The TV Series, Who Do You think You Are? sparked off a huge interest in genealogy when it was first aired in Britain. The series, which sent celebrities off in search of their roots, was a fascinating mix of family lore about antecedents that often turned out to be true, different aspects of British social history and an insight into the huge ethnic and cultural melting pot that went in to making the British people.
What brings people to researching their family tree can vary from person to person here on Cayman
. Joe Ellan Thompson says, “I was always interested in tracing my Caymanian, family tree and as I got older and had children it seemed more important to do a family tree.” She began to research the Thompsons, her paternal name first, her maternal name is Bodden but she says that very soon she found out that her paternal grandfather’s mother was also a Bodden. In fact she found that people she had known all her life were cousins.
One particular cousin had already done a lot of research into the family tree and gave Joe Ellan advice on how to go about it. A great starting point was that the cousin had worked in the church office and had access to original records before they were archived.
Once Joe Ellan started she says she was hooked. “I found links to Honduras because so many Caymanians went to live there and when I started researching their baptism records I found them very thorough and helpful even listing grandparents. This was a big find.”
The Thompsons were originally from Scotland and the two families living in Cayman have often wondered whether they are related or not. Joe Ellan says the family folklore has it that the Scottish Thompson brought an English cousin back with him and it is this cousin who might be Jo Ellan’s ancestor. Both sets have had DNA tests and they seem to be related. The other Thompsons have traced their roots back to Scotland in the 1600s.
Jo Ellan says a lot of official church records with details of births ,marriages and deaths are kept in Jamaica but it is hard to access them unless you physically go to where they are kept.
A lot can be found out by going online however. She actually found one of her grandfather’s nephews this way. “My grandfather had two brothers who left for America and never returned but I tracked the nephew down and he sent a photograph and he looks just like my grandfather.” She says going on line has also put her in contact with Americans who want to know about their Caymanian ancestors.
What she finds sad is that it is so hard to find out how people were living in Cayman way back then. “There are the odd letters here and there written to people abroad but not much.”
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