I was doing some more research on my family tree and signed up for the Ancestry.ca world deluxe package that includes international records. I came across a collection that I never thought I would find, Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1813-1834. Thank you to all who helped to decipher the beautiful text.

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Jamaica ss – A Return of Slaves in the Parish of Westmoreland in the possession of Alex James Rankine as Lessee from M. Ja Rankine on the 28^th day of June in the year of our Lord 1823

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Males by last return 10 Females 15 Total by last return 35
Names	Colour	Age	African or Creole	Remarks	Increase & cause thereof	Decrease & cause thereof
Males
Frederick	Negro	2	Creole	Son of Diana	By Birth
Edward	do	2	do	Son of Nanny	do
Females
Sydney	do		do			Death
					Increase 2	Decrease 1
Number of Slaves on the 28^th day of June 1823 Thirty two Births since last return 2 Deaths since last return 1

Do = ditto meaning same as record above

African refers to slaves that came directly from Africa. Creole means that the person was born in Jamaica.

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I Alexander James Rankine do swear that the above list and return is a true, perfect, and complete list and return, to the best of my knowledge and belief, in every particular therein mentioned, of all and every slave and slaves possessed by me as Lessee considered as most permanently settled, worked or employed in the parish of Westmoreland on the 28^th day of June in the year of our lord 1823 without fraud deceit or eversion so help me God. – Alex Ja. Rankine

Sworn before me this 18^th day of October 1823} John Dobson

Affidavit produced in Vestry according to Law

Reading through the birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates and baptismal records of my ancestors gives a small glimpse of what it might have been like in terms of just surviving. People had a lot of children in those days… I mean a lot. However, the flip side to all these births is the high infant mortality rate. Many mothers in my family tree lost babies between the ages of 0 – 2. My grandmother’s previous two siblings both died at birth. It’s a blessing to be alive.

I was able to go back pretty far on a couple of the lines of my tree, relatively speaking for a black person. (I’m still thinking about the best way to share this information on this site). However, I still wanted to back further, so my wife and I decided to test our DNA. I decided on myheritage.com. They were having a sale so I picked them. The test came in a couple of weeks. We swabbed our cheeks and sent it back. In a few months our results were in.

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