Genealogy Chat

Why would one of my rellies, a humble farm labourer of Cheshire, finish up dying in the Turks and Caicos Islands in 1866 at the age of 69? And why is his surname now one of the most common in the area!? OC

OC Perhaps he won an all expenses paid trip to help increase the local population?

lol Nell! His death is commemorated on a tombstone in his native village - it says he died 'in foreign parts' - I was thinking of France, lol. But I googled and found to my astonishment, his death recorded on a gravestone in the Turks and Caicos Islands - a very unusual first name and correct age, has to be him. I am now wondering if his family owned Slave Plantations from way back and he went out there as a widower to 'help out'. Maybe he married a native girl? Maybe it was his ancestors who, ahem, increased the local population? What a mystery in a family of solid ag labs and farmers. OC

Very intriguing OC, but I don't know that I can stand any more scandal in your family. The revelations have been astounding. I don't even know where Turks and Caicos Islands are - no wonder the stone mason settled for 'foreign parts'!

OC have you tried this website it is the museum of Turks & Caicos, I dont know how your rellie ended up there but it looks beautiful... http://www.tcmuseum.org/family_history_research/ Georgina.

Georgina Thanks for that, I will have a look. Nell No, I don't know where they are, either! Looks like um, Bermuda? This branch has suddenly become a whole lot more interesting! OC

Perhaps he was press-ganged by the Royal Navy. Rose

Portland Rose What - at 69??LOL. Although admittedly I dont know when he went out there...... OC

Anyone up until 55 was game! Rose

Well if he was, that's the second member of my family to be press-ganged. The other one waved to me from the same operating table as Nelson - both lost their right arms, Nelson was seen to first, and then my rellie! (A chance find in a library book) OC

Maybe he got sucked into the Bermuda Triangle... the Turks and Caicos Islands lie wholly in it, you know. Did he die in the big hurricane of 1866? I just love how one gets to find interesting stuff out when you read this site!

Give us a name then, Crone, and let us get on with the job!

What an interesting story OC, I tell you what you learn something new everyday reading these boards, I googled the islands to read about their history and to see if I could come up with a good answer for why your ancestor ended up there.....I couldn't! apart from the fact that around the time he would have been there cotton farming was big business. anyway I learnt that the islands are an overseas territory of great britain!! Fuzzy

OC Perhaps he was shipwrecked and liked it there? Did the locals practice polygamy? Was there a church or chapel which might have kept records? Or maybe a Governor if it was a British colony? So many questions..... Roger

OC I just looked at the Times Archive, and a new Colonial Secretary for the T&C Islands was appointed on May 5 1866. So presumably there are some records at TNA? No mention of the hurricane though. That was all I could find for 1866. Roger

I think Slaves were often given the surname of the estate where they lived so they may not be your relatives by your high standards. Intriguing though. Just when you think you have pinned one family to a small village for several generations something like this hapens. Was your relly a servant to someone who owned cotton plantations? Who said family history was dull.

Well, over night thoughts have made me think maybe it wasnt my man, maybe it was his namesake, as there are so many of the same name. Facts I have are these Wade Stubbs, bap 21 Dec 1789 Gawsworth St James, son of Thomas Stubbs and Betty (Hulme) He married his cousin, Alice Stubbs (daur of Henshaw Stubbs and Sarah Shaw) on 2nd October 1814 at Prestbury St Peter - occupation given as Labourer of Gawsworth. They had three (known) children William 1819 Matthew 1826 and Richard (b/d 1818) I expect there are more, I havent delved as until now he wasn't interesting enough! He is commemorated on the tombstone of his parents in Gawsworth St James - Wade their son who died 1853 in foreign parts. There is, on Pedigree Files, a submitted tree which exactly corresponds with my findings about the family (Stubbs) as a whole - Wade appears to have gone to US? Well, his descendants did, anyway. So Wade left for foreign parts after 1826, before 1853. The website regarding Turks and Caicos throws up the information that Stubbs is one of the commonest names in the phone book. Now, my Wade cannot have been responsible for this, surely, so it would seem that his ancestors went there before he did. OC

Google is your friend :-) Florida loyalist Wade Stubbs. Originally from the village of Gawsworth in the English county of Cheshire, Stubbs received a grant of 860 acres on North Caicos and began construction of a plantation he called 'Bellefield'. Bellefield prospered and was later christened 'Wade's Green'. http://www.nationaltrust.tc/Heritagesites.htm

My goodness, you've got an interesting one here. 'There is also no apparent reason why there are so many more slaves recorded in 1822 than in the following 4 records, unless we conclude that the death of Wade Stubbs in 1822 saw many of his slaves being freed, running away or being sold to people outside the country and it is this that partly accounts for the dramatic decline from 1822 and 1825 (although many of his slaves were purchased by Henshall Stubbs and taken to Grand Turk). However, It is clear by the steady numbers from 1825 that around 1400 slaves was the required number to maintain the economic activity of the Turks and Caicos Islands.' http://www.tcmuseum.org/slavery/08_slave_records_of_1822_to_1834/

So if your Wade died in 1853, who was the one that died in 1822?