Introducing Paul Crooks

Trailblazing author and family historian Paul Crooks captivates his audience with an account of how he traced his African forebears enslaved on a sugar plantation in Jamaica, 200 years ago.

Paul was told that it would be impossible to trace records of slave-ownership let alone his African ancestors enslaved on plantations in Jamaica. “No one had tried because such records did not exist.” In the 1990’s, undeterred, he embarked on a journey of discovery that led from suburban North London to Jamaica and ultimately back to the Gold Coast of Africa; an effort that has brought him international recognition for his breakthroughs in African Caribbean genealogy research.

By 1999, Paul had realised the slave Registers' potential for researching Caribbean Ancestry and African Roots. Paul’s revelations preceded a flurry of inquiries into the slave registers and slave compensation records.

The 1817 Slave Registers

Paul will :

• discuss how the slave registers can support exploration of Black Ancestry and self-identity
• reveal what the registers reveal about the roots of British racism
• the origins of the slave registers and how and how he discovered
• talk about his journey and how he traced his roots
• create space for questions and answers

For more about Paul Crooks: https://paulcrooks.info/

Why not download British & Jamaican or the Jamaican editable family tree chart?

Complete one and come along to an Ancestry Talk with questions you have about gaps in your family tree. Maybe Paul can guide you on how you might go about next steps.