The records of the Colonial Office are among the most important sources for people tracing their Caribbean families. These are the records received or created by the UK Colonial Office (and its predecessors) and not the records of colonial governments.

Surviving records of the Colonial Office have been transferred to the National Archives into CO series (until 1967) and FCO series (from 1967).

Records of colonial governments, which may include copies of reports and correspondence sent to, or from, the Colonial Office may be found in the archives of the relevant country. In the case of dependencies, the Leeward Islands, Windward Islands, and the Federation of the West Indies records may be found in the archives of the country where the governor was based.

The records of the Colonial Office relating to the Caribbean are arranged by country and then according to the type of document:

There are separate series for each country or federation, as well as correspondence series for the West Indies in general.

All of these records can be used to find information on Caribbean ancestors.

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