Yap, Federated States of Micronesia Genealogy

Guide to Yap ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

History
From the 17th century until 1899, Yap was a Spanish colony within the Captaincy General of the Philippines of the Spanish East Indies. After the defeat against the United States in 1898 and subsequent loss of the Philippines, Spain sold these islands and its other minor Pacific possessions to Germany.

Yap was a major German naval communications center before the First World War and an important international hub for cable telegraphy. It was occupied by Japanese troops in September 1914, and passed to the Japanese Empire under the Versailles Treaty in 1919 as a mandated territory under League of Nations supervision. At the end of World War II, Yap was occupied by the U.S. The U.S. held it and the rest of the Caroline Islands as a trusteeship under a United Nations mandate until 1986. In that year, Yap, Truk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae formed the independent nation of the Federated States of Micronesia. 

Census
Jane Underwood Yap Population Cards
 * Census created in 1965 by anthropologist Jane Underwood, in English
 * Cards filed by municipality at the Richard Flores Taitano Micronesia Area Research Center, University of Guam, Mangliao, Guam (filesare a little jumbled, be patient)
 * Some name variation so be creative
 * Cards contain information for individual subject plus children, parents, siblings, and grandparents
 * Back bottom of each card has a reference to the 1946 census of Yap if individual is included in that census
 * Partial digital index of birth dates and names (Excell spreadsheet, search using Ctrl+F) on Barrigada FHC computers. CD in Family Search Support Office, Barrigada, Guam.

1946 Yap Census
 * Photocopy of census cards created between 1946-1948, in Yapese (translation of census form in cabinet)
 * Organized by municipality and village in file cabinet at Micronesia Area Research Center (list of villages in cabinet)
 * Japanese Imperial dates used (conversion chart in filing cabinet).
 * Very useful in combination with Jane Underwood census