Bermuda History – Genealogy
by ryork | Aug 29, 2011 | Publications | 233 comments
Library Publications
- Genealogy Resources
- Bermuda Bibliographies
- Resources About Bermuda for High School Students
- Bermuda Book Available for Loan July 2012
- Bermuda Traditions – Cod Fish Cakes, Hot Cross Buns, Kites & More
- Family Life – Grow your family tree
- Bermuda History – Genealogy
- Bermuda History – Epidemics, Yellow Fever & Biowarfare in the 1800s?
- Bermuda History – Pocahontas
- Bermuda History – Mary Prince
Hello,
I am related to Gov Stephen Paynter, his daughter was Patience Paynter born in Warwick Bermuda 1611 til 1691. Her daughter Patience Bullock (1640) and her granddaughter Patience Tatem (1667) all died in 1691. I am wondering if you can help me find out why they all died in the same year?
Many Thanks!
It may be a coincidence that Bermuda was impacted the year after your relatives’ deaths by a yellow fever epidemic when 767 people died between June and October of 1692 (1 out of every 8 residents). Unfortunately, I do not have definitive proof that there were yellow fever deaths earlier than the suspected accidental importation of disease-bearing mosquitoes and/or arrival of a sick sailor from the Caribbean in June 1692. (Jarvis, Michael J. In the Eye of All Trade: Bermudians, and the Maritime Atlantic World, 1680-1783. Chapel Hill: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by University of North Carolina Press, c2010, page 85-86).
Hi Monika! I’m also related to this family!
I am searching for information on the original ownership of the Loughland Guest House in Paget. Please contact me with any lead or history of the house. Thank you!
I posted a query a few years ago but as I am still drawing a blank from searches elsewhere am repeating it in case anyone may have some information please.
I am trying to find information on James Ebenezer Swan who was born about 1856 in Bermuda the son of James Swan and ?. By 1886 he had moved to the UK and became my late wife’s great grandmother’s second husband, following the death of my wife’s great grandfather.
He died in Aston, Birmingham 28 July 1925.
Any information regarding his family history before moving to the UK would be much appreciated.
Hi, I am trying to see if my great grandfather, Sandy Bean (b 1793) has ancestors from Bermuda or may have actually been born in Bermuda. I am related by DNA to Jolene Bean.
The earliest US census list Sandy Bean as being born in North Carolina. He ended up in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, and married Rachel Adair.
I’m trying to find George Peniston and his wife Lucy Hinson, married 1846 in Hamilton or Devonshire Bermuda. I’m also looking for their parents. I’m trying to link the separated family groups.Thanks.
I believe Lionel Loxdale born in 1878 in Bermuda may be my grandfather. 1880 at the age of 2 his father died A few years after, his mother died and 6 children were now orphaned and in Bermuda. His extended family, as far as my ancestry research shows, is back in England.
I assume his father Thomas worked for the British government. How can I find/purchase his parents’ death certificates INCLUDING cause of death?
I assume the children left Bermuda and returned to England to extended family to be raised OR placed in an orphanage in Bermuda and possibly adopted.
Any suggestions on where to get Bermuda records for death certificates and possible orphanage records from the 1880s?
Thank you for any help!
George Loxdale left Bermuda with his two brothers Alfred Edward Loxdale and Lionel and lived at Halifax Nova Scotia Canada. George had a large family in Halifax, Alfred Edward Loxdale died 12 April 1893 in Halifax aged 18 years , Lionel married Estella Burnes in Halfax December 15, 1897 Lionel did not stay in Halfax. My Mother’s sister married Alfred Edward Loxdale Son of George
Hi Brian,
My sister is Marj Kuhn and wrote the above question.
At the time, she felt it was a dead end. In the last six months I have helped with the cause and feel that Lionel may in fact be our Grandfather.
Your information was invaluable.
I recently found an article in The Mail dated 5/25/1898 that Lionel attempted to marry another woman in Boston and said he was single.
The woman must have smelled a rat because she investigated him back in Halifax.
Lionel told her that the marriage never happened (I do have the record) and he had torn the document up. She did manage to find the person who married him and saw the records.
How sad with Estella being pregnant at the time.
I also discovered that Estella, her sisters Maud and Effie as well as her Mother all moved to Boston within the next year.
I tracked them over time to see if there were any descendants in the area. Our family is from the Boston area.
Estella remarried in 1904 but never had any more children. Maud and Effie had one daughter each. Neither of the 3 had any children.
Do you have any more information that may be helpful?
Our Grandfather as we knew him was Charles Henry Davis.
There is no record of him prior to him meeting and marrying my Grandmother. My family started researching the issue in the 1970’s so many stones have been overturned.
