In his “A Psalm of Life,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow reflects…
Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o’er life’s solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.
On September 28, 1951 in West Palm Beach, Florida, James and Albertha “Bertha” Hatfield announced the arrival of their second child, James “Jay” William Hatfield. Bertha’s mother, Dora Curry Roberts, and my Grandma Bessie were two of the five Curry siblings born to Pa Wes and Grandma Lilla. Consequently, Jay and I are second cousins.
On the left, my Mom holding my sister. On the right, Jettie Lowe holding her cousin, Jay Hatfield.
In his early years, Jay lived in Miami before moving to Nassau in 1957 with his parents and two siblings, Joan and Larry. His grandparents needed care, and Jay’s mom, Bertha desired to help her siblings, Tessie and Anthony, care for their ailing parents. In Nassau, Jay attended the St. Thomas Moore school until the family moved back to Florida in 1965.
Jay on the left with younger brother, Larry, on the right.
My parents often visited Jay’s parents and grandparents in their home off Centerville. During these visits, Jay and his siblings would shoot marbles on the floor with my older brother and sister. The families also enjoyed beach time together. Jay’s sister recalls…
Every holiday all of the family would go to an area on South Beach in Nassau for a day of picnicking and swimming. I remember your family was there a few times. We would bury the watermelons or throw them in the water to cool them down. We feasted on all the normal Bahamian food. My uncle had a small covered area to keep the food and a changing room as well.
Jay and Larry were your typical mischievous brothers and kept their Uncle Wilbert “on his toes.” He would reprimand them for climbing the trees in the neighborhood, especially the large tamarind tree down the street. When the boys deserved a spanking, they would double their long pants to lessen the impact.
Hatfield siblings: Larry, Joan and Jay (Left to Right)
Jay started his own business at the age of seventeen working with tropical fish. He did not have a farm at the time and would purchase from other farmers to ship to his customers. He eventually started his own farm, Jay’s Tropical Fish Farm, and shipped fish daily from the Tampa Airport. He later moved his operations and shipping closer to town and eventually had several employees joining him to run the operation.
Larry and Jay in Nicaragua.
Jay traveled to Central and South America, including Brazil and down the Amazon River to see the different fish there. His farm was the first to import South American fish to the United States. He shipped beautiful fish all over the world, including Japan and Canada. One particular fish, called the Black Ghost, had a fin underneath that ran from head to tail. Jay’s farm was the first to have this beautiful black and white fish.
An excerpt from his eulogy…
On Saturday, August 8, 2015, James “Jay” William Hatfield, Sr., passed away at 63. A resident and active member of the Ruskin community for many years, Jay spent his later years traveling to Central America, where he made a home in Nicaragua.
Born in West Palm Beach, Jay spent his early life in the Bahamas developing a passion for the tropical lifestyle and fishing. His hard-working demeanor drove him to the farms of Central Florida as a teenager and eventually led him to establish a successful fish farming business in Ruskin, Florida. By the age of 40, he had traveled the Caribbean and Central America, making many friends and becoming a regular visitor. An imaginative entrepreneur, he had an ongoing list of many ingenious and some downright hilarious ideas paired with the contact list and work ethic to achieve. His unique style, sense of humor, gentle heart and humble demeanor were unforgettable. His kind soul and vivacious spirit will continue to inspire his family for generations to come.
I am always amazed and blessed on each blog’s journey to search for the puzzle pieces of folks who meant so much to my Dad, John Wesley Lowe. Like him, I use that loving term, “our heritage.”
First-hand interviews are typically not an option since most of these kinfolk have departed. I search the internet and through email and of course, FaceBook connect with cousins around the world. Each connection provides unique pieces to this biographical puzzle of a loved one. Without the box cover image of the final product, the search to locate pieces can span months, if not years. The arrival of each new piece brings a renewed excitement for the finished product. Corners and edge pieces are the coolest! While my tendency is to locate every piece of this 5000+ puzzle, I realize the need to display the framework so I can solicit more pieces and encourage others to preserve their family’s roots. Here’s one of the many puzzle frames I lay out on the table…
On October 27, 1894 a second daughter, Mary Edith Curry, arrived into the family of Pa Wes and Ma Lilla. Dad affectionately called her Aunt Edie. Ma Lilla died in her 40s, perhaps around 1913. I speculate that Edie, the middle of 5 children, would have been around 19 and no doubt a huge help to Pa Wes with raising younger sisters, Emmie and Grandma Bessie.
