Jamaica: Civil Registration

JAMAICA-CIVIL REGISTRATION

Civil Registration for Jamaica began in 1880 and was cataloged by the Family History Library by parishes (see Jamaica jurisdictions). Each parish was assigned a letter by the Registrar. From the Family History Library catalog one has to choose Civil Registration Indexes to get started. The menu shows dates up to 1830, however, the actual records in some parishes may exceed the year 1950. Checking the index and then the actual record should provide the information one is looking for. The actual record can be found in the catalog under Jamaica/Civil Registration, listed by parish. Within a parish are many districts, which are identified at the beginning of each film. Be sure to identify the correct district. Looking at actual records one will find individual certificates. They contain stamped and handwritten numbers. A possible pattern for a birth entry may be thus: Letter for the parish (i.e. Trelawny is “O”, followed by the letter of the volume (i.e. “d”) followed by the registration number. The birth of Amanda, daughter of Thomas Nelson, born 1882/83 is found in OD 237 (International Film number 1563134) according to the birth index.