Bahamas Civil Registration - FamilySearch Historical Records

Collection Time Period
This collection of civil registration includes the years 1850 to 1959.

Record Description
This collection contains records of births, marriages, and deaths from civil registration in different districts of the Bahamas. Earlier records are handwritten in narrative style and later ones are handwritten in formatted records. Text of the records is in English. Records are listed in chronological order.

Record Content
Key genealogical facts found in birth records may include:
 * Child’s name
 * Child’s sex
 * Birth date
 * Birth place
 * Parent’s names
 * Parent’s residence
 * May list the father’s title or occupation

Key genealogical facts found in marriage records may include:
 * Full name of bride and groom
 * Marriage date
 * Marriage place
 * Age of bride and groom
 * Occupation of bride and groom
 * Birth place of bride and groom
 * Parents of bride and groom
 * What number of marriage for bride and groom
 * Officiator

Key genealogical facts found in death records may include:
 * Name of deceased
 * Death date
 * Death place
 * Age in days, months, and years
 * Residence
 * Birth place
 * Name of parents
 * Parents birth place
 * Burial place
 * Burial date

How to Use This Collection Records
Begin your search by finding your ancestors in the index. Name indexes to births, marriages, and death make it possible to access a specific record quickly. Remember that these indexes may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

When searching the index it is helpful to know the following:
 * The place where the event occurred.
 * The name and surname of the person.
 * The approximate date of the event.
 * The name of the parents or spouse.

Use the locator information found in the index (such as page, entry, or certificate number) to locate your ancestors in the records. Compare the information in the record to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination.

When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family. For example:
 * Use the marriage date and place as the basis for compiling a new family group or for verifying existing information.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth of each partner to find a couple's birth records and parents' names.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth to find the family in census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * Occupations listed can lead you to employment records or other types of records such as military records.
 * Use the parent’s birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * The name of the officiator is a clue to their religion or area of residence in the county. However, ministers may have reported marriages performed in other counties.
 * Compile the marriage entries for every person who has the same surname as the bride or groom, this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.
 * Continue to search the marriage records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives of the bride and groom who may have married in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify.
 * Use the marriage number to identify previous marriages.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

Keep in mind:
 * The information in church records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from one record to another.

If you are unable to find the ancestors you are looking for, try the following: Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.
 * Check for variant spellings of the surnames.
 * Check for a different index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume.

Record History
The earliest reference to public registration of records in The Bahamas was in 1764. By 1862, a separate office was created to record the civil events named the Register of Records, and later, the name was changed to Registrar General’s Department in 1914. At that time, there were a few registrars legally appointed to record the events of birth and death, or marriages, or other. Before 1914 each registration form was to be filled as accurate as possible and subsequently returned to the Registry of Records, now the Registrar General’s Department where all the records are properly archived.

Why This Record Was Created
These records were created to keep track of the vital events happening in the lives of the citizens and to safeguard their legal interests.

Record Reliability
Civil records of birth, marriage, and death are the best records for family history research after 1862.

Related Websites
The Government of the Bahamas – Registrar General’s Department

Bahamas Gen Web

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Related Wiki Articles
Bahamas

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should also list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records.

A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the Wiki Article: How to Cite FamilySearch Collections

Examples of Source Citations for a Record in This Collection:

 * "Delaware Marriage Records," index and images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org) : accessed 4 March 2011, entry for William Anderson and Elizabeth Baynard Henry, married 23 November 1913; citing marriage certificate no. 859; FHL microfilm 2,025,063; Delaware Bureau of Archives and Records Management, Dover.
 * “El Salvador Civil Registration,” index and images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org) : accessed 21 March 2011, entry for Jose Maria Antonio del Carmen, born 9 April 1880; citing La Libertad, San Juan Opico, Nacimientos 1879-1893, image 50; Ministerio Archivo Civil de la Alcaldia Municipal de San Salvador.

Sources of Information for This Collection
The Bahamas. Civil Registries. Civil registration, 1850-1959. Bahamas Registrar General’s Department, Nassau, The Bahamas.

Detailed instructions for adding citations are also listed in the wiki article: How to Create Source Citations For FamilySearch Historical Records Collections