Birth Register of Mary Edith Curry courtesy of FamilySearch.org
On the day after Christmas (known as Boxing Day in the British Colony of the Bahamas) in 1914, Aunt Edie tied the knot with Gilbert Robinson “Robbie” Saunders in St. Peter’s Church on Green Turtle Cay. Born April 22, 1892, he was fourth of the six children given to James “Jimmy” Benjamin Saunders and Lydia “Lyddie” Jane Sweeting.
Marriage Register of Mary Edith Curry and Gilbert Robinson Saunders courtesy of FamilySearch.org
Uncle Robbie descends from one of the core lines in the Bahamas— the SAUNDERS surname traces back to 1700. Robbie’s great grandfather, Uriah Saunders, born in Harbour Island, moved to Green Turtle Cay, perhaps after the 1805 hurricane that devastated Harbour Island. Uriah was a successful farmer and a shipwright. The remains of a Carrara marble stone plaque about him sits at Green Turtle Cay, Abaco’s museum. It reads…
Sacred
to the memory of
Uriah Saunders, Esq.,
who departed this life
on the 22nd August, 1849
in the 57th year of his age.
He has left a widow and five children to mourn his loss.
His end was sudden and unexpected,
but for the solemn event he was blessedly prepared.
He was converted to God through the instrumentality
of the late Wesleyan Missionaries
when about 23 years of age, and from that
period held fast the hope of the Gospel.
He was a zealous advocate for and the unchanging friend of TEMPERENCE.
For industry, honesty and moral worth,
he was held in universal esteem and
finished his course on earth
in the full triumph of faith.
Oh death where is thy sting,
Oh grave where is thy victory.
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.
When Uncle Robbie was about 10 years of age, his mother died. In 1903, his older sister, Genie (Eugenia Maud), married Zachary Taylor of Nassau. He owned a drapery manufacturing store on George Street. Genie, an easy-going woman, bore 8 children for Zach. And when her mother died, she took Robbie to live with her family and attend Boys Grammar School in Nassau. Fellow classmates included Etienne Dupuch, later SIR, knighted 1965 (editor of The Tribune) 1899-1991, Alfred Francis Adderley (attorney), Thaddeus Augustus Toote (attorney), and Arthur Hall Sands 1893-1957 (Purity Bakery owner).
Like his sister Genie, Robbie was a quiet gentleman. He returned to Green Turtle Cay around the age of 20. During the Norman’s Castle Lumber Mill years, Uncle Robbie worked as a policeman. Aunt Edie proudly proclaimed in her unique pronunciation, “He had a badge and carried a pistol.” During the Sept 1932 hurricane, he was “down the shore” (northwest shore of Abaco) with a group of men. Exposed, they took shelter under the boat that they dragged ashore.
Uncle Robbie and Aunt Edie circa 1950. Photo courtesy of Mary Saunders McCluskey, granddaughter.
Aunt Edie and Uncle Robbie were blessed with five children, Sybil, Deloris, Audrey, Donald and Cedric. Dad and first cousin, Donald, were only a year apart in age. As young boys on the Cay, they spent countless hours together attending the All-Age School under the tutelage of Mrs. Amy Roberts and Herbert Roberts. Of course the boys engaged in a little afterschool tomfoolery on the shores of this north Abaco island settlement.
Ma Edie with her five children. Back row: Donald, Deloris, Cedric Front row: Sybil, Edie, Audrey. Photo courtesy of Mary Saunders McCluskey, granddaughter.
Edie and Robbie’s two oldest children, Sybil and Deloris, were the talk of the town with their double wedding on May 6, 1939. In the new wooden Methodist Church—the original large, quarried stone edifice fell in the 1932 hurricane—the young, single English minister, William Charles Dyer performed the marriage ceremony. No doubt Grandma Bessie and Dad were in attendance at her nieces’ unique double wedding (the following year the minister would marry Diana Higgs from Spanish Wells).
Green Turtle Cay, 1939, double wedding of Sybil Saunders & Harold Hodgkins and Deloris Saunders & Charles Lowe. L-R Donald Saunders, Jennie Sweeting, Harold Hodgkins, Sybil Saunders, Charlie Lowe, Deloris Saunders, Archie Lowe, Audrey Saunders, Ritchie Hodgkins, Virginia ‘Virgie’ Curry. Front row left: Madge Lowe, Cedric Saunders. Front row far right: Laverne Hodgkins, Myrtle Lowe. Photo courtesy of a cousin.
