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Parish of Clarendon

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For a few days last week curiosity got the better of me. I invested $7 (!) in a website that featured newspaper archives and for maybe 10 hours, I jumped into a time machine and was transported backwards in time, to the early twentieth century, in the vicinity of places where seeds of family were being disseminated and inseminated; seeds some of which would lead to my own creation.

I asked for a search in the Kingston (Jamaica) Gleaner of two names, Gaston and Girvan and found to my surprise that there were 7445 hits from the archives of the Kingston Gleaner from 1899 to 2015. Perusing this site I note that the references were frequently difficult to decipher, contained many bewildering typographical errors, and the quality of the scanned copies of the texts was poor. I barely scratched the surface of the 7445 hits, only checking 1200 of them. I can state, however that there are so many duplicates that the total number of unique references may amount to less than 2000, still an appreciable number.

The references reflect, of course, the patriarchal nature of the times and the places. They relate overwhelmingly to 2 distinguished male Girvans, Dr. Norman Girvan and his father, D.T.M. (Thom) Girvan. Gaston Girvan also left his footprints and prints of other parts of his anatomy in an area around the community of Kellits in the Parish of Clarendon in the 1920s, 1930s and early 1940 and John Girvan turns up as an entrepreneur and an athlete/scholar in Kingston. There was little recognition given  to female Girvans among the references that I checked although Rita, Josephine, Beryl, Linnet(te), and Gloria were referenced and the death of Thelma was recorded.

Below are a few of the mentions of the times, places and activities of some of our more distant forebears, most but not all of them quite spiritually uplifting. The late twentieth century and the early twenty first century are not included since that era is still available in the memory banks of  a few surviving members of the clan. At the beginning of the twentieth century the area of the parish of ‘Clarendon around Chapelton appears to have been the hub of a vibrant social, political and artistic community. Two articles have been included to highlight the social scene in the post that follows.

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