So much choice as today is a historic day in many ways, not least because of the effect of the events of last night in Glasgow. If you have missed the news, a Eurocopter EC-135 T2 helicopter, with a crew of three – two police officers and a civilian pilot – crashed at 10:25pm into the Clutha bar roof on Stockwell Street on the banks of the River Clyde. Eight people – at the time of writing – have been confirmed dead in this tragic accident.
Scotland would have been celebrating St Andrew’s Day – the feast of St Andrew and patron saint of Scotland. A Galilean fisherman, he is said to have been martyred by crucifixion at Patras. Family gatherings, reunions, general merrymaking and traditional festivities were planned but many will have been cancelled.
On this day in 1960, Gary Winston Lineker was born in Leicester to Barry and Margaret (nee Abbs) Lineker (both born in 1939). His middle name came from Sir Winston Churchill, the English statesman and Nobel Prize Winner, with whom he shares his birthday. Lineker’s father was a greengrocer, as was his grandfather William and great-grandfather, George, in Leicester and Gary grew up with his family in the city, playing football with his brother. Gary Lineker appeared in the tenth series of Who Do You Think You Are and a featured article about his ancestry is available on The Genealogist’s website.
Gary owns a villa in Barbados and on this day in 1966, Barbados became an independent state within the commonwealth. Discovered by Spanish navigators in the late fifteenth century, it was claimed for the Spanish Crown. Although the Portuguese visited the island in 1536, they left it unclaimed, with their only remnants being an introduction of wild hogs for a good supply of meat whenever the island was visited. The first English ship, the Olive Blossom, arrived in Barbados in 1624 and the English took possession of it in the name of King James I. In 1627, the first permanent settlers arrived from England and it became an English and later British colony.
Records held in Barbados are good and the island’s continuous ownership by Britain from 1627 to 1966 ensures continuity. By the 1650s, sugar had made the island the wealthiest colony in the British Empire. Fortunes were to be made and a variety of immigrants arrived, from sons of the wealthy to indentured servants. Convicts and political rebels were dispatched from the UK to Barbados and the need for labour on the island’s plantations gave rise to a trans-Atlantic trade in African slaves.
Barbados based researcher Geraldine Lane, who sadly died in March 2008, compiled a comprehensive guide to records held on the island. Details of the book can be found on the Tracing Ancestors in Barbados website, together with information on research services provided by Barbados based genealogy researchers.
