About Caribbean Roots
Caribbean Roots was established in early 2007 to encourage and promote research into Caribbean genealogy, identity and heritage. It aims to do this by providing guidance through this website, articles and workshops.
Caribbean Roots is owned by Guy Grannum who has been researching his English and Bajan ancestry for over 20 years. Guy has worked at The National Archives since 1988 and specialises in Colonial history and genealogy, and especially Caribbean genealogy.
He has published three editions of Tracing Your Caribbean Ancestors (Bloomsbury, 2012), earlier editions were published by the Public Record Office as Tracing Your West Indian Ancestors. He has written several articles on Caribbean and African-Caribbean genealogy. Since 1993 he given many talks and workshops to archives, family history groups and libraries in London, the Midlands and the South West on sources in the National Archives, genealogy in general, and Caribbean genealogy.
Guy gives talks and workshops for library and archives services and family history groups, and tutors on the 5 week online course on Caribbean Family History and 3 week online course on how make best use of the National Archives' catalogue for Pharos Tutors.
Recent articles and publications
Tracing Your Caribbean Roots: A National Archives Guide (Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 5 September 2012) You can buy it through Bloomsbury, Amazon, the National Archives and other booksellers..
Caribbean Roots: An introduction to tracing your Caribbean ancestors, by Guy Grannum, 20 pp (Caribbean Roots, February 2012). A booklet aimed at complete newcomers to Caribbean genealogy describing how to start their family history with links to useful resources such as Caribbean archive addresses. You can obtain copies from Caribbean Roots at £3.50 (including Postage & Packaging) - use the contact form if you would like a copy. You can also buy copies from the Solhull branch of the Caribbean Family History Group at any events they hold a stall.
Tracing slave and slave owning ancestors in British Caribbean countries, Journal of One-Name Studies, vol 8, issue 2, April-June 2003
Tracing Your British West Indian Ancestors, Family History Monthly, April 2006, pp41-44
Caribbean Connections, Family History Monthly, February 2006, pp26-29, history of Caribbean migration to the UK
The Chains that Bind, Family History Monthly, August 2006, pp36-39, tips and resources for researching Caribbean slave ancestry
Sources for the study of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery at The National Archives (2007) essay for Adam Matthew's digital resource Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice 1490-2007 (www.slavery.amdigital.co.uk) - this is a subscription site
African-Caribbean Genealogy, in The Oxford Companion to Family and Local History, pp26-33, ed David Hey, 2nd edn (Oxford University Press, 2008)
Family History Detective: Records of slavery, Your Family Tree, February 2009 (Issue 73) pp46-49
How to trace slave ancestors, to accompany Ainsley Harriott's episode in September 2008 on the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? website
Taking it further: Find Caribbean Slavery Records, in BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? magazine, May 2009 (issue 21), pp18-19, accompanying article on Ainsley Harriott
Caribbean roots, www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/roots/caribbean/caribbean.htm
BBC: Researching African-Caribbean Family History, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory/next_steps/genealogy_article_01.shtml
Summary of One Name Study on the surname Grannum, www.grannum.org
Terms of use
Disclaimer: Caribbean Roots makes every effort to ensure that the information on the website is accurate and up to date. However Caribbean Roots will not accept liability for any loss or damage or inconvenience arising as a consequence of any use of or the inability to use any information on this website. Visitors who use this website and rely on any information do so at their own risk. You are advised to contact the appropriate archive before visiting to ensure that the information you seek is there and is available at the time you want to visit.
Websites: we have no control over the content or accuracy of web pages linked to from this site. Before linking to particular sites we will have checked the pages to ensure that the information is helpful; the content may later be altered. If you have any questions about the information, costs, accuracy etc on those pages you need to contact the appropriate website administrator. Please let us know if any links no longer work, or if you have any concerns about Caribbean Roots linking to it.
Privacy: we will not share any of your personal information, such as name, email address or research interests, with any third party. For example, we may get asked if we know of anyone researching their Jamaican ancestry - in this case we will place the request on the website and leave it up to you to contact them. We will not include the email address unless expressly asked to do so.
If you complete the Contact form, your personal information (which includes your name, email address and any other details you provide to us which identify you as an individual) will be processed by us to respond to your feedback and any queries or other matters which you have raised. We will not use this information for any other purpose.
Language: we aim to avoid any use of racist or offensive language but there may be occasions where we need to use a historical term to help researchers understand the language and content of archival and historical material. We will put the term in italics and try to explain how it was used. Please note that meanings of words change over time and between different countries and cultures - please contact us if we have inadvertantly included a racist or offensive word without context.
We aim to keep the content and reviews as neutral as possible and try to avoid ethnic, cultural or political bias. Unfortunately, some of the topics may cause strong political and emotional feelings for (or against) the subject. Please let us know if we have not been sensitive with our approach or language.
We will not tolerate any racist, offensive or overtly polictical language and will delete any emails, forum messages, or reviews etc we receive. We reserve the right to remove anyone from the forum or mailing list who we feel is being racist or intentionally offending others.
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