Evaluating Alcohol Related Birth Defects in the past: Skeletal and biochemical evidence from a colonial rum producing community in Barbados, West Indies

•We evaluate osteological evidence for Alcohol Related Birth Defects (ARBD).•Lead is used as a proxy for ARBD at Newton Plantation.•Congenital defects and enamel lead were high in only Barbadian born individuals.•One case appears to have been exposed to lead-tainted rum.•Paleopathology can reveal undocumented birth defects such as ARBD in the past.