Yesterday we stopped in Barbados on our way home from Amazon travels. Arriving on the island we hired a taxi driver to take us to the island's botanical gardens and sightsee, all of which was doable and really interesting. The island has varied geography and is super clean and prosperous by Caribbean standards and still has an intact culture. And, for the surprise ending, we asked our driver to drop us off at the synagogue in town which we had read is one of the oldest synagogues in the western world, It was founded by Safardic Jews who had previously been in Brazil.
We took loads of photos and wandered around the property which included a recently excavated ritual bath that is scheduled to be reconsecrated sometime in 2011. However,for me, the best part was the museum(curated by a Bahai) which had researched all the family names of the early settlers, may of whom are buried in the old adjacent cemetary.
Of course I asked if there were Henriques buried in the cemetary. There was this long pause and the curator looked at me and said " oh the pirate family from Jamaica" ( honest reporting!) I was flabbergasted that he knew and could only mange to say "how did you know?" He told me the author who wrote the book about Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean did some of his research in Barbados. Further the curator then said that he knew on personal knowledge that my family was very wealthy. Too bad it missed our branch...
Then he took me to the wall of names and also showed me some of the Henriques names on the tombstones and their names in the museum's book about the early settlers. It was such a remarkable experience to touch one's ancestors.
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