Church Registers (Barbados)

Item

Country

Name of institution (official language of the state)

Barbados Department Archives

Language of name of institution

eng

Contact information: postal address

Black Rock, St. James, Barbados

Contact information: phone number

001 (246) 424-1270
001 (246) 425-5150
001(246) 535-0050 (Ingrid Thompson, chief archivist)

Contact information: web address

https://dloc.com/collections/ibarbadosarchdept

Contact information: email

archives@sunbeach.net
bda@caribsurf.com
ingrid.cumberbatch@barbados.gov.bb (Ingrid Thompson, chief archivist)

Title (official language of the state)

Church Registers (Barbados)

Language of title

eng

Creator / accumulator

Barbados Department Archives

Date note

17th century/19th century

Language(s)

eng

Extent

33 series

Type of material

Textual Material

Scope and content

Barbados Department Archives currently preserve the church registers of Barbados before 1884. They include baptism, marriage, and burial records from the eleven parishes of Barbados, each one commonly identified by characters:
- X Christ Church: dating from 1637;
- P St. Philip (incomplete before 1757): dating from 1648;
- M St. Michael: dating from 1648;
- S St. James: dating from 1693;
- O St. Joseph: dating from 1717;
- T St. Thomas: dating from 1723;
- L St. Lucy: dating from 1714;
- E St. Peter: dating from 1779, but lacking baptisms 1825-34;
- G St. George: dating from 1801;
- J St. John: dating from 1657, but baptisms are incomplete before 1825;
- A St. Andrew: dating from 1825.
This collection also includes Jewish registers from 1660, namely burials from 1660 to 1886, births from 1779 to 1884, and marriages from 1811 to 1871. Sanders (1984, p. 543) published the list of Jewish births registered in this collection.

Archival history

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Barbados was divided into eleven parishes. In the 19th century, a large number of new churches were built, but the eleven parishes remained as the units of local government. Although the vestries were abolished in 1959, the parish boundaries still remain for some administrative purposes.
The "Parochial Registers" are still arranged under the original parish, although the district churches are now autonomous.
In the 19th century, when a central Registry was established, the existing church registers consisted of copies and the copies deposited in the Registry, now the Registration Office. These copies were indexed, and there is a series of indexes covering all church registers (known as "Parochial Registers" in the Registration Office) to the present day.
Moravian (from 1769), Methodist, Roman Catholic, Garrison, and Jewish (from 1660) registers were also copied in a separate series with their own indexes (3 volumes) to 1886.
At present, all registers and indexes up to 1884 are housed at the Department of Archives. The latter ones are retained in the Registration Office.

(source: Chronicle Barbados)

Administrative / Biographical history

In 1960 and 1961, a survey was carried out for the University of the West Indies (then the University College) to discover which historical records survived in Barbados. The survey covered most Government Departments, the local (parish) governments, secondary schools, Anglican, Methodist, Moravian and Roman Catholic churches, a few business firms, the Public Library, and the Barbados Museum and Historical Society. The results of the survey were published in Chandler (1964).
In 1964, a Department of Archives was established by the Barbados Government. The Department is the official repository of archives and, since its establishment, has been accumulating records which were formerly kept by the departments responsible for their creation. Many of the records listed in Chandler (1964) have already been transferred to the Archives, and transfers are continuing.

(source: Chronicle Barbados)