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Bookclub
- Ancestors
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Idle curiosity
is just one of the things that drove me to research my family roots
- which go all the way back to 1777 and West Africa. My father (George
Magnus Norwood Crooks) had emigrated from the West Indies to Britain
and settled here in 1957. He made his way to London's east end to live
with a cousin he'd never met. He came looking for work and eventually
met my mother (Doreen Fay Cousins). They were married at Willesden Registry
Office, North West London in 1962. I am the second of three boys. In the
summer of 1990. Our family reunion was an opportunity to talk to the
oldest members of the family. I learned that that Grandmother and Grandfather
met in Cuba, and that they later worked together in Black River. I leaned
too that my grandfather's date of birth, Christopher Crooks. Sheila's
Mother, Aunt Iris knew the name of my great-grandfather, Robert Crooks
and the name of one of my great great-grandmothers Ellen. This was the
stimulus I needed to continue my search. |
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| Searching
Public Records The main feature of Pauls work was the use of public records in London and Jamaica. This is how he did this: The Church of the Latter-Day Saints (LDS) in London kept microfilm records of Jamaican births marriages and deaths originating from the Spanish Town Archives, Jamaica. The records are organised according to Jamaican Parish and then chronologically. The films for records post 1877 are held at the centre in Salt Lake City, Utah. I ordered a film containing birth records for Westmoreland 1886. To do this, I completed a simple form and paid a small fee for the cost of postage and packaging. Approximately four week later, LDS London sent a notice telling me that the film had arrived. I found a film copy of my Grandfather's birth certificate. His birth was registered at a place called Bigwoods, just outside Darliston town; furthermore, it confirmed Robert as my great-grandfather and Caroline Dell as my great-grandmother. I also found: |
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Royal Geographical Society Kensington Gore, London RGS holds maps and documents forming one of the most important geographical collections in the world. There I found maps of Jamaica dated 1798 and 1804. The names of original proprietors where indicated. Some are the names of small Jamaican towns today. I spotted Crooks' Cove Sugar Plantation at Cousins Cove, the place of my ancestral origins in Jamaica. National Library of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica The National Library of Jamaica kept property surveys dating back to slavery. I emailed The N LJ a request for information or surveys relating to Cousin's Cove. I sent a postal order cost for approximately £12.00. Two months later I received, a copy of a map dating back to 1820 and a report that included detailed information about the proprietors, Richard and William Dickson. From the survey map I identified two things of interest: |
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learnt that slaves used to bury their dead in the kitchen gardens, a practice
which continued when slavery ceased. The shallow graves had been a mass
burial ground. Public Records Office, Kew, London Slave Registers 1817-34. In 1807, the government passed legislation to abolish the slave trade. However, the British government became aware that Africans were still being smuggled into the British West Indies. In 1817, slave registers were introduced to help police the activities of the slave owners in the British West Indies. The Jamaican registers are:
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| The Hanover slave register (1817) record: | ||||
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Office Letter I contained information about a mass baptism that took place on the Cove in 1814. I learned that forty slaves, from a small coffee and pimento plantation, joined the Cove villagers. Mr William Brown owned the plantation located a few miles east, in the hills. This confirmed what I was unable to find in the LDS record, that DW Rose baptised the cousin's Cove Slaves. Colindale Newspaper Library, London I had always been told that slaves usually took the name of the proprietors. I knew that ownership of the property had changed somewhere between 1804 and 1814. The plantation was changed to the Cousin's Cove Sugar Plantation. The Colindale Newspaper Library was most useful. There I found an article, on one of the microfilms, a notice placed in the Gleaner on 17 September 1792 by John Crooks, proprietor to Crooks' Cove sugar plantation. He was hoping to trace the movements of four of his runaway slaves - all African. There was information in The Royal Gazzette 1811/12 about future proprietors Alexander McCullum and William Dickson. Both served together as jurors to the court in Hanover for at least this period of time. Both are shown to be merchants. Alexander being a junior merchant. Pauls' Top Tips After thirteen years of research, Paul has invaluable advice to anyone interested in tracing their family tree. |
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1. Older family members are gatekeepers of the past! Yet they do not disclose everything they know. Keep sharing information with them; they are quick to tell you when you've got something wrong. 2. Extended family members can clarify or verify information given in oral accounts and provide other vital information to unlocking the past. Share information with family and friends. When word gets around information that you need can often find you. 3. The story "two brothers from Scotland that came to Jamaica to settle …" is a story I hear often. Verify everything spoken. 4. Beware of transcription errors in old documents. Verify everything read. 5. Background knowledge helped piece together an understanding of the community that existed at Cousins Cove. It is essential if you are to interpret documents. Be familiar with the environmental factors of the period being researched:
6. Follow your intuition. My Grandfather named his first-born son John Crooks. My hunch was that this was in some way significant. The facts that I subsequently discovered seemed to bear this out. 7. Keep revisiting researched material as it takes on new significance the more you discover about the PEST C environment. I often found that the things after looking at material more than once. With microfilm readers, it's easy to scroll past vital information - especially when fatigued. I found my grandfathers birth certificate after three separate visits to the LDS to view the same film. 8.
Try not to let it take over your life! For further details about Paul Crooks visit www.netcomuk.co.uk/~prcrooks To purchase his book from Amazon, click here Back Every Generation Bookclub |
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