Ancestral Homes–11 A Company St

11 A Company Street, Christiansted St Croix

One of the main projects I had planned for my visit to St Croix was to walk around Christiansted and locate my ancestors homes.  I figured that the structures themselves were probably gone, but at least I could find where they were located, to get a sense of the place. 

Since the records of St Croix are sufficiently voluminous and detailed, I have collected over 170 house numbers of relatives in town.  To keep the project small, I reduced this to just the addresses of my direct line and still was left with 28, scattered all over town.  During my trip, we walked until our feet gave out, but were able to document many of them.  I still have some left for a future trip.  It is interesting to look at the history of the house, and see how much we can glean from our genealogical records.

Return from Paradise

Customs House and Fort in Christiansted

Last week I visited the beautiful island of St Croix.  It wasn’t the first time I’ve been there, but after all the research I’ve done on my family, I saw it with new eyes.   I managed to get at least some of my wish list accomplished on the trip, although to tell the truth, I frequently got distracted.  I had to spend time at the beach, diving, and the mandatory boat trip to Buck Island.  So, while I’m getting back into the groove of real life, I wanted to do just a quick post and hint at what I’ll be writing about soon.

The Benefits of Unindexed Records

While I was preparing for my interview (http://200inparadise.blogspot.com/2012/10/blogtalk-radioafter-action-report.html), I thought about the difficulties faced when working in an area that doesn’t have many indexed records.  I raised the point on the show that as a Virgin Islands researcher, we are typically required to look through large record sets, every line on every page.  While this is indeed daunting, it brings its own reward.

BlogTalk Radio–After Action Report

I just finished my interview with Bernice Bennett on Research at the National Archives and Beyond.  It was really a lot of fun.  I just hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.  For those of you from the islands, I hope I portrayed our homeland well.

Blogtalk Radio - Searching for Your Island Roots with David Lynch

As I mentioned before, I will be interviewed on Thursday, Oct 25, at 9pm ET by Bernice Bennett, the host of Research at the National Archives and Beyond.  This is an internet radio program, broadcast live and recorded for later retrieval via web or podcast.  Here is the official announcement.

Searching for Your Island Roots with David Lynch

Bernice Bennett welcomes David Lynch who brings a new approach to searching his Caribbean roots, specifically in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the former Danish West Indies. David used his 20 years of experience in scientific research to guide his work in uncovering his family’s 300 year history in the islands. Very few records are available online, so David explored the rarely used NARA RG 55 in College Park and other sources. These records hold a wealth of information including tax lists and a nearly complete set of newspapers from St Croix dating from the early 1800’s. In the process he learned a lot about the islands, the people, and a family history that was very different then he expected.
He chronicles his discoveries in his blog – 200 Year’s in Paradise – selected as one of Family Tree Magazine's Top 40 for 2012

To listen, just click on the link here. If you want to participate, you can call in with comments or questions at (646) 200-0491.  There is also a live text chat line that should be opened at about 8:45 ET, about 15 minutes before the show.