Time is short, hence no post yesterday. ‘Oh, she will have been working away at those three writing projects she mentioned’, I hear you say. Err, well, maybe just a little. I’ve actually been wasting spending time re-assessing a longstanding (over 40 years) family history brick wall but I should really be doing other things. For those who remember the story of Mary Cardell, some progress has been made (of the three steps forward, two steps back variety) but a DNA match supports my latest hypothesis. Inevitably, said match has not responded to my message but heigh ho. To cut a long and sorry story short, I am now pretty sure that Mary had an older sister, all I have to do is confirm it and I have pretty much run out of options for this. I do need a marriage record from Worcester Archives, so if any of my readers are planning a visit ………. Watch this space for the story so far but don’t hold your breath!

Before my alphabetical website entry, a gratuitous photograph of my Christmas tree – because I can!

C is for Caribbean

All right-thinking people now view slavery as a truly appalling episode in our history but we cannot judge our ancestors by modern standards. It is also important not to air-brush out unsavoury aspects of our family’s past.

The Legacies of British Slave Ownership project have created a website and database that not only enables us to search for slave-owning ancestors but there are also maps, documents and background information available. It provides a portrait of British Slave-ownership in the Caribbean at the time slavery ended, in 1833. Some of the entries are brief, others are full of genealogical detail. Here is a particularly informative example:

‘Margaret Dunbar ye Base child of Mary Blake Born June ye 22nd was Baptized Nov 8th [1761]. By 1784 Margaret was the housekeeper of James Tierney in Kingston and pregnant with his child. James Tierney was a barrister, brother of George Tierney MP and brother-in-law of Abram Robarts MP. In his will he left Margaret £1000 and ‘all my household furniture and utensils, pictures, plate, china, linen and carriages and any one of my horses which she may choose for herself. James died in 1784 and his daughter Sabina Eleanor Tierney (q.v.) was born 15/12/1784. In Sabina’s baptism record, her mother Margaret Dunbar was recorded as ‘a free Quadroon woman’.

By 1787 Margaret had begun a longer-term relationship with Ebenezer Robertson. Their first child, Margaret, was born 13/01/1788 followed by a son, Francis William, 02/05/1789 and another daughter Mary Ann, 09/07/1790. An Act of Assembly, 10/12/1790 conferred, with certain restrictions, the privileges of whites upon the reputed kin of Nicholas Blake, deceased, planter, St Elizabeth, including Mary Blake and her descendants, who include Margaret Dunbar and her four oldest children: ‘Mary Blake of the Parish of Kingston a free mulatto woman and James Blake and John Blake free mulatto men, the reputed children of Nicholas Blake decd; late of the parish of St Elizabeth, Margaret Dunbar a free quadroon, daughter of the said Mary Blake and Sabena Eleanor Tierney, Margaret Robertson, Francis William Robertson and Mary Anne Robertson the infant children of the said Margaret Dunbar to all rights and privileges under certain restrictions.’

Many of the entries in this year’s advent calendar are based on my book Family Historian’s Enquire Within. I would be very grateful if anyone in the UK wanting to buy a copy would get in touch with me directly (there will be no charge for UK postage). I am trying to free up book storage space ready for novel two arriving!