Blood ties remain: James, Hamilton and Bishop Part 2

by Yao Atunwa

As might be suspected, it is through Jane Mitchell, daughter of Louis La Grenade, the direct connection is established between their (meaning her and her husband John Mitchell’s descendants and that of her younger brother, William La Grenade (1801–1833), of which Maurice’s mother, Alimenta Bishop, is a direct descendant, as indicated earlier. Alimenta Bishop, therefore, was the grandniece of Jane Mitchell.

This means that Maurice Bishop, son of Rupert Bishop (1912–1974), was the great-grandnephew of Jane Mitchell (her nephew Samuel La Grenade and his wife Anastasia Purcell’s grandson). This then makes Maurice Bishop a third cousin 4 times removed to both Kirani James and Lewis Hamilton. The latter 2 are closer cousins to each other, given the exact and comparatively shorter generational distance to their common Mitchell foreparent, Samuel Cyril Donaldson Mitchell, their 2X great grandfather. They are third cousins to each other, precisely.

Who would have thought to themselves that these men share the same progenitors? Not to be taken for granted, but it is rational to intimate that most likely only a few family members at this juncture would be privy of this detailed family history, i.e., connection. I was fortunate to have had a minor window provided to me. My dad, the late Lincoln McKenzie (1958–2021), paternal uncle of Kirani James, had some slight knowledge passed on to him (much of which likely lost to time by the time it made its way to him and to me). He was the person who initially shared seemingly scattered bits and pieces with me starting a few years before his untimely passing, as I had grown a bit impatient with the apparent lack of direct interest in sharing information about his father’s background, as I was gearing up to engage in active research. He was closest to his father among his siblings. He lived with him all his life.

Thus, it made logical sense to press him to share what he knew about his father’s background, whom not much is known in wider circles, or at least talked about openly by relatives. The striking thing, however, is that my dad fondly referred to Maurice as either “Brother Bish” or seldom “Cousin Bish” like a special or latent ingredient to a dish. This struck me to be quite odd, at least when it finally dawned on me that he was doing so. I was used to “Brother Bish” when I engaged him on the topic of the Grenada Revolution, which I interpreted to be a signalling of his comradeship with a man still a youth, as my father was, when he launched himself into the political arena upon his return from England, where he studied to become a barrister (the preferred term to refer to legal minds at the time).

I attempted to inquire what he meant by that exactly, because people would affectionately refer to nonrelatives in that manner without seeking to imply familial relations. His terse response to me was that his late father told him so, which did not satisfy my curiosity for obvious reasons. In other words, I had nothing tangible or substantial to work with (in making sense of that information) until months after his passing, when I started researching the archives on the FamilySearch platform for birth, baptismal, death, and marriage records. I was fortunate to find his grandparents’ records, including their marriage certificate, his grandfather’s death record, and birth and baptismal records of some of the children. It was the moment I learned the name of Joseph Mitchell’s father, Samuel Cyril Donaldson Mitchell (sometimes mentioned as simply Cyril Donaldson Mitchell or Cyril Mitchell), which was listed on the couple’s marriage certificate, as was the father of Catherine Isabella “Muriel” Thomas (1895–?), his wife, and my grandfather’s mother (as was told to me verbatim by my dad prior). It appears that my paternal grandfather was born Lincoln Joseph Mithell, and at some point, for unclear reasons, changed it to Sandford Joseph Williams.

The Sandford (sometimes spelt Sandiford) first name appears to be in keeping with the name of his maternal grandfather, David “Sandy” Thomas. I also suspected there might have been a major rift between my paternal grandfather (after the early demise of his father or even before such event and the subsequent migration of his mother to Trinidad) and his father’s relatives, and to some degree his siblings (who all migrated early on and kept the Mitchell last name). In the absence of their parents, as young children, the 5 siblings were left to live with a Ms Baker in the Gros Point section of St Mark bordering St John, the same location Catherine hailed from. I desire to contemplate that my paternal grandfather not only stayed back in Grenada but also grew up under separate arrangements.

