About me

I have always been fascinated by the people of the past. I never considered myself a historian but I would always wonder about the ‘people of before’. Who lived in my house before me, sat at my desk in school or walked the halls I walk? Who were they and what were they doing? Were they in a rush or were they calm? What were their hopes and dreams, and did they achieve them? As a child living in a Victorian terraced house in East London, living just off an old Roman road and attending church and school in old buildings, there was always something to make me think of the ‘people of before’.

I am the daughter of two Caribbean people who came to England as part of the Windrush generation: my Trinidadian mother and my Jamaican father. Family was a small thing to me as a child; me, my sister, my mother and my mother’s partner. The few ‘aunties’ and ‘uncles’ I had were not blood relations. I only visited the Caribbean once, for my grandmother’s funeral in Trinidad. I am sure I met and spoke to my maternal grandfather on that trip, but I do not remember it, I was very young still. That was the only contact I had with grandparents; phone calls were expensive things back then. Family history wasn’t really a thing for us. We didn’t ask many questions (children should be seen and not heard) and no information was offered.

Fast forward to adulthood and I have had my own children. I started trying to tell them about their heritage and ancestors, despite only having names for two of them. The family knew many ancestor names on my husband’s side but I realised I wanted to know more about my ancestors. I wanted to tell my children about specific ancestors, their names and who they were not just a general statement of ‘your ancestors lived in such and such a place’. So I started asking questions.

I am quite introverted, but I started making phone calls. I used my skills gained during my PhD studies to organise and direct my research. DNA tests appealed to the scientist me and I purchased multiple kits and analysed the results. My research helped me rediscover ancestors and connect with living distant family members. I created communities for my Jamaican family on Facebook so that we could all find each other. The researcher in me wasn’t satisfied with just building a tree so I collated my research into books, now it can be easily shared and never again lost. I have found many cousins and elders now, reconnected branches of our family that had lost contact, and rediscovered family connections that had been thought of as just family friends. It feels so very good to have a history, to have so much family and to have rediscovered something that could have been lost forever, as well as to share this knowledge with my children.

Researching Trinidadian ancestors is nigh on impossible without visiting the records office in Trinidad. Unfortunately my family has very little oral history to act as clues. I’ve had to put a pause on that research until I can spend some time in Trinidad. Genealogy had now become a passion so I then turned my attention to my husband’s family. A language barrier has slowed my research into the Finnish ancestors on his mother’s side, I need to lean on my husband and mother in law for translation help. I have made great headway with the English ancestors on his father’s side though. Again, I talked to people, asked questions, researched, made groups and collated the research into books.

Uncovering forgotten ancestors and stories honestly fills me with a joy I can’t quite describe. It’s also a wonderful outlet for the side of me that loves researching and reporting my findings, a side of me that has been craving attention since I finished my PhD and focused my attention on motherhood. As well as continuing to research my children’s ancestors I started rediscovering recent ancestors for extended family and friends. And that brings us to where I am now.

Please take a look at my Jamaican Genealogy and English Genealogy pages and get in contact if you would like to talk about how I can help you. Your ancestors are there waiting for you to rediscover them, I would love to help you do so.