Place:Kingston, Surrey, Jamaica

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source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island. In the Americas, Kingston is the largest predominantly English-speaking city south of the United States.

The local government bodies of the parishes of Kingston and Saint Andrew were amalgamated by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation Act of 1923, to form the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC). Greater Kingston, or the "Corporate Area" refers to those areas under the KSAC; however, it does not solely refer to Kingston Parish, which only consists of the old downtown and Port Royal. Kingston Parish had a population of 89,057, and St. Andrew Parish had a population of 573,369 in 2011^[1] Kingston is only bordered by Saint Andrew to the east, west and north. The geographical border for the parish of Kingston encompasses the following communities: Tivoli Gardens, Denham Town, Rae Town, Kingston Gardens, National Heroes Park, Bournemouth Gardens, Norman Gardens, Rennock Lodge, Springfield and Port Royal, along with portions of Rollington Town, Franklyn Town, and Allman Town.

The city proper is bounded by Six Miles to the west, Stony Hill to the north, Papine to the northeast, and Harbour View to the east, which are communities in urban and suburban Saint Andrew. Communities in rural St. Andrew such as Gordon Town, Mavis Bank, Lawrence Tavern, Mt. Airy, and Bull Bay would not be described as being in Kingston city.

Two districts make up the central area of Kingston: the historic Downtown and New Kingston. Both are served by Norman Manley International Airport and also by the smaller and primarily domestic Tinson Pen Aerodrome.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Kingston was founded in July 22, 1692, shortly after the 1692 earthquake that devastated Port Royal in 1692; the original section of the city which was situated at the bottom of the Liguanea Plains was laid out to house survivors of that earthquake.

Before the earthquake, Kingston's functions were purely agricultural.^[2] The earthquake survivors set up a camp on the sea front. Approximately two thousand people died due to mosquito-borne diseases. Initially the people lived in a tented camp on Colonel Barry's Hog Crawle. The town did not begin to grow until after the further destruction of Port Royal by fire in 1703. Surveyor John Goffe drew up a plan for the town based on a grid bounded by North, East, West, and Harbour Streets. The new grid system of the town was designed to facilitate commerce, particularly the system of main thoroughfares across, which allowed transportation between the port and plantations farther inland. By 1716, it had become the largest town and the centre of trade for Jamaica. The government sold land to people with the regulation that they purchase no more than the amount of the land that they owned in Port Royal, and only land on the sea front. Gradually wealthy merchants began to move their residences from above their businesses to the farm lands north on the plains of Liguanea.^[2][3]

The first free school, Wolmers's, was founded in 1729 and there was a theatre, first on Harbour Street and then moved in 1774 to North Parade. Both are still in existence.^[4] In 1755 the governor, Sir Charles Knowles, had decided to transfer the government offices from Spanish Town to Kingston. It was thought by some to be an unsuitable location for the Assembly in proximity to the moral distractions of Kingston, and the next governor rescinded the Act. However, by 1780 the population of Kingston was 11,000, and the merchants began lobbying for the administrative capital to be transferred from Spanish Town, which was by then eclipsed by the commercial activity in Kingston.^[4]

The Church of St. Thomas, on King Street, the chief thoroughfare, was first built before 1699 but was rebuilt after the earthquake in 1907.^[5]

By the end of the 18th century, the city contained more than 3,000 brick buildings.^[6] The harbour fostered trade, and played part in several naval wars of the 18th century. Kingston took over the functions of Spanish Town (the capital at the time). These functions included agriculture, commercial, processing and a main transport hub to and from Kingston and other sections of the island.^[6]

In 1788, Kingston had a population of 25,000, which was about a tenth of the overall population of the island. One in every four people living in Kingston was white, and there was a large population of free people of color there too, meaning that two out of every five people living in Kingston were free. The remaining three-fifths of Kingston's population was made up of black slaves.

The government passed an act to transfer the government offices to Kingston from Spanish Town, which occurred in 1872. In 1882, there was a large fire in Kingston. In 1892, electricity first came to Jamaica, when it was supplied to a coal-burning steam-generating plant on Gold Street in Kingston.

In 1907, 800 people died in another earthquake known as the 1907 Kingston earthquake, destroying nearly all the historical buildings south of Parade in the city. That was when a restriction of no more than was instituted on buildings in the city centre. These three-story-high buildings were built with reinforced concrete. Construction on King Street in the city was the first area to breach this building code.^[7]

During the 1930s, island-wide riots led to the development of trade unions and political parties to represent workers.

The city became home to the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies founded in 1948, with 24 medical students.^[8]

In the 1960s, the international attention of reggae music at that time coincided with the expansion and development of of the Kingston city centre waterfront area; by the 1980s, most of the old buildings were demolished by construction companies and the entire waterfront was re-developed with hotels, shops, offices, cultural centres, and cruise and cargo ship facilities.^[5]

In 1966, Kingston was the host city to the Commonwealth Games.

In the 1980 general elections, the democratic socialist People's National Party (PNP) government was voted out, and subsequent governments have been more market-oriented and focused on tourism and relations with the United States, which reflected the "turbulent" and "volatile" era, in which Cuba and the United States fought for cultural control over Jamaica.

In the 1990s, crime increased in the region and several riots were reporting, including one in 1999 against a rise of fuel prices. In 1999, the Jamaican government ordered army troops to patrol the streets of Kingston in an attempt to curb the violent crime.^[9] In 2001, army troops and armoured vehicles used force to "restore order" in Kingston after "three days of unrest leave at least 27 people dead".^[9]

In 2010, the Kingston unrest, an armed conflict between Jamaica's military and police forces in Kingston and the Shower Posse drug cartel, attracted international attention. The violence, which largely took place over 24–25 May, killed at least 73 civilians and wounded at least 35 others.^[10] Four soldiers and police were also killed.^[10]

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