Many people with Surinamese relatives are looking forward to this moment, because so far ancestor research in Suriname has been laborious and often comes to a dead end due to many sources being poorly accessible. Since 2017, the Historical Database of Suriname and the Caribbean has worked on the online publication of population archives of Suriname and the former Netherlands Antilles. The Suriname slave registers were already published online in 2018-2019. The Civil Registry makes it possible to research the lives of Surinamese residents after the slavery period. This means that Surinamese people with ancestors who came from India, Indonesia, or China as contract workers can also learn more about their family history.
This database is also an important step for academic research because it helps connect the slavery period in Suriname with the period thereafter. How did former slaves shape their lives as free people? And how did contract workers from China, India and Java integrate into Surinamese society? The nearly 60 years between 1863 and 1921 play a key role in the formation of today's multicultural Surinamese society.
