A community of pure relatives - Blood ties strong in St Catherine community

It is not strange to hear that rural communities are populated with relatives; however, when an entire community is related, that is another matter. This is the case in Cherry district in Dover, St Catherine.

According to the residents, it's only a handful of people there who are not related by blood.

"Everybody related round here man. A bare cousins deh yah. Mi always seh to my kids dem, if you want a soulmate, you affi go outta the community," one shopkeeper said. "You only have a few like me weh come in the community from outside," she laughed.

Laverne Grant, a community member, said that persons there who are in search of partners are best advised to go outside the community because, as far as she knows, everyone is related. She said the rural community has more than 50 persons living there and all of them are related in some way or another.

"You caah look nobody in this community here because we are all related. Right here is by daughter, sister and her child, plus mi cousins, and if somebody come in and have children, their children will be cousins as well. We nuh inna the 'family ram' thing, so we affi go out," she laughed.

A woman who has recently moved to the area said the community is close-knit because of its blood ties. She told THE STAR that her grandparents and father are from the community, and oftentimes as a child, she would visit them. She said her dad left the community and went in search of a wife. He did not return.

"My parents live outside the community but my grandparents are from here, so I came back and is living on their land," she said.