I would love to see where the traces of African are from for Ron. Mine would be totally boring.......English, German and Scottish. Just found that the Spanish side for Ron also married some freed slaves. As well as the Cooper side. Fascinating!
Thanks for the thought, Wendy. All I know re Spain is that "Jose Maria Figueroa" came from an area in the northwest near Galicia around 1782, lived in Cartagena, Colombia and arrived in Jamaica in 1820....and proceeded to populate the Island, legal or outside children included. But the problem is (and a catholic Spanish friend explained this).....Jose is one of the most common names and given to males as a first name. For the girls, they get Maria......and in this case he got both, as probably a gazillion Spaniards did. Maria Carmen's father came from the same area so has filled me in on customs, etc. IOW.....it would be like looking for John Smith in the Anglo world. However, Maria Carmen is going to translate a document we found in a parish church in the south of Spain 10 years ago. It was part of the parish book and was open for the tourists to see. Damned if it wasn't for Caterina de Figueroa and I believe is a record of her Mass payments for 2 husbands. OH, forgot to say..it was from 1601!!!!! And I didn't do too badly with the olde Espagnol. Right now I am chasing down a formerly elusive Canadian who was married to Ron's aunt......FOUND HIM.....but even more interesting, his aunt was buried with him (Find a Grave)....she married a second time and I had met up with the second husband. Isn't it funny how they think their secrets died with them. Ron looked a bit stunned at first when I showed him the tombstone. LOL.
