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Richard B. Francis
Sep 1 1996,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: Richard B. Francis <
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Date: 1996/09/01
Subject: St.
Lucia families: Cheddie, Kisna,
Rattie, Merahie, and Ramdath
I am looking for any help that anyone can provide on
finding information about
the St. Lucian families (of East Indian descent) of
Cheddie, Rattie, Kisna,
Merahie, and Ramdath. It has been passed down from older
family members that
our families were brought to the Caribbean
to work on the sugarcane
plantations there. Some siblings went to St.
Lucia others were sent to
Trinidad and maybe even Guyana.
I am also interested in any source of information that may
help me trace these
families' genealogy in India.
Richard B. Cheddie
May 24 1997,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: "Richard B. Cheddie"
<
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Date: 1997/05/24
Subject: Records of East Indians in St.
Lucia by Plantation
Families
Here is a response that I received about the availability
of records once
kept by St. Lucian plantation families concerning East
Indian indentured
laborers. I shall continue to post other responses
received via e-mail that
may be of help for other researchers. I encourage others
to do the same.
----------
From: Drouilhet
Sidney[SMTP:
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Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 1997 1:19PM
To: Francis,
Richard
Subject: Re: Plantation
Families
Not only does
my family have no records of its estates in St
Lucia, it
has almost completely lost all knowledge of its past. Some branches of the
family did not even know we were from St
Lucia.
Everything I have found
concerning my family, and more broadly, St
Lucia history in general, was
done from scratch by going to archives and libraries.
My situation is
not unique. Virtually none of the St
Lucia planter
families are likely to remember much, or have documents,
even if they live
in St Lucia. Robert Devaux told me it was unbelievable
how
much information had been thrown away over the years, even
by members of
his own family.
There are exceptions, but finding the exceptions is a
matter of luck, and it is not always clear what these
people have, or if
they even know they have it. This is one of the reasons I feel it is so
important to renew an interest in St
Lucia's history among the island's
citizens: if enough of them get interested, they may start
looking through
their family papers, etc. before they are lost or
destroyed. Robert Devaux
did have some success along these lines while he was
working on his book on
the Brigands' War.
He had done much archaeological work on his own, and
went around various towns on the island talking about what
he had found.
This inspired a few people to look at their own property,
and they did find
some more sites from the 1790's guerrilla war that Robert
felt were
important.
There may be
something that substitutes for families' own papers. I
cannot comment on the East Indians, and I have not looked
for their
records, but I can make a few observations about records
pertaining to
slavery, and perhaps the fact those sorts of records exist
indicate that
there may be useful
records for the period of indentured servitude. In the
1820's and 30's, very extensive, detailed records had to
be filed with a
branch of the colonial office in London
when slaves brought complaints of
maltreatment against the persons running the estate; when
the slaves were
emancipated, extensive records of the finances relating to
compensation
paid to their owners, or their owners' creditors, were
maintained. I would
hazard a guess that if this was done in the relatively
unorganized 1820's
and 30's, that by the turn of the century, even more
methodical and
detailed records were kept on the indentured
servants, especially since, exploited though they may have
been, they at
least had contracts to afford them minimal protection.
These papers will
probably be in London,
though.
As I mentioned
before, the actual St Lucia Blue Books, as opposed to the
governors' summary reports, might be very helpful to you
and they are
microfilmed at the University
of Florida in Gainesville,
in their Latin
American Collection.
Here is something else interesting you might look at:
when did East Indians begin to appear as registered
voters? I have copies
of the 1902, 1903 St Lucia Handbooks, and they do not
appear in the
registered voter lists then, I believe. There is a 1924
Handbook, again
microfilmed at the University
of Florida, but I do not have a
copy of that.
It might be interesting to see if they were voting by
then. The 1902,3
voter lists may only be for the Castries
area, which might complicate
matters. Tracing
the gradual acquisition of influence by various ethnic
groups in St Lucia
is very intriguing. Of great
importance is to determine
how the earliest ones to raise their socio-economic level
accumulated their
money. In the case
of the colored class, it can be traced to their
profession, or in some cases, to the circumstances of
their illegitimacy
(which is a far more complex situation than I had naively
imagined before I
started dealing with the records); in the case of slaves who bought their
freedom, there are actual discussion of situations such as
that of the
1780's, when by law they had a day off on which they were
not required to
stay on the estates, and a small number of them developed
an economy that
was thriving enough that the French government actually
wanted to create a
savings bank for slaves, a suggestion which understandably
was not received
by the slaves with enthusiasm.
Richard B. Cheddie
Apr 9 1998,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: "Richard B. Cheddie"
<
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Date: 1998/04/09
Subject: Researching East Indian
Indentured Laborer to St.
Lucia: Public Records Office
In the Guide to the Contents of the Public Record Office
Vol II States and Departmental Records 1963 the following entries was listed:
1. On page 90: Original Correspondence (C.O. 571) 1913 -
1920 7 Volumes
These concern the entry of Indian Indentured labour into
the West Indies and Mauritus.
2. On page 9: Register of Correspondence ( C.O. 780) 1913
- 1920 1 Volume
Specifically concerning St.
Lucia:
3. On page 79:
Original Correspondence (C.O. 253) 1709 to 1873 15 Volumes etc. after
1873 ( C.O. 321) 1874 to 1940 397 Volumes
4. On page 79: Register of Correspondence (C.O. 367) 1850
-1881 5 Volumes
5. On page 79: Register of Out - Letters (C.O. 505) 1872 - 1882 3 Volumes
6. On page 79: Entry Books (C.O. 254) 1794 - 1872 19
Volumes
7. On page 79: Acts ( C.O. 255) 1818 - 1935 17 Volumes
8. On page 79: Sessional Papers (C.O.256) 1820 - 1939 40
Volumes
9. On page 79: Government Gazettes (C.O. 257) 1857 - 1940
59 Volumes
10. On page 79: Miscellanea (C.O. 258) 1722 - 1940 136
Volumes
newspapers,
reports of Protector of Slaves, Blue Books of Statistics, etc
Concerning the Winward
Islands
11. On page 86: Original Correspondence, Supplementary
(C.O. 537) 1873 - 1898 1 Volume
12. Register of Correspondence (C.O. 376) 1850 - 1926 24
Volumes
13. Register of Out - Letters 1883 - 1926 8 Volumes
Richard B. Shiva-Ram Cheddie
Apr 24 1998,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: "Richard B. Shiva-Ram Cheddie"
<
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>
Date: 1998/04/24
Subject: Additional Resources for
Researching East Indians in the Caribbean
I have ran across the following books and papers that may
be helpful for
those of us who are researching our East Indian heritage
in the Caribbean.
1. India
in the Caribbean. Edited by David Dabydeen and Brinsley
Samaroo.
1987. London:
Hansib/ University of Warwick
Centre for Caribbean Studies.
2. Indians in St. Lucia.
A. Rampersad.1980. St. Augustine University
of the
West Indies.
3. Voices from Indenture: Experiences of Indian Migrants
in the British
Empire. Marina Carter. 1996. NY Leicester
University Press.
4. Emigration of Indian Labour 1834-1900. Saha Panchanan
1933. 1970. Delhi
People's Pub House
5. Indentured Labor, Caribbean
Sugar: Chinese and Indian Migrants to the
British West Indies, 1838-1918. Walton
Look Lai. 1993. Baltimore: John
Hopkins University
Press.
6. The Colonial Legacy in St.
Lucia: An East Indian Perspective. A
Rampersad. 1988. Curepe, Trinidad.
A. Rampersad & Omega Bookshops.
7. India's
Imperialism and its implication for St. Lucia
and the Caribbean.
A. J. Rampersad. A. Rampersad & Omega Bookshops.
8. The Legacy of Indian Indenture: 150 years of Indians in
Trinidad. Mahin
Gosine w/ Dipak Malik & Kumar Mahabir. 1995. NY Windsor
Press.
9. The East Indian Odyssey: Dilemma of a Migrant People.
Mahin Gosine. 1994.
NY Windsor
Press. (ISBN: 0963931857)
10. Solving East Indian Roots in Trinidad.
Shamshu Deen. 1994. Freeport
Junction. H.E.M. Enterprise. (ISBN: 9768136251)
STowns
Apr 9 1999,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
(STowns)
Date: 1999/04/09
Subject: Books on West Indian/Latin
American Research
The following information is excerpted from the
July/August 1998 edition of the
AAHGS News, the bi-monthly newsletter of the Afro-American
Historical and
Genealogical Society.
Steve Townsend
AAHGS News Editor
Baker, Edward Cecil.
A Guide to Records in the Leeward Islands. Oxford: The
University of the West Indies,
1965.
Baker, Edward Cecil.
A Guide to the Records of the Windward Islands. Oxford:
The University of the West
Indies, 1968.
Berleant-Schiller, Riva. Montserrat
(World Bibliographical Series 134).
Oxford, 1991.
Burns, Alan.
History of the British West Indies. London: George Allen &
Unwin, 1965.
Carmichael, Gertrude.
The History of the West Indian
Islands of Trinidad
and
Tobago, 1498-1900. London:
Redman, 1961.
Carr, Peter E.
Guide to Cuban Genealogical Research.
San Luis Obispo, CA:
TCI Genealogical Resources,
1991.
Carr, Peter E.
Censos, Padrones Y Matriculas de la Poblacion de Cuba Siglos
16, 17 Y 18. San
Luis Obispo,
CA: The Cuban
Index.
Carter, Marina. Voices from Indenture: Experiences of
Indian Migrants in the
British Empire. New York:
Leicester University
Press, 1996.
Coletta, John Philip. They Came in Ships: A Step by Step
Guide to Researching
Passenger Arrival Lists and
Indexes, 2nd ed. Salt
Lake City:
Ancestry, 1993.
Cross, Malcolm. The East Indians of Guyana
and Trinidad. London:
Minority
Rights Group, 1980.
Dabydeen, David and Brinsley Samaroo, eds. India
in the Caribbean.
