, Jamaica was divided into 14
parishes with the parishes now divided into from 11 to 32
registration districts
- See maps of parishes from 1494 to present -- http://prestwidge.com/river/jamaicanparishes.html
- Lists of Parishes and Registration Districts on http://www.hydeparkfhc.org under
Catalogue/Caribbean/Jamaica
- Parishes and districts have letters assigned, mostly
in order of their organization, e.g. Galloway in St.
Andrew is BP, B for St. Andrew and P for Galloway and Bounty Hall in
Trelawny is OL, O for Trelawny and L for Bounty Hall; .
- The lists on Catalogue/Caribbean/Jamaica are sorted
alphabetically, so you can easily find the parish and code for any district.
- See historical and geographical maps at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jamwgw/jammaps.htm
FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY CATALOG FOR JAMAICA
- Jamaican records
- LDS Church has filmed many parish and civil records
from Jamaica and all are listed in the FHLC (Family History Library Catalog)
- The London Family History Centre has copies of
all of the Jamaican and Caribbean films
-
Some are of poor quality due to problems with
the original records or the filming and many are out of order and are very
difficult to search
- Before 1878 when Civil Registration started
there are 5 series of records and indexes, including church and parish
records
-
After 1878 there are nationwide Civil Registration
indexes
- For Jamaican records in the FHLC you must search
under both Jamaica and under the name of the
parish or registration district since neither search brings up all the
records
- Can also use Google to search the FHLC by searching
for "site:www.familysearch.org Jamaica" and "site:www.familysearch.org St.
Andrew", for example -- the "site:www.familysearch.org..." part tells Google to just search FamilySearch for the
terms
- Index films of Jamaican records
- There are about 100 index films
- To see what indexes are available for births,
marriages, and deaths, go to the London FHC Catalogue/Caribbean/Jamaica page
and then,
- If you know the year, use the list sorted by
year.
- If you know the parish, use the list sorted
by parish.
- If you know the registration district, but not
the parish, find the parish from the Parish and Registration lists,
then look at the list sorted by parish.
- These lists include all years for
which indexes are available, 1664 to 1967, in some cases.
- If you find your ancestor on an index film, write
down the information, including the 2- or 3-letter code of the registration
district, and go back into the FHLC to find the film with
the full record
- Prospects for the future: The LDS Church is
digitizing and has already started indexing the Jamaican records by the
individual's name, so eventually you will be able to go to http://search.labs.familysearch.org/ and search
for the name and find the record linked to the image. You can volunteer to help in this indexing by
going to http://www.familysearchindexing.org/ .
OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES
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