Valencia Ellis

9/30/2014
Final Proposal
Why Cant I Trace My Grandfather?
My Personal Experience and Interest
The day my mother first spoke to me about my grandfather will forever be engraved into
my mind. Before that moment, I never really noticed that I didnt have a grandfather in my life. I
never cared to even ask because it never came up. When I was about 7 years old, I remember
overhearing my mother having a casual conversation on the phone with one of her friends in the
living room. I dont recall what the conversation was about in its entirety, however, somewhere
in that conversation I heard her say My dad. Hearing that phrase coming from my mother
stunned me because I never heard her say a word about this dad person. I felt obligated to
question that detail of her conversation because it sparked my interest, but I had to find a way to
do so without making it clear that I was listening to her conversation. Are you on the phone
with grandpa? I asked. Tell him I said hey! I continued. My mother burst into laughter and
told her friend that shed call them back. I was on to something. She pressed on to tell me that
she doesnt know her father because he died when she was 3 years old. For a moment, although
my mother did not get emotional, my heart began to ache for her. I dont have the strongest
relationship with my father today, but I know him, and I was very close with him as a child. I
couldnt imagine not knowing my father at all; not knowing what he looks like, if we shared
similarities in appearance or character, or what kind of man he was. I felt a sense of emptiness,
as though there was something missing from the big picture. From that point forward, I wanted
to know who my grandfather was, not only for myself, but for my mother.
At the age of 7, I wasnt too familiar with what steps to take in reference to finding out
who my grandfather was. The most I could do is ask my grandmother about it, and at the time,
she did nothing but avoid that conversation. Now, 10 years later, I have all of the resources. The
opportunity to find the answer to my question after all these years, has surfaced.
My Prior Knowledge

Before eavesdropping on my mothers conversation, I knew absolutely nothing about my

grandfather, I hadnt even thought about it. I just knew that his name was Samuel Reid and he
died when he was struck by a truck while riding his bike to the market. I realized my mother
didnt have much emotion when she spoke about it, and to me that was very sad. She couldnt
show emotion because she was numb to the subject. She knew just as much about her father as I
did, and that was nothing. So how could she feel? I feel like everyone deserves to know the
people who bought them into this world, and somehow, I would find a way for her to know more
than just his name.
Questions to Answer
A little after looking over the information I got out of interviewing my grandmother, I
realized that this was going to be more of a mission. I couldnt find anything on those genealogy
search engines about my grandfather. Thus, I decided to try using Ancestry.com, thinking that
would be more reliable, and I couldnt find a thing there either. This baffled me and caused me to
change the direction of my paper. Instead, I decided to focus on why I wasnt finding anything
on him. Is the lack of public records in Jamaica in the 1960s to blame? Do the privacy policies
of the online genealogy tools Ive tried to use play a role? What was going on in Jamaica in the
60s that made my grandfathers accident irrelevant? Why would it be hard to find people that
knew him, perhaps living friends? If I could find those friends, where would they be? Does
migration play a huge role? When did they migrate and why were they migrating?
Working Knowledge
I began my research by asking my mom a few simple questions about my grandfather,
such as his name, where he was born, where he died, and the circumstances surrounding his
death. She didnt know much, besides his name, so I decided that my grandmother would be the
best source of information for this topic. With the information I obtained I planned to use two
websites which serve as Jamaican genealogy search engines. There, I thought I should at least be
able to get my hands on some of the basic information about my grandfather. My next step
wouldve been find a photo of him, perhaps an obituary. A little after looking over the
information I got out of interviewing my grandmother, I realized that this was going to be more
of a mission. I couldnt find anything on those genealogy search engines about my grandfather.

Thus, I decided to try using www.ancestry.com, thinking that would be more reliable, and I
couldnt find a thing there either. This baffled me and caused me to change the direction of my
paper. Instead, I decided to focus on why I wasnt finding anything on him. I found out through
the ancestry.com privacy policy that their information provided relies on user uploads and public
records. This may be why I cant find information on him; public records werent commonly
kept or even created in Jamaica around his time of birth. In order to at least obtain direct records
I would have to obtain a death certificate by going to Jamaica or maybe police records. To kill
my curiosity of where people who may have known him couldve gone, I took a look at a few
tables provided by the 2010 Community Survey conducted by the U.S Census Bureau. I found
that there is an estimated 965,355 Jamaicans living in the U.S. As of 2010, New York had the
highest population of Jamaicans with 305,285 people. Florida had 246,478 Jamaicans, and New
Jersey had 55,351 Jamaicans. Many of my family members from Jamaica have migrated to those
states so this information pretty much confirmed my interpretation to be true.
I also found an article written by Professor Nathaniel S. Murrell at UNCW titled
Jamaican Americans. This article told me a lot about what was going on in Jamaica, especially at
the time of my grandfathers death. I discovered that people were indeed migrating the most at
his time of death due to socioeconomic issues and political dismay. This also ties into the
information I found via the 2010 U.S Census. The research I have done thus far points indirectly
points me into the direction I would have to follow if I truly set out to find out more about my
grandfathers life.