External Websites

The following external websites contain primary source and educational materials helpful in researching this country.

Administrative Records

These online administrative and colonial documents provide historical and genealogical information.

The subscription resources marked with a padlock are available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress. If you are unable to visit the Library, you may be able to access these resources through your local public or academic library.

British Online Archives External This link opens in a new window
British Online Archives (BOA) is one of the United Kingdom's leading academic publishers. BOA's goal is to provide students and researchers in the humanities and social sciences with access to unique collections of primary source documents. To this end, BOA hosts over 4 million records drawn from both private and public archives. These records are organised thematically, covering 1,000 years of world history, from politics and warfare to slavery and medicine. Currently, collections accessible through the Library of Congress include:
- America in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1635-1928
- American Records in the House of Lords Archive, 1621-1917
- Caribbean Colonial Statistics from the British Empire, 1824-1950
- Slavery, Exploitation and Trade in the West Indies, 1759-1832
Colonial Caribbean External This link opens in a new window
Stretching from Jamaica and the Bahamas to Trinidad and Tobago, Colonial Caribbean makes available materials from 27 Colonial Office file classes from The National Archives, UK. Covering the history of the various territories under British colonial governance from 1624 to 1870, this extensive resource includes administrative documentation, trade and shipping records, minutes of council meetings, and details of plantation life, colonial settlement, imperial rivalries across the region, and the growing concern of absentee landlords.

Church and Religious Records

Most religious records are maintained at the local level. It is important to reach out directly to your ancestors' house of worship. Keep in mind that original records from a particular religious institution may also have been transferred to the custody of an area library, historical society, or denominational archive for preservation and research. See the Library of Congress Research Guide Church and Synagogue Records for Genealogy for research strategies and resources.

The following list provides a selection of the types of records and repositories that you may find for the denominations represented in your family or local history:

Barbados parochial registers, Series A, 1637-1850 (Anglican) External
The Parish register transcripts consist of baptisms, marriages, burials, and indexes. The St. Michael's Parish includes entries for some of the other parishes. To view the items in this collection, you will need to create login credentials with FamilySearch if you have not done.
Barbados parochial registers, Series A, 1660-1887 (Other denominations) External
The Parish register transcripts consist of baptisms, marriages, burials, etc. for Wesleyan, Catholic, Moravian, Jewish and misc. congregations other than Anglican through 1886. For the later records see: Parochial registers, series B, 1849-1912. To view the items in this collection, you will need to create login credentials with FamilySearch if you have not done.
Barbados parochial registers, Series B, 1849-1912 External
The Transcripts of parish registers consist of baptisms, marriages, burials, and indexes. It also includes copies of Anglican parochial registers from 1849-1885, and all denominations thereafter. To view the items in this collection, you will need to create login credentials with FamilySearch if you have not done.

Country Repositories

Despite the vast amount of information available online, most genealogy and local history records have not been digitized. Be sure to find the repositories of records in the specific communities where your ancestors lived. Over the years, some records have been shifted to nearby academic libraries or to the archive. Reach out to these institutions directly to discover what collections they hold and how you can access them.

Barbados Department of Archives External
"The Department of Archives role is to identify, collect, process and preserve, public and private records of Barbados that are of permanent and enduring legal, cultural and historical value and to make information from them available within legal limits and so support the understanding of Barbadian life."
Barbados Museum & Historical Society External
The Barbados Museum & Historical Society aims "to collect, document, and conserve evidence of Barbados' cultural, historical and environmental heritage; and to interpret and present this evidence for all of society."
Barbados Registration Department External
The Barbados Registration Department aims "to ensure that the island's most vital occurrences are recorded."
The National Archives at Kew External
The National Archives at Kew are the official archive and publisher for the UK Government, and for England and Wales, and the custodian of over 1,000 years of iconic national documents. They collect and secure the future of the government record to preserve it for generations to come.
The National Library Service of Barbados External
The National Library Service of Barbados aims "to serve the Barbadian community as a ready source of dynamic information products and services."

Immigration Resources

These online resources provide primary source information of immigration to this country.

Emigrants in Bondage, 1614-1775 External
This collection contains the names of emigrants in Bondage from the British Isles to Barbados.
Irish Emigrants in North America, 1775-1825 External
This collection contains the names of some Irish emigrants in Barbados.
Registers of Servants Sent to Foreign Plantations, 1654-1686 External
This database of indenture contracts includes over 10,000 indentured servants contracts from four different registers. The contracts indicate not only the servant's name and length of indenture, but also the name of the servant's parents and owner, his home province and city, occupation, destination, and ship of embarkation. These records provide a detailed composition of indentured servants in the 17th century Atlantic World.

Indigenous Peoples

Explore these resources for historical context and specific records that reveal details about the lives of Indigenous ancestors.

