Beyond Constantine's martyrdom, the Palaiologos dynasty had a lasting impact on the Greeks throughout the centuries of Ottoman rule, having been the last family to govern independent Greek lands. As late as the 19th century, after the Greek War of Independence had resulted in the creation of a new independent Greek state, the provisional government of liberated Greece sent a delegation to Western Europe in search of possible descendants of those imperial Palaiologoi that had escaped into exile. The delegation visited places in Italy where Palaiologoi were known to have resided and even came to Cornwall, where Theodore Paleologus had lived in the 17th century. Local tradition on Barbados has it that the delegation also sent a letter to the authorities on Barbados, inquiring if descendants of Ferdinand Paleologus still lived on the island. The letter supposedly requested that if that was the case, the head of the family should be provided with the means of returning to Greece, with the trip paid for by the Greek government. Ultimately, the delegation's search was in vain and they found no living embodiments of their lost empire.