Question(s) for Aplmac

[CruiseDuck]

In March I will be taking a cruise and one of my port destinations is Barbados. I recently discovered that my 8th Great Grandmother and Grandfather, John and Elizabeth Rodman, are buried on Barbados. They were banished from Ireland in 1655. According to John's Will he was to be buried in the old church yard in the parish of Christ Church. He died in 1686. He left his plantation, in the parish of Christ Church situated in the Irish Quarter, to his daughter. Would you have any idea where the area of the church cemetery and the Irish Quarter would be on Barbados? How far form the cruise dock would this be?

 

Thank you in advance for any information you could offer.

 

Cathy

[barbados]

Please excuse me for interrupting, but I may be able to give some direction to your query.

 

Please contact Reverend Father Harcourt Blackett at:

 

Harcourt-Blackett@msn.com

 

Reverend Blackett is the parish priest of St. Patrick's Church in Bridgetown and traveled to Ireland this year to commemorate the Irish people transported to Barbados after the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland in 1649.

 

If anyone can find your grandparents on the island, he can.

 

Again, my apologies for butting-in, but I wish you luck in your quest.

[CruiseDuck]

Thank you so much for your information.

 

You are not butting in at all. Your information is fascinating.

 

I will definitely contact Reverend Father Harcourt Blackett.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to post!

 

Cathy

[Aplmac]

Back when your old fella was alive (and died),

the Christ Church parish church was located on/near the beach at Maxwell Coast Road.

 

 

One of two historic, and devastating hurricanes...either 1780 or 1831

completely demolished the shoreside church

and the decision was taken to rebuild it inland -atop the cliff, where it is today!

 

Some remnant graves remain beachside, at Maxwell Coast Road

(the right-angle corner at its Western-corner end)

but whether any markings will still be legible, I rather doubt it

since most headstones of that era were a sandstone of sorts

and prone to erosion.

300 yrs. of erosion and it's very near impossible to make out any engravings

but your ancestor's remains are almost certainly laid to rest in that area.

 

 

Burial data for that early period might be available at Barbados Dept. of Archives

where I undertake private searches for the genealogically-inclined

although I wouldn't be surprised to discover that burial records for Ch.Ch around that time

also got wiped out in the same catastrophe that destroyed the church!!

 

No idle boast: our records are some of the best in the English-speaking Caribbean

but there are gaps in the record, due to exactly this sort of 'happening'

-fire, flood, hurricane. :cool:

 

 

_____________________________________

Hope this helps.

Your best bet is to catch a taxi straight to Maxwell Coast Road

and have a poke around in the treed area at the Western right-angle corner of that loop-road,

that's off the Maxwell Main Road.

 

Use these descriptive phrases to your taxi driver, and it should be easy.

thing to spot.

[CruiseDuck]

Thank you for your information. I can certainly understand how after devastating hurricanes, fires and floods the records may no longer exist. In my ancestry searches I have run in to exactly that same problem with the records from the civil war era that were destroyed by fires.

 

How far would you say is the area of the loop road off the Maxwell main Road from the cruise port area? If we had the taxi driver drop us off in that area is there a good beach within walking distance that we could go to after exploring the treed area?

 

On a side note. In the past couple of days in researching the area I have come across some interesting history of the 'Redlegs'. Now I know where these darn freckles came from. :)

 

Seriously I do appreciate the information you have provided.

 

Cathy

[Aplmac]

How far would you say is the area of the loop road off the Maxwell main Road from the cruise port area? ===> Five? miles?

If we had the taxi driver drop us off in that area

is there a good beach within walking distance that we could go to

after exploring the treed area?

There are several small hotels along the Maxwell Coast Road

with a reasonable beach right there.

Haven't been in that area for some time

but as I recall, you can walk 50-100 yds thru the remnant graveyard onto that beach.