Grenada Heritage: Vital Records

HELP TO GET GRENADA BMD INDEXED AND ONLINE

Family History and Genealogy Records

When will Grenada be able to Discover their family history.

 

Since 1974, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has been extracting records of births/baptisms and marriages from filmed records in its collection for countries around the world. Most of these extracted records are indexed by name in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) available on www.familysearch.org.

However, IGI / FamilySearch has *NOT* indexed much of Grenada’s vital records.

Fortunately as of October 2017 serveral of the Grenada Church Family Registers have been digitized and are (with heavy restrictions) now available to view online. Recently the LDS have offered more locations from which to view these records through their Family History Centres and their Affiliates, however in the Caribbean, there none on Grenada and only one (often broken) computer each on Barbados, St Vincent. You may also get access from the one on each island of Trinidad, Martinique, Guadaloupe, Antigua, and St Kitts, and the five that are reportedly on Puerto Rico. Of cause from the UK, Europe, North America, Canada and Australia you will have hundreds of access points.

The Family History Library Film numbers on file for the seven parishes (St George, St John, St Mark, St Patrick, St Andrew, St David and Carriacou) of Grenada are:

1.1 No. 1523145 – Births for 1866 to 1874
1.2 No. 1523169 – Births for 1874 to 1888
1.3 No. 1523187 – Births for 1888 to 1892
1.4 No. 1523204 – Births for 1893 to 1905
1.5 No. 1523217 – Births for 1905 to 1910
1.6 No. 1523259 – Births for 1911 to 1916
1.7 No. 1523339 – Marriages for 1903 to 1910
1.8 No. 1523352 – Marriages for 1910 to 1918
1.9 No. 1523353 – Marriages for 1919 to 1922
1.10 No. 1523361 – Marriages for 1922 to 1932
1.11 No. 1523537 – Deaths for 1866 to 1890
1.12 No. 1523656 – Baptisms 1784 to 1932, confirmations 1901 to 1931, marriages of Anglican, slaves, St Pauls, St Luke, St Peter, special, burials, burials of slaves and St Pauls, [not indexed nor digitized]
1.13 Land Registers - Not indexed nor digitized†.

The problem is that Grenada’s civil birth records do not name the child it is only the Church Baptism registers which do this. Sadly, too, the only THREE Family History Library (FHL) films that HAVE been indexed are from birth registers:-

Film number 1523145 – This is a copy of parts of the Civil Register of Births from all seven parishes for 1866 to 1875 in twelve items corresponding to batch numbers I02551-1 to 1 to 12.
Film 1523169 – Births from all seven parishes for 1875 to 1882 (eleven batch numbers I02552-1 to 11).
Film 1523187 – Births from all seven parishes for the years 1882 to 1891 (eleven batches I02553-1 to 11).

THE SERIOUS PROBLEM WE HAVE IS THAT THESE FILMS, THOUGH NOW DIGITIZED, HAVE NOT YET BEEN INDEXED:-

Film 1523204 – Births from all seven parishes for 1891 to 1905.
Film 1523217 – Births from all seven parishes for 1905 to 1910.
Film 1523259 – Births from all seven parishes for 1910 to 1916.
Film 1523537 – Birth registers – five items 1 through 7 for 1900 to 1935 more specifically –
August 1910 to December 1910 in Carriacou
January 1911 through to June 1915 in All seven parishes
January 1916 through to December 1916 in All seven parishes

Film 1523362 – Index to 3 marriage volumes for 1903 to 1932.
Film 1523339 – Marriages from all seven parishes for 1903 to 1910.
Film 1523352 – Marriages from all seven parishes for 1910 to 1918.
Film 1523353 – Marriages for 1919 to 1922 and 1924 to 1928.
Film 1523361 – Marriages from all seven parishes for 1928 to 1934.
Film 1523537 – Death from all seven parishes for 1928 to 1934.
Film 1523394 – Births from all seven parishes for 1905 to 1924 has not been digitized nor indexed.
Film 1523396 – Births from all seven parishes for 1905 to 1935 has not been digitized nor indexed.
Film 1523429 – Births and Deaths from St John and St Andrew parishes for 1900 to 1932 has not been digitized nor indexed.
Film 1523408 – Deaths all seven parishes for 1909 to 1936 has not been digitized nor indexed.