Around 1940, the Saunders family moved to Nassau. Their youngest daughter, Audrey, had heard of a job at the Registrar General’s office. Her older brother, Donald, had worked at Hatchet Bay Plantations on Eleuthera just a few months. He decided to move to Nassau. On arrival in Nassau, he discovered that his parents and family had come on the mail boat to stay (no cell phones back then). Around this same time, Dad and Grandma Bessie also relocated to Nassau.
In Nassau, Mr. Arthur Sands of Purity Bakery hired his classmate, Uncle Robbie, and Robbie’s son, Donald, to work at Purity Bakery. Uncle Robbie rode his bicycle to and from Purity Bakery located on South Market Street. Soon his son-in-law, Charlie Lowe, spouse of Deloris, joined the bakery crew.
Memories from a granddaughter of Edie…
Ma loved to cook. She would have our family and Uncle Cedric’s family over each Sunday for lunch as long as she was able. She enjoyed making johnnycakes and guava duffs. I’ve never had another guava duff as good as hers.
She believed in staying out of the sun. If any of us kids got sunburned, she put us in the tub with water and vinegar. What a smell! Ma also had a folksy cure for all ills. I remember drinking many cups of mint tea made from mint grown in her yard.
Although seldom leaving her home in the later years, she kept busy. She swept her large porch and front steps each day. When she could no longer take care of herself, she moved in with her daughter, Deloris. Ma never liked doctors or hospitals, and my recollection is she died in Aunt Deloris’ home.
A cousin recalls…
Edie had a feisty side. Her loud fuss with neighborhood children confiscated any ball that crossed her wall. She’d hold the ball high. Refused to return it.
The children played in a circle that faced her front door. One day Dr. Hugh Quackenbush came out from a patient visit. He greeted the boys with, “My turn!” He took the bat. One threw the ball. He whacked it hard. Through Edie’s screen door went the ball, into the house!
“Go, get it,” ordered the doctor. Not one boy would venture into the gate and house. So there went Dr. Quackenbush—into the house! He retrieved the ball. He threw the ball back. The boys stood in awe.
Edie served her family with all her heart. When grandchildren came, she sewed pretty dresses for Margaret at Green Turtle Cay. Edie would call the neighbor girl, Val Taylor, to come and help her. She said that Val was the size of Margaret, so she had Val put the dress on for fitting. Later, when her grandsons lived next door, she showered love on them.
A great granddaughter of Edie also adds…
She baked yeast rolls and johnnycake for her whole family every Saturday. She had a huge kidney mango tree in her yard and loved to give mangoes to all the grandchildren and great grandchildren.
In his senior years, Uncle Robbie would attend Shirley Heights Chapel on Mount Royal Avenue. He sat towards the back in his quiet demeanor. A family diary noted, 29 Dec 1960. Mr. Robbie Saunders professed to be saved this pm. Like his esteemed forebear Uriah, in conversion Uncle Robbie prepared for his eternal future in Heaven.
Uncle Robbie died in June 1970, a year after I was born. However, Aunt Edie lived to the ripe old age of 91. As a young boy, I tagged along with my Mom and Dad to visit her. She was tender and loving with a smile every time she saw us. The scarf she draped and wore around her head intrigued me. Why did she wear it? I learned that it covered a large tumor on her jaw. Her disdain of doctors prevented any sort of treatment. Ironically, her grandmother, Romelda Lowe Carleton, had two jaw tumors. I pause to recall a personal surgery to remove a growing tumor from the same region on my jaw. Might there be a genetic trace?
Aunt Edie departed this world in November 1985. She lived the longest of the five children of Pa Wes and Ma Lilla. I always appreciated seeing Aunt Edie, perhaps it gave me a tangible, visible sense of her sister, Grandma Bessie, who I never met.
Will you come to the table and fit more pieces into the puzzle picture of Edie Curry and Robbie Saunders? Stay tuned.
Y2K…who can forget the anticipation of watching the calendar roll forward to the year 2000? Now rewind the clock back 100 years to find Pa Wes with an “expecting” Ma Lilla perched on the porch of their Green Turtle Cay cottage, pondering a similar anticipation while ushering in the New Year 1900.
The oldest child, Dora, blossoming into a beautiful, fifteen year-old teenager, instinctively helped her expectant mother with younger siblings, Herman and Edie, 9 and 5, respectively. As August rolled around closing out another hot island summer, this Curry family welcomed a new addition, Emma Louise.
At age seventeen, Aunt Emmie married widower Thomas Hutchings Pinder, son of mariner, John Frederick Pinder and Euphemia Russell. Thomas and Emma raised three children along the shores of Green Turtle Cay. In 1935, Thomas passed away, leaving a young widow, who with her three children, left the Cay and settled on Shirley Street just outside the city of Nassau. New neighbors, Mr. & Mrs. G. Basil Lowe (Dad’s future in-laws) welcomed this widow and her family.
