About the book

"Tracing Your West Indian Ancestors" was written as an aid to research into ancestry in all the British Dependent Territories and former colonies in the Caribbean. It is not a general guide to genealogical research sources or techniques.

The author, Guy Grannum, notes that the single term ‘West Indian’ is used to describe an immensely diverse population from many different countries such as Britain, France, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, America, Germany, Lebanon, India and various parts of Africa. Whereas West Indians are often thought of as a single people, in fact the term belies a multitude of cultural identities constructed around different history, language, religion and ethnicity.

This is an important aspect of tracing ones West Indian ancestry that Guy Grannum stresses from the start of his book.

Records of the Colonial Office, life cycle records, land and property records and migration to the West Indies are a few of the individual sources he covers.

Helpful references on where to look for information at The National Archives are also made thoughout the book, and there is also a special chapter on British West Indies resources.