THE FOUR MOST IMPORTANT FILMS NOT INDEXED NOR DIGITIZED

These four films are the ONLY source of the christian name of a child in Grenada.

Film 1523692 – This most important film and ONLY record of a childs birth-name is of Baptisms, Births, Marriages, Burials all seven parishes for 1798 to 1931 has not been digitized nor indexed.
Film 1523752 – This most important film and ONLY record of a childs birth-name is of Baptisms, Marriages, Marriage Banns, and Burials all seven parishes for 1861 to 1931 has not been digitized nor indexed.
Film 1523767 – This most important film and ONLY record of a childs birth-name is of Baptisms, Marriages, Burials St Mark, St John and Carriacou parishes for 1900 to 1931 has not been digitized nor indexed.
Film 1523656 – This most important film and ONLY record of a childs birth-name is of Baptisms – it also covers other Confirmation, Bann, Marriage, and Burial registers from the Archdeaconry of Grenada in the Anglican Rectory registers (manuscripts) of the districts of St. Luke, St. Peter and St. Paul in the parish of St. George’s, Grenada for the years 1784 to 1971. So this is film covers:-

Item 2 – Baptisms and burials for 1784 to 1804.
Item 1 – Baptisms, marriages and burials for 1806 to 1831.
Item 3 – Baptisms, marriages and burials for 1812 to 1815.
Item 4 – Baptisms, marriages and burials for 1816 to 1831.
Item 5 – Slave baptisms, marriages 1817-1834, burials 1833-1834.
item 6 – Baptisms and marriages for 1831 to 1837.
Item 7 – Baptisms, marriages and burials for 1837 to 1844.
Item 8 – Baptisms for 1844 to 1892.
Item 9 – Baptisms of the district of St. Luke for 1851 to 1884.
Items 10-11 – Baptisms for 1892 to 1932.
Item 12 – Confirmations for 1901 to 1931.
Items 13-14 – Marriages for 1844 to1930.
Item 15 – Marriages for St. Luke and St. Peter 1909 to 1933.
Item 16 – Banns for 1903 to 1931.
Item 17 – Special marriage register 1912 to 1942.
Items 18-19 – Burials 1844 to 1930.
Item 20 – St Paul Marr. 1861-1902, Bapt. 1860-95, Bur. 1861-1971.

A TINY HOPE FOR HELP

FamilySearch do run ‘projects’ to continue the indexing of FHL films on file. However they insist:-

“Information about upcoming collections is not made available prior to publication due to various factors that can affect the publication time line, such as contract agreements with record custodians or partnership societies, final assembly considerations, server capacity, geographic considerations, prioritization of collections at risk, delivery type, and so forth”.
Further “…there is no specific time frame for the publication of indexing projects, since they are governed by the same considerations as indicated above“.

This terrible situation may only be overcome by having everyone making a request that the entire GRENADA COLLECTION be added to their online collections, to do this please follow these instructions:-
1. Go to the FamilySearch website (http://familysearch.org).
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click on the Feedback button.
3. Click on Share your ideas, and post to request ALL OUR FILMS BE INDEXED AND PUT ONLINE.
Or use a direct link to FamilySearch “Send Us Feedback” website. Then click on Share your ideas and post your request.

Note: Posting does not guarantee that familysearch.org will be able to acquire the collection or have rights to publish it, but the requests will be seen by those who make decisions about which collections are published.
 
A further note: Much earlier French records from the era 1765-1790 of Grenada’s history have now been digitized and can be freely viewed online via the British Library EAP website at link, link, link, link, and link.