\u201cFinding an African slave on your tree is quite rare. It can be difficult to connect the dots to that generation, because of gaps in the records and knowing how to find things. It can be done, but it\u2019s tricky.\u201d<\/p>
In Adrian\u2019s case, it was the culmination of 10 years\u2019 hard work, researching an impressive 6,000 ancestors over 10 generations as far back as the 1770s. But there are exciting new developments to add to a story that has taken him from his starting point in Bristol to the Windrush<\/em> era, the abolishment of slavery \u2013 and beyond. Today he\u2019s one of the leading experts in tracing Caribbean<\/a> roots.<\/p> \u201cIt was a very spiritual journey for me, because of how it all started.\u201d Adrian\u2019s mum Elaine had been struck down with a potentially fatal illness. \u201cI thought about her passing away. I get my strength from her, and it made me think about her deeper roots. That was the catalyst \u2013 there on the intensive care ward.<\/p> \u201cI asked my older cousin Scotty McCarty if he could tell me the basics of our family history, because I didn\u2019t know anything,\u201d says Adrian. \u201cI couldn\u2019t have told you when my grandparents came to England. I didn\u2019t even know their names \u2013 we just called them Mama and Papa. I was desperate to find out as much as I could, and scribbled everything down. There were lots of pet names, and no dates.\u201d He managed to sketch a basic tree as far back as his great grandparents.<\/p> Adrian called relatives in Jamaica and America to see what they could add. However, getting information was not always easy. He found inconsistencies and an understandable reluctance to talk about the past, but he gradually gained people\u2019s trust.<\/p> What emerged was a classic Windrush<\/em> generation story. His grandfather Hubert Thomas McLarty had farmed sugar cane in Clarendon. Married with three children and another on the way, he decided to seek work abroad to support his family. In 1955 he sailed from Kingston on the Castel Verdi<\/em> and ended up in Bristol \u2013 The National Archives (TNA) in Kew has lists of passengers arriving from the West Indies (1878\u20131960) in series BT26<\/a> and LAB 8\/1902. These records can also be searched on Ancestry<\/a>.<\/p> Early in his research, Adrian discovered the Jamaican civil registration records and parish registers held by the LDS Church, which he consulted at the Britannia Family History Centre in London. \u201cI used them to find my great grandparents and beyond. Discovering these records existed was mind-blowing. I was able to put my ancestors into context \u2013 to bring the scribbles \u2028to life. That\u2019s when my life changed.\u201d As Elaine\u2019s health improved, Adrian shared his findings with her.<\/p> With so few dates to go on, Adrian had to do a lot of detective work. \u201cFor example, I asked one of my relatives when his father passed away, and he said: \u2018Just after the hurricane.\u2019 That was a major clue! I looked at when the hurricanes had happened, and used them as landmarks to search the records. It saved me having to go through every year.\u201d<\/p> \u201cYou also have to have a good geographical sense of an area,\u201d Adrian explains. Life events were registered at the church and the local post office. \u201cThe post office could fall just outside your ancestor\u2019s parish, but be within walking distance \u2013 so you might think that an entry wasn\u2019t your relative, because they didn\u2019t come from the place where registration occurred. Having that geographical knowledge made a massive difference.\u201d<\/p> Lavinia Nedd, Adrian\u2019s 2x great grandmother, was the earliest person on his scribbled tree, and one of the first he searched for in the records. \u201cShe was born in 1878. It was difficult to find her birth certificate, as she wasn\u2019t named at birth \u2013 which was common. I knew I\u2019d found her record because of her age on her marriage certificate, and also because of oral history. Relatives always said that her mother only had one child, and that tallied. I also checked the death records to make sure that this child had not passed away.\u201d With Lavinia\u2019s 1878 birth record, Adrian took a step into the unknown, discovering her parents James Robert Nedd and Mary Elizabeth Thomas. \u201cI was intrigued to see how far back I could go.\u201d<\/p> But Adrian\u2019s biggest find by far began with a chance meeting in a remote Jamaican village during a fact-finding trip. \u201cA lady come over to me and said: \u2018Are you \u2028the young man doing the family tree?\u2019 Her name was Violet Palmer, and she was related to \u2028my Robinson branch.