Monday 29 February 2016

Genealogical Oddities (XLVIII): A Scots-Irish Physician In C19th Caracas

An entry in the baptism register for the Cathedral of Caracas (Venezuela) refers to the baptism in December of 1823 of Juan Jesús María, born on 30th May of that year, son of Dr Juan Geagan and Felipa Outlaw.

No particulars of Dr Geagan's origin are given in the baptism entry, but he must be the same J.F. Geagan, Doctor of Medicine, mentioned warmly in the Gaceta de Caracas newspaper on 13th December 1821 as having been a benefactor to Venezuelan exiles on the island of Trinidad, whom he treated there for free after the Battle of Golfo Triste against forces supporting Spanish control of Venezuela. In that article, he is stated to have been a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, and welcomed to the newly-independent country as a friend.

SOURCES: Baptisms 1790-1862, Cathedral of Caracas, P. 118, Image online at www.familysearch.org; Gaceta de Caracas, 13 December 1821, Online at http://saber.ucab.edu.ve/bitstream/handle/123456789/29237/GC_18211213.pdf