One of our members sent us this inspiring story recently about how joining our group had helped in her research.
“I have been a member of the Caribbean Family History Group for many years dipping in and out of research during that time as work and caring responsibilities left me with little spare time until I retired. I had found the names of maternal great grandparents and on my father’s side my grandmother’s baptismal record, and her mother’s name. I had, what I believed might be his father’s name but could not find any records as it was not recorded on birth certificate and had not been entered on my parents marriage certificate. My grandmother’s baptismal certificate showed only her mother and I could not find any record for my great-grandparents. Lockdown 2021 provided the time I needed to start research again but, I was having difficulty getting further as essential records I needed to search for my Barbadian ancestors were locked for some reason, I got very frustrated and gave up. My parents would have been 100 and 96 if they were alive so I could not ask them. I managed to get some information from family members and with a lot of trawling through church records on Family Search and help and advice from CFHG I found my great grandmother’s marriage record. I found her mother’s name from a search for her father’s marriage. I couldn’t find a record for her under the name shown on my grandmother’s baptism so knowing the year she was born from her marriage record I looked for her baptism and found her under her mother’s surname. She was born a year before her parents were married, so her mother’s surname was on her baptism certificate but she was known by her father’s surname, hence the confusion. I found a great aunt and two and two great uncles, and a great-great aunt.
At another of our zoom meetings a talk was given on the use of Face Book as a source of help for research. It was not something that had ever occurred to me. I applied to join the Barbados Genealogy Face Book group. I was accepted and as I scrolled through past posts I discovered one with a photo of an entry from Family search records asking if someone could decipher the writing which I recognised as the baptism for my great aunt. I sent a response saying what it said and got a reply immediately from the person who posted it and it transpired was the grand-daughter of my aunt so second cousin who was also researching who I did not know as I left the island 60 years ago.
From this connection I discovered my great grandmother had 11 children. She was the only one to leave the home parish St Philip where all the family have lived and married, had children baptised and been buried at the parish church. I would not have found the other children because I did not know this or that although her name was Amanda Augusta she was known as Lillian and it was only when enquiries were made by my cousin of her grandmother that she found out she was known to the family as Lillian. Without this contact I could not have found this information or the remaining children.
My father had not named his father on his marriage certificate. My youngest sister dealt with his affairs and said he had told her his father’s name was Dudley Brown. I spent many hours searching for him without success and I was able to find out the correct name was George Elliott Brown but was always called Dudley. He was also the father of my father’s elder sister and younger brother. My cousin was also under the impression the name was Dudley but on looking at her grandmother’s marriage certificate, after her death found he was named on there as George Elliot Brown.
I was hitting a brick wall searching for ancestors because the particular years I need to access were locked on Family Search for some reason and couldn’t find out why until someone from Family Search attended one of our monthly zoom meetings and followed it through for us. He discovered it was an error and once they were unlocked my research bloomed. I have now found my father’s father, my grandfather’s siblings and their parents. For my paternal grandmother I have found her 10 siblings, my great grandmother and 8 of her 10 siblings, 2x great grandparents, my 2x great grandmother’s 3 siblings and her parents.
Another cousin from my mother’s side who I do not know, has also contacted me recently, having seen my post on the Facebook Genealogy page and I think her grandfather would have been my gran’s cousin. We are trying to confirm the link.
Progress on my mother’s side is slower and I have found my grandparents, and great uncles and aunts, my great grandparents on both sides and look forward to making more progress and discoveries.
The Group has helped me immensely. There are still some ancestors to find and some brick walls to conquer but this is a journey not a race.”
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