RGD Jamaica Genealogy Report

I recently paid to have a Genealogy report done on myself through the Registrar General’s Department. For a long time, I wanted to learn more about my family and those I descended from. Though the earliest time spot in the current report is the marriage of my maternal great x2 grandparents in the year 1900 it made for a fascinating read. I will be paying again to try to go even further back but I wanted to share some highlights from the report.

Maternal Roots

My maternal line is all based in St Ann, a lush northern parish in Jamaica we locals call “the garden parish”. Ocho Rios (Which I have always felt connected to) and the surrounding areas was the home of my fore-parents until my grandmother moved the capital (Kingston) in the mid-1960’s to work as a waitress. My mom followed in the early 1980’s.

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Peter Mathew Taylor

My Great x2 grand father’s name was Peter Mathew Taylor – a farmer who at 26 married a lady 6 years his junior named Edith Augusta Levers. She was pregnant when they married in November as the following January she gave birth to their first child less than 2 months after marriage. The Taylors had 8 children. 5 boys and 3 girls. All the boys survived to adulthood but 2 of the 3 girls, unfortunately, died as infants. The only surviving female Evelyn Maud Taylor (my great grandmother) grew into adulthood and married William Malagar Dunn in 1934. The Dunns had 6 children one of which was my grandmother born in 1939. Grandma never married but her third child and second daughter became my mom!

Paternal Roots

Less information is available on my paternal line (unsurprisingly). Though an interesting bit is that my paternal grandmother Eulalee Higgins had her first child at 14 and by 23 had 5 children – my dad was her second child who was born when she was 16. She, unfortunately, died young at 39 years old, 6 years before I was born.

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Highlights

  • No females were born on my mother’s side of my family after my mother. For 30+ years only boys were born until my mom gave birth to my younger sister
  • My Maternal line is from Ocho Rios, St Ann – more specifically, BreadnutHill, Buckfield, New Hope and Paradise
  • My Great x2 Maternal Grand Peter Mathew Taylor registered all 8 of his children as well as the death of 2 of his infant daughters
  • My Great x2 grandparents got married in November 1900 and the bride was pregnant at the time
  • My paternal grandmother had 5 children and died before she was 40 years old
  • My Mothers family moved to Kingston between the 1960’s and 80s while my Father’s family already resided in or around the capital city
  • Someday I want to use my imagination to write a short story about my Great x2 grandfather Peter Mathew Taylor and his life in rural Jamaica from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s
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Registrar General’s Department Jamaica

If you are Jamaican or of Jamaica decent and you want to know how to get your report, the costs etc check out the Registrar General’s Department website. Also feel free to ask me questions via my blog @ Jamaipanese.com/contact. Ever done a Genealogy Report on yourself? How far back can you trace your ancestry? leave a comment below or tweet me @Jamaipanese.