The Virgin Islands at War

Painting of the Bombardment of Copenhagen

As regular readers probably know, I’ve been spending a lot of time lately going through the latest Ancestry.com St Croix collection (St Croix Death Records).  There a dozens of collections of records, comprising hundreds of documents.  One of these is a 32-image collection entitled “Free Male Inhabitants 1807”.  This sounds useful (who can’t use a list of Inhabitants from any particular year), but while it isn’t exactly what it seems, the document is actually much more interesting than that.

While Ancestry’s name of the collection certainly appears to be an accurate description (the people listed are free, male, live on St Croix, and it was for the year 1807), this isn’t a document of a census or a complete listing of free people.  The list is only adult males, children aren’t recorded.  Also it doesn’t appear to be comprehensive.  It appears that there are names missing from this document.  As a quick check, I looked at some burgherbriefs issued in 1806 and early 1807, figuring that those people would likely still be on island.  A Charles Ferdinand Wass, born in London, received his brief in December 1806 yet does not appear in the “List of Inhabitants” a year later.  Neither does an Alexander Instant, born in Scotland.  I also couldn't find Stephen Wheeler, born in North America, yet he received his brief in July 1807.

How useful is a “List of Inhabitants” that doesn’t show all the “Inhabitants”?   Well, not very, until you notice what the list really is.  To do that, I need to digress and discuss a bit of Virgin Island history that isn’t as well known as it should be.  It is a time when world events reached across the Atlantic to the little Danish islands and brought significant changes, affecting our families and their lives forever.

St Croix Death Records on Ancestry.com

When I began searching for my family there were very few records available online for St Croix. 

The best online collection was the St Croix census.  There were indexes at the Danish Demographic Database (http://www.ddd.dda.dk/ddd_en.htm) and VISHA (http://stx.visharoots.org/db.html) and images on Ancestry.com. 

There were a few church records on FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/) and the copy of NARA’s Colored People records M-1883 on Fold3 (which has since been posted to Ancestry.com). 

That was about it.

St Croix Records Back on Ancestry After a Year

Long time readers will remember that back in May 2012 Ancestry posted a large collection of records from the Virgin Islands (see my post, New Virgin Islands Records on Ancestry.com) and then, a week later, yanked them down. (See Virgin Islands Records Vanished from Ancestry.com).  Well, mostly, they’re back.  Hopefully to stay.

New Book-“Island Boy” by Arnold van Beverhoudt Jr

 

Genealogists tend to live in the past.  A very distant past.  Few of them take the time, or have the interest, to document their own lives.  After all, our lives are recent.  There is no mystery.  Besides, our lives aren’t interesting unless we are movers and shakers, captains of industry or politicians. Somehow we feel that the life of anyone from the 18th century, no matter how dull,  is far more interesting than our own. 

Well, one day, the 2013 will be “long ago” and our descendants (avid genealogists, of course) will be building their family history.  Of course, they will have all of our wonderful research to build on, but it will suddenly end with us.  How will they find out about us?  Can you think of a better gift to leave them than a detailed account of our lives?  About when and where we lived? What we liked and disliked, our hopes and dreams?  About how we were affected by the events of our times?  What would you give to find such an account of one of your ancestors?

A Blogging Milestone: 100th Post from 200 Years

This post is a big milestone. This is the 100th blog post on 200 Years in Paradise.  Who would have thought I’d have that much to say?

I was trying to figure out what would be a good topic for my 100th post.  Should I discuss something from general genealogy?  Island history?  An article on an ancestor?  A house? Records?  DNA? Nothing seemed right for such a momentous occasion.

Then this past week I got an email from a reader, Rolf Klausen, who read one of my posts, Pulling a Thread to Unravel Genealogical Tangles, where I discuss the family of my 3rd great grandmother, Mary Aletta Quickly.  In the article I mention that I had not seen the image of the 1846 census, just the extracted information on Ancestry.com by VISHA.  Rolf kindly sent me a photo of the census page in the Danish Archive showing my family at 27 Hospital St in Christiansted, along with some other pages of interest.  How kind of him to look this up for me and send it along.

This made me think of all of the people who have helped me in researching my family that I have met through this blog.  The people who have left helpful hints, suggestions, and information through comments and email.  People have found records of my family, in the islands and in Denmark.  They have pointed me in directions where I could find information about the society where my ancestors lived. 

Others have shared their family stories, often giving me hints where I might look next on my own journey.  Others have found me through my posts and have turned out to be relatives.  They have provided much information that has grown my family well beyond anything I could have imagined.

So this post, the 100^th post, is a Thank You.  A thank you to those who have helped me, to those who have allowed me to be part of their journey, and a thank you to you, my readers, for supporting me and accompanying me on my own journey to learn and understand where I’m from, who my people are, and what they were like.  It’s very true, no man is an island (even an island man).  I thank you all and look forward to 100 more.

Now, what to say in the next 100?