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  1. #1
    Mary Anne
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    Default Mary Cresse SMITH death/burial in Jamaica?

    I have this lady in Jamaica and I am trying to determine her burial/death date and location.

    Alas, most of the online trees (on A***) that include reference to her seem to have slavishly copied from one another, suggesting that she died in Verê, Parana, Brazil and giving no date (and no source citation, of course ).

    Happily, at least one of the trees has attached images of what look like her baptism on 13 April 1751, in Westmoreland Parish, and her marriage to James SMITH, 20 September 1770, also in Westmoreland. They seem to have had at least 8 children: Rebecca Frances, Elizabeth, Mary, Anna Maria, Patronella Clark, James Laurence One who lived only a few years, and one who was born later), and Sarah Ann.

    I suspect that she died in VERE PARISH, Jamaica rather than in Brazil. Could be any time after 1819, I would think ... anyone know where I can find parish registers for Vere Parish, Jamaica?


    Mary Anne

  2. #2
    Name well known on Brit-Gen
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    South Australia
    Posts
    4,594

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    Mary Anne, have you seen this site?

    https://
    familyhistoryjamaica.com/common-last-names/vere-parish/

    https://
    familyhistoryjamaica.com/common-last-names/vere-parish-s-w/
    Happy Families
    Wendy
    Count your Blessings, they'll all add up in the end.

  3. #3
    Heather
    Guest

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Mary Anne View Post
    I have this lady in Jamaica and I am trying to determine her burial/death date and location.

    Alas, most of the online trees (on A***) that include reference to her seem to have slavishly copied from one another, suggesting that she died in Verê, Parana, Brazil and giving no date (and no source citation, of course ).

    Happily, at least one of the trees has attached images of what look like her baptism on 13 April 1751, in Westmoreland Parish, and her marriage to James SMITH, 20 September 1770, also in Westmoreland. They seem to have had at least 8 children: Rebecca Frances, Elizabeth, Mary, Anna Maria, Patronella Clark, James Laurence One who lived only a few years, and one who was born later), and Sarah Ann.

    I suspect that she died in VERE PARISH, Jamaica rather than in Brazil. Could be any time after 1819, I would think ... anyone know where I can find parish registers for Vere Parish, Jamaica?


    Mary Anne
    Hi Mary Anne.....will try this again....got busy looking for different sites and lost my post to you, lol. Just noticed you are in Ottawa so that makes it much easier for me to help....I am in Brampton.

    First of all, go to your nearest Mormon (LDS) Family History spot and order in films for the time period and for Vere Parish. I think you are right on that one, but Vere doesn't exist anymore b/c they revamped the parishes and it was incorporated into another. However the early records should be on microfilm for Vere. And I am including the link for the newly revamped FamilySearch dot org below....https://www.familysearch.org/

    My husband grew up in Westmoreland as did his father and grandmother, so know the area well. And the C of E parish records that the LDS has are EXCELLENT!! I got back to the late 1700's for all of his lines. As for the links that Waitabit gave you, I have no idea who that is....I put 3 of my husband's names into her search engine and not ONE showed up. Cooper is a pretty common name and there were none. His surname is Figueroa and none of those showed up either, yet on the LDS website above, ALL of them showed up.

    Another site that is excellent is Pat Jackson's https://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/. Some of it is free but a lot of it is a pay site. I used to transcribe documents from the early 1800's for her. I threw "Cresse" in there and got 23 hits btw. Putting "Mary Cresse Smith" into any search engine is totally useless......a thousand Smiths and 500 Mary's, for example.

    So toddle off to your local FHC and order in the films for Vere and Westmoreland too if they go back that far. I had one for Trelawney (north side of the Island) that went back to the very early 1700's. It has been a while since I did Jamaican research simply because Cooper in England is impossible to find and I have tracked the Figueroas to Cartagena, Colombia and know they came from Galicia in Spain but the name "Jose Maria Figueroa" is as hard to track as your "Mary Smith". Btw, there are also Slave Returns online now and I bet you will find the name on those.

    Good luck and let me know if I can help further. OH....I have a copy of the 1875 book on Monumental Inscriptions for Jamaica, but not sure if it is on this laptop. If I find any Cresse Smiths, I will let you know. Was Cresse her maiden name or was it hyphenated, do you know?

    Cheers from Brampton.......

  4. #4
    Heather
    Guest

    Default

    Mary Anne....went thru Archer's MI's in Jamaica which go back a long ways and there are two Mary Smith's but no one with the name Cresse in his book. The 2 women were slightly younger, both dying in their mid 50's but earliest was born in the 1770's. Just thought I would give it a shot. Btw, my Figueroa woman is spelled "Figuerice" so these transcriptions are not perfect, lol.

    Night...Heather

  5. #5
    Mary Anne
    Guest

    Default

    Thank you to both of you!! Very helpful, Heather -- I am a member of Patricia Jackson's site and find it really helpful. I have CRESSEs, BROWNs, BARRETTs, WAITEs and PLUMMERs, all of whom are there, and also in the Slave records.

    Yes, Cresse was Mary's maiden name and she married a SMITH (rats!). The CRESSEs in Jamaica apparently descend from an Isaac CRESSE who came in 1736 as an indentured servant. They had originally been Huguenot silk weavers who settled in London in the mid 17th century (expecting some lovely books in the post about the Huguenots in Soho ). Their children, including Isaac, were all baptized in the Huguenot Church in Threadneedle Street. The name carried down through to my husband's gggrandmother, Eliza Francis Cresse (Brown) Mackenzie. Eliza was born in Jamaica and then married Major Alexander MACKENZIE who brought her (poor thing) to the Eastern Townships in the Great White North. She apparently dined out for a long time on the stories of how she was a "Plantation owner's daughter" and had come down in the world in coming to Canada ...

    I will have a look for the Vere parish registers at FHL, thank you.


    Mary Anne

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