FamilySearch https://www.familysearch.org/
Many National Archives records relating to Panama the Canal (e.g., census records) and other types of government and church records are available for free in FamilySearch, but it does require an account to use. This site is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormons have been leaders for decades in scanning genealogical materials. The church also operates Ancestry.com, which is a pay service. It contains more records and users have access to advanced searching.
If you search for a person or family name in FamilySearch, you will search a variety of records and resources including census records, employment records, shipping records, etc., so it is usually easiest to start with basic searches. If you need to narrow your search to specific types of records you can use some of the FamilySearch guides below.
FamilySearch - Panama Emigration and Immigration
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Panama_Emigration_and_Immigration
Includes:
FamilySearch - Panama Online Genealogy Records
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Panama_Online_Genealogy_Records
Includes links to Census records, Church Records, etc. (some resources are pay only)
Index to the Gorgas Hospital Mortuary Death Records, 1906 - 1991
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1263917
Click on the Download Index link to download a text file (ASC format). This file is also available as a Microsoft Excel file.
Note that some records are missing for the years: 1912,1917,1918,1955,1960,1965,1980 (Oct 79-Sep 80).
See https://pcmc.uflib.ufl.edu/research/yearbooks-and-periodicals/ for a list of some newspapers and yearbooks relating to the Panama Canal. Many but not all of these are available in the Latin American & Caribbean Collection (LACC) reading room, 3rd floor, Smathers Library Building.
Panama Star + Herald (Panama)
https://ufl-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_UFL/175ga98/alma990259309100306597
Latin American & Caribbean Collection (LACC) Microfilm 079.862 P187
1849-1890; 1919-1951
LACC Ltd. Circ. Oversize 079.862 P187
1851-1854 and 1920-1921
Issues for 1919-1922 are available at https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00017962/allvolumes.
The 1850s issues are available online in various places:
Panama Tribune
Available via Interlibrary-Loan on microfilm: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/173759995
Panama American
1950s available online: https://dloc.com/AA00010883/00001
(Alternative view with each issue listed chronologically: https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00010883/allvolumes)
UF is scanning the 1920s issues from NY Public Library microfilm currently and they may be added online soon. Other years are available via Interlibrary-Loan only.
Barbados Advocate
LACC Microfilm 079.72981 B228
The Workman (1919-1930)
https://dloc.com/title-sets/AA00027053/results
(Alternative view with each issue listed chronologically: https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00027053/allvolumes).
School Yearbooks
La Boca School: La Bocan https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00026325/00001
La Boca Normal Training School: The Thinker https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00017315/00001
Paraiso High School (Escuela Superior de Paraiso): El Pacifico https://ufdc.ufl.edu/title-sets/AA00015058/results
Silver City / Rainbow City High School: Apex https://ufdc.ufl.edu/title-sets/AA00019279/results / Arco Iris https://ufdc.ufl.edu/title-sets/AA00015016/results
Searching Text
Some but not all of the newspaper and yearbook resources are searchable by text. To search the text of these publications:
Other Publications Online
Isthmian Echoes
https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00014955/00001/citation
Includes essays by West Indians selected and edited by Sidney A. Young. 1927.
Afro-Panamanian Newsletter, By Ines V. Sealy, Available on Academia.edu
There are many sources for photographs and other scanned materials pertaining to the former Canal Zone, Panama, and the Canal. For photos in the Panama Canal Museum Collection, it's always best to ask John Nemmers and Betsy Bemis for help searching because many photos aren't available online yet. Photographs that have been digitized are available on sites such as:
We scanned many of our photos relating to West Indian people and communities as part of a webinar we held in May 2021, and this gallery is available here: https://pcmc.domains.uflib.ufl.edu/pan-caribbean-voices-gallery/.
And there are dozens of personal and group websites devoted to preserving photos and information about the former Canal Zone and Canal-related topics including:
So, if you're looking for a specific image it's always a good idea to search via Google.
This annotated bibliography can help you find books in LACC that are illustrated with photos of Panama and the Canal Zone. The street scenes in Panama could include theaters or other locations related to your research. https://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/pcm/PCBibliography2019.pdf
Airall, Guillermo Evers. Silver and Gold: Untold Stories of Immigrant Life in the Panama Canal Zone. Pittsburgh: RoseDog Books, 2014. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: F1577.A1 A47 2014
Conniff, Michael L. Black Labor on a White Canal – Panama 1904-1981. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: F1577.B55 C67 1985
Engle, Margarita. Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal. St. Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 2014. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: PZ7.5.E54 Si 2014
Flores-Villalobos, Joan. “Gender, Race, and Migrant Labor in the “Domestic Frontier” of the Panama Canal Zone.” International Labor and Working-Class History, (2021): 99,96-121.