Lionel checks a lot of boxes and the timeline fits. Charlie was my Mother’s Father but my Father always said, the secret lies in Nova Scotia. My older sister told me that so I have no idea why he would say it.
The other reason I feel this may be true is that I have Loxddale and Greenslade cousins that are equal in DNA match so I feel Rosina is the key. Given Thomas died in England, Alfred died in Halifax, George is certainly ruled out, that leaves Lionel.
Thank you for any help you may provide,
May Cadigan
Do you have any knowledge where Lionel went if he did not stay
In Halifax. Know his wife and daughter moved to Massachusetts
Thanks
Hello Rosina
I asked my 1st cousin Wayne Alfred Loxdale if he ever heard of Lionel Loxdale and he said no but he did know about the Greenslade family. Wayne’s Aunt Bella Loxdale did extensive genealogy of the Loxdale family . she was good friends with a Hugh Loxdale from England. I am the youngest of all my relatives, only Wayne 89 and his sister Marilyn 81 left, she lives in Tuscon. They are very fine people. Wayne’s father had a brother Garnet Lionel Loxdale (1909 – 1915). There is a headstone photo for a Thomas Loxdale died 1880 Bermuda on the internet. George H.J. Loxdale came to Halifax in 1889. Lionel 12 years old is listed in the 1891 census for Halifax, married in 1897 and does not show up on the 1901 census for Nova Scotia. I do not believe he came back to Nova Scotia. I thought that the children of Thomas & Eliza had moved to the U.S.A. except for George and Alfred Edward.
My grand dad would sit and tell me about the male family member repairing large wooden ship by tillting the ships on their side. would like to know more about this work
I can’t tell you specifically, but the internist beaching of a ship, and laying it on its side, is called “careening” (also “careering”). In this way, repairs may be made to the hull of a ship (replacing boards or caulking or metal armour).
Hi,
My 3GG was Ambrose Gosling, born in Westminster, England in 1787 and died in Paget in 1857. It appears he was buried in Saint Paul’s Church Cemetery in Paget.
in 1819 he married Ann Arabella Croydon Hinson and went on to have 8 children.
Outside of these basic facts, I don’t know much about him and wondered if you could be of help.
Best Regards,
Rowland Gosling
Came across your note. I am in the process of updating the family tree.From those 8 offspring only 3 had children, William Henry, Edmund Hinson and Charles Gray. I would suspect Charles Gray would be your GGG. If you can provide me with your parents names etc, I can show you where you fit in and hopefully provide you with comfort to provide more names to the tree (In this case it is laid out as a circle- don’t ask.).
All the best
Charles Gosling
My grandmother who passed, was named Arabel M I Gosling (b. 1933) and her farther was Duncan Allerton Gosling (b.1899). Duncan’s farther’s name is Charles Gosling (b. 1868) but is his farther also Charles Gray Gosling? If so, Charles Gray Gosling (b. 1832 ) is the son of Ambrose Gosling (b. 1787)
Does this look right? If anything looks incorrect please let me know. I’m just trying figure out the history of the family.
Thanks so much and I truly appreciate any help and or replys.
Hello, I am trying to find records of people in Bermuda in the 1700s. An ancestor, Josiah Hill was said to have gone to Bermuda from New England in the early 1700s. He had a son James. Are there any records of the residents of Bermuda during the early to mid-1700s? Eventually, James settled in the Dutch West Indies. Thank you.
I am looking for the death record of a William “Billy” Hoadley Skeen. He died is the 60s in Bermuda. Billy was born in Brighton, England and came to Bermuda where is half sister, Florence lived. She was married to Van Osdell Swainson Brown from St. George’s. Billy married Georgian Helen Gorham, and had a daughter, Phyllis May Skeen. Phyllis was educated at Dalhousie University and married Dr. Edwin Fraser Ross in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After Billy Skeen’s death his wife went to live near her daughter in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Hello
I was enquiring as to how to find records of the Seymour family, in particular Elizabeth Burch Seymour (1795-1857) Elizabeth married John Howell and then ? Bennett. I am descended from the Bennett line – William R Bennett, Caroline and Elizabeth Bennett, from what I can gather all born in Bermuda. Elizabeth went on to Devon and London England where she died. Could Elizabeth be related to the Seymour’s of Sandys Parish?? Any assistance would be gratefully accepted. Thank you.
Hello Helen
I am also a descendent of William R Bennett and Sarah Tolmey, who were married in Tasmania Australia. I am replying to you post to see if you were able to find out anything helpful about our mutual ancestor, William, who seems to have been born in Bermuda.
with thanks
Julie ( Western Australia)
Searching for John Palliser Johnston my great grandfather. He was born on May 1887 in Bermuda, his parents were Emmiline Mary Palliser and John Reginald Johnston.
