Caribbean Genealogy - Country Resources

Wills and probate in Jamaica (thanks to Edward Crawford for these notes!)

Original wills are today kept at the Island Record Office, part of the Registrar General's Department of Jamaica. Copies of proved wills for the past 100 years or so are kept at the Supreme Court, but these are primarily for the use of the legal profession.

Wills proved in Resident Magistrate's Court.
Wills proved in the Supreme Court of Judicature of Jamaica.

Some sources for information on early Jamaican wills:

Will index at the Registrar General's office. The (approximate) year of death and the parish of the testator's residence must be known to use this index effectively. The index gives the liber and folio numbers of the will record. Some of the will books have been recopied and the folio number in the index may no longer be valid unless it says old folio or new folio.
Indexes, compiled by Vere Langford Oliver and published in Caribbeana, to wills "which are on record in the Office of the Island Secretary, Jamaica, from 1663 to 1750".
Caribbeana vols 1, 2, and 3: LDS FHLC film no. 0038848;
Caribbeana vol. 5: LDS FHLC film no. 0038849.
[? Vol. 4]
- The index for 1663-1700 is ordered by liber number, with several years in each liber; the names are not in alphabetical order. The index for 1731-1750 is alphabetically ordered within each year. The folio numbers are not given for these indexes.
Caribbeana also has an index to wills which were proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC), London, of testators who either held land in Jamaica or had PCC probate for reasons of social status. The volume and folio numbers from an entry in the Caribbeana index can be used to find, in the FHL catalog under England - Probate Records - Church of England - Province of Canterbury, the number of the film with the copy of the relevant PCC will.
Abstracts of Jamaica wills, 1625 - 1792. British Library Additional Ms 34184.
Lists compiled by the Jamaican historian C.E. Long. British Library Additional Ms 21931.
These lists cover the period 1661 - 1750 and are as follows:
List 1: 1661-1700, by liber, non-alphabetical, without folio number
List 2: 1700-1730, alphabetically, by year and liber, with folio number
List 3: 1731-1750, alphabetically, by year with liber and without folio number
Hints for tracing an Anglo-American pedigree in the old country: with a list of wills from 1700 to 1725 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, England, of testators living or dying in America and the West Indies by John Matthews. LDS FHLC film no. 1429855, item 14.
Testators of wills proved in Jamaica
The following lists are based on the microfilms, produced by the Genealogical Society of Utah, of wills and records of probate of the Supreme Court of Jamaica. The film numbers are those in the catalogue of the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The microfilms are of documents of various periods, as follows:
1937926; 1937927; 1937928; 1937929; 1937930.