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Why am I writing this?
Well, I may as well ask "what am I doing family tree research for at all?". This is especially pertinent as Pat Wyatt (i.e. Dora Patricia Cullen / Wyatt) has already written a superb book called "Don't write a book about mother" on the same topic. Further, the material is covered in the Family Register, which is a detailed chronicle of family births, deaths and marriages written at the time that they occurred (or within a few years).
I don't come from a story telling background, and I can't ask my father or grandfather about details because they're both dead; I have next to nothing in the way of family pictures. However, I do come from a research background, and genealogy research is not too different to my main line of scientific & industrial research. Further, the process of researching genealogy has become so much easier lately. I can and do nip out in my lunch hour to read microfilms of the Jamaican Parish Registers at the second closest LDS (Latter Day Saints) church. I easily drive to the third closest municipal library to search the CD-ROMs of the NSW and Victorian Birth, Death and Marriage indexes and the CD-ROMs for the British IGI and Ancestral Search. I can take a half day to visit the State Library in town to (shudder) read through the St Catherine's House microfiches or cemetery records; that's bad, but just 20 years ago I would have had to fly to London.
But, easiest of all, the Genealogy information on the web is starting to blossom. I used Alta Vista to find Jeremy White, husband of a Vidal-Hall descendant, on the web. I also found Bill McPhail, descendant of the brother of John McPhail. And I'm in touch by email with unrelated people around the world (Dorothy Kew, Chris Codrington, Claire Hendricks and Edward Crawford) who are also researching their Jamaican ancestors. It's an exciting time.
I shouldn't neglect to add some of the resources that have recently arrived on the web. It's now the year 2000; the web only started in 1995. The LDS FamilySearch (IGI + Ancestral Search) arrived late 1999. The Jamaica Almanac lists plantations and their owners in 1840. There have been two good Australian immigration databases on the web. (For one click here). And search engines like Alta Vista are very powerful on their own, allowing me to find places like Omoa and check the spelling of Monaltrie.
So, well, what do I have to add to what Pat Wyatt has already said? First, Pat Wyatt did not have direct access to either the Family Register or the Jamaican Parish Registers and so had to work from less ideal sources such as letters, wills and family trees. Second, my writing style is quite different from hers, so I emphasise and point out different things.