Tracing Commonwealth ancestors
With the citizens of today's Commonwealth making up 30% of the world's population, there will be many family historians whose ancestors had their origins in one of its 53 associated countries.
A New Zealand division celebrates after capturing a German 4.2 battery
at Grevillers, 25 August 1918
Imperial War Museum (Q11243)
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Using the internet
The internet is a rich but sometimes overwhelming source of information. With a little guidance, though, there are plenty of useful places for the amateur genealogist to investigate.
Most genealogy websites relate to surnames. If you are lucky, you may find someone with the same surname as yourself who has already done some genealogical research. And if you're really lucky, you may find a connection to your own family tree.
As is the case with most of the internet, many websites are based in the USA and are US-centric. They are nevertheless full of information and a great source of links.
Some of the most useful websites include Rootsweb, the internet's oldest and largest free genealogy site, and Cyndi's List, with over 200,000 genealogy links in over 150 cross-referenced categories.
Publishing your information on the internet
GEDCOM – 'GEnealogical Data COMmunication files' – is a genealogy database standard and is the format for publishing genealogy files on the internet. Most genealogy software packages will output GEDCOM files, and there are some kind souls – such as Dave Wilks' free gedcom server, Genes Reunited and Gencircles – who provide a place to publish them. Be sensitive, however, to publishing the details of living relatives online, and remember that your mother's maiden name (easily available from your family tree) is often used as a security question for online banking.
West Indies
One of the most important things to remember when researching in the West Indies is that you will not find the traditional birth, death, census and marriage statistics that you might find in the UK or USA. Remember that there are many different kinds of records – church records, diaries, school records, censuses, land sales, and deeds and titles, to name but a few. Utilise them all. If you don't find what you need in traditional records, keep looking – but try to be more creative in your search for genealogical records.
Don't overlook criminal records. Many islanders were considered criminals for violating the smallest law. Slaves or servants could be arrested just for whistling in public. Your ancestor just might be listed as a 'criminal' for doing something very minor.
General sources of information can be found in the Resources section.
Church records
Many details of Caribbean residents are contained in church records. A good place to begin is by determining the nationality of the person, then looking through the church records of a particular island for the relevant religion:
- Danish: Lutheran (state religion of Denmark)
- Dutch/German: Dutch Reformed Church
- English/British: Episcopalian/Anglican
- Spanish: Catholic
- French: Catholic
- French Huguenots: most joined the Dutch Reformed or Lutheran church
- African/native islanders/slaves: Moravian; after conversion to Christianity, many blacks became Baptists.
There are a number of church organisations in the West Indies:
- The Church of England or Anglican Church: Great Britain.
- Roman Catholic Church: through an agreement with Puerto Rico for returning runaway slaves, Catholics were given permission by the Danish government in 1667 to minister to blacks
- Moravian Church: originally Czechoslovakian and German; established plantantion-churches in the West Indies in 1736 to minister to blacks
- Lutheran Church: began to minister to blacks in 1757
- Nonconformists: originally those who refused to conform to the rules of the Church of England; most now known as 'Methodists'
- Missionary societies: Baptist (1792), London (1795), Scottish (1800), Methodist (1813).