Hi! Fortunately, the island was Roman Catholic under Spain’s rule and they would permit other religions onto the island to reside. This work to the benefit of those who are researching as Roman Catholic records were very detailed. The religion also required that those enslaved be baptized and unlike England, Spain believe that those enslaved were humans and they actually had rights although they were still enslaved and mistreated.

Hi Wendy, part of being able to find records is first interviewing your elders. It regions of the Caribbean where Roman Catholic churches were the controlling body such as in Puerto Rico and Cuba, it was made a requirement that on baptism records from 1840 forward that grandparents should be captured in the record. Women’s names were always captured in their maiden names which then makes it easy to find them in the marriage books which always includes parents. This also included those that were enslaved. The only time they did not capture parents is if you were from Africa or you were brought from another island and didn’t speak the language. Spain was different than England because they believed that Africans were people and that they had rights too. So as a person that was enslaved, you could sue your owner or even purchase your own freedom. You were also permitted to marry and married couple children could not be sold off to another owner. Just some really strange differences yet they kept people enslaved. Oh and the other thing was that you could be enslaved and marry someone who was free. And thank you so much! I was able to find one set of parents so far due to what the records stated. You can gain hints though records at times on where to look next.