London:
Hansib/University of Warwick
Centre for Caribbean Studies, 1987.
Daly, Vere T. A
Short History of the Guyanese People. Kitty,
Guyana, 1966.
Deen, Shamshu.
Solving East Indian Roots in Trinidad. Freeport
Junction:
H.E.M. Enterprise, 1994.
Delhi People’s Publication House. Emigration of Indian Labour, 1834-1900.
Saha
Panchanan, India: Dehli
People’s Publication House, 1970.
Dookhan, Isaac. A History of the British Virgin
Islands, 1672 to 1970. Essex,
England:
Caribbean University
Press, 1975.
Dunn, Richard S. Sugar and Slaves : The Rise of the
Planter Class in the
English West Indies, 1624-1713.
Chapel Hill, North
Carolina: University
of North Carolina Press, 1972.
Flores, Norma & Patsy Ludwig. A Beginner’s Guide to Hispanic
Genealogy. Salt
Lake City: Ancestry.
Gasper, David B. Bondsmen and Rebels: A Study of
Master-Slave Relations in
Antigua. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University
Press, 1985.
Gmelch, George.
Double Passage: The Lives of Caribbean Migrants
Abroad and
Back Home. University of
Michigan
Press, 1992.
Gordon, Shirley. Caribbean
Generations. London: Longman
Caribbean, 1983.
Gosine, Mahin. The
East Indian Odyssey: Dilemma of a Migrant People. New
York: Windsor
Press, 1995.
Gosine, Mahin, Dipak Malik & Kumar Mahabir. The Legacy of Indian Indenture:
150 Years of Indians in
Trinidad. New York: Windsor
Press, 1995.
Grannum, Guy. Tracing Your West Indian ancestors: Sources
in the Public Record
Office. London
:
ProPublications, 1995.
Hall, Neville A.T.
Slave Society in the Danish West Indies: St.
Thomas, St.
John, St. Croix. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, l992.
Handler, Jerome S. Supplement to A Guide to Source
Materials for the Study of
Barbados
History, 1627-1834.
Providence: John Carter Brown Library and Barbados
Historical Society, 1991.
Higman, B.W. Jamaica
Surveyed: Plantation
Maps and Plans of the Eighteenth
and Nineteenth Centuries.
Kingston: Institute
of Jamaican Publications, 1988.
Higman, B. W. Slave
Populations of the British Caribbean, 1807-1834.
Baltimore: The
Johns Hopkins Press,
1984.
Honychurch, Lennox. Basically Dominica
in Language, Culture and Heritage.
Barbados: Dominican National
Cultural Council & Letchworth Press Ltd., 1982.
Johnson, Howard.
The Bahamas
from Slavery to Servitude, 1783-1933.
Gainesville, FL: University Press of
Florida.
Johnson, Howard. The Bahamas
in Slavery and Freedom. Kingston: Ian Randle
Publishers, 1991.
Kemp, Thomas Jay. International Vital Records Handbook of
Births, Marriages,
Deaths, 3rd ed. Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994.
Kirke, Henry.
Twenty-Five Years in British Guyana. Westport, CT:
Negro
Universities Press, 1970.
Lai, Walton Look.
Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar: Chinese and
Indian
Migrants to the British West
Indies, 1838-1918. Baltimore:
John Hopkins
University Press, 1983.
Lawaetz, Eva. Free
Coloured in St. Croix, 1744-1816: The History,
Statistics,
and Selected Information
Concerning the Free Coloured in the Danish West
Indies, with Special Reference
to St. Croix, from
1744-1818. Christiansted,
St. Croix: Lawaetz, 1979.
Lewis, Maureen. Guinea's
Other Sun: The African Dynamic in Trinidad Culture.
Dover, MA:
Majority Press,
1988.
Mercer, Julia E. Bermuda Settlers of the Seventeenth Century:
Genealogical
Notes from Bermuda, reprint of
1947 ed. Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 1982.
Moll, Verna P. St.
Kitts-Nevis (World Bibliographical Series 174). Oxford,
1995.
Momsen, Janet Henshell. St.
Lucia (World Bibliographic Series 185). Oxford,
1996.
Nicholson, Desmond V. Antigua, Barbuda
8 Redonda: A Historical Sketch.
Antigua: Museum
of Antigua &
Barbuda, 1991.
Parry, J. H. A
Short History of the West Indies, 3rd ed. London: Macmillan,
1971.
Rampersad, A.
Indians in St. Lucia.
St.
Augustine University
of the West
Indies, 1980.
Rampersad, A. The
Colonial Legacy in St. Lucia:
An East Indian Perspective.
Curepe, Trinidad: A.
Rampersad & Omega Bookshops, 1983.
Rampersad, A. India's
Imperialism and Its Implication for St. Lucia
and the
Caribbean. A. Rampersad &
Omega Bookshops.
Ryskamp, George R.
Tracing Your Hispanic Heritage.
Baltimore: Genealogical
Publishing Co., 1985.
Szucs, Loretto Dennis.
They Became Americans: How to
Discover Your Family or
Ancestors in
Naturalization Records.
Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1997.
Vaughn, Robert V.
In Loving Memory: Virgin Island
Decedents, Relatives,
Friends and Others: An Index
From Selected Reports in The Daily News of the V.I. and
the St. Croix Auis,
January 1982 Through January
1989. Christiansted,
St.Croix: Lawaetz, l983.
Watson, Jack. The West Indian Heritage: A History of the West
Indies. London:
John Murray, 1979.
Williams, Eric. History of the People of Trinidad
and Tobago. London:
Deutsch,
1964.
Kathryn
May 26 1999,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: "Kathryn" <
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>
Date: 1999/05/26
Subject: Re: [CARIBBEAN-L] trinidadian
help
I am Trinidad born, but moved to Canada
in the 60's. Started researching my
Trindadian ancestors a few years back. I have had great
success obtaining
birth, marriage and death certificates from the Registrar
General's Office.
Just received 8 certificates today which took abt 4
months. The Trinidad
Archives does have the Colonial Office Documents on microfilm,
I do believe
1800-1870. The Government Archives also has East Indian
Immigration records
1854-1870. I am interested in joining your Trinis e-mail
group.
Thank you Kathryn
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aplmac
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May 9 1999,
3:00 am
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Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: apl...@sunbeach.net
Date: 1999/05/09
Subject: [CARIBBEAN-L] Indian migration
The copyright of the
below two pieces belongs to Shamshu DEEN, of Trinidad.
Anyone wishing to do so
may contact him at sham...@tstt.net.tt
================================================
NEVIS' Early INDIANS
Shamshu Deen
21/03/98
In my continuing look at the Caribbean Indian diaspora, I
examine this week
the documentation on indentured Indians in Nevis. This
is a follow-up of an
article I did on the sister island of St. Kitts (see
Independent of March
7, 1998).
Nevis is a fascinating island,
geographically and historically. Volcanic in
origin the towering Nevis Peak
hovers over this whole island and clearly
visible from just about anywhere. At 3232 feet, it is higher than our El
Cerro del Aripo, 3085, Trinidad's highest mountain.
Recent events show the
interconnections of vulcanicity in that with every eruption at the
Soufriere Hills volcano, Montserrat, the residents at Charlestown,
Nevis,
reported that the water from their hot spring ran cold!
Historically, Nevis has had some
impressive settlers and visitors over its
road of time.
Archaeological excavations show that the first inhabitants went there about
four thousand years ago. On November, 1911, Christopher Columbus' vessels
anchored off the coast. In 1907 the explorer, Captain John Smith, whose
memory was recently revived in the movie, Pocahontas, spent several days at
Nevis on his way to found the Virginia
colony in North America.
Nevis was the birth place of
Alexander Hamilton who later went to America
and became the Secretary of the United States Treasury. Africans also came
in large numbers to work as slaves.
Today they form the largest population group. And in 1874, the lone voyage
of Indian indentured workers arrived from Calcutta.
Perhaps what is most praiseworthy is the serious and
successful attempt by
the authorities and interested personnel to preserve the island's rich and
diverse history. The Nevis Historical and Conservation Society ( NHCS ), "
Was founded in 1980 to conserve the natural and cultural history of Nevis
by collecting artifacts and archival materials, publishing pertinent
information and researching and making information available."
With those objectives in mind the NHCS opened the Museum
of Nevis History
at the birth place of Alexander Hamilton and the Horatio
Nelson Museum
followed in 1992. The friendly, helpful and courteous staff led by Mr.
Robinson acceded to my every request for material and for photocopying at a
minimal cost.
It was at this Nelson
Museum in Charlestown
that I was able to find
publications and handwritten registers verifying the arrival of Indians to
this island. In a publication Caribbean Migrants,Richardson,
1993, it was
noted, " On March 30, 1874,
315 Indians came to Nevis. During their
indenture period many were homesick and lonely, and some broke their
contracts in order to migrate to Trinidad. The others
were offered
re-indenture contracts after their five-year periods had expired, but they
chose to remain on Nevis as free labourers."
The point about coming to Trinidad
was verified by the family stories of
the Mustaphas of El Socorro who claimed that their ancestor, Sheikh
Mujaffar Ali, had rebelled against his masters and had come to Trinidad;
subsequent searches showed that he had come from Nevis.
Throughout the documents of the 1870's and 1880's I found
references of the
presence of Indians in Nevis. The 1874 Blue Book of
Nevis showed that with
the introduction of the Indians, 4993 pounds sterling of the island's total
expenditure of 11,149 pounds was spent on Indian immigration. Two acts were
passed in that year; one on March 24 was "to raise a sum of money for the
purpose of assisting to defray the expenses of the introduction of Coolie
Immigrants,";the other on April 9, "to raise a further sum of money
for the
purpose of assisting to defray the expenses of the introduction..."
The arrival of that ship from Calcutta
was by far the most important and
largest single maritime activity affecting the people of Nevis
for 1874.
The crew was the most thirty five, and with a tonnage of 974, outstripped
the total of five voyages of 880 tons from Britain.
