Thank you for attending our Zoom research meeting on Saturday 30th July. We welcomed those researching ancestors from a number of islands including US Virgin Islands, Cuba, St KItts & Nevis, Panama, Barbados, Antigua, Grenada and Jamaica.
We had an interesting and informative discussion on different techniques to use when researching. I list some ‘takeaways’ below
- Always start with a pedigree chart with what you know and work backwards from yourself
- When researching, try searching on first names only
- If trying to trace how you connect to DNA matches, build up your matches tree
- Search under both mother and father’s surnames
- Search under mother’s maiden name
- When you find the mother – look for all her other children too – this could give you clues
- Every child born in St Kitts & Nevis , even if stillborn, is registered
- Look for mis spellings of names
- Look in local newspapers for births, marriages, obituaries and if your ancestor owned a business
These are the links to websites that were discussed:
- Free family history software – Ancestry Quest – do your due diligence to be satisfied that you are happy to download and use the software
- For translating documents, try – Deepl
- Passenger lists to/from Havana, Cuba
- St Christopher Gazette newspaper – British Newspaper Archives
- Ownership of plantations/estates in British Caribbean – Legacies of British Slavery
- Free to search website for Caribbean Islands – Family Search
- Panama employment records available of www.ancestry.co.uk with a subscription
We do not meet in August, however should you have any queries, please drop us an email at this address. Our next meeting in on Saturday 24th September . Please check back here for further information.
Enjoy the summer break! Happy Researching!
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