Why African descendants should have free access to slavery records - SIGN THE PETITION
Descendants of enslaved Africans who have been robbed of their history and heritage should be given free access to colonial records and support to trace their ancestors. SIGN THE PETITION

Deborah Gabriel





I want to know who my ancestors were who were robbed of their freedom and humanity – but I am not paying for the privilege.

Last week it was announced that a genealogy company plans to put colonial records relating to the chattel enslavement of some three million Africans online. Eventually the archive will hold records for the Caribbean, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

In order to access records one has to take out a monthly subscription or use the pay-per-view facility, in much the same way that digital satellite services are offered. The company concerned is obviously looking to cash-in on the increased interest during the Bicentenary Year. But I feel strongly, that as the descendant of enslaved Africans whose names may appear in those records, I should not have to subscribe to such a service.

But my contention is not with the genealogy company, but with the British government. This merely highlights the obligation that it still has to repair some of the damage caused by its forbears. African descendants in the UK – and elsewhere in the Diaspora, have been robbed of our history, robbed of our heritage and robbed of our ancestral ties as a consequence of European chattel enslavement.

As a recent survey revealed, the overwhelming majority of African and African Caribbean people questioned believe that the British government should make reparations for its role in the Maangamizi (African Holocaust). As the word Maangamizi denotes – the mass destruction of African humanity was intentional and has had devastating consequences on the social, cultural, psychological, economic and political development of Africa and its people.

It is quite apparent that having thrown a few crumbs in the form of funding for so-called projects to commemorate the Bicentenary, that having mumbled a few insincere words of ‘regret’ about slavery, that having held a sham service to commemorate a year that is of little significance to people of African descent, that Blair and his government are swiftly trying to move the agenda on, to sweep it all under the carpet and get back to business as usual.

It won’t work. The complete and utter lack of respect that has been shown to people of African descent thus far, provides strong motivation to pursue the justice that our ancestors fought for with their bare hands, both on the plantations and on the continent. I want to know who my ancestors were who were robbed of their freedom and humanity – but I am not paying for the privilege; neither should any other African descendant be expected to.

Records should be brought out of their hiding places and made public, interrogated and inspected so that the full history – not the doctored, carefully worded and sanitised version – can finally be known. The issue of reparations will never go away- the voices will only multiply and become louder until they are deafening. So the sooner the British government meets its obligations the sooner it will get peace. It can start by helping us to trace our ancestors – free of charge.


SIGN THE DOWNING STREET PETITION

Following publication of this editorial, a petition has been lodged at 10 Downing Street. To add your name to it and demand free access, follow the link below.

The records are free to access. It is viewing them on-line that would incur cost.

Maybe WE should gather up the records and make them available on-line free of charge...Time better spent at the computer.

It would be quite easy to do...the only difficulties/cost would be the programme/site used.


The Link to the actual petition http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/freeaccess/#detail

Brilliant idea.

You can head the project.

With COMMITED VOLUNTEERS I wouldn't mind...spend a lot of time in some archives or another.

But the point I am making is this petition asno argument as far as the goverment is concerned.

The records are available free of charge to anyone...If you physically visit the archives they are located(Mostly Kew-easily done for all you Londoners)

The company who is transcribing these record (I assume it's Ancestory.co.uk) is a private thing. All they have done is picked up on a demand area and are capitalizing on it.

And even though they have or are in the process of doing it There is no reason why we shouldn't providing on-line access free of charge.

Are you aware that these companies/organisations outsource the transcribing of these documents (usually China but also India)

Consequently are there are many errors in terms of pronunciation and spelling of names/locations...If we did it atleast our would be accurate.

http://Ancestory.co.uk




Source Information:
Ancestry.com. Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. Original data: Office of Registry of Colonial Slaves and Slave Compensation Commission: Records; (The National Archives Microfilm Publication T71/553-564); Records created and inherited by HM Treasury; The National Archives of the UK (TNA), Kew, Surrey, England.
About Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834
This database contains slave registers from Barbados for 1834. Information available on these records includes: name of owner, parish of residence, name, gender, age, and nationality of slave.

For more information about this database, click here.

In 1807 The Abolition of Slave Trade Act came into force. The act made the trade in slaves from Africa to the British colonies illegal. To combat illicit transportation following this act many of the British Colonies began keeping registers of black slaves who had been so-called “lawfully enslaved�. In 1819 the Office for the Registry of Colonial Slaves was established in London and copies of the slave registers kept by the colonies were sent to this office. Registration generally occurred once every three years. The registers continue through to 1834 when slavery was officially abolished.

This database currently contains the slave registers from Barbados for 1834. Information available on these records includes:

• Name of owner
• Place of residence (name of Barbados parish)
• Name of slave (usually only a given name. If the slave had been baptized this may include the slave name and the Christian name)
  
• Gender of slave
  
• Age of slave
  
• Nationality of slave

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Please choose a country:

To browse images, click on a country link below. Subsequent screens will allow you to choose a parish.








Barbados

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/addons/Here is some examples of the type of software available.

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/Syndicate.htmlHow it could be organised.

A syndicate is defined as a transcriber or a group of transcribers who between them will transcribe a date range and event type as allocated, for entry into the FreeBMD database.

Each syndicate should have a spokesperson who represents the syndicate when dealing with the project's administration. This doesn't replace the normal access of volunteers to other volunteers, but hopefully simplifies the coordination. This person would normally be the coordinator.

The coordinator has the following responsibilities:

• To ensure the team members are recorded in the volunteers database.
• To sub-allocate appropriate sections to the syndicate members.
• To help ensure each syndicate member has access to some source material.
• To act as a first point of contact along with other members for any problems.
• To report any major difficulties.

There is mailing list especially for syndicate coordinators and members. See the lists page for subscription details.

At least one member of each syndicate should be subscribed to the syndicates list.

This is an evolving project, so the role of coordinators and the scope of syndicates are liable to evolve as well.

We expect all our potential Syndicate Co-ordinators to have had some experience as a transcriber. Generally, we would be looking for six months in an existing Syndicate with a reasonable number of files uploaded to FreeBMD.

There is nothing stopping us...Blacknet could even host or sponsor the site.

Besides if we are going to do a petition atleast let it be a proper one....Not some goverment trick to reduce their mail bag/people turning up with petitions seeking publicity for their cause...E petitions

Well if you're intrested in making it happenI can put you in touch with some people who will be glad to help.

Once you've sprung an idea its up to you to pursue it.

It requires an army of volunteers. Only giving up a few hours a day, week, month to transcibe records

But several volunteers to seek them out. Pref London based.

An example of how it is done.

Actually these people have agreed to provide free access but it requires Willing Volunteers to transcribe/co-ordinate.

Welcome to FreeBMD.
FreeBMD is an ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records. It is a part of the FreeUKGEN family, which also includes FreeCEN (Census data) and FreeREG (Parish Registers). To search the records that have so far been transcribed by FreeBMD click on the Search button below.

The recording of births, marriages and deaths was started in 1837 and is one of the most significant resources for genealogical research. The transcribing of the records is carried out by teams of dedicated volunteers and contains index information for the period 1837-1983.



PLEASE NOTE: WE HAVE NOT YET TRANSCRIBED THE WHOLE INDEX. A breakdown by event and year can be viewed here










The FreeBMD Database was last updated on Fri 27 Apr 2007 and currently contains 133,330,157 distinct records (170,725,292 total records).
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