From Trinidad there was
a tonnage of twenty four; at that time Nevis held a
favourable balance of
trade with Trinidad which sent coconuts, pickled fish,
cocoa and timber in
exchange for sheep and horned cattle.
The early years for the Indians must have been difficult
ones. For 1874 and
1875, court
convictions by and against them were well over 120; this gradually declined
to just 27 in 1880, as they settled and were more easily accepted by the
Nevisian society.
It would seem that due to the small number of Indians
requested by, and
eventually taken to Nevis that their emigration from India was handled by
the Guiana Emigration Agency at 8 Garden Reach, Calcutta. This agency had
in 1880 requested of the President's office in Nevis, a
report on the
condition of the Indians. To this the acting President Spencer Churchill
replied on August 14, 1880,
" I beg to state that all the Indian immigrants
were freed from their indentureship in April 1879."
The point about Guyana
supervision is made here in that more detailed
documentation might be available from the National Archives of that
country.
Concerns on the welfare of the Indians were expressed in
another letter of
July 5, 1880, when Mr
Spencer addressed the questions of "attendance of
Coolie children in the schools,...... whether they have generally at
this
time acquired sufficient acquaintance with our language colloquially to
enable them to profit by the masters' instructions .....do they attend
divine service either singly or in families......what numbers of their
children have been baptized ?"
The question of repatriation was also addressed in Mr.
Churchill's letter
of May 14, 1881, which stated, "I am directed by his Excellency the
Governor to forward by R.M. Steamer to Grenada for shipment per SYRIA (the
sailing ship that came to Trinidad with Indians between 1872 and 1878) to
Calcutta the coolies named respectively Santokho and Bhugwantia enclose
copies of correspondence on the subject and I shall be glad to be advised
of the departure of these persons."
In the documents at Nevis however I
could not find the list of the names of
the Indians who arrived in 1874. Such a list should still be available and
I was assured that there were more documents awaiting classification and
would soon be available to researchers.
Two positive notes on my research in Nevis
the first was that I met
descendants of that voyage of 1874 both in Nevis and
their relatives here
in Trinidad. These would be discussed in a subsequent
article. The second
was for other Caribbean genealogists there is "The
Complete Book of
Emigrants 1700-1750" by Peter Wilson Coldhan, 1993, which gives passenger
listings from which one might trace ancestry.
_____________________________________________________________
INDIA-- NEVIS
TRINIDAD
Shamshu Deen 28/03/98
It would seem as if the same way Chinatown served as a
concentration for
many Chinese immigrants to New York city and also how many cities have
their little Italy or little Greece, so too did Trinidad serve as a place
for the settling of peoples from various groups. Some Indians, coming in
small numbers to other Caribbean islands during the
period of
indentureship, attracted by the resources and the chance to be with their
countryfolk made the journey south.
These islands each required a smaller quota not only because
they were,
with the exception of Jamaica, much smaller in size than Trinidad but also
because as Richardson, 1983, suggested, "Neither ( British Guiana nor
Trinidad ) had suffered the environmental degradation wrought by decades of
cane cultivation in the 'old' (British) islands of the Caribbean but both
needed maintenance, field work and reconstruction of rainforest and
mangrove swamps to fields of sugar cane."
When the first and only boat of indentured Indians from Calcutta
to Nevis
in 1874, the 315 souls were distributed to several estates. Some left
during their five years, some soon after and the others remained on the
island.
Though so far I have not been able to find the listing of
the names of
Indians who arrived in St.Kitts (1861) and Nevis, I have
found documents
and publications which offered assistance as to the status of the present
day families. Richardson, 1983, stated, "Today in the late 20th century,
the only noticeable vestige of this immigration on the two islands is a few
Indian families in the Cotton Ground village area of Nevis north of
Charlestown.
Among the early Indians there was a lot of intermarriage
among the jahajis
and later on among the children of the jahajis. Many soon took Christian
names. According to Byron, 1981, "In typical Indian tradition, young
Indian
Thomas girls were married to Indian Sucheron youths and so forth.
And in most cases there were many Indian children of Nevis
birth."
I visited two such families while in Nevis.
The first was and old man, John
Henry, born in 1903, and presently living in the village of Fountain, a few
miles north east of Charlestown. He was only four years when his father
died. His father had come as a little boy from India
his being on that 1874
ship was perfectly logical.
>From Mr. John Clarke, born 1926, at Cotton Ground
village I got a fair
amount of information on his family background. Both sets of
his
grandparents had come from India.
His paternal grandfather, Bhagirath,
adopted the name of Clarke and married an Indian from St. Kitts. Their son
was Fred Clarke and daughters, Mary and Edna, both of whom had migrated to
New York.
Fred remained in Nevis and married
Olive, the daughter of Paray and Mary,
both of whom had come from India.
Olive's siblings all migrated most going
to the USA.
"Fred and his teacher-oriented wife," according to Byron, "were
determined that their children should be given every educational
opportunity possible, and many of them were sent to universities and other
educational institutions abroad. Few had returned to Nevis."
John, a son to Fred and Olive, was a government agricultural
development
officer and eventually became the head of the Agricultural Department in
Nevis. In this capacity he visited Trinidad
on different occasions and was
able to re-establish ties with his Trinidad cousins.
John's maternal grandmother, Mary, was a Mungroo. Her
brother, William, as
a little boy, had joined a Nevis Indian migration to Trinidad
in the
1880's. Here he married a fellow Nevis Indian, Alice Lulu, and settled in
Malabar, Arima. They rented a house but after a few years of hard work on
the public roads, William bought several acres, which he eventually gave to
his children, Bojou, John, Edgar ( Sonny ), Arthur, Edith and Mary.
As youngsters the sons worked on the San
Jose estate in Lopinot where they
earned between 6 and 12 cents a day picking and bagging cocoa. This was
during the 1920's and 1930's.
Arthur married Gertrude whose parents Nanhoo and Florence
Stephens had also
come from India
via Nevis. Arthur worked with WASA where he became an
inspector. His children have become associated with horse racing. Joy
Mungroo works at Santa Rosa. Michael
Mungroo was a jockey in the 1960's and
1970's; he rode freelance in Trinidad and Tobago
and also Barbados.
Some of
his winners were Debonnaire, Orlando, Bulldozer and Back to Nature. Ralph
is a trainer and owner of horses kept at the Santa Rosa
stables.
I was fortunate to meet Sonny Mungroo ( 1913 ), the last
surviving child of
William, at his daughter's grocery in Talparo. After his stint as a cocoa
labourer, he worked at the US
base at Wallerfield where he did brush
cutting and sanitation. He also worked for the Government Cocoa Board at
Carapo and at La Reunion estate in Chaguaramas. He married Basdaye Sukhu of
Diego Martin in an Anglican ceremony when she was called Nazarene.
They had 12 children and lived at Malabar. With Basdaye's
death in 1983,
and a stroke Sonny suffered in 1985, he moved in with his daughter, Angela,
and her husband, V.S. Naipaul (Vincent Sankar ).
The inter-island connection has been kept alive over the
years. In 1926,
Sonny's father, William visited Nevis and met his
sister, Mary, and nieces
and nephews, one of whom, Edward, came to Trinidad a few
years later. Mr.
John Clarke's visits have revived and reestablished ties among the
relatives of our two twin island states.
Byron, 1981, lamented, "But most of the Indian families
that enriched the
life of Nevis in the distant past have gone. They have
migrated to other
lands where they do well. Of course a not inconsiderable number has become
thoroughly mixed with the rest of the native population.....Nevis would
appear to have become too small to continue to support the lives and
ambitions of the descendant Indian families who came to this land more than
100 years ago."
Hopefully my recent contacts with St.Kitts/Nevis and also
the Public
Records Office and National Maritime
Museum both in London
would yield
those valuable lists of 1861 and 1874, as we continue to examine the
arrival of various peoples to the Caribbean and then
their subsequent
movements worldwide.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jun 26 2002,
10:48 pm
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: "Richard B. Cheddie"
<
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>
Date: Wed, 26 Jun
2002 22:47:45 -0400
Local: Wed, Jun 26
2002 10:47 pm
Subject: Some Individuals in St.
Lucia and Grenada
circa 1891
The following bits of data was collected from the East
Indies to St. Lucia
by Surgeon-Major D.W.D. Comins, Protector of Emigrants, Calcutta.
Printed
at the Bengal Secretariat Press in
1893
St. Lucia
1. Budhu, age 20, son
of Parabu. Caste: Turki Koiri from
Azamgarh
District, Mohmadambad Thana, Walidpur village. Uncle's name
Gulap, son of
Domon. Budhu signed a Form of Agreement for Intending
Emigrant to St. Lucia
on 15 Dec 1890
in Ghazipur, India
2. Pay list of Crown Lands Estate for the week ending 3 April 1886:
Gujadhur, Horill, Hulass, Hoossanys, Intame, Joodhester,
Joonab, Kalkasings,
Kehane, Kessowar, Khiroda, Lachiman, Lakpetia, Lukkia
Dilloo, Maimra,
Manchoo, Mengaul, Mucktolia, Munnoosings, Naga,
Najtookallys, Panchoo,
Pemya, Phobagra,
Poonia, Pajne, Prionauth, Raghoo,
Rampaul Girlya, Rampaul
Sanker, Rumsumhin, Ramyad, Resmu, Rutnu, Salamutalu,
Snodunden, Shazjada,
Shajurb, Sabnath, Simroo,
Somnar Mengaul, Sukba, Sookhan,
Sookra, Somra
Lalloo, Somra Nimmur, Sarukissen, Sutraton, Sucknu, Jakam,
Burdia, Bundoo.