He was married to Geraldine Bassett who was born in Paget, Bermuda in 1892, she died 11th January 1974. Their daughter Geraldine J. Johnston married Lloyd Winsome Battersbee, they are my grandparents.
Any information will be greatly appreciated.
Regards to all.
I am the great grandson of Thomas Grant Wells, born 1838 in Bermuda. According to “Bermuda in Three Colours” written by my great uncle Grant Carveth Wells, Thomas Wells’s had lived in Bermuda since the days of Governor Tucker (1616). I would be very interested to hear of the history of the Bermuda Wells’s from 1609 until Thomas Grant’s birth in 1838.
Hello!
Carveth Grant Wells is my great, great grandfather. His son had an illicit image child (my grandmother) she never met her dad but does have some memories of her Grandad. Her middle name is Zeta, thought to be after Zeta Robert – Carveth’s second wife, which is unusual as she was no blood relation. However, Carveth and Zeta appear to have supported my grandmother and her mother financially as well as emotionally despite his son not accepting his own daughter.
Rachel
Hi there,
I’m looking for information about two brother in the Royal Navy, Thomas Harriott (Lieutenant) and William Harriott, Master R.N., who served as Superintendant of Convicts at Bermuda. I am sure that they are Bermudans but I’m looking for any evidence or info if it’s out there!
Thanks,
David
Good evening
I am trying to find information about William Solas born 1899 in Nevis. He passed in 1960 in Glebe Land, Pembroke Parish
Any information would be appreciated
Hello I am tracing my grandmothers family. Her name was Winnifred Main (Mayne) early spelling and later spelling of last name. She was born in Bermuda 1905 April 22. She was one of six children born to Grace and Frances Main who immigrated from England to Bermuda.
I would appreciate any information concerning this family or where to look at archives if I come to Bermuda.
thank you
Never mind, I believe I have it figured out
My mom is Babara Lynn Gosling (maiden name from mother’s side)
Arabel Gosling is my grandmother
Duncan Gosling is my ggf
Charles Gosling b.1868 is my gg gf
Charles G Gosling b. 1832 is my ggg gf
Ambrose Gosling b. 1787 is my gggg gf
Thanks
Hello,
Seeking information on the Thompsons of Roseden – Edward Joseph married “Ellen Kathkleen?” ; Edward Stuart married (2) “Alice?” and any genealogy resources, databases on Bermuda for such information?
Thanks
M.
For an initial search of resources please view the local newspaper “The Royal Gazette” via the BNL’s Digital Collection at: https://bnl.contentdm.oclc.org/ – using advance search (https://bnl.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/search/advanced) you can limit the articles to list only those referencing Edward Joseph Thompson. This gives you a series of “hits” including unclaimed letters, but also advertisements and reports on company formations and partnerships: https://bnl.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/search/searchterm/Edward%20Joseph%20Thompson/field/all/mode/exact/conn/and
I am searching for my grandfather Bernard Johnston, believe he was born in Hamilton, Bermuda, his parents were my great-grandparents, John Reginald Johnston and Emmeline Mary Pallisier.
Family lore says he went to England and had another family, he was going to return to Bermuda but, died before he could make the trip. His son Robert Wilkinson is my biological/birth father. Nobody knows what happened to Bernard, when and how he died, his family or where he is buried.
Great-Grandfather, Arthur Stuart Wilkinson, (1887-1923) and great-grandmother Francis Mae Virgil. I found information about Arthur, he was in the military (rank unknown), and that he either suddenly died form illness or committed suicide, the information is not clear and we would like to know what happened to Arthur. Francis “Fannie ” Mae Virgil and her family are another mystery that we cannot solve.
Captain Thomas Battersbee and Rosa Ann Hinson, her parents Peter Hinson and Phyllis Ramsey.
The Battersbee family ancestors came from Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, I have managed to go seven generations back to Edmund Battersbee, ESQ and his wife Marie Sebestinne Sophia Perrin living in Manchester, England.
I am hoping that through this communication someone can locate information about any of the above mentioned ancestors.
Very Sincere Thanks,
Virginia King
Seattle, WA, USA
I am searching for a link to my GGGGF, John Seymour (ship’s carpenter) born around 1800. John married Mary Jane Stephens. I have many DNA matches to the Seymour family of Connecticut and was wondering if anyone knows whether the Connecticut Seymour’s are related to the Bermudan John Seymour. I am thinking my GGGGF may have been enslaved and was given the same name as his enslaver. Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you!