\u201d She had lots of information to share \u2013 \u2028oral history from her Aunt Lily in Manchester, Jamaica. So, of course, Adrian went to see Aunt Lily.<\/p> \u201cShe was able to tell me about her grandparents and great grandparents, and I used her stories to find their birth and marriage records.\u201d One of Lily\u2019s tales was about her great grandmother Peggy who, it turned out, was Adrian\u2019s 4x great grandmother. \u201cShe was born a slave and had told Aunt Lily that she remembered when her family were freed, singing \u2018Masters set we free, masters set we free.\u2019\u201d<\/p> Peggy died in 1901. \u201cHer age at death gave me an idea of when she was born, in around 1830, so she had to be about seven when slavery ended in 1838.\u201d But there were few baptism records, so Adrian had to search elsewhere for proof. He found it in the slave registers, along with her mother \u2013 and that link with Africa.<\/p> \u201cIn 1807 Parliament abolished the slave trade,\u201d explains Adrian. \u201cIt became illegal to transport Africans across the Atlantic. The registers were introduced in 1813. Generally compiled every three years, they monitored every slave that was owned, transported, died, born or set free. You can find these registers in the series T71 at TNA but they have also now been digitised and can be searched on Ancestry for free<\/a>, without a subscription.<\/p> In the 1832 register, I found Peggy on the Burn Plantation (part of the Kellits Sugar Plantation), aged two and a half, listed as Creole \u2013 meaning she was born in Jamaica. Her mother, Ebo Venus, was also recorded, with her baptismal name \u2013 Ann Smith.\u201d Crucially, it listed her as African. \u201cThe name Ebo referred to the tribe she was from\u201d \u2013 pinpointing Adrian\u2019s African heritage very precisely.<\/p> The Kellits Plantation was in Clarendon, a parish where later generations of Adrian\u2019s family had lived in freedom. Kellits Estate was built in 1771 by Scottish aristocrat George McKenzie. When Adrian\u2019s ancestors were there, it was owned by John Shand, who bequeathed it to his younger brother William. \u201cThere had been 630 slaves at Kellits, so it was one of the biggest plantations \u2013 over 6,000 acres. It had a mill house and boiling house, and also a slave hospital.<\/p> \u201cOnce I found \u2028out who owned it, \u2028I thought, \u2018Who are they? What\u2019s their history?\u2019\u201d Adrian\u2019s research took him to an estate called The Burn (named after the Shands\u2019 coffee plantation) in Fettercairn, Scotland, and Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives<\/a>, which holds Willam Shand\u2019s papers (1776\u20131845). Among these, Adrian discovered more slave registers, containing some familiar names. \u201cI found many of my family listed in those registers \u2013 six different lines were enslaved on the Kellits Plantation.\u201d<\/p> With limited records beyond the registers, Adrian turned to genealogical DNA company African Ancestry<\/a> and discovered a wide African heritage. \u201cI looked at a direct descendant, on the maternal line, of Ebo Venus and that led to Equatorial Guinea, the Bubi people, and the Fulani and Tikar tribes.\u201d<\/p> An AncestryDNA test<\/a> threw up something even more interesting. \u201cI\u2019ve recently found a living Nigerian relative! Ancestry predicts that she\u2019s a 5th to 8th cousin, so we share 4x to 7x great grandparents somewhere. We\u2019re trying to work out which line she comes from now. But to find her was incredible \u2013 especially because she is from the Ebo tribe!<\/p> \u201cIt\u2019s very different looking at the records and seeing you have Nigerian ancestors to knowing you have a living one. It\u2019s the beginning of a new journey.<\/p> \u201cWith many of the Windrush generation passing away, taking vital oral history and cultural knowledge with them, it\u2019s important to do something now.\u201d To this end, his company Own History<\/a> runs workshops and talks showing others how to unlock their own Caribbean ancestry.<\/p> It\u2019s been an emotional experience. \u201cYou know the pain that\u2019s there \u2013 millions of Africans lost their lives \u2013 but I\u2019ve always tried to approach my work as a celebration: Ebo, Peggy and Lavinia passed their strength from generation to generation. Thank God for the records and the memories that have survived. They meant we were able to find our way home.\u201d<\/p>Spiritual journey<\/h4>
Tracing Lavinia<\/h4>
![\"Aunt](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2020\/06\/AUNT-LILLY-dfc339b-scaled.jpg\" "\\"AUNT")
Researching slavery<\/h4>
![\"Slave](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2020\/06\/CSUK1817_133587-01208-b04057f-scaled.jpg\" "\\"Slave")