3. Pay list of Crown Lands Estate for week ending 10 April 1886: Note
different spellings for same names listed for 3 Apr 1886: Agnoocea, Augmo,
Baijoo, Ballea, Barhoo, Bhagobutty L., Bhagobutty Ram,
Bagwansahaie,
Bhulloo, Beekham, Button Napoo, Bissessur, Bissessuree,
Boodhun, Bundhoo,
Bundhea, Boodna, Chakowree, Chootra, Chowtie, Chujjoo,
Chumme, Dagull,
Donie, Dilchandsingo, Doola, Dorlaum, Ekwara, Fokeer
Mahomed, Gopee,
Gujadhur, Horli,
Hulass, Hoossany, Jutame, Joorhester, Jomal, Kalkasingo,
Kihane, Kessmar, Khiroda, Luchiman, Lukpotia, Lukhina,
Lukkia Dilloo,
Mainwa, Manchoo, Mingnul, Mucktolia, Munnoosing, Naga,
Naytookally, Panchoo,
Penya, Phobagra, Poonea, Payne, Prionath, Raghoo.
4. Bhowanibhick, age 55, son of Chowpaie ,5' 7.25",who
originally came on
the Foyle (number 4) in 1880 to St.
Lucia is registered to return to
Calcutta, India
on the Hereford, which sailed on 4 Sept 1890, with his wife
and at least 3 children. He last worked on Crown lands.
5. Sukram age 38, son of Mungha, 5' 2.5", who
originally came on the Bann
(number 237) in 1881 to St.
Lucia elected bounty of 10 Pounds on 6 Mar 1891.
He had a wife. He last worked at the Roseau
estate
6. Dhowday , age 31, son of
Onsori, 5' 4.5", who
originally come on the
Bann (number 228) in 1881 to St.
Lucia elected to return to India.
He had a
brother. He last worked at the Roseau
estate.
7. Hunoomansing, age 35 who came on the Bracadaile (register
number 1467 and
wife register number 1468) in 1884 was assigned to the
Dennery Usine in
September. He appeared to have died on 27 Nov 1884.
8. Hosanee, General Register number 1033, of Roseau Estate,
received a
certificate of exemption from labor on March 9, 1886.
9. Dhoni of Marguis Estate, who came to St.
Lucia on the Leonidas in 1878,
was imprisoned on 7
Sept 1878 for 14 days. Register number 415.
10. Thaibdin, age 35, son of Oree, 5'5" was listed as
number 278 in the
General Register of Return Immigrants. He originally came to
St. Lucia on
the Leonidas (number 205) in 1878, left on the Moy (number
183) on 5 Sep
1888. He was last employeed at Perle Estate.
11. Badari, age 22, son of Chadhary, came to St.
Lucia on the Bracadaile in
1884. His ship number 480 and register number 1625. He was a
Kurmi by caste.
He was assigned to the Bois d'Orange Estate.
12. Narrain son of Loroton deposited 16 pounds in the Moy
(ship number 272)
for the return voyage on 5 Sept 1888.
13. Motee registered 2 Pounds, 10 Shillings on 11 Mar 1885 to be sent to
Teeka
14. Ondhar, who came on the Foyle (number 53) in 1880 died
on25 March 1883.
His 13 Pounds, 14 Shillings, and 11 pence were sent to India
on 13th Jun
1880
15. Bhookul age 43, son of Augnoo elected for bounty of 10
Pounds on 19 June
1888. He originally came on the Leonidas in 1878. He was
assigned to the
Esperance Estate.
Rambaran, age 25, son of Nimuth (Nimuta), 5" 0.5", was of the Ahir caste.
He was from Ghazipur. He left Calcutta
on the SS Roumania ( Ship's number 4)
in 1891. He worked both for the Dennery Company, LTD (La
Caye Estates) and
St. Lucia Central Sugar Factory Company, LTD (Crown Lands
Estate).
16. Some individuals listed on Crown Land Estates circa
1891: Buckwala,
Bowdha, Bundheo, Bundhoo, Eddhay, Sawonbar, Juspersad, Rohi,
and Reetai.
17. The following individuals had money in the treasury, but
upon death
there was no heir to be found: Jecan, Purboll, Horill,
Oudhai, Chingan,
Budal, Kullu, and Sonichara.
The highest amount at the time was 13 Pounds,
14 Shillings, and 11 Pence belonging to Oudhai. This amount
was lodged in
the treasury on 13
June 1889.
18. Durma came on the Bracadaile in 1885. Worked as a
Chaukidar on the
Roseau Estate.
19. Ram Dass was employed by the Ressources Estate according
to the pay list
dated 25 Apr 1891.
20. Anwar, worked at Ressources Estate during 1891.
21. Oomur, worked at Ressources Estate during 1891.
22. Purmanon had a bania shop on Ressource Estate during
1891. So did Debi.
They both most likely came to St.
Lucia on the Bracadaile in 1884. Kali
Pershad sold rice and dal on the Ressource Estate during
1891.
23. Umeer Sing, only son of a mother still in India
in 1891. Had accepted
the 10 Pound bounty and had no intentions of going back to India.
He was a
Chettri by caste (Kstriy).
He had a wife and two children. He most likely
either came to St. Lucia
on the Foyle or Bann.
24. Ramnath (boy) was employed by Retraite Estate during
1891
Grenada
1. William Murray, after he became a Christian adopted this
name from his
former master. He owned a shop and a small cocao plantation.
He also
imported from America.
2. De Gale, also adopted his name from his former master. He
owned private
property and had a provision shop. He gave the Cooly Mission
the land to
build its school as a present.
3. Udalli owned land and ran a shop. He was into horse
racing. His son
George Udalli was a clerk in the Police Magistrate's Office.
4. Cooman Sing ran a shop.
St. Vincent
- Macleod
had changed his name.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cyril Jardine
May 28 1999,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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(Cyril Jardine)
Date: 1999/05/28
Subject: [CARIBBEAN-L] Indian Migration to Jamaica
Because Trinidad is almost 50% Asian
Indian, there seems quite a lot of
literature available. My interest is whether there was a
similar migration
to Jamaica
and what info is available. My grandfather, bearing an Indian
surname: Toolsie (Tulsie?), came to US from Trinidad,
but was born in 1873
in Jamaica.
This info came from the ship's log at the US National Archives.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard B. Shiva-Ram Cheddie
Aug 14 1999,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: "Richard B. Shiva-Ram Cheddie"
<
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>
Date: 1999/08/14
Subject: Ugheer Passenger List?
I am looking for any listing of the passenger list for the
Ugheer which
transported East Indian indentured laborers to Guyana
in the late 1800's. A
relative of mine, Nuk Cheddie, was transported on that
vessel along with his
two sisters. They
worked on teh Diamond Estate in British Guiana, where he
was the Head Driver. He married a Sookia Singh and had ten
children.
I will be posting his genealogy on my website:
www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Resort/5913
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ruth - Ann
Jul 19 2000,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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(Ruth - Ann)
Date: 2000/07/19
Subject: surnames: soodeen, premdas, bunsee
Hello all,
I've been lurking for the past couple of weeks and have read
through many
posts in the archives. I've just recently embarked on my own
genealogical
research and I've found some very useful information from
this list - thanks
for sharing!
Anyway, looking for info for my family has been quite
difficult - I do have
a chapter from Anthony de Verteiul's Eight East Indian
Immigrants on my
great-grandfather, Charles Clarence Soodeen, which is where
most of my info
is from (unfortunately I don't have the list of references
and I can't seem
to find the actual book!). He emigrated from India
to Trinidad in 1861
(aboard the clarence - this is when he got his name - but I
can't seem to
find any records of that ship). He was prominent among the
presbyterians,
working mostly with teh Canadian Mission (yes, I've
contacted the canadain
presbyterian archives, but I can't afford to pay $25/hr for
a search with
only a possibility of finding mentions of his name)
I'd also like to find out about his first wife, Laura Jane
Frances Heath
(all I know about her is that she was an
"englishwoman" and they married in
1872; she died the following year)
I also went to the local LDS family history centre but
records for Trinidad
are next to nil!
Anyway, if anyone can give me any leads re finding info about
the soodeens,
or even premdas (Francis Arnold I believe is my
grandfather's name -
originally from Guyana,
but I don't know the years) that would be great.
Finally, does anyone have contact info for Trinidad
historian Anthony de
Verteiul?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Ruth-Ann Soodeen
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fmwade
Jul 31 2000,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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Date: 2000/07/31
Subject: Estate books of Trinidad
Does anyone know where one can find the Estate Books of the
various sugar estates in Trinidad during the period of
slavery and also during the period of Indian indentureship?
Hoping someone can help me.
Flavia Wade
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Bond
Jul 31 2000,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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(Richard Bond)
Date: 2000/07/31
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think they are all
over the place, some are still at the
greathouses, others are in museums and some in Antiquarians.
Some of
them could be in London
or New York. They were private property like
the books for a bar or any other business there is no one
answer for all
of them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Weiss
Jul 31 2000,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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(John Weiss)
Date: 2000/07/31
Subject: Re: Estate books of Trinidad
Flavia
You can try the Registration and Compensation records in the
PRO,
which are not the same as Estate Books but list every slave
by
name, surname, family and description. My PRO search
produced
this www address - it gives a large number of references
from
class T71 [you have to join this up as one line in your
browser -
it gets split in sending the e-mail]
http://catalogue.pro.gov.uk/ListInt/browse_keywords_frameset.asp
function=Next+Page&lcode=T&class=71&subclass=
or this to start a new search (I entered Trinidad,
letter code T,
class 71):
http://catalogue.pro.gov.uk/ListInt/browse_keywords_frameset.asp
But I am sure you are familiar with all these records, which
are
duplicated at the Red House, POS (or possibly now at the
National
Archives)..
John
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dean de Freitas
Jul 31 2000,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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(Dean de Freitas)
Date: 2000/07/31
Subject: RE: Estate books of Trinidad
In Father Anthony de Verteuil's book "Eight East
Indians", he describes
using those records at the National Archives (Red House) in Trinidad. He
notes that some of the books are in good shape, while some
of them where so
fragile that he was not allowed to handle them.
