My son Samuel and I will hopefully be travelling to Grenada at the end of November 2020 as long as nothing happens between now and then to cause the trip to be cancelled, and we are interested in trying to locate any blood relatives of my son whose father, Oliver John, and extended family originate from Grenada.
We have very little information to assist in this process as the last contact we had with Oliver was over 22 years ago when Samuel was just 6 years old. We do have a photo of Samuel and Oliver together from that time and a photo of Oliver and his mother, taken in Grenada from when Oliver was young, both of which we are trying to dig out. Although I am not sure of Oliver’s date of birth, he would be somewhere between 50–56(ish) now, so likely to have been born around 1964–1970. We also know that Oliver has at least 3 other children, and he may be living or have lived in Thailand more recently. Whilst in the UK he lived in Reading, Berkshire, where he and I met in 1991(ish), and he also lived in Ascot.
Can anyone help him finding blood relatives? It is even more important to Samuel, as I myself am an adopted person, meaning he and I are each other’s only known blood relations. I think the reason it has become even more important to him now is under the backdrop of what I am referring to as ‘the awakening’ in people’s minds to the issues of systemic and pervasive racism facing black people that has caused Samuel to do a lot of research into his own cultural history/identity and finding blood relatives would mean the absolute world to him.
Even if you are not able to help in this way, I would genuinely appreciate any support you can offer in terms of ideas that may help him on his journey.
Kindest Regards,
Miranda and Samuel Wilkinson
Adapted from a letter to the editor
Hello Miranda I do believe that the Oluver John that I know
is the one you are looking for. My email is [email protected] can you send the photo once you find it so I can double check. I do have a friend who was close friends with him also so meantime I will contact her.
Hello Miranda
Would love to help. Grenada is a small place and people tend to know each other. There are two sets of Johns from my parish, St Patricks. Are you on whatsapp? If so, we can communicate.
When in Grenada, go to the Birth registry and have them do a search of the name for all persons with the same name and the approximate time of birth. Grenada has a small population so it should not be heard to locate all the people who may have last name John or son(s) by the name of Oliver. I do not know if a digital birth registry exists, but Check to see if you can do an internet search . Maybe the Grenada Embassy might be able to tell you if a digital registry exist.
Thank you so much Patricia, much appreciated!
I assume you’re in the UK. You can get in touch with the e grenadian embassy there and they might be able to help
Thank you Winston, we will certainly try this!
Have you tried Ancestry DNA? Best place to start!
Actually we have not, but that is not a bad idea at all! Thanks
How can we make direct contact with you both?
Hi Alison,
I can be reached on [email protected] and Samuel can be reached on [email protected]
Many thanks
The photo will help very much send it to my inbox will do what i con
Hi Desley, we are working on it and as soon as we find then I will upload.
Many thanks