Valencia Ellis

English 1103
23 October 2014

Evaluative Works Cited: Why Cant I Trace My Grandfather?

My first source is my Grandmother. She obviously isnt a written document of some sort
but in my case she is just as good, maybe even better. My goal is to find out what kind of man
my grandfather was, and no document can possibly reveal that kind of information to me. Who
better to ask than the mother of his 3 children (4 children if she didnt miscarry after he died), the
woman he planned to spend his life with?
The information my grandmother gave me is very important to my project. She told me
what kind of man he was, what he did for a living, when he was born, and when he died. She
also explained went into great detail about how he died, and what the circumstances around his
death were, as well as the impact of his death on her life. I havent conducted Interview #2 with
her as of yet, however when I do conduct that interview, I plan to question her and receive
answers about the other aspect of my paper, such as what kind of huge events were occurring in
Jamaica at the time of my grandfathers death that would possibly be the reason why his accident
didnt make It to the news.
The information she has given me thus far has been both opinionated and factual. The
factual portion which was very small is what I would use if I were to continue with the
researching Caribbean genealogy as oppose to how to research Caribbean genealogy. The

opinioned portions of her responses are to help me form an idea of what kind of man he was. Its
crucial to giving my paper that personal feel that I wanted to develop from the beginning.
"Ancestry Privacy Statement." Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History Records at
Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com Inc., 1 Aug. 2014. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

I also plan to use the Ancestry Privacy Statement as a source for my paper. Its one of the
free online genealogy tools that I tried to use in order to find my grandfather. There isnt an
author listed, however, Im sure its credible since the information has been provided by the
company itself, Ancestry.com Inc. The privacy policy is basically a long list of what their
privacy principals consist of. It explains what may be discovered while using the website and
explains that the information about living relatives is very sensitive and hidden. It goes into great
detail about how they collect process and store the data they receive and how a lot that data is
either drawn from stories and information family members have personally put up, or public
records. There is also segment in the policy that explains what kind of information they collect
and how they collect it. They provide names and contact information, however to fully access
that information, there is a membership with fees required. What you find on the website is all
based on the information you provide. As a user of the website, personal information such as
interests and your background as well as personal documents you have decided to save can be
shared. The information provided is stored, processed and transferred to different countries
which can result in a different level of privacy depending on your place of residence.
The privacy policy of this site wants the reader to know how information they provide is
being used, and what kind of information they can find as well as how they can find it. The site
also reveals reasons why you may not find certain information. The policy is indeed factual since
its a policy that the company goes by in order to deliver information. This interests me in my

search since I decided to take my paper in a new direction of what steps it would take to find my
grandfather, and why havent I been able to find anything on him thus far. I figured that this
would be a place where I could find personal information on my grandfather. However, after
using the tool and finding nothing, I wanted answers as to why, and the privacy policy provides
that. It doesnt specifically state what their communications were like with the Caribbean, but I
chose this policy as one of my four sources because it is important to my paper. It has helped me
develop an explanation as to why I cant find info on my grandfather.
As I mentioned previously, this sites provided information is based on either what an
individual personally provides them as a user, or via public records. This agrees with what my
first source, my grandmother, explained to me. She said that I probably wouldnt find much on
him since in the 60s, Jamaica wasnt the best on public documents; she didnt even have a birth
certificate. This gave me a better understanding as to why I couldnt find anything on my
grandfather since Ancersty.coms info is based on everything Jamaica is lacking; public records.
"2010 American Community Survery." American FactFinder-Results. U.S Census Bureau, 3 Feb.
2011. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

My third source is the U.S Census Bureaus 2010 American Community Survey. All of
the information found using the American Fact Finder is considered a government document.
There is no specific author, the information has been provided by a government agency (U.S
Census Bureau). I believe the information is credible since the American Fact finders info is
based on data collection. The purpose of the American Fact Finder is to help find popular facts
about any community in the U.S. It displays the population of the geography searched, and then
tells specific information about the population such as race, gender, age, or businesses in

community. There is a guided search tab as well that helps find topics about people, business,
and industries. The advanced search tab will provide all information that the American fact
finder has to offer.
Using the American fact finder, Ive find a few tables of my interest. One of them
displays that according to the U.S Census Bureaus American Community Survey, there is an
estimated 965,355 Jamaicans living in the U.S. Using this tool I also discovered that the top
three states with the largest Jamaican population. 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. This information is factual since it is based on data collection.
This interests me because I wanted to find out where the people who couldve known my
grandfather would be now. Personally I know that a lot of my family who chose to come to
America either live in Jersey, Florida, or New York. I wanted to see if my interpretation was
true, and according to the census, it is. I chose this source to be one of my four sources because it
is important to the portion of my paper involving Jamaican migration and will correlate with my
next source explaining why Jamaicans left Jamaica and where most of them migrated to.
Murrel, Nathaniel. "Jamaican Americans." Countries and Their Cultures. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

My fourth source is an article by N. Samuel Murrell, a professor from UNCW, titled

Jamaican Americans. The website contains many articles written about specific cultures. The
article I read was nothing but facts and sited each of its sources in the end from credible
websites. This article gave an overview on the history of Jamaicans, their background, the
modern era of Jamaica, the significant waves of immigration at certain points in time, reasons for

immigration, and facts about Jamaican culture. The part of the article that I plan to use would be
the segment on the waves of immigration and why Jamaicans were leaving at that time.
It is said that the first wave of immigration from Jamaica to the U.S occurred from the
early 1900s to 1920s. The article also explained the circumstances surrounding the McCarranWalter act which discriminated against black immigrants and only permitted 100 Jamaicans into
the U.S annually. This occurred in the 1960s which is significant to me because this is the time
frame where my grandfather died. Due to the act, a larger number of Jamaicans migrated to
Britain instead of migrating to the U.S due to the new restrictions. People were leaving Jamaica
because of socio economic issues. Migration was heavily encouraged during the time of
economic hardship caused by lack of economic diversity, plantation agriculture, poor land
distribution and high unemployment statistics. This migration increased in the early 1970s when
the standard of living in Jamaica decreased and Jamaicans fled the country for safety as a result
of political turmoil.
This interests me in my search because it gives me an understanding of how my family
got here, or at least possible explanations. It also supports my idea of researching my grandfather
being difficult since I wouldnt be able to get in touch with anyone who actually knew him since
during his time of death a lot of Jamaicans were leaving. I chose it to be one of my four sources
for that same reason. This source agrees with my other sources because my grandmother did
explain to me that a lot of people were leaving Jamaica around that time, and that there was a lot
going on. The U.S Census Bureaus information supports that idea as well since the numbers are
there to show what point in time Jamaicans migrated and the amount that did migrate to certain
areas in the U.S.