In researching a mixed-race nineteenth century family in Barbados, my goal was to trace the Afro-Caribbean and European lines. My difficulty was in determining the race of the people in the Anglican (Church of England) parish registers.
The church registers are indexed and scanned. Using the online indexes exclusively actually confused my understanding of the records. After reviewing the Anglican parish registers page-by-page and doing some historical research, I developed a context of the society and its records.
The Historical Context
The slaves were freed in Barbados in 1834. The Anglican registers did not list race. A transitional apprenticeship program for a few years was introduced at that time. In 1838 it became illegal to discriminate against people of color.
The Complexities of the Records
From 1834, many adults, who had been slaves, were baptized into this particular parish. No parents were listed. Prior to 1834 there were special Slave Registers of parish members. My assumption would be the main register was reserved for all free persons, white or black.
From 1834 former slaves were having children baptized. Surnames of these children, if there were any, were not mentioned. Afro-Caribbeans families had to be traced by first name only. These were recorded on the same pages as people with first and last names. My assumption was if there was no last name then they were former slaves. If surnames were given, then the family could be white or black. I further narrowed this by assuming those who signed with an “X” were either poor illiterate blacks or whites. That helped separate families further by economics. If they signed, then I assumed they were more educated whites.
After emancipation, the number of mothers having children christened with no fathers listed was staggering. Were these illegitimate births without surnames? My conclusion was not necessarily. I noticed that around 1842, most families listed last names and the name of the father was recorded. Perhaps the Anglican priest did not consider the father’s name or surname important. Perhaps he simply didn’t care. Possibly by around 1842 the priest was conforming to the new anti-discrimination law (1838).
The lesson learned was, had I relied only on the index to the parish registers I would have missed a great deal of important information. I would have confused the white, poor white, free person of color, emancipated slave and those without surnames from at least 1834 to about 1842. My conclusion was that there was a several year process that merged the Afro-Caribbean membership and the white membership into one parish. The process was so complex, that an accurate online index could not do the subject justice.
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