Wayne Younge's story

"Growing up in England, there was always the knowledge that I'm descended from slaves. That alone was an exciting thing for an impressionable teenager to think about, but my interest in genealogy didn't start until my mother died. Then I realised that there was a lot about my mother's life before I was born that I had no idea about. Like most people, I knew a little about my grandparents - but before that my knowledge petered out. A trip to Barbados in 1997 was to provide some of the answers I was looking for.

"Before going, I quizzed my grandmother to get as much information as I could. I came away with a group of names and possible birth dates, and armed with these I went to the archive office just outside Bridgetown.