The Caribbean Indigenous Legacies Project: Celebrating Taino Culture External
The Smithsonian's Caribbean Indigenous Legacies Project (CILP) explores how Taino culture continues to evolve and thrive, despite the first devastating encounter with European colonization. This project tells this story of perseverance and helps provide a framework for understanding Taino heritage in a multiethnic context.
Tainos & Caribbean Indigenous Peoples - UC Berkeley External
Provides educational and historical information of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, the Arawakan Taino of the Greater Antilles and the Carib Kalinago of the Lesser Antilles.

Laws

To understand the time and place in which our ancestors lived, we must understand the laws that governed their community. These laws governed their daily lives and impacted the records they left behind.

Laws of Barbados - Barbados Judicial System External
The Laws of Barbados has a long legislative tradition that has stretched from colonial times through to the post-independence era.
The Legal Genealogist External
Throughout numerous historical contexts and circumstances, Judy G. Russell provides case studies that examine ancestors and the laws they lived by.

Maps and Geographical Resources

These historical map collections may be searched by parish or county.

Google Maps - Barbados External
This interactive map provides coverage of the cities and towns in each of the parishes in Barbados.
Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library - Barbados External
This collection contains historical maps of Barbados detailing the island.
Old Maps Online Collections - Barbados External
This resource contains an interactive feature to browse collections of old maps from Barbados.

Military Records

Military records often reveal much more than military service. Search these records for personal details, family ties, and local history context.

Caribbean, 1st Bn Royal Regiment of Foot Deaths 1801-1811 External
This collection consists of death records of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Foot in the West Indies during the first decade of the 19th century.
Caribbean Rolls of Honour WW1 External
This collection contains the rolls of honor for men from the Caribbean who served in the British armed forces during the First World War. The record set currently includes men (and a few women) from six different islands within the British West Indies.

Newspapers

Historic newspapers also provide important content for historical and genealogical research.

Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library External This link opens in a new window
The Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library (CNDL) is supported by the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC), a cooperative digital library for newspapers resources from the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. CNDL provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean newspapers, gazettes, and other research materials on newsprint currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections. CNDL continues to add historical and current newspapers through ongoing digitization and born-digital curation, expanding the geographic, temporal, political and linguistic variety of the newspapers.

You may view material specifically related to Barbados through this link External
Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876 External This link opens in a new window
Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876 is the largest online collection of 18th- and 19th-century newspapers published in this region and provides a comprehensive primary resource for studying the development of Western society and international relations within this important group of islands. This unique resource is essential for researching colonial history, the Atlantic slave trade, international commerce, New World slavery and U.S. relations with the region as far back as the early 18th century. Created in cooperation with the American Antiquarian Society—one of the world's largest and most important newspaper repositories—this collection provides students and scholars with easy access to more than 150 years of Caribbean and Atlantic history, cultures and daily life. Featuring more than 140 newspapers from 22 islands, this resource chronicles the region’s evolution across two centuries through eyewitness reporting, editorials, legislative information, letters, poetry, advertisements, obituaries and other news items. Most of these newspapers were published in the English language, but a number of Spanish-, French-, and Danish-language titles are also provided. Countries represented include Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, Grenada, Guadaloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Nevis, Puerto Rico, St. Bartholomew, St. Christopher, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Tobago, Trinidad, and the Virgin Islands. Also found within this resource are newspapers from Bermuda, an island not technically part of the Caribbean, but situated on shipping routes between Europe and this region and integrally related to this region.
Endangered Archives Programme External This link opens in a new window
The British Library's Endangered Archives Programme (EAP) seeks to preserve cultural heritage and make it available to as wide an audience as possible. Digitized materials reflect archives from many African, Caribbean, Eastern European, Middle Eastern, South American, South Asian, and Southeast Asian countries.

Using Endangered Archives Programme for Barbados

Begin your search through Endangered Archives' vast collections, by viewing the list designated as Barbados records External.

The Barbados Mercury and Bridgetown Gazette Newspaper Collection (1783-1848) External This collection contains digitized copies of newspaper articles from the Barbados Mercury and the Bridgetown Gazette.
The Barbadian Newspaper Collection, 1822-1861 External This collection contains digitized copies of newspaper articles from the Barbadian.

Resources on Slavery

These online resources provide historical context and primary source materials for tracing your enslaved ancestry.

The Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery External
"This online database has been established at UCL with the generous support of the Hutchins Center at Harvard. The Centre builds on two earlier projects based at UCL tracing the impact of slave-ownership on the formation of modern Britain: the ESRC-funded Legacies of British Slave-ownership project (2009-2012), and the ESRC and AHRC-funded Structure and significance of British Caribbean slave-ownership 1763-1833 (2013-2015)."
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade - Database External
This database contains locational and statistical information about the enslaved Africans transported to the Americas.

Barbados: Local History & Genealogy Resource Guide

Local History & Genealogy: Ask a Librarian