Grenada Church Records

Caribbean Grenada

Introduction
Church records are an excellent source of names, dates, relationships, and places. In fact, church records are the primary source for pre-civil registration (pre-1865) Grenadian research. Church records include records of christenings, marriages, and burials, sometimes giving birth and death dates. These records were kept in bound registers, usually called parish registers. Church records may include other types of records such as session or vestry minutes. The major religions of Grenada are the Catholic Church and Anglican Church. The Presbyterian Church is also prominent.

The island of Grenada was first colonized by the French in 1674. Historically the religious makeup of the islands of Grenada covers the period from first European occupation in the 17th century. This has always been predominantly Christian and largely Roman Catholic (due to the first occupants being French) and from the 1891 census we get a snapshot of the population and its religious proclivities - over half were Roman Catholic (55%), a third were Church of England (36%), others listed were Wesleyan (6%) and Presbyterian (0.88%).

More recently, according to the 2001 census, 89.1% percent of the population of Grenada is considered Christian, 1.5% is non-Christian and 3.6% has no religion or stated "other" (5.7%).

Roughly one half of Christians are Roman Catholics (44.6% of the total population), a reflection of early French influence on the island, and one half are Protestant. Anglicanism constitutes the largest Protestant group, with 11.5% of the population. Pentecostals are the second largest group (11.3%), followed by Seventh-day Adventists (10.5% of the population). Other Christians include Baptists (2.9%), Church of God (2.6%), Methodists (1.8%), Evangelicals (1.6%) Jehovah's Witnesses (1.1%), and Brethren Christian (0.5%).

The number of non-Christians is tiny. These religious groups include the Rastafarian Movement (1.1% of the population), Muslims (0.3%) and Hinduism (0.2%).

There are no books written on the history and records of many Grenadian religious denominations.

Catholic Church Records
The first church in Grenada was French Roman Catholic and about 1718 the Notre Dame du Bon Secours Catholic Church. A tiny number of Irish Roman Catholic remained on the island as part of the Irish Brigade military contingent under Count Arthur Dillon and his brother Edward in 1779. In 1800 the government of the island formally appropriate lands owned by the Roman Catholic Church for the more comfortable maintenance of the Protestant Clergy of Grenada. Not until 1827 that the first Irish priest arrived in Grenada, a Fr. O'Callaghan. He was followed by Fr. Anthony O Hannan, who caused a rift in the Catholic Church in St. George’s and set up his own church for six years at the building in Lucas Street, still known today as 'La Chapelle'. It was in 1818 that the Catholic Cathedral was rebuilt. In 1852 the RC Priest Francis de Casta was naturalized.

Early Roman Catholic parish registers were not kept. However, census records did start sometimes as far back as the mid-seventeenth century. For example the French Guadeloupe Census for 1669 — 1749 list Grenada. After 1864 RC parish records would have to have been formally kept.

Anglican Church Records
The Protestants Anglican Church was the state church or Established Church in Grenada from 1763 (once the island was formally ceded to Britain through the Treaty of Paris). Then in October 1800 all Catholic Churches were appropriated by the Protestants for the use as Anglican Churches. It was on 29 June 1830 that the foundation stone of the St. Patrick’s Anglican Church was laid as the first and oldest Anglican Church constructed in the parish. It was one of four churches started that year, including Anglican churches in St. Andrew and St. David. In 1850 the Reverend of St. Patrick’s Church was Samuel Powers.

Each parish in Grenada kept its own records of christenings, marriages, and burials. These were included under the combined parishes of St. Andrew/St. Patrick/St. David (1807–1825) and St. Patrick/St. David (after 1825), and later under its own; records date to 1807.

It was late in 1865 that a Law, formalising the keeping of complete Registers of Births, Deaths, Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials of all the people on the Island were ensured.

Presbyterian Records
Although Scottish Presbyterians began a massive migration in 1605, they did not arrive in Grenada until 1830 when St. Andrew's Presbyterian (also known as Scots’ Kirk) in St. George’s was built. Many of the Presbyterian settlers to Grenada, usually Plantation settlers, came also from England, Ireland and from Wales. By 1880 their progress grew in both Belair and St. Patrick’s and by 1883, Reverend James Muir from Scotland, arrived in Grenada and began assisting some twelve hundred Indians on the Island.

Congregations were organized but very few kept early records. All congregations would have had to start keeping records after 1864.

Methodist Records
A Methodist society began in Grenada in 1820 when its first church was built in the parish town of St. George’s.

Methodist records consist mainly of baptism and marriage records. Baptism records show the child’s name, parents, and birth date and place. Marriage records show the names of the bride and groom, and the marriage date and place. Occasionally a circuit minute book or vestry book was kept. Since there were few Methodist cemeteries, death or burial records are rare. Methodists were usually buried in Anglican Church cemeteries, and their burial records kept in Anglican Church registers.

Other Churches
Many other denominations have established churches or congregations in Grenada. In the mid-1700s Congregationalists and Baptists first came to Grenada as soldiers under Cromwell. Huguenots, seeking religious freedom, also came in the 1700s. Most Huguenots affiliated themselves with the Anglican Church or with the Presbyterian Church. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints established branches in Grenada by 1950.

There are no Jewish or Quaker family records on Grenada.

Availability of Parish Registers
As of the present time no Grenada Parish Registers have been digitised. These records are of the original parish registers and do not include an online index to them. See FamilySearch for available online indexes.

Locating Church Records
Church records are in local custody. Many church records have also been filmed or photocopied and the originals or copies stored in repositories.

The Public Registry Office of Grenada now holds vital records for the island.

There are no books on Grenadian Genealogical Sources or Guides to Church Records, nor are there any descriptive catalog for Registry Office holdings of church records. Also no local heritage or genealogical centres or Grenadian Family History Society exists.

The Family History Library has a filmed copy of the descriptive catalog. A limited index for Grenada Births and Baptisms for some of 1866-1891 is available online, https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1520618

To see if the church records you need are available at the Family History Library, check the library catalog.

Search Strategies and Indexes
As you search church records, use the following strategies:


 * Search indexes first. One websites has a small index to Grenada church records:
 * FamilySearch -- a free website with indexes online for some Grenadian church records in their collection at their Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.