A Brief History Of The Lartey Family
It has always been my desire to delve into my Family Tree. I was born in the UK and moved back to Ghana with my Mum when I was around 10 years of age. After a few month at Saint Michael’s International School in Osu, I went up to the Brong Ahafo region with my Mum who got her posting by the Ghana Education Service to Dormaa Secondary School as a Home Economics teacher. My Mother never really introduced me to her side of her Family for reasons best known to her. I think it was after my sixth form education that she took me to see my Uncle, Aunts and cousins.Four years ago, I approached one of my cousins and asked for her assistance in plotting the Lartey Family Tree. This was a request which never materialised as other things got in the way of me sitting down with her and tackling this task. I plan of visiting Ghana soon and God willingly I will make that extra effort to sit down with my cousin and plot this Family Tree. A few nights ago, I was going through some old paper work of mine and came across a letter from my Mum written to me on the 1st of March 1999; yes I know, over 16 years ago. It appears from the contents of the letter that I had previously asked my Mum for some information of the Lartey Family. I thought it would be a good idea to share this. Any “Lartey’s” out there, please see if connecting the dots potentially connects us :-)
Sometime ago, you made a request about information on the Lartey Family which you intend to feed on the internet. I regret that the old people who can give this information have all passed away. The only information I have says that the Lartey Family migrated from Sorkorde in the Volta Region of Ghana, and settled at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region during the period of the slave trade when the only sea port to the Gold Coast was at Prampram. They were commercial agents but also engaged in fishing and farming activities. They built a permanent family house known as AdicoWe, which I have seen on a visit to Prampram. When work started on the building of another sea port in Accra, some of them moved to Accra. One of them was Mr Robert Lartey, our grandfather. They all built their homes on the Bannerman Road in Accra. One of these houses belonged to our grandfather.
So, that is it. I remember the house on Bannerman Road which my Mum mentions. I remember there were two of these building that were identical. My Mum had a cousin called Mrs Quist. She was a midwife and run a midwifery centre on the ground floor of one of these buildings. I would spend “long vacation” holidays with her and her two children. At that time, they were much older than me. She had another son who had just qualified as a doctor was not not living there. My ToDo list has been updated for me to visit Bannerman Road and see if I can trace Mrs Quist's children. I doubt if she is still alive. I am hoping her children are still around.
A quick mention - I have done a google search for "Sorkorde" and could not come up with a result linked to a town name in the Volta Region. Did I get the spelling wrong. I did however come up with results linked to people, as in, their names.