Wills (Jamaica Jews)

Item

Country: JM
Name of institution (official language of the state): Island Records Office
Language of name of institution: eng
Contact information: postal address: Twickenham Park, Saint Catherine
Contact information: phone number: 001 876 749 0550
001 876 619 1260
Contact information: web address: https://www.rgd.gov.jm/
Contact information: email: information@rgd.gov.jm
Reference number: IRO
Type of reference number: Archival reference number
Title (official language of the state): Wills (Jamaica Jews)
Language of title: eng
Creator / accumulator: Registrar General's Department (Island Records Office)
Date note: bulk (Sephardic-related documents): 17th century/19th century
Language(s): eng
Type of material: Textual Material
Scope and content: The Island Record Office holds wills probated in Jamaica as early as 1622. Other wills that were sent to London or Edinburgh to be proved are now preserved at The National Archives in Kew.
Among the collection preserved in the Island Record Office, there are numerous wills and probates of Jews living in Jamaica since the 17th century, a part of them of Iberian origins. Recently, Stanley Mirvis (2020) based most of his research on the 18th-century Sephardic community in Jamaica on Jews' wills. However, scholars soon understood the importance of these documents to get a comprehensive knowledge of the social and economic Jewish life on the island. By 2000, Madeleine Enid Mitchell published an index of wills of Jamaica from 1644-1816, including those preserved at the Island Record Office (1662-1750), whose content is currently available online (see links for finding aids). This index is a good starting point for researching this collection.
Administrative / Biographical history: In 1825, the Registrar's Office was set up. The churches sent the Registrar copies of the registers that they had accumulated until then and sent annual transcripts thereafter. The annual transcripts were then copied into books, which contained records from all the parishes. Indexes were prepared by the Registrar's Office, listing the volume and page for each of the copy registers. For the period from the earliest register up through 1870, each parish has an index of from two to four volumes. There is also a separate and incomplete index for 1860-71.
Until 1879, the governor of Jamaica was the person responsible for probating wills. In 1879, the records were transferred to the Island Record Office. The records of probates and administrations after this date are kept in the office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court.
The Island Records Office (former Registrar General's Department) moved from Spanish Town to Twickenham Park, St. Catherine, in July 1996.; Sources:; Jamaican family search; Caribbeana: Being Miscellaneous Papers Relating to the History. Genealogy, Topography, and Antiquities of the British West Indies. vol. 1. London: Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke.
Access points: locations: Bayonne (France); Kingston (Jamaica); London (UK); Port Royal (Jamaica); Recife (Brazil); Spanish Town, former St. Jago de la Vega (Jamaica)
Access points: persons, families: Álvares, Abraham; Álvares, David; Álvares, Jacob Baruh; Álvares Cardoso, David; Costa Alvarenga, Joseph da; Gabbay, Salomon; Leon, Joseph de; Ruiz de Leon, Jacob; Silva Fonseca, Isaac da (Isaac Dasilva Fonseca)
Access points: subject terms: Sephardim in the Caribbean; Financial matters; Land; Trade and commerce; Wills; 17th century; 18th century
Access points: document types: Wills and probates
Access, restrictions: A fee is charged for research in the archive.
Mormons have microfilmed the original Supreme Court Wills in Jamaica.
Links to finding aids: Index to Early Wills of Jamaica, 1655-1816; Wills and probate in Jamaica
Author of the description: Carla Vieira, 2023
Bibliography: Loker, Zvi. 1993. “Caribbean Jewish Wills: A Historical Source.” Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies 3: 296–302. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23536857.; Mirvis, Stanley. 2016. “Ashkenazim and Sephardim in Colonial Jamaica 1692–1796.” In A Sefardic Pepper-Pot in the Caribbean, edited by Michael Studemund-Halévy, 109–23. Barcelona: Tirocino.; Mitchell, Madeleine Enid. 2000. Alphabetical Index to Early Wills of Jamaica, West Indies, 1655-1816 : PCC Wills, 1655-1816, Registrar General’s Office, Spanish Town, 1662-1750. [Pullman, Washington]: M.E. Mitchell.; Oliver, Vere Langford. 1910. Caribbeana: Being Miscellaneous Papers Relating to the History. Genealogy, Topography, and Antiquities of the British West Indies. 6 vols. London: Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke.; Oppenheim, Samuel. 1931. “List of Wills of Jews in the British West Indies Prior to 1800.” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society 32: 55–64. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43059633.; Snyder, Holly. 2010. “‘Under the Shado of Your Wings’: Religiosity in the Mental World of an Eighteenth-Century Jewish Merchant.” Early American Studies 8 (3): 581–622. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23546660.
Published primary sources: Andrade, Jacob A. P. M. 1941. A Record of the Jews in Jamaica: From the English Conquest to the Present Time. Kingston: The Jamaica Times.; Mirvis, Stanley. 2020. The Jews of Eighteenth-Century Jamaica: A Testamentary History of a Diaspora in Transition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Item sets: WSD Roadmap; WSD Roadmap finais; WSD Roadmap Caribbeans

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Jamaica Jews wills

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Island Records Office