GENEALOGY RESEARCH:
THE INDENTURESHIP COLLECTION IN JAMAICA

July 24, 2020

The indentureship collection is housed in Spanish Town, containing information during for both East Indians and Chinese beginning in 1845. The National Library of Jamaica has published a document available here for a brief overview of the collection, but I have included more details below for those unfamiliar with genealogical research and interested in requesting documents.

The Indentureship Collection in Spanish Town is held by the Jamaica Archives and Records Department (JARD) and available to the general public.

The Indentureship Collection contains:

• Nominal Rolls and Emigration Passes which outline the application process of East Indians from Calcutta to Jamaica, including information such as the indentured laborer’s name, father’s name, dependents, age, sex, caste, occupation in India, residence and successor to estate in India.
  

• Ship Records (Arriving and Departing) provide information on the names of the ships that transported immigrants between Jamaica and Calcutta, the number of Indians on board. They also detail the number of indenture servants who returned to India after their contracts.
  

• Return passages to Calcutta

1/B/9/1a  Allotment Book – Time of Arrivals, Ships and Estates   1873-1875

1b Allotment Book – Time of Arrivals, Ships and Estates

(Index of Estates)    1873-1874

1/B/9/2  Arrivals SS “Thetis” from Calcutta to Jamaica  1846

1/B/9/3a  Arrivals SS “Blundell” from Calcutta to Jamaica  1845-1847

1/B/9/3b  Arrivals SS “Hyderabad” 1846

1/B/9/3c  Arrivals SS “Success” from Calcutta to Jamaica 1847

1/B/9/3d  Arrivals SS “Athenia” from Madras to Jamaica  1847

1/B/9/3e  Arrivals on SS “David Clarke” from Calcutta to Jamaica  1847

1/B/9/4  Arrivals on SS “Themis” from Calcutta  1860

1/B/9/5  Medical Case Book, Nominal Returns of Deaths and     1869

Medical Journal (Admissions and Discharge Book).

Report on the Immigrants by the Ship 1869

“Gainsborough” from Calcutta to Jamaica

1/B/9/6  Arrivals on SS “Clarendon (1861), “Sydenham” (1862),   1861-1862

“Wentworth” (1861), “Ravena Craig” (1861), “Gertrude”

(1862), “Marion” (1862) and “Scoresby” (1862)

1/B/9/7  Arrivals SS “Humber” from Calcutta to Jamaica   1872

1/B/9/8  Arrivals SS “Barossa”   1847

1/B/9/9  Arrivals SS “Chetah”  1876

1/B/9/10a  Arrivals SS “Howrah”  1881

1/B/9/10b  Charter Party “SS Lightening”  1880

1/B/9/11  Applications for Arrivals of Coolies SS “Dahoney  1902-1903

1/B/9/12a  Returns SS “Mutlah” to Calcutta from Jamaica  1909

1/B/9/12b  1. Returns SS “Mutlah” and SS “Sutley”   1909

       2. Arrivals SS “Mutlah” and SS “Sutley”    1910

1/B/9/12c  Nominal Rolls of East Indian Immigration SS “Indus”  1911