Danish West Indies Genealogy
Paid subscribers are offered assistance with Family Tree research. Currently I'm looking into Free and Slave descendants from plantations in Sint Eustatius and nearby islands. Can you help?
My own family tree has branches in the West Indies that include priests on slave ships, governors of Danish and Dutch controlled islands from Huguenot times, plantation and slave owners who came mainly from Denmark, Ireland, Scotland and England and manufacturers who exported the numerous products.
Also pleased to note they include those who successfully lobbied to end slavery.
Recently I was approached for help in researching the Cooper, De Windt, Heyling, Kenney, Markoe, Rogers and Roosevelt families (to name just a few) who moved around the various islands and often produced Mulatto children1 where the father was suspected but not confirmed.
Modern PCR based Genetic matching is now enablng people to reach out to distant cousins discovered as close matches as they delve into their roots.
It is very tricky research in the 1700s or before because of naming traditions leading to repeated given names and records in various languages and phonetic variations.
Here is a Christmas card from one of the plantations known as Betty’s Hope on the island of St. Croix showing cotton pickers.2
A key property we are looking at is Montpellier or Cooper’s Negrobay, in Princes Quarter No. 52, Centre Police District, Frederiksteds Jurisdiction, that belonged to the heirs of Samuel Thompson.3
Many of the people listed are mentioned in the records of the Free Dutch Reform churches in the West Indies and in Middlesex England.
Please let me know if you have connections and information to families mentioned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulatto
Øverst er arbejderne fotograferet i bomuldsmarken, også på Betty hope, et »passende« julekort, der måske skulle minde om det noget anderledes klima på de tropiske øer. Nedenunder et gammelt klokketårn, formentlig benyttet til at kalde folkene sammen. Postkort fra Det Kongelige Biblioteks samlinger.
Extract from: STATISTICS regarding landed properties in the Island of St. Croix from 1816 to 1857 with a table showing the quantity of sugar shipped from 1835 to 1840 and from 1850 to 1857. Det Kongelige Bibliotek.