Dean de Freitas
TriniGenWeb Coordinator
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ttowgw/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard B. Cheddie
Aug 3 2000,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: "Richard B. Cheddie"
<
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>
Date: 2000/08/03
Subject: Researching East Indians in the Caribbean
Here is a link for those interested in researching East
Indian indentured
labourers. There is a growing list of ships that brought
these laborers to
the Caribbean
http://www.egroups.com/group/Bhatchaman
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Weiss
Aug 20 2000,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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(John Weiss)
Date: 2000/08/20
Subject: Re: Ships and Indentured East Indians
Richard Cheddie gave a useful "minor list of ships that
Transported East Indian labourers to the Caribbean."
I see his list shows the SHEILA arriving in Surinam
in 1883. She
made an earlier visit to the Caribbean,
her maiden voyage (if it
is the same vessel) in 1877, leaving Calcutta
on 1 Sep and
arriving in Trinidad on 13 November,
landing 624 out of 626
embarked. Her journey is recorded in the Captain's account:
A Return to the Middle Passage: the Clipper Ship
"Sheila", by
Captain W.H.Angel, edited by Ken Ramchand and Brinsley
Samaroo
(originally published in 1921, modern edition 1995, CIS,
Port of
Spain,
Trinidad)
John McNish Weiss
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Richard B. Cheddie
Aug 29 2000,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: "Richard B. Cheddie"
<
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>
Date: 2000/08/29
Subject: Re: Ships asn Indentured East Indians
I have to recheck this post. Somehow I am missing quite a
few ship names and
destinations. I might have uploaded an older file by
mistake. Most of this
information I gathered off of the web and through several Caribbean
associations researching East Indians. I should be receiving another
listing of ships that went to Trinidad
and Guyana in
the near future. If you
have any info through your own research please e-mail it to
me.
It is my goal to one day have the complete list of ALL ships
that
transported East Indian Labourers to the Caribbean.
The most up to date list
can always be found at
http://www.egroups.com/group/Bhatchaman
This site also contains other information about sources for
those of us
researching our Indian Heritage.
Richard Bond
Aug 29 2000,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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(Richard Bond)
Date: 2000/08/29
Subject: Re: Ships asn Indentured East Indians
I wonder which of St
Croix's families are descended from the one boat
load that brought people from Calcutta
in the 1860s. Most were
disillusioned by poor treatment and went back to India
or moved to
Trinidad but a minority stayed on.
There are probably some people where
we grew up who don't even realize that there patrilneals are
Indian. My
great great grandfather Alfred Busby came by way of another
island.
Richard B. Cheddie
Aug 27 2000,
3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: "Richard B. Cheddie"
<
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>
Date: 2000/08/27
Subject: Updated List of Ships that Transported East Indian Laborers to
the Caribbean Basin 8-27-00
I have attempted to compile a list of ships that brought and
repatriated
indentured Indians to and from the Caribbean.
This list is short right now.
Just for Trinidad alone, 319 voyages
were made.
ARRIVALS
DATE SHIP
COLONY
LABOURERS ARRIVED
May 5, 1838
Hesperus
British
Guiana
156 of 170
May 5, 1838
Whitby
British
Guiana
263 of 267
May 30, 1845
Fath Al Razak
Trinidad
225
1845
Blundell
Jamaica
???
1854
Louis Napoleon
Martinique
??
For updated lists go to
http://www.geocities.com/yuddh1/gateportal.htm
Richard Bond
I think that I can
get it for you but could you help me sort out the Asians on Saba
and Statia. I'm still trying to add to what I know about Alfred and Grace Busby
Oct
21 2000, 3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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(Richard Bond)
Date: 2000/10/21
Subject: Re: 1931 National Geographic: Saba & Statia
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I think that I can get it for you but could
you help me sort out the
Asians on Saba and Statia. I'm still
trying to add to what I know about
Alfred and Grace Busby
Richard Bond
Oct
22 2000, 3:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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(Richard Bond)
Date: 2000/10/22
Subject: Re: CARIBBEAN-L1931 National Geographic
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As far as I have
been able to piece it together Alfred was an Indian
contract laborer who may have escaped during an uprising on Nevis.
Grace
was the daughter of a white with many local relatives whose
mother was
an East Indian he brought back by some accounts and a
Dominica Indian by
others.
When I was on Statia
in 1968 I met an old woman named Busby with a
candy shop who
knew my grandmother but had not seen her in many years. I
could not find
anything in the Statia records on Grace. She did have
relatives named
Simmons, Solomon and Leverock. George Simmons administrator
of St. John
was a relative.
Richard Cheddie
Nov
11 2000, 4:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: "Richard Cheddie" <
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>
Date: 2000/11/11
Subject: 400+ Voyages of East Indian Indentured Laborers
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I finally did a major update on the list of voyages that
indentured East
Indians made between 1834 and 1917.
I have many gaps in my listings so if anyone has additional
info please send
it to me to include in future updates.
http://www.geocities.com/yuddh1/IndenturedShips.html
Dean de Freitas
Nov
16 2000, 4:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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(Dean de Freitas)
Date: 2000/11/16
Subject: Re: {CARIBBEAN-L]Voyages of East Indian Indentured
Laborers
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on 11/16/00
5:06 PM, Cyril Jardine at
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wrote:
> I think that since "indentured" means there
was some bond or contract, there
> would have to be some records of the East Indians who
arrived in the
> Caribbean. Especially since not
all survived the trip and commissions were
> probably based on actual arrivals. Who would have kept
these type of
> records?
> ---
> Cyril Jardine, voice: 301-881-4330, fax: 301-881-5914,
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According to Father Anthony de Verteuil in his book
"Eight East Indian
Immigrants", in Trinidad there
are three types of registers kept at the
National Archives:
1. General Registers
- Lists of immigrants by year, boat, name, estate they
were indentured to, etc.
2. Estate Registers - Sorted by estate and gives details
about an
immigrant's indenture period.
3. Ship's Registers -
Lists of immigrants for each voyage including name,
age, height, place of origin, etc.
In addition, Fr. de Verteuil notes that Plantation Lists
were / are kept on
the individual plantations, and duplicate much of the info
in the registers.
Note also that many of the registers at the National
Archives are in poor
condition, incomplete, or missing.
Dean de Freitas
TriniGenWeb Coordinator
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ttowgw/
From: Christel
Monsanto, promoting Caribbean Art
Nov
17 2000, 4:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: "monsanto" <
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>
Date: 2000/11/17
Subject: Re: {CARIBBEAN-L]Voyages of East Indian Indentured Laborers
Three different ethnic groups were brought to Suriname,
some of them left
after their contract was finished, others stayed, others
went to other
places in the Caribbean. You can
search two databases, one for laborers
from India
and one from what is now Indonesia.
Go to:
<<http://www.archief.nl/suriname>> A third
database with Chinese workers
will be available later.
Richard Cheddie
Nov 18 2000,
4:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: "Richard Cheddie" <
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>
Date: 2000/11/18
Subject: Estates in the British Isles the Used East Indian
Indentured Laborers
AutoEstate Colony EstateName
1 Trinidad Adela
2 Trinidad Arandale
3 Trinidad Aranguez
4 Trinidad Aripero
5 Trinidad Bagatelle
6 Trinidad Barataria
7 Trinidad Beaulieu
8 Trinidad Beausejour
9 Trinidad Bel Air
10 Trinidad Belle View
11 Trinidad Ben Laomond
12 Trinidad Bien Venue
13 Trinidad Birken Hil
14 Trinidad Bon Accord
15 Trinidad Bon Air
16 Trinidad Bonasse
17 Trinidad Bonne Aventure
18 Trinidad Brechin Castle
19 Trinidad Bronte
20 Trinidad Broomage
21 Trinidad Brothers
22 Trinidad Buen Intento
23 Trinidad Buenos Ayres
24 Trinidad Camden
25 Trinidad Canaan
26 Trinidad Cane Farm
27 Trinidad Carmelita
28 Trinidad Caracas
29 Trinidad Carolina
30 Trinidad Caroni
31 Trinidad Cascade
32 Trinidad Champ Elysees
33 Trinidad Cedar Grove
34 Trinidad Cedar Hill
35 Trinidad Columbia
36 Trinidad Concord
37 Trinidad Concordia
38 Trinidad Constance
39 Trinidad Corinth
40 Trinidad Coryal
41 Trinidad Craignish
42 Trinidad Cupar Grange
43 Trinidad Curepe
44 Trinidad Diamond
45 Trinidad Dinsley
46 Trinidad Dumfries
47 Trinidad Edinburgh
48 Trinidad El
Dorado
49 Trinidad El Reposo
50 Trinidad El Rosario
51 Trinidad El Socorro
52 Trinidad Endeavor
53 Trinidad Enterprise
54 Trinidad Esmeralda
55 Trinidad Esperance
56 Trinidad Esperanza
57 Trinidad Exchange
58 Trinidad Fairfield
59 Trinidad Felicity
60 Trinidad Florissante
61 Trinidad Forres Park
62 Trinidad Frederick
63 Trinidad Friendship
64 Trinidad Fullerton
65 Trinidad Garden
66 Trinidad Garth
67 Trinidad Glenroy
68 Trinidad Golconda
69 Trinidad Golden Grove
70 Trinidad Green Hill
71 Trinidad Guaracara
72 Trinidad Harmony Hill
73 Trinidad Harris Plain
74 Trinidad Henry
75 Trinidad Hermitage
76 Trinidad Hindustan
77 Trinidad Hope
78 Trinidad Industry
79 Trinidad Inverness
80 Trinidad Jordan
Hill
81 Trinidad La Fortune
82 Trinidad La Gloria
83 Trinidad La Horquetta
84 Trinidad La Pastora
85 Trinidad La Resource
86 Trinidad La Retraite
87 Trinidad La Romaine
88 Trinidad Las Almas
89 Trinidad Laurel
Hill
90 Trinidad La Vega
91 Trinidad Laventille
92 Trinidad Les Efforts
93 Trinidad Los
Angeles
94 Trinidad Lothians
95 Trinidad Macoya
96 Trinidad Malgretoute
97 Trinidad Marabella
98 Trinidad Maracaas Bay
99 Trinidad Mararaval
100 Trinidad Mausica
101 Trinidad McBean
102 Trinidad McLeon Plain
103 Trinidad Milton
104 Trinidad Moka
105 Trinidad Mon Desir
106 Trinidad Mon Jaloux
107 Trinidad Mon Plaisir
108 Trinidad Mon Repos
109 Trinidad Montrose
110 Trinidad Mt. Pleasant
111 Trinidad Mt. Stewart
112 Trinidad Nelson
113 Trinidad Ne Plus Ultra
114 Trinidad New Grant
115 Trinidad New
Hope
116 Trinidad Non Pariel
117 Trinidad Orange Grove
118 Trinidad Oropouche
119 Trinidad Otaheite
120 Trinidad Plamiste
121 Trinidad Palmyra
122 Trinidad Papourie
123 Trinidad Paradise
124 Trinidad Patna
125 Trinidad Perseverance
126 Trinidad Petersfield
127 Trinidad Petite Morne
128 Trinidad Phillipine
129 Trinidad Phoenix
Park
130 Trinidad Picton
131 Trinidad Plain Palaise
132 Trinidad Plaissance
133 Trinidad Poole
Syndicate
134 Trinidad Providence
135 Trinidad Reform
136 Trinidad Retrench
137 Trinidad Rio
Clara
138 Trinidad River
139 Trinidad Rivulet
140 Trinidad Rostant
141 Trinidad San Antonia
142 Trinidad San Felipe
143 Trinidad San Gill
144 Trinidad San
Francisco
145 Trinidad San
Jose
146 Trinidad Santa
Clara
147 Trinidad Seville
148 Trinidad Siparia
149 Trinidad Spring
150 Trinidad St. Anns
151 Trinidad St.
Augustine
152 Trinidad St.
Charles
153 Trinidad St. Claire
154 Trinidad St. Helena
155 Trinidad St.
Johns
156 Trinidad St. Madeleine
157 Trinidad St. Marie
158 Trinidad Stretham Lodge
159 Trinidad Suzannah
160 Trinidad Terre Promise
161 Trinidad Toruba
162 Trinidad Tortuga
163 Trinidad Trafalgar
164 Trinidad Trois Amis
165 Trinidad Union
166 Trinidad Union Hall
167 Trinidad Valsayn
168 Trinidad Verdant Vale
169 Trinidad Victoria
170 Trinidad Villa Franca
171 Trinidad Vistabella
172 Trinidad Washington
173 Trinidad Waterloo
174 Trinidad Wellington
175 Trinidad Williamsville
176 Trinidad Woodbrook
177 Trinidad Woodford Dale
178 Trinidad Waterford
Lodge
179 Trinidad Woodlands
180 St. Vincent Adelphi
181 St. Vincent Bellevue
182 St. Vincent Colonaire
183 St. Vincent Grand Sable
184 St. Vincent Langley
Park
185 St. Vincent Lot
14
186 St. Vincent Mt. Bentink
187 St. Vincent Mt. Greenan
188 St. Vincent Orange Hill
189 St. Vincent Rabacca
190 St. Vincent San Souci
191 St. Vincent Tourama
192 St. Vincent Union
193 St. Vincent Yambou Vale
194 St. Vincent Argyle
195 St. Vincent Arnos
Vale
196 St. Vincent Belair
197 St. Vincent Belair
198 St. Vincent Calder
199 St. Vincent Cane Hall
200 St. Vincent Carapan
201 St. Vincent Glen
202 St. Vincent Montrose
203 St. Vincent Mt. Pleasant
204 St. Vincent Rivulet
205 St. Vincent Cane Grove
206 St. Vincent Pembroke
207 St. Vincent Questelles
208 St. Vincent Mt. Wynne
209 St. Vincent Peters Hope
210 St. Vincent Rutland
Vale
211 St. Vincent Wallilabou
212 St. Vincent Richmond
213 St. Vincent Rose Bank
214 British Guiana Vreed-en-Hoop
215 British Guiana Vriedestein
216 British Guiana Anna Regina
217 British Guiana Diamond
218 British Guiana Belle Vue
219 British Guiana Waterloo
220 British Guiana Highbury
221 British Guiana Devonshire
222 British Guiana Non-Pareil
223 British Guiana Friends
224 Grenada Mt. Alexander Estate
225 St. Lucia
Castries
226 St. Lucia Cul De Sac
227 St. Lucia Soucis
228 St. Lucia
Roseau
229 St. Lucia Anse La Raye
230 St. Lucia
Mabouya
231 St. Lucia
Dennery
232 St. Lucia La Caye
233 St. Lucia
Richfond
234 St. Lucia
Retraite
235 St. Lucia
Crown Land
236 St. Lucia
Peru
237 St. Lucia
Pelute
238 St. Lucia
Blackbay
239 St. Lucia Vieux Fort
240 Jamaica
Claredon
241 Jamaica
Westmoreland
242 Jamaica
St. Thomas
UHURUJAH
Nov 19 2000,
4:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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Date: 2000/11/19
Subject: East Indian Indentured Laborers (Book)
While everyone has
been on the subject of East Indian indentured labor I
thought I might mention a book I recently found. The book is Fragments of
Empire: Capital, Slavery, and Indian Indentured Labor
Migration in the
British Caribbean, by Madhavi
Kale. It was published by the University
of
Pennsylvania
Press in 1998. It is not great for
finding ancestral names but
it gives a good historical background and first hand
accounts of the time
from some people and of their plantations.
Hope this helps
someone.
Stephanie Binns
James W. Cropper
Dec 31 2000,
5:25 pm
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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(James W. Cropper)
Date: 31 Dec 2000
13:16:17 -0800
Local: Sun, Dec 31
2000 5:16 pm
Subject: Plantation
Owners in St Vincent
Hi Listers,
There are many old plantation maps of most Islands
available. Chris Cod
has made several from his personal archives available on his
"Historic
Antigua and Barbuda"
website.
Is anyone aware of any such maps or plans for St.
Vincent? The Charles
Shephard book mentions a Plan of the Island,
as published John Byres, in
1776 and lists the lot numbers. I am aware that a copy of this plan is
in the PRO in London.
The only such map I have found is in the book is entitled
" Becoming
West Indian - Culture, Self and Nation in St.
Vincent" by Virginia Heyer
Young in 1993. There
is a map entitled "John Byres's plan for the
settlement of St. Vincent, 1764. From D.L. Niddrie, "Eighteenth-Century
Settlement in the British Carribbean," Institute of
British Geographers,
publication no. 40, 1966."
The Map appears to be a computer drafted drawing with many
plantations
shown on the South and West parts and with the North and
East parts
comprised of Carib and undisposed of land. Much of the map is shaded
black or cross-hatched representing Cultivable, Freehold,
Leasehold
etc. However, it is
not to scale and no names or lot numbers are given.
Any help would be appreciated.
Jim Cropper
Tian Uddenberg
Jan 24 2002,
11:31 pm
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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(Tian Uddenberg)
Date: 24 Jan 2002
20:30:59 -0700
Local: Thurs, Jan
24 2002 11:30 pm
Subject: Re:San Fernando Gazette Book
Craving the indulgence of the group, and as clarification:
"Lists from the san Fernando Gazette 1865-1896"
will be published this
Spring, and expressions of interest were solicited off-list
from people
who have in the past expressed an interest in what it
contains.
Queries and comments
regarding the pre-press announcement should be
addressed, off-list, to me, Tian Uddenberg, at my e-mail
address above.
This will be the
last posting directly to the list concerning the
pre-publication. We have both been quite careful not to
breach the rules
about advertizing directly in this forum, and ask your
co-operation.
Write me privately if you have an interest in the book, or a
query.
What does the book contain?
Here is an overview:
Lists from the San Fernando Gazette, Trinidad,
West Indies: 1865-1896 is
divided into five
sections or Books. Each Book is a set of lists containing as
much detail
as is given in the newspaper itself. There are
no photos or illustrations.
Book I provides lists of property owners in the Borough of
San Fernando
who are in arrears of their house rates.
Researchers will find the name of the property owner, the
address of the
property, and in most cases, the name of
the tenant or tenants, if the property was rented.
Book II comprises lists of Burgesses of San Fernando. These
lists
contain important information about property
ownership of individuals so qualified.
Book III is a compilation of Applications for Licenses to
sell
spirituous liquors in San Fernando,
and gives, among
other information, the place of residence of the applicant
as well as
the address of the licensed premises. The wide
variety of surnames in these lists, including Chinese, East
Indian, and
Portuguese individuals, offers a glimpse of the
extent of this entrepreneurial activity in San
Fernando at the time.
Book IV is composed of two unusual lists—a Juror’s List for
San
Fernando, and a list of the Victims of the
Waterspout incident of 1880 in Basseterre,
St. Kitts.
Book V is an extracted list of birth, death and marriage
announcements.
This section is of value also to researchers
outside of San Fernando
or even Trinidad and Tobago. Announcements were
reprinted in a variety of newspapers if
there was a family connection. A number of births, marriages
and deaths
are recorded that occurred in Nevis,
Jamaica,
Grenada, British
Guiana, England,
Scotland, and Australia.
Thanks,
Tian Uddenberg (
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)
Richard B. Cheddie
Jun 26 2002,
10:48 pm
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From: "Richard B. Cheddie"
<
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>
Date: Wed, 26 Jun
2002 22:47:45 -0400
Local: Wed, Jun 26
2002 10:47 pm
Subject: Some Individuals in St.
Lucia and Grenada
circa 1891
The following bits of data was collected from the East
Indies to St. Lucia
by Surgeon-Major D.W.D. Comins, Protector of Emigrants, Calcutta.
Printed
at the Bengal Secretariat Press in
1893
St. Lucia
1. Budhu, age 20, son
of Parabu. Caste: Turki Koiri from
Azamgarh
District, Mohmadambad Thana, Walidpur village. Uncle's name
Gulap, son of
Domon. Budhu signed a Form of Agreement for Intending
Emigrant to St. Lucia
on 15 Dec 1890
in Ghazipur, India
2. Pay list of Crown Lands Estate for the week ending 3 April 1886:
Gujadhur, Horill, Hulass, Hoossanys, Intame, Joodhester,
Joonab, Kalkasings,
Kehane, Kessowar, Khiroda, Lachiman, Lakpetia, Lukkia
Dilloo, Maimra,
Manchoo, Mengaul, Mucktolia, Munnoosings, Naga,
Najtookallys, Panchoo,
Pemya, Phobagra,
Poonia, Pajne, Prionauth, Raghoo,
Rampaul Girlya, Rampaul
Sanker, Rumsumhin, Ramyad, Resmu, Rutnu, Salamutalu,
Snodunden, Shazjada,
Shajurb, Sabnath, Simroo,
Somnar Mengaul, Sukba, Sookhan,
Sookra, Somra
Lalloo, Somra Nimmur, Sarukissen, Sutraton, Sucknu, Jakam,
Burdia, Bundoo.
3. Pay list of Crown Lands Estate for week ending 10 April 1886: Note
different spellings for same names listed for 3 Apr 1886: Agnoocea, Augmo,
Baijoo, Ballea, Barhoo, Bhagobutty L., Bhagobutty Ram,
Bagwansahaie,
Bhulloo, Beekham, Button Napoo, Bissessur, Bissessuree,
Boodhun, Bundhoo,
Bundhea, Boodna, Chakowree, Chootra, Chowtie, Chujjoo,
Chumme, Dagull,
Donie, Dilchandsingo, Doola, Dorlaum, Ekwara, Fokeer
Mahomed, Gopee,
Gujadhur, Horli,
Hulass, Hoossany, Jutame, Joorhester, Jomal, Kalkasingo,
Kihane, Kessmar, Khiroda, Luchiman, Lukpotia, Lukhina,
Lukkia Dilloo,
Mainwa, Manchoo, Mingnul, Mucktolia, Munnoosing, Naga,
Naytookally, Panchoo,
Penya, Phobagra, Poonea, Payne, Prionath, Raghoo.
4. Bhowanibhick, age 55, son of Chowpaie ,5' 7.25",who
originally came on
the Foyle (number 4) in 1880 to St.
Lucia is registered to return to
Calcutta, India
on the Hereford, which sailed on 4 Sept 1890, with his wife
and at least 3 children. He last worked on Crown lands.
5. Sukram age 38, son of Mungha, 5' 2.5", who
originally came on the Bann
(number 237) in 1881 to St.
Lucia elected bounty of 10 Pounds on 6 Mar 1891.
He had a wife. He last worked at the Roseau
estate
6. Dhowday , age 31, son of
Onsori, 5' 4.5", who
originally come on the
Bann (number 228) in 1881 to St.
Lucia elected to return to India.
He had a
brother. He last worked at the Roseau
estate.
7. Hunoomansing, age 35 who came on the Bracadaile (register
number 1467 and
wife register number 1468) in 1884 was assigned to the
Dennery Usine in
September. He appeared to have died on 27 Nov 1884.
8. Hosanee, General Register number 1033, of Roseau Estate,
received a
certificate of exemption from labor on March 9, 1886.
9. Dhoni of Marguis Estate, who came to St.
Lucia on the Leonidas in 1878,
was imprisoned on 7
Sept 1878 for 14 days. Register number 415.
10. Thaibdin, age 35, son of Oree, 5'5" was listed as
number 278 in the
General Register of Return Immigrants. He originally came to
St. Lucia on
the Leonidas (number 205) in 1878, left on the Moy (number
183) on 5 Sep
1888. He was last employeed at Perle Estate.
11. Badari, age 22, son of Chadhary, came to St.
Lucia on the Bracadaile in
1884. His ship number 480 and register number 1625. He was a
Kurmi by caste.
He was assigned to the Bois d'Orange Estate.
12. Narrain son of Loroton deposited 16 pounds in the Moy
(ship number 272)
for the return voyage on 5 Sept 1888.
13. Motee registered 2 Pounds, 10 Shillings on 11 Mar 1885 to be sent to
Teeka
14. Ondhar, who came on the Foyle (number 53) in 1880 died
on25 March 1883.
His 13 Pounds, 14 Shillings, and 11 pence were sent to India
on 13th Jun
1880
15. Bhookul age 43, son of Augnoo elected for bounty of 10
Pounds on 19 June
1888. He originally came on the Leonidas in 1878. He was
assigned to the
Esperance Estate.
Rambaran, age 25, son of Nimuth (Nimuta), 5" 0.5", was of the Ahir caste.
He was from Ghazipur. He left Calcutta
on the SS Roumania ( Ship's number 4)
in 1891. He worked both for the Dennery Company, LTD (La
Caye Estates) and
St. Lucia Central Sugar Factory Company, LTD (Crown Lands
Estate).
16. Some individuals listed on Crown Land Estates circa
1891: Buckwala,
Bowdha, Bundheo, Bundhoo, Eddhay, Sawonbar, Juspersad, Rohi,
and Reetai.
17. The following individuals had money in the treasury, but
upon death
there was no heir to be found: Jecan, Purboll, Horill,
Oudhai, Chingan,
Budal, Kullu, and Sonichara.
The highest amount at the time was 13 Pounds,
14 Shillings, and 11 Pence belonging to Oudhai. This amount
was lodged in
the treasury on 13
June 1889.
18. Durma came on the Bracadaile in 1885. Worked as a
Chaukidar on the
Roseau Estate.
19. Ram Dass was employed by the Ressources Estate according
to the pay list
dated 25 Apr 1891.
20. Anwar, worked at Ressources Estate during 1891.
21. Oomur, worked at Ressources Estate during 1891.
22. Purmanon had a bania shop on Ressource Estate during
1891. So did Debi.
They both most likely came to St.
Lucia on the Bracadaile in 1884. Kali
Pershad sold rice and dal on the Ressource Estate during
1891.
23. Umeer Sing, only son of a mother still in India
in 1891. Had accepted
the 10 Pound bounty and had no intentions of going back to India.
He was a
Chettri by caste (Kstriy).
He had a wife and two children. He most likely
either came to St. Lucia
on the Foyle or Bann.
24. Ramnath (boy) was employed by Retraite Estate during
1891
Grenada
1. William Murray, after he became a Christian adopted this
name from his
former master. He owned a shop and a small cocao plantation.
He also
imported from America.
2. De Gale, also adopted his name from his former master. He
owned private
property and had a provision shop. He gave the Cooly Mission
the land to
build its school as a present.
3. Udalli owned land and ran a shop. He was into horse
racing. His son
George Udalli was a clerk in the Police Magistrate's Office.
4. Cooman Sing ran a shop.
St. Vincent
- Macleod
had changed his name.
"Guy Grannum"
Jun 6 2003,
5:43 am
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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("Guy
Grannum")
Date: Fri, 6 Jun
2003 09:43:05 +0000 (UTC)
Local: Fri, Jun 6
2003 5:43 am
Subject: East Indian and Chinese Indentured Immigration W.I.
This discussion has been extremely useful - in terms of
bibliographies.
I wonder if anyone can offer advice on a question I posed a
while ago - that
of vital records for the East Indian community.
Many, if not most, of the East Indian immigrants predated
civil registration
and as most were not Christians would not be recorded in the
usual Caribbean
sources - namely parish registers.
What was the practice for recording their births, marriages
and
deaths/burials, if at all? May be this was oral tradition as
practiced in
India.
I understand that in Trinidad Muslim marriages were not recognised
until about 1936 and Hindu marriages until about 1946 - this
meant that such
'married' couples were considered common-law relationship
and were basically
single from a legal point of view and any children were
illegitimate, this
also effected laws of probate for intestacy (dying without
leaving a valid
will) and later British citizenship and belonging (as
citizenship passed
through legitimate fathers).
However, for such marriages not to be recognised must mean
that these
marriages occurred. Were such events written down?
I have tried numerous social histories and websites - there
is plenty
describing the migrations, immigration controls and working
conditions but
really there is nothing of serious use to the genealogist.
Another non-Christian group of post emancipation labourers,
which again
predate civil registration, are the Chinese labourers. They
first arrived in
Trinidad in 1806 although the next
waves were not until the 1840s in Guyana,
Jamaica
and Trinidad. Was anything recorded about their life
events?
However, very few Chinese women migrated until the 1860s and
I understand
that the normal practice was for Chinese men to return to China
in order to
marry and would remain. But after 1860 some 'marriages' must
have taken
place according to homeland practices - may be their numbers
were too small
to establish their own places of worship and that births and
marriages went
unrecorded. I assume that burials would occur but in the
municipal
cemeteries rather than church yards.
There is an excellent site relating to the Chinese in Guyana
by Trev
Sue-A-Quan at http://www.rootsweb.com/~guycigtr/
I welcome any thoughts and advice.
Thanks
Guy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Allicock"
<
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>
To: <
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>
Sent: Friday, June
06, 2003 9:16 AM
Subject: East Indian Indenture Immigration W.I.
> Hi Listers,
> I think I have come to the end of the research material
for East Indian
Indenture Immigration to the West Indies.
> I took a look at Chedie's List on his Website
"East Indian Laborers in the
Caribbean 1838 to 1930."
> I have produced some material for the places in
Brackets. The places that
are unbracketed are yet to be provided for in terms of
historical research
material.
> So others are free to pitch in and hlep to complete the
List and the
thread.
> Please stick to the Subject line. Thanks.
> Here's the list of places done and not done:
> Belize,
Fr. Guiana, Grenada,
Guadaloupe, [Guyana],
[Jamaica], Martinique,
Nevis, St. Croix,
St. Kitts, St. Lucia,
[St. Vincent], [Surinam]
and
[Trinidad]
"Guy Grannum"
Richard Thank you very much for your detailed response - and
for the wonderful bibliographies. In short the answer seems to be that there
are no religious records and few state records unless the authorities needed to
intervene. In common with their labouring
predecessors one needs to try plantation records and other tangential records.
This means that researchers won't be able to check the usual sources. I had
forgotten about the role of the protectors of immigrants/labourers (previously
protectors of slaves) however I'm not sure if all islands had these officials -
some reports of protectors of slaves c1824-1834 can be found in The National
Archives (Public Record Office) but only for Trinidad, British Guiana and St
Lucia; I know that Barbados had stipendiary magistrates that had a similar role
but I'm not aware of any reports being routinely forwarded to the Colonial
Office. I assume that if they survive these will be with the archive or may be
still with the immigration department. There are quite a few interesting
articles and pages on the internet such as: An essay on how Hinduism developed
differently in Guyana
and Suriname at
http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2001/1-2/2001-1-08.shtml. It mentions
that the first Hindu cremation in Guyana
didn't occur until 1956. and http://www.caribbeanhindu.com/Arrival.htm - which
gives some interesting statistics. Searching on the authors takes you into
further into unexplored territories. Guy <snip>
Jun 11 2003,
2:47 pm
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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("Guy
Grannum")
Date: Wed, 11 Jun
2003 18:47:38 +0000
(UTC)
Local: Wed, Jun 11
2003 2:47 pm
Subject: Re: East Indian and Chinese Indentured Immigration W.I.
Richard
Thank you very much for your detailed response - and for the
wonderful
bibliographies.
In short the answer seems to be that there are no religious
records and few
state records unless the authorities needed to intervene.
In common with
their labouring predecessors one needs to try plantation
records and other
tangential records. This means that researchers won't be
able to check the
usual sources.
I had forgotten about the role of the protectors of
immigrants/labourers
(previously protectors of slaves) however I'm not sure if
all islands had
these officials - some reports of protectors of slaves
c1824-1834 can be
found in The National Archives (Public Record Office) but
only for Trinidad,
British Guiana and St
Lucia; I know that Barbados
had stipendiary
magistrates
that had a similar role but I'm not aware of any reports
being routinely
forwarded to the Colonial Office.
I assume that if they survive these will be with the archive
or may be still
with the immigration department.
There are quite a few interesting articles and pages on the
internet such
as:
An essay on how Hinduism developed differently in Guyana
and Suriname at
http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2001/1-2/2001-1-08.shtml.
It mentions
that the first Hindu cremation in Guyana
didn't occur until 1956.
and http://www.caribbeanhindu.com/Arrival.htm - which gives
some interesting
statistics.
Searching on the authors takes you into further into
unexplored territories.
Guy
"Richard Allicock"
Jun 17 2003,
7:20 pm
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.west-indies
From:
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("Richard Allicock")
Date: Tue, 17 Jun
2003 23:19:55 +0000
(UTC)
Local: Tues, Jun 17
2003 7:19 pm
Subject: East Indian Indenture Immigration W.I. Names
Some-one pointed out that Indian names could also be formed
by adding two names together, like Bhagat+Singh to get Bhagatsingh. This is
quite true. I did not want to deal with this until we had gotten further into
the history of East Indians in the British Colonies in the West
Indies, as we were talking about Anglicisation and Creolisation of
the names. The above example is more appropriate to observe outside of the
process or situation of Anglicisation in which we will find more of the
fracture of previously compounded names.
I am also interested in this process not for academic
purposes but also practical ones for genealogical purposes. In the absence of
so much records, and also in some cases the presence of too many records, as in
the case of too many persons with the same names, I am interested in being
aware of the process of Anglicisation/Creolisation for the clues that names can
give on the whereabouts of persons and in a situation where dating them might
be ambiguous..
An indentured immigrant person could arrive with a name
spelt one way on the ships manifest, arrrive on a plantation and imediately or
within a few years have their name spelt slightly differently, depending upon
who made the initial record and who kept the records for the next five and
later three years. Some-one might even move to another plantation after one
contract expired and get their name again spelt differently, by Englishmen,
Scotsmen, Irish, and even Welsh and Cornish men, (all with their various county
and regional accents) and not to forget the East Indian "Drivers"
"Headmen" themselves. All of the foregoing would have a different ear,
different levels of familiarity to East Indian names, different levels of
education, different ways of spelling even in English. Then one can have one's
children start attending schools and churches and have the names spelt
variously yet again. And the orthographic and phonetic abilities of the
recordists would also change over ti!
me from one generation to another.
Names can give clues in terms of Anglicisation and
non-Anglicisation. Anglicised names tell us that the person in question was in
a situation of Anglicisation and in a period of Anglicisation. The anglicising
situations are of course on the plantations and in the schools and churches.
The process of anglicisation would be more relevant to people who will later
move off the plantation and into the towns and villages of the British and
Creoles. On the plantations the sheer force of numbers and community pressure
would serve slow the process of Anglicisation/Creolisation beyond initial name
changes. Once the East Indians on the Plantations started to be able to better
"staff" their communities with arrivals of Pandits/Pundits and
Moulvis from India
and later Pakistan
or other colonies, the name changes would revert in many instances to what was
common "back-home". But this would mostly affect new births and
fore-names rather than surnames. And we also get more Hindu and Muslim !
names as fore-names for those religious groups, but a
mixture or "Indian" and English and purely English fore-names for the
Christian East Indians.
We also have to add the fact that many East Indians did not
take opportunity for educating their children the way that the Creoles and
Chinese did. Also, we should take into
account that it was not until close to the turn of the 1900 that the male -
female ratio was equalised and stable families were becoming the norm. This
meant increasing pressure to school one's children and prepare them for on or
off plantation jobs. So even for the on-plantation East Indians, the pressure
for Anglicisation was growing, with ultimately movement to the towns and
villages, where they would likely be taught by anglicised creole teachers. This
pressure increased dramatically after the cessation of
Indentureship/Immigration in 1930, and with the prospect of Independence
after 1953. Between these two water-shed years the East Indian Community would
produce their own Anglicised teachers thus furthering the process of
Anglicisation, and the promotion and retention of anglicised names. Later suc!
h teachers and students would even found their own schools.
The legal requirement that birth, marriages and deaths be
registered with the Registrar-General
would further serve to fix name changes in whatever form it was
registered, (anglicised and non-anglicised), and that again can give clues to
the degree of anglicisation of the parties concerned.
The need to produce documents for legal and business
purposes - land and other property records, taxes etc., - for schooling one's
children, for travel etc. would again fix names.
But then we also have to consider the recording of Censuses,
and when the recording of names would be recorded by some-one else, we are back
to phonetics, how the name appears to sound to some-one's ear. After general
schooling people (especially the younger rather than older) could at least
spell their own names, so the recording of names would get better after the
1960's.
All of these factors can give clues as to who was writing
the names and in what period or even situation.
English itself was not generally standardised until after
1876 with the Education Act that made education compulsory for school age
children. Before that it was the English Translation of the Latin Bible that
did a great deal to standardise written English. Before that it was London
English that was the ideal of English speech, for business purposes, but the
writing could be idiosyncratic until after 1876, and based phonetically on
regional accents and level of education of the writer.
By the time we get to the indenture and immigration of East
Indians in the 1840's, the British had been in India via the British East India
Company going on two and half centuries. From (1600-1773) the BEI Co.;
from 1773 UK
parliamentary control via a Governor-General.
By the 1840's the British Army had already standardised the
way that Indian names from all the different languages of the recruits should
be spelt or transliterated to be more precise.
But before that we got:
"A dictionary English and Hindostany : to which is
annexed a copious and useful alphabetical list of proper names of men, women,
towns, cities, rivers, provinces, countries &c. a great majority of which
appear to be of Persian, Arabic or Indian origin." Vol.2
by Henry Harris, Surgeon, Madras Army (1759-1822), Madras
: printed for the author, 1790,
345p. appx. of proper names,
Vol. 1 (containing a
grammar) never printed, titled: Guide to the Orthography of Indian Proper Names
with a list showing the true spelling of all post towns and villages in India.
Printed by William Wilson Hunter, Calcutta,187,pp.146.
Office of the Superintendent of Govt.
By the 1870's we get:
"The duty of English-speaking Orientalists in regard to
united action in adhering generally to Sir William Jones's Principles of
Transliteration, especially in that case of Indian Languages : with a proposal
for promoting a Uniform International Method of Transliteration so far at least as may be applicable to
Proper Names."
By Monier
Monier-Williams, 1870, 21p.
I do not know if it was published because there is a note at
head of page: "Rough proof, not yet ready for printing off".
And:
"A Guide to the Orthography of Indian Proper Names with
a list showing the true spelling of all post towns and villages in India."
By William Wilson Hunter, British
Academy London.
Calcutta, 1871,
146 p. Office of the Superintendent of Govt. Author.
And:
"Indian Domestic Economy and Receipt Book, with
Hindustanee romanized names ... Eighth
edition, revised.
By Robert Flower Riddell
Calcutta : Thacker, Spink & Co. 1877, 596 p.
By 1917 it seems that there was still a need to deal with
Arabic and Persian based names, and hence this is relevant to the way in which
Muslim names may have been spelt from c. 1870, or before, allowing for the
time-lag between practice and formalisation.
So we get:
"The British academy transliteration of Arabic and
Persian; report of the committee appointed to draw up a practical scheme for the transliteration
into English of words and names belonging to the languages of the Nearer
East."
By H. Milford,
Oxford university
press 1917? 17 p. Published for the British
Academy, London.
Notes: From the Proceedings of the British academy, vol.
VIII.
Preface signed, C. J. L. stated that: The system
"practically agrees with that adopted more than fifty years ago by the
government of India
for place-names in official use and for the names of soldiers in the Indian
army, with such minor modifications as experience from time to time showed to
be desirable."
The above references, I think would be useful for seeing how
the names would have been transliterated before and after the East Indian
Indentured Immigrants got to the British Colonies.
I hope all the above makes a further contribution to the
Topic.
Richard
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Finding Your Ancestors in India 
