bloodline.proj
Welcome to my archive of projects, photos, videos, illustrations, and research about my family and Jamaica
This project began with a short documentary Bloodline (2019) where my mom and I discuss our family tree, her immigrating to the U.S. from Jamaica, stitched with home videos and photographs.
The Films
Now in 2022 and in my senior year at Pratt Institute, I’ll be continuing the world of Bloodline with my short thesis film.
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The Blog
Peruse in order of most to least recent, or filter by categories and tags.
Martin Rennalls
About Martin Rennalls, Jamaican filmmaker and educator.
Joe Harriott
About Joe Harriott, Jamaican saxophonist and pioneer of freeform Jazz
Una Marson
About Una Marson, Jamaican writer, journalist, and editor.
Newspaper Clippings
Newspaper ads from Jamaica (1943) and New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio (late 1800s mid-1900s I don’t remember)
Jamaica Reading List
In a recently published New York Times article, “Read Your Way Through Kingston, Jamaica” author Marlon James gives readers a list of novels that capture the complex island of Jamaica. This is my list of novels, stories, poems, and academic texts about jamaica and the Caribbean.
St Elizabeth Slave Records (1800s)
A spreadsheet displaying the number of enslaved people owned by my ancestors on my maternal grandfather’s side. The Mitchell, Mullings, Russell, and Swaby families all lived in St Elizabeth during the early 1800s according to Jamaican Almanacs.
1808-1815 Illustrations by William Berryman
Drawings of landscapes and enslaved people in Jamaica by William Berryman, 1808-1815.
My Ancestry and Jamaica Through the NYPL and Other Archives
I searched through the New York Public Library (and other archives) to find visuals of Jamaica and connect them to towns and decades where my ancestors lived. In the process, I found descriptions of real people in my family tree, portraits, photographs of property, and court proceedings. I also found slave inventories, postings for runaway slaves, and European illustrations of negro communities.