Evadney was my grandmother's best friend. She and my grandmother were married to two first cousins. They lived within walking distance of each other in Kingston, Jamaica. My mother used to tell me that when she was a child, Evadney would sometimes come and ask for her to spend the day. Evadney had four sons and no daughter.
Sometimes when Evadney picked up my mother, she would ride the bus with her, and when the bus got to the terminal she did not get off, but would ride it back. This would go on for several trips. During the bus ride, Evadney would sit silently, staring out the window. My mother said she thinks Evadney suffered from depression.
Genealogy is one of my hobbies, so I decided to do a report on the family of Evadney and her husband (my grandfather's cousin), to extend my family tree. First, I searched for the children's birth certificates, to make sure I got the names and date of birth accurate. When I read the names to my mother, she said that could not be right. Evadney had only four children, all boys, and she should know as she was very close to them growing up. I just named eight children, and she knows nothing of those extra four, two boys and two girls. The records showed that all eight children were born very close together, a year apart in most cases, and the four children unknown to my mother were born before the four that my mother grew up with.
Well, the record of the births were there, eight children born to Evadney and her Chinese born husband, who I will refer to as L.S. I thought maybe the first four children died right after they were born. Unfortunately, I could not find their death records, since FamilySearch had not yet published all of the death records for Jamaica, so I decided to google their names to see what I could find.
When I googled the names of the children, imagine my surprise to see the names of three of the four children appear at the Ellis Island website. They were registered at Ellis Island, having arrived in New York from Kingston, Jamaica on a ship, in transit to Hong Kong, China. The second child, a boy, was all of 2 years and 9 months old. The third child, a girl, was 1 year and 8 months old. When I checked the passenger list for the ship, I saw the name of an adult with the same last name as the babies, and he was listed as the guardian for the children. It appears that L.S., the father of the children, was sending them to China, where his relatives would raise them in the Chinese culture.
The fourth child, a boy, was only 9 months old at the time, so I guess that is why he did not make that trip. However, the following year, almost to the day, he was registered at Ellis Island, in transit to Hong Kong and travelling with his father, L.S. The baby was 1 year and 9 months old.
I have since found a death certificate for baby #1, who died when she was 9 months old.
Evadney was pregnant when the last baby was taken away, because baby #5 was born three months after her husband left with baby #4. He would not have stayed long in Hong Kong, because he had a business here in Jamaica to take care of. Babies #6, 7 and 8 were born in quick succession.
My grandmother would have known about the babies, since she and Evadney were best friends, plus they lived within walking distance of each other. Evadney and L.S. stayed married for over fifty years until he died.
One important piece of information from this whole saga, is that on the birth certificates of babies #5, 6, 7 and 8, held at the Registrar General's Department, is a note which states "No certified copy of this entry of the birth is to be issued, except on the order of a court". It seems that Evadney finally got the courage to try and save her remaining children, by going through the court. Without a birth certificate, there could be no passport. Without a passport, the children could not be taken from Jamaica. That's how Evadney ended up with four children instead of none.
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Ellis Island
Jamaica's Coat of Arms
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