Native American Records, Barbados Slave Lists Debut on Ancestry.com
If you haven’t visited Ancestry.com lately, you might want to take another look around. The online genealogy giant has added a variety of records recently that includes everything from Native American records to Barbados slave lists.
The Native American records database covers the time period 1855-1940, and is based on U. S. National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication M595, which is made up of 692 rolls. Entries offer information like Indian and English names, tribe and blood degree, maiden names and parents’ names, and much more.
As for the Barbados slave lists, only one year (1834) is currently available, but boasts of containing the names of 100,000 slaves and their owners. The database was compiled from the “Former Colonial Dependencies Slave Register Collection, 1812-1834,” which is part of the Office of Registry of Colonial Slaves and Slave Compensation Commission Records, T71 of the British National Archives Microfilm Publication.
By December, Ancestry says the database will contain the names of 3 million slaves from 700 registers in 23 British colonial dependencies and overseas British territories which held slaves. That includes the following locations: Antigua, the Bahamas, Bermuda, British Guiana, British Honduras, Ceylon, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Mauritius, Montserrat, Nevis, South Africa, St. Christopher, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Tobago, Trinidad, the Virgin Islands, and others.
Slavery was abolished in Britain in 1807 but continued in the colonies until 1834, and records were kept of registered slaves every three years, starting in 1812.
