Bahamian Cemetery Visit - Grand Bahama Island

While on vacation a few weeks ago, we went on a tour with Bahamas Interisland Tours.

Our guide was Jeff:

He took us to pretty places:

And underground water caves (those black spots are bats)

Jeff also took us to lunch, where this was out view:

Toward the end of lunch, I left said awesome view, family and guide and walked down the road a bit. Why? Because on the way in, I saw this:

Bahamian cemetery!

I'm not sure of the name of this cemetery, only that the building on the right is Bertha's Blue Dinghy. The beach and ocean are immediately behind the back cemetery wall.

There aren't many graves in this cemetery. Here's a look over the wall:

And some of the handful of graves:

Here is the road on which the cemetery is located. That's its white wall to the right. The car is where our lunch place (Cleveland's) was. I think this street is Mather Town (off Spanish Main Drive), but I can't be sure. I provide these sketchy details for readers who may want to visit this place.

Jeff told me that these beachside cemeteries are rare. Only people from the neighborhood can be buried there. This wasn't much of a village, hence the small size of the cemetery.

Here are some photos of another Bahamian cemetery I visited in 2010.

Thanks to Jeff for the tour and the patience to answer all my cemetery questions and generational property questions. Bet he doesn't get too many tour guests who grill him on Bahamian land records.

Caribbean Genealogy Library

My blog gets a lot of visits from people looking for Bahamian genealogy resources. This is because of the posts I've written about my vacations in the Bahamas and visits to their cemeteries.

Today, I stumbled upon the online presence for the Caribbean Genealogy Library website and Facebook page and thought some readers might be interested in learning more.

Hopefully some blog visitors will benefit from this information. Let me know what you find there.

Edit: Reader Teresa Wilson Rogers of the Rogers Family History blog shares with us another great resource for this area of the world: The Bahamas Historical Society. Thanks Teresa!

Tombstone Tuesday: Going Up Edition

This tombstone is from the cemetery I featured last week. It was so interesting, that I had to capture it. I'm sorry it's not a better photo, but the sun was going down and I didn't want to hop the wall.

As I said in last week's Tombstone Tuesday, I don't know the name of this cemetery and so far all my searching has turned up zilch. I do know this cemetery is in Smith's Point (but it's not the Smith's Point cemetery) on Grand Bahama Island in the Bahamas.

See You at the Fish Fry

On Tuesday, I shared with you photos I took at a Bahamian cemetery. The reason I was near that cemetery was because I was in the area for the weekly fish fry. The event starts at 6 p.m., so if you arrive earlier, the place looks like this:

But if you arrive at 7 p.m., the line looks like this:

You may wonder why the heck all these people are willing to to stand in line. Here's what's being served right there on the beach:

I recommend you start with an order of conchy conch fritters, then a plate of fried fish, peas & rice and baked macaroni and cheese:

Gross? No way. No how. This is the best thing you'll have all year, and the view from your seat isn't half bad either:

Now at this point, the haters are going to ask what this has to do with genealogy. It's about creating family memories, my friends. The answer is here:

We do this once a year, every year. Won't you join us next time?

Tombstone Tuesday: Bahamian Edition

Last week I went on vacation to the Bahamas. One night, we went to the local "fish fry" on the beach. Down the road was a cemetery, so I took some pictures. 

I didn't enter the cemetery, but took pix from outside the walls. There were both older and newer grave markers.

The cemetery did not look like it was maintained on a regular basis. There is a newer, nicer cemetery down the road that is next to a neat (as in tidy) church.

This cemetery is located right next to the ocean. The picture below gives you an idea of just how close.

Though the cemetery isn't in the best condition, you must admit the view is spectacular.

I tried to find a name for the cemetery but didn't succeed. I believe the nicer cemetery down the road is Smith Point cemetery. So I'll just refer to this place as the cemetery between the Smith Point cemetery and the fish fry.

All pics were taken on Grand Bahama island. Copyright me. Special thanks to my family for pausing during the fish fry adventure so I could take these photos.