Family History centres.

What records do I want?

Well, for example: my grandmother had two older sisters; I have found the registrations of their births but unfortunately neither my gmother nor her sisters had a christian name when their births were registered. They are on the registration as 'female'. So, although I know their names, I have no idea which of the two sisters was the elder. So some baptism records would be nice.. Also, they were both married, so marriage records. They both died young, death registrations would be helpful.

As it is, I do have a fair amount of info on one sister but nothing on the other one.

All I really want to know is if it is likely that this information might be on microfilm.

I already have an Ancestry tree; they have added some Jamaican data to their records but not much.

Have you looked on Cyndi's List to see whether there are any other online sources of Jamaican records?
There is a Caribbean/West Indies section. www.cyndislist.com/caribbean/

The LDS used to have family history centres in most towns, where you could order microfilm or microfiche to be delivered there in a couple of weeks, and view them on their machines. You could see their catalogue, which had all kinds of records filmed. I don't know whether they still have them.

I can't see why the LDS would have anything extra if only because what they need is what is already widely available elsewhere. What sort of records are you hoping for?

Join "Ancestry" or "Find my past".

If you don't want any of your deceased ancestors enrolled in the Mormon church just don't send off any of you family history findings to the LDS.

When I started in family history there was an LDS church about 10 miles which was very convenient.
There is so much stuff online now which makes it all much easier.

However you still meet big brick walls.

You're right, mollie, they do collect records for their own purposes i.e so that they can posthumously enrol people into the Mormon church so that they will be 'saved'. Which I think is very cheeky of them..

But I'm wondering if they have more stuff on microfilm than they actually have on their website's database.

Jamaican records aren't easy to access. I've been to the Registrar's office, which is chaotic. Other records are kept at Spanish Town, where we were strongly advised, as white tourists, not to go..so my only alternative is on-line. (or find a Jamaican researcher, but they're a bit thin on the ground)

Ancestry has come up with some very useful stuff, but I think I've just about exhausted their resources.

I may be wrong but the Family Search site is also the LDS/Mormons? I believe they only gather/film/transcribe Parish Records rather than all the other stuff that other sites collect. I may be out of date but they do this for the purposes of their church, not historical research. If you want a wider range of records ie tax records, apprentice docs etc for example, you'll need to use Ancestry or one of the others.