DEATH, BURIAL & CEMETERY RECORDS: THEIR IMPORTANCE (TRINIDAD & TOBAGO)

In Trinidad, Local Government authorities are responsible for the provision, maintenance and control of public cemeteries

and cremation facilities (Ministry of Local Government)

The Regulations in respect of Public Burial Grounds state that

Books shall be kept by the Keeper, in which shall be accurately registered the interment of all persons buried, with

the number of the section and allotments, and the date, name and age of the deceased, and also the name of the

officiating minister, or in his absence, of some person present at the burial.

The Keeper shall furnish certified extracts of such books to all persons applying on payment to the Keeper (for his

own use) of one dollar for every certificate.

The name and phone number of the public cemetery keeper/facility administrator and further information can be obtained

by contacting the Ministry of Local Government or the Municipal Corporations and Regional Corporations.

In Tobago, the House of Assembly is responsible for its cemeteries and crematoria.

Cemeteries are repositories of our history

The late Richard Bolai, photographer, graphic designer and bookbinder, travelled all over Trinidad and Tobago amassing

photographs from cemeteries and asked many times, what was happening with the preservation of our monuments.

Adele Todd (2005) who saw some of the work involved has stated that Richard’s photographs show the love and care of

some family members in respect of their gravestones, but Adele was also disturbed by the evidence of neglect and

disrespect for the dead and the country’s past, noting that, In time, these valuable monuments will decay and disappear

completely.

“There are gravesites with information about arriving on the island and dying of fever in 1868, Chinese characters

and hybrid names from intermarriage with other wealthy families . . .”

Lapeyrouse Cemetery, Phillip Street, Port-of-Spain

Tel.: (868) - 625 - 2275

Open: 8am - 12pm & 3pm - 6pm Monday to Friday. No Saturdays.

Burial Registers, available from 1870 onwards. Some are in very poor condition and are being improperly stored.

Lapeyrouse Cemetery is administered by the Port-of-Spain City Corporation and, before visiting, it may be advisable to

write first to the Chief Executive. Contacting the Lapeyrouse Cemetery Keeper direct by telephone to obtain information

from the burial registers may not be profitable.

At Woodbrook Cemetery (Mucurapo Road, St. James), on the eastern side of the cemetery there is a section reserved

for Jewish burials, called Bet Olam. The graves lying side by side each other are neatly kept. and well maintained, with

all the headstones having a constant coat of white paint.

On examining the head stones you will see the individuals were buried between 1931 to 1950, with a few more recently.

You will also note that the persons interred in these grave came mainly from Eastern Europe.

St. James Military Cemetery is worth visiting. It is adjacent to the crematorium, immediately before Camp Ogden.)

The cemetery is open Mon - Fri 09:00 to 13:00 and is locked at other times. Out of hours opening can be arranged by

contacting Robert Agie of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force well in advance of the intended visit.

Tel: (1868) - 771 - 4223 or Email: <donagie@hotmail.co.uk>

Paradise Cemetery, a.k.a. Pembroke Cemetery, Paradise Street, San Fernando.

As a result of the 1854 cholera epidemic, which resulted in the closure of a small cemetery on Chacon Street, the

Borough Council, in January 1868, bought land from the Paradise Estate and opened Paradise Cemetery.

Paradise Cemetery is administered by the San Fernando City Corporation

UWI Research

Kheera Victoria Daly (2009) of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, in her research, examined four major

cemeteries in Trinidad:

(i) Lapeyrouse Cemetery, Port-of-Spain

(ii) Catholic Cemetery, St. Joseph

(iii) St. Mary’s Anglican Church Cemetery, Tacarigua

(iv) Grand Chemin Catholic Cemetery

and has noted that these sites are largely untapped repositories of research, which will add considerably to the growing

body of data on mortuary studies in Trinidad and the wider Caribbean.

Birth to Death Records

Common-law marriage was widespread in Trinidad. Old birth and baptismal registers indicate that there were many births

and baptisms to parents who were not married. Sometimes the parents married after the birth of several children and

some, of course, never married. If this is the case, it is essential to know the surname of the mother as the father’s name

may not have been registered, ie listed, in the birth or baptismal register. Neither parents are recorded in the burial

register or on the death certificate.

The early marriage registers, ca 1830s, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Port-of-Spain may give the

names of both parents of bride and bridegroom, even where the parents were not married. However, by the 1870s,

neither parents are recorded on the children’s marriage certificates.

When the parents were not married, the person was usually registered only under the mother’s surname. Your ancestor

may have been given the father’s surname in later years and therefore could have married and died under a different

surname (and even christian name) from that which they were given at baptism or birth.

It can be very puzzling when the baptismal names are different from the names used at marriage, but this can be

compounded if additional ‘official’ names are also used at other times, eg in property transactions, etc. The oldest family

members may be willing to clarify these difficulties but cannot always do so.

In summary, there may be problems in locating members of your family in the baptismal and birth registers and, if there

was no marriage at all, they will not be found in the marriage registers either. Consequently, where this is the case, death

and burial records assume special importance in researching family history in Trinidad and in Tobago.

Everyone dies and is buried, usually with a ‘familiar’ surname, so searching

the death, burial and cemetery records

may advance your research. Some of these records have survived.

Lapeyrouse Cemetery (Port-of-Spain) Monumental Inscriptions

See http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~caribgw/cgw_archive/trinidad/cemetery.htm

........http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~guppyross/lapeyrouse.html

and also:

You can request a copy at the BNF reprographic service, using the reproduction order form, in English, available at

the following address:

http://www.bnf.fr/pages/zNavigat/frame/version_anglaise.htm?ancre=english.htm

See: Burial Grounds, Cemeteries & Cremation Sites (Trinidad)

Burial Grounds and Cemeteries (Tobago)

These lists of cemeteries, no doubt, contain errors and important omissions, particularly in respect of Tobago.

Unfortunately, trinidadandtobagofamilyhistory.org, at present is unable to provide any help on the oldest cemeteries, the

gravestones or surviving records.

Wanton disregard for our cemeteries (Angelo Bissessarsingh)

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