Aunt Emmie was special to Dad, who recalled her as having “a sweet personality” evidenced by her love and hospitality displayed while Dad transitioned from the Cay to the city life in Nassau. Dad boarded with Aunt Emmie when Pa Wes was transported to Nassau for medical treatment. During this difficult period of watching an ailing and weakening grandfather leave this world, these Green Turtle Cay cousins bonded even closer.
Emmie’s youngest daughter, Ruth, the closest to Dad in age and disposition, stayed in contact with Dad even after she moved to the United States. I remember as a teenager, Ruth mailed several pictures of Curry relatives to Dad. The most cherished and treasured picture be being the only known picture of our Curry patriarch, Pa Wes.
Aunt Emmie’s son, George and Dad. Photo taken in 1941.
No surprise that Emmie would find love again from a widower, Lockhart Moree, son of Joseph and Adelaide Moree with roots in Long Island, Bahamas.
Lockhart and Emmie Moree. Photo taken in 1942Aunt Emmie holding her granddaughter while her grandson peers through the window.Cousins at a beach in Key West. Aunt Emmie (in the chair) with daughter Ruth (center) and husband Julius Tedder and their two children. To the far right is my Mom with her oldest child asleep on the blanket. Photo taken by Dad in 1952.Aunt Emmie holding my sister. Her smile – the true essence of her personality.
On May 1, 1958, cancer took the life of Aunt Emmie at the young age of 57. In recent years (thanks to the internet), I’ve been able to locate and connect with only one of her descendants, a grandson who now lives a few hours away…time for a road trip. As second cousins, we must keep the legacy alive.
First cousins – Dad and Aunt Emmie’s youngest daughter, Ruth.
After publishing my last post, my cousin, Amanda, shared with me the photo below from the same resource mentioned in my last post. This death register shows the name (H. Herman Curry), date of death (June 30, 1888) and cause of death (teething) for this “unknown” Curry child of Wesley & Lilla Curry. No surprise that two years later in 1890, they would name their next child, Thomas Herman Curry.
During the 1980’s, my interest in family history started to perculate. As a teenager, I was fascinated by Dad’s boyhood stories about life on an out island, and as you would expect, his stories included names of family and friends that impacted him, both in Green Turtle Cay and Nassau. I took crude, handwritten notes as he explained their relationship to me. Needing to visualize faces, my pursuit for photographs began. However, a camera was considered a “luxury item” on this remote island, which explained the scarcity of pictures. Hurricanes often destroyed the few pictures that did exist.
Thirty years later, we are overwhelmed with the capabilities that technology advancements provide from digital photography, to online forums and research tools, to websites, email and FaceBook that allow us to connect, collect, share, inquire and research from devices as small as a phone (which can also function as a camera!)
For those that may not be aware, one of these tools that has continued to spark my interest in research is an image collection stored by Family Search. This resource has helped to confirm dates, proper names and identify parents, cause of death, occupation, etc. The searching process is tedious, but I have often compared family research to an archaeologist’s excavation site.
A CASE STUDY…the photo above is a sample page from the Birth Registers, indicating a son born to Pa Wes and his wife Lilla on August 14, 1887. Collective family knowledge only recalled one son of Wes and Lilla, Herman, born April 21, 1890. This additional child, a son, was discovered while I was searching for other records. Searching the death records would possibly confirm that this son died as an infant or early toddler, a tragedy that often occurred during those times.
Bahamas, Civil Registration, 1850-1959. (Civil registration, including births, marriages and deaths, for the Bahamas)
This collection will include records from 1850 to 1959. The records include births, marriages, and deaths from civil registration in different districts of the Bahamas. Earlier records are handwritten in narrative style; later records are handwritten in formatted records. The text of the records is in English. Records are listed in chronological order.
While family research involves a combination of methods and tools, this one by far has been most rewarding for me! If you have a few hours to spare and a specific curiosity, grab a cup of coffee and let the search begin.
to the farms of Central Florida as a teenager and eventually led him to establish a successful fish farming business in Ruskin, Florida. By the age of 40, he had traveled the Caribbean and Central America, making many friends and becoming a regular visitor. An imaginative entrepreneur, he had an ongoing list of many ingenious and some downright hilarious ideas paired with the contact list and work ethic to achieve. His unique style, sense of humor, gentle heart and humble demeanor were unforgettable. His kind soul and vivacious spirit will continue to inspire his family for generations to come.