My theory of a rift really begins with the fact that Joseph was a half-sibling to his father’s younger children with his wife, and the fact that I knew the descendants of Samuel Cyril Donaldson Mitchell’s union with Dora Mary Hagley (1877–1945) my entire life, and frequented their home during my childhood (as I was close friends with the oldest grandson of my (unbeknownst at the time) paternal grandfather’s uncle), only to be told, in the most casual way, by my dad many years after, while residing in the US, that I am cousins with my childhood friend. I don’t recall anything being said after such being mentioned as to the route of this connection that was alluded to by my dad in that conversation, which had to do with several factors, including the length and nature of that conversation and my own lack of confidence in the information to begin with. Perhaps it was a few days later, I raised the subject specifically to delve into my grandfather’s background by asking my dad how exactly I am cousins with this childhood friend that I knew nothing of until recently. It was the occasion my dad told me what seemed to be the most far-fetched thing I have heard all my life; that my friend’s granddad is his father’s uncle (both men being cohort and no inkling of contact between the 2 families outside of myself).

Fast forward a few short years, and the records found on Familysearch.org served as solid confirmation that such was, indeed, the case, and the picture began to fall into place as to what my dad had hinted in essence, including the connection to Maurice he could not genuinely expound on at the time. I have since taken multiple DNA tests with the 3 major DNA platforms, and I have matched thus far a granddaughter of Emmanuel Mitchell, a sibling of Joseph Mitchell. They shared both parents, Samuel Cyril Donaldson Mitchell and Elizabeth Bowen. After all, my dad was also right about the Bowen family name, in mentioning it as one of our family names. However, it would escape my memory for a while until I had several matches on that line, and AncestryDNA, in an unusual twist, projected via its Thrulines® feature that Elizabeth Bowen to be a “potential” 2X great grandmother, which I initially ignored until I decided to explore my few Bowen matches, including ones not carrying the last name nonetheless turned out to be on that particular line. My other Mitchell matches, to date, are more distant and, in most instances, without trees or extensive trees, making it naturally more challenging to place folks. Then there is the unwanted challenge of the common nature of the surname itself that one must contend with in sifting through matches.

I have been able to build a sizeable family tree with over 4,000 entries and counting, encompassing relatives and relatives of relatives, going back over 12 generations in some cases. To date, in all my discoveries, the most pleasantly surprising event was uncovering the marriage and death records of Lewis Hamilton’s late grandmother, Agnes Hamilton (neé Mitchell), and learning her identity for the first time. My lingering curiosity to learn of his extended Grenadian family beyond mere quick reference to his father and paternal grandfather, having been a fan of his prowess and grace, considering all he had to overcome as a person of colour in acutely uncharted waters, could not be more fundamental and eye-opening, to say the least. By that time, I was well acquainted with the extended Mitchell family tree, though Lewis and his father and grandmother were never listed (in my recollection). It was this one tree of an associate and fellow researcher that I spotted his paternal grandfather’s name and likeness (being familiar with his name and image), and his wife’s profile adjacent to his.

What came after were the generic silhouette images depicting sex(es) of their children and grandchildren (indicating the information is private and the persons are living). For the first time I learned that Lewis was a Mitchell; and not merely a Mitchell but a direct descendant of Joseph Mitchell’s younger half–brother, Carl Celestine Mitchell (a name I was already acquainted with from archival research and review of several trees, albeit none of which listed his sole offspring/daughter): both men being the sons of Samuel Cyril Donaldson Mitchell of Gouyave, St John, as previously mentioned.

After the publication of my previous article, “For Our People’s Sake: The Need to Preserve and Harness Our Records”, in which I advocated for greater and more strategic effort on the part of national leaders in ensuring the preservation of our national archives for the present and future generations, I would have definitely felt some compulsion to share my discoveries thus far in my genealogical research, and what better way to do so than to spotlight these towering figures in our contemporary history. I sensed that doing so would inspire others to engage in similar projects. I sort of attempted doing just that by embedding a few digitised records pertaining to my George lineage from Carriacou in that article (on at least one of the platforms). I unswervingly want to implore you, members of the public, to take the plunge, for you never know what you may uncover in the process about your family’s history. As stated earlier, I doubt any of these men knew of the highlighted connections (in the manner shared, if at all).

I discover new relatives almost every day since starting this journey, some famous in global proportions as the 3 noted in this expository piece, inclusive of other nationalities, and others I earnestly suspect are not known outside their immediate families and circle of friends. Each connection is equally empowering in bridging the present world and the old world, or better yet, learning of the factors (human, social, political, economic, etc.) that contributed to my creation as a human being and citizen of this planet. After all, the genes of our ancestors remain in our beings (the ones inherited from our parents, in the cosmic splitting of the 46 chromosomes at the beginning of organic life), and those genes inform our lives in ways we are yet to fully grapple with. I view the writing of this essay as a gesture of goodwill to my Grenadian family at large, many of whom share in these lineages highlighted on the occasion, albeit unknowingly in most instances.