Family heritage project "Make the Connection"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ubuntu Connected Front (UCF) Caribbean proudly launches the Family Heritage project “Make the Connection” for all people with their roots in St. Eustatius. The project is part of UCF’s activities to protect the burial ground Golden Rock in St. Eustatius, and the respectful treatment of the remains of individuals of Afrikan descent that were discovered.

UCF Caribbean chