Local RootsInvestigating the Past

Using VI Primary Documents and More

Produced at the St. Croix

Curriculum Center (please feel free to edit

this presentation to meet your needs.)

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Objective

• Use multiple sources to learn about people, places, and professions of the past in VI

• Use notes and names to create historically correct, fictional story lines

• Support the teaching of Virgin Islands and Caribbean history

Learn about People of the PastFrom:

Family oral histories

Genealogical records of VI inhabitants (on line)

Photo archives (on line)

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Oral Family History

• Oral traditions 3-many of the written records in genealogical databases comes from information passed on orally through multiple generations. This link is to the Library of Congress’ narratives of the enslaved. Actors and actresses read from letters written in the 19 century.

Genealogical records of VI inhabitantsProcedures

• Click through Rootsweb.com pages until you find a familiar sir name.

• Open a record that contains all the following:– Name– Birthplace– Birthdate– Death date

There are about 264 Records

• Click through pages until you find a familiar sir name.

• Open a record that contains all the following:– Name– Birthplace– Birthdate– Death date

Go to www.rootsweb.com

Symbol

Notes

Children

Sources

Example of a Record• Name: Daniel Barnes Given Name: Daniel Surname: Barnes Suffix:

Jr. Sex: M Birth:• Abt 1772 in St. Croix, Virgin Islands • Death: 3 Aug 1799 in St. Eustacius, Virgin Islands Note: Name

Suffix:<NSFX> Jr.

Marriage 1 Mehitable Prescott Sherman b: 28 Jan 1774 in New Haven, New Haven, CN Married: Mar 1793 in 220163

• Note: _UID57ECE571D134D511853F009027FD02939155 • Change Date: 14 Jan 2006• Children Daniel Barnes b: 11 Mar 1797 in New Haven, Connecticut • Mary Tatem Barnes b: 16 Sep 1795 in New Haven, Connecticut

Image sources

• Photography was not invented until the 1800’s

• You can search images created by artists that depict the state of the Islands throughout history. Try Google Images

• Virgin Islands archives through VI Automated Library System. This is a collection of maps, images of primary documents, and other historical images (Archives)

Narrative

• ID: I86 Name: Arthur Potter Title: Sir Sex: M Birth: 7 JAN 1788 in Simpson's Bay, Saint Martin Island, West Indies Death: 15 MAR 1843 in Santa Cruz Island (Saint Croix), West Indies Burial: MAR 1843 Christiansted Cemetery, Saint Croix, U. S. Virgin Islands Note: Arthur Potter was born January 7, 1788 at Simpson Bay on Saint Martin Island, West Indies and died on Santa Cruz Island (St. Croix), West Indies, March 15, 1843. He had a large military funeral. He had been knighted for bravery and had the title Note: of Sir Arthur

Rootsweb record continued

• . Sir Arthur was robbed by his body servant who escaped to another island (Haiti) and was made king there. Sir Arthur's wife, Margaret White, and their youngest daughter, Mary Etholinda, who was sixteen at the time, went on board a Note: steamer for safety during the Insurrection of the

• Negros in 1848 and never went ashore again. A fine mansion and about twenty-five slaves were left at the time of the insurrection; the slaves were freed, but someone received money for the home. Note: The only possessions that were saved were what they carried with them at the time. One thing in particular that was saved was the family code-of-arms which was made of crimson velvet and gold, which is owned by the Mustin family of Agusta, Note: Georgia today. Margaret and her daughter came to the states, where several daughters and a son were living. Note: Note: Margaret died very suddenly soon after, and the young girl, Mary Etholinda, went to live with her older sister, Anne Eliza, who had married Charles Wilhelm Richter and was living in Madison, Georgia. She lived there until 1851 when she married Note: Simeon A. Atkinson on October 8, 1851.

No sources, but lots of notes even though the notes symbol is missing

Keyword Searches on Rootsweb

• Search Danish West Indies on Rootsweb– 241 records. Clarke, Plaskett, Gomes, Danielson

• Search Caribbean – Tituba, Jeffers, Mary Joseph, Bob Marley

What are these sources?• Sources: Title: Florida Death Index, 1877-1998

Author: Ancestry.comPublication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004.Original data - State of Florida. Florida Death Index, 1877-1998. Florida: Florida Department of Health, Office of Vital Records, 1998.Original data: State of Florida. Florida Death INote:

Note: http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=floridadeath&h=2934304&ti=5538&indiv=tryNote: http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=floridadeath&h=2934304&ti=5538&indiv=tryText: Name: Robert Nosta MarleyBirth Date: 6 Feb 1945Birth Place: Death Date: 11 May 1981Death Place: Dade, Florida, United States

• Title: Public Member TreesAuthor: Ancestry.comPublication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.Original data - Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.Original data: Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.Note: This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created.

www.google.com

Example 1

• http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=dgburt&id=I08142

• This link has notes on a marriage of “Joan” , a forced immigrant of African descent, and John Rogers from Connecticut in the 1670’s

Example 2

• http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2166075&id=I09016

• English wanderers move through the Bahamas and settle inFlorida from in a 20-year span.

Bob Marley Record

• http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3080938&id=I4013

• Bob Marley record contains biographical notes and links to paternal and maternal genealogy records. Also contains links tomany children.

Sourcing Exercise

• http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=mhorta1016&id=I1161

• Cuban record with several types of sources. Good example to illustrate

• primary documents• Personal accounts• databases

Danish Census

• http://www.ddd.dda.dk/soeg_stcroix.html

Search database for records from the Danish West Indies in the St. Croix censuses of the 1800’s

Primary Text Doc•

• One of the oldest documents in the Danish National Archives concerning the Danish West Indies is the royal charter of the West India Company, given by King Christian the Fifth in 1671. The Company was granted a national monopoly of trade and shipping to the Caribbean. In 1671 the Danes occupied St. Thomas, in 1718 St. John was taken, and in 1733 St. Croix was bought from the French.Danish National Archives, The West India and Guinea Company, no. 2.

Bibliography• Beenfeldt, H. G. 1815 Watercolor painting of

Christiansted Harbor Danish National Archives, Maps and Drawings Collection, Chamber of Revenue, no. 337,211a. Accessed on January 5, 2009 at http://www.virgin-islands-history.dk/eng/high.asp

• Front elevation and ground-plan of schoolbuilding in the countryside, 1839. Governor General Peter von Scholten built 8 such schools for slave children in St. Croix, and some in St. Thomas and St. John as well. The classical architecture is typical for Danish buildings of that epoch.Danish National Archives, Chamber of Customs’ West India and Guinea Files no. 429-431, Original proposals made by the Commission concerning the Situation of the Blacks in the West Indies.

Image info church

• Front elevations of the Danish church in Christiansted on St. Croix 1836. At the instance of Governor General Peter von Scholten, the architect Albert Loevmand renovated the old church and built a modern clocktower.Danish National Archives, Maps and Drawings Collection, Chamber of Revenue, no. 337,102.

What is Genealogy?

• What is genealogy? Genealogy comes from the Greek word genea, "descent“ or where we came from and and logos, meaning "knowledge“ It is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history

AFRICAN AMERICAN LIFE 19TH CENTURY/African Americans showing

their passes to plantation police