Researching the Pinders of Spanish Wells

Question

I am working on one of my brick walls this weekend and I am hoping that someone who is more familiar with the Bahamas than I am can help me out.  My gg-grandfather, Ridley Pinder, is from Spanish Wells, where just about everyone shares the same last name.  Any tips on finding a birth record for him?

Answer 1

Sandra thank you for asking about this. I have been following the Pinder and Higgs families in the Bahamas because they tend to intermarry on Spanish Wells. I have visited Ridley Pinder's profile. My interest is to track ancestors of possible cousins who could be related to my first cousin once removed, Catherine Ceruti Higgs.

If you look on the right side of the profile and scroll down a bit you see a button you can select to do more research on the profile. You will have to sign in. Then you can access Family search.org, Find a grave, Ancestry and other sources of information. I have found records about my ancestors from the Bahamas on FamilySearch.org. You also have the option to search using Google. Sometimes nothing turns up, which has been the case for my cousins husband, Frederick Higgs. I suspect he could be related to the Higgs and Pinder families on Spanish Wells but with a lack of primary sources, I can't prove it.

Please keep me posted if you uncover anything useful. You are not the only one with brick walls and family mysteries related to the Bahamas.

Answer 2

Hi Sandra,

You are in luck! I was born and live in Spanish Wells. Any information you need I would be happy to assist with. Ridley was also my 3rd or 4th great grandfather so I think we are directly related. The unfortunate thing is that I've also hit a brick wall with Ridley and will have to do some more digging. I know there is a story of him and his daughter getting caught in a storm on the north side of Spanish Wells and both drowned. There's actually a cliff named after him "Ridley's Head" that's a tourist attraction here for cliff divers on the northern tip of Eleuthera. We can stay in touch and like I said, any info that I can provide I would be happy to assist.

Regards,

Tory Pinder

torypinder@gmail.com

Comments

Thank you, Tory, for sharing the story about Ridley with your cousin, Sandra, and with the Wikitree community in general. Since you are in Spanish Wells you are in a good position to search local archives that may not be online. Maybe you can uncover data to break through your and others' brick wall(s).

My paternal grandparents were born on Nassau and my great grandparents were married on Nassau as well. I will be following the developments of your family tree with interest.

Correction as of 10 Jan. 2024: Great grandparents were married on Nassau and 3 generations of descendants lived on Ragged I.

I have managed to compile a list of Pinder men who married Higgs women in Spanish Wells and I'm happy to share this with your if you think it might help you.

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Hi Marion,

I would love to work with you on this. The Pinder's of Spanish Wells are my paternal line and the Higgs my maternal. Your are correct. They was a lot of Pinder/Higgs marriages. It gets kind of tricky due to the fact that there is a fair amount of intermarrying with in families here because of the small population. Fell free to contact me any time.

Regards,

Tory Pinder

torypinder@gmail.com

Answer 3

Ridley Hezekial PINDER, Jr. (b. abt 1767 or abt 1779, d. Feb 1832 Harbour Island, Eleuthera)
---|---|---|---|sp: Sarah ALBURY (b. abt 1780 Harbour Island, m. 10 Jun 1799 Harbour Island, Eleuthera, d. May 1817) daughter of Joseph Albury and unknown Curry

The bahamas DNA project

Comments

Thank you, JD, for supplying this information to WikiTree. I believe that the Ridley Pinder, Jr. whom you have described corresponds to Pinder-108.