15th September 1685. Elizabeth Richards was born in St Michael Parish, Barbados. Her parents were Lattimerr and Judith. She was baptised on October 20th along with her older brother Warren. The following year, she was buried on 2nd November.
The first permanent English settlers had arrived at Barbados in 1627. It became a major source of sugar, produced by slaves. Many of these were African but some white British and Irish people were also forced to work there. There is no indication of the status of the Richards family. The death rate on Barbados was very high at this time and many children, like Elizabeth, would not have reached their second birthdays.
Read about my ‘ordinary people’ project here.
I really like this series.
Thanks! It’s something a bit different among the book reviews 🙂
Just reading this little bit I already feel so sad for the parents and all those people who were subsequently pushed into what were horrible conditions everywhere in sugar plantations. Back then a lot of people died, did you find out what she died of?
I know it’s so sad isn’t it? No, I don’t know anything else about this family. The further back the records go, the less information there tends to be, plus I am limited by what’s available on the Ancestry website. I think back then, it was difficult to know causes of death and I assume this wasn’t investigated much. I just wanted this baby to be remembered.
It’s really nice to do that, and otherwise that baby wouldn’t have been remembered by anyone probably except those that might be seeking a family link. I think a lot of paper records are also lost from days gone by, plus in other cases there just isn’t much information, especially about the poorer people in society.
Thank you, yes agreed 🙂
You’re right, a lot of records are lost. Also for poorer people in particular, they might not have been able to write (or afforded the materials to) so did not leave as many paper traces. It’s interesting to think what might be kept from our times, as so much is written on computers and not ‘physically’ but is equally likely to be lost.
Yes, that’s what’s worrying about today. We have so much saved on computers today (even the computers in our phones) that generations later will either be able to access completely or it will all be wiped by some massive virus one day or just incompatibility. I mean if we don’t have electricity we can’t access these things long-term…we’re definitely too reliant on devices these days. Now I don’t feel so silly or old for liking old-fashioned hard copies of photos, books, etc. lol
That’s certainly a problem. Also there are so many records now, how we decide what to save? That’s a problem that archivists have too.
Good point. I don’t think I’d find it easy to decide and certainly don’t envy the job of archiving everything :/
I really enjoy this series! I always look forward to the posts.
Thank you! 🙂