Flores-Villalobos, Joan V. “Race, Development, and National Identity in Panama”. Master’s Thesis. Austin, TX: University of Texas, 2012. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00016534/00001
Flores Villalobos, Joan Victoria. “West Indian Women in the Panama Canal Zone, 1904-1914”. Amherst: Amherst College. Honor’s Thesis, 2010. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00019230/00001
Frederick, Rhonda D. “Colón Man a Come”: Mythographies of Panama Canal Migration. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: PN849.C3F75 2005
Greene, Julie. The Canal Builders: Making America’s Empire at the Panama Canal. New York: Penguin Press, 2009. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: F1569.C2 G66 2009
Isthmian Historical Society. Isthmian Historical Society Competition for the Best True Stories of Life and Work on the Isthmus of Panama During the Construction of the Panama Canal. Isthmian Historical Society, 1963. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00016037/00001
Lasso, Marixa. Erased: The Untold Story of the Panama Canal. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2019.
Lewis, Lancelot S. The West Indian in Panama: Black Labor in Panama 1850-1914. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1980. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: F1577.B55 L48
Lisser, Henry de. Jamaicans in Colon and the Canal Zone. Kingston, Jamaica, 1906.
Lowe de Goodin, Melva. De Barbados a Panamá = From Barbados to Panamá. Panama, Republic of Panama: Editora Géminis, 2007. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: PQA7529.2.L68 D4 2007
Newton, Velma, Kathleen Drayton, and Woodville Marshall, eds. The Barbados-Panama Connection Revisited: Commemorating Migration from Barbados to Panama, 1904- 1914. St. Ann’s Garrison, St. Michael, Barbados: The Barbados Museum & Historical Society, 2014. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: JV 7429.B37 2014
Newton, Velma. The Silver Men: West Indian Migration to Panama, 1850-1914. Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle, 2004. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: JV7429 .N49 2004
Paz B, Sadith Esther. “The Status of West Indian Immigrants in Panama from 1850-1941”. Masters Thesis: University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1977.
Petras, Elizabeth McClean. Jamaican Labor Migration: White Capital and Black Labor, 1850- 1914. Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1988. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: HD8178 .P47 1988
Richardson, Bonham C. Panama Money in Barbados, 1900-1920. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: HD8178.5.B37 R53 1985
Russell, Carlos E. An Old Woman Remembers: The Recollected History of West Indians in Panama, 1855-1955: A Prose-Poetry Monologue. New York: Caribbean Diaspora Press, 1995.
Senior, Olive. Dying to Better Themselves: West Indians and the Building of the Panama Canal. Kingston: The University of the West Indies Press, 2014. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: F1577.B55 D9 2014
Senior, Olive. “The Origins of ‘Colón Man’: Jamaican Emigration to Panama in the Nineteenth Century.” In Regional Footprints: The Travels and Travails of Early Caribbean Migrants, edited by Annette Insanally, Mark Clifford and Sean Sheriff, 52-67. Kingston: Latin American-Caribbean Centre, University of the West Indies, 2006. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: HD8193 .R53 2006
Westerman, George. “School Segregation on the Panama Canal Zone.” Phylon, vol.15, no.3 (Third Quarter 1954): 276-287.
Westerman, George. Sore Spots in United States-Panama Relations. Address Given at International House, Chicago. Panama: Acción Cívica Istmeña, 1952. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: E183.8.P2 W52 1952
Westerman, George. A Study of Socio-Economic Conflicts on the Panama Canal Zone. Panama: Liga Cívica Nacional, 1948. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: HD8178 .W4 1948
Westerman, George. Toward a Better Understanding. Panama, 1946. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: F1577.A1 W4 1946
Young, Sidney Adolphus, Editor. Isthmian Echoes: A Selection of the Literary Endeavors of the West Indian Colony in the Republic of Panama. From Articles Contributed to the West Indian Section of the Panama American from February 1926 to December 1927. Republic of Panama: Benedetti Hnos., 1927. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00014955/00001
Zenger, Robin Elizabeth. “West Indians in Panama: Diversity and Activism, 1910s – 1940s”. Dissertation, The University of Arizona, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/581411
Zien, Katherine A. Sovereign Acts: Performing Race, Space, and Belonging in Panama and the Canal Zone. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2017. https://ufl-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_UFL/6ad6fc/alma990358479090306597. Available in LACC Library and Online through UF Libraries
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