Explore Island’s Rich History at Jamaica Archives and Records Department

Jamaicans are being encouraged to explore the country’s rich history by visiting the Jamaica Archives and Records Department (JARD).

“We are open to the general public – anyone can come in,” Senior Archivist, Racquel Innerarity told JIS News.

“It is our records as Jamaicans, and we invite historians, genealogists and students from basic school to university to come in. It is important for us, as a people, to know who we are and the records that we have here are a good source of that,” she added.

The JARD serves as the main repository in the country for the preservation of government records relating to the country’s history and heritage in paper, audiovisual and electronic formats.

It also collects archival materials relating to Jamaica produced by government ministries, agencies and departments and persons of national importance, as well as churches, charities and other organisations, to ensure that primary materials of cultural value to Jamaica are preserved.

The information found at JARD supplements oral history and can prove or disprove information that persons may have heard or read somewhere else.

The archives contain records in five broad categories – public central records that come from central government; local government records; records from statutory organisations; records from private individuals; and records from churches, which are called the Ecclesiastes Collection.

Once a researcher visits and shares their area of research, they are guided to the collection that can best assist them.

Mrs. Innerarity told JIS News that the JARD records date back to the 17^th century and include plantation records, for example, slave registers, crop accounts, and patents that gave land to encourage persons to settle the island in the 17^th century.

“We also have microfilm of information we have preserved in one way or another and we have records dating back to the Colonial Secretary’s Office, which was the administrative function of government up to 1955, when we were transitioning into Independence,” she noted.

There are also court records; copies of birth, death and marriage certificates from as far as the 1950s; maps and plans; the Norman Manley and Kenneth Ingram Collections and the Tyndale Biscoe Collection of arial photographs from the 1950s and 60s.

Interestingly, the JARD also has a piece of moon rock.

With Jamaica celebrating its 60^th year of Independence and JARD also commemorating its 60^th anniversary in 2022, Mrs. Innerarity said the agency has pieces on the nation’s history that individuals might find instructive at this time.

“We have the Independence Declaration signed by the Queen. We have Cabinet Submissions that carry us through the process of moving from a colony into Independence, and those are very interesting – just seeing how we saw ourselves as independent even before we were independent and what it was that we wanted as a nation state. We have the Constitution and photographs from the Independence ceremony,” she shared.

The JARD is open to the public Mondays to Thursdays, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on Fridays, 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The entity has three locations – the Office of the Government Archivist,
59-63 Church Street, Kingston; the Archives Unit at the Corner of King and Manchester Streets, Spanish Town, St. Catherine; and the Audiovisual Unit at 36-38 Red Hills Road, Kingston.

Persons desirous of accessing archived records are required to set an appointment by calling 876- 984-2581/984-5001 or by emailing jarchives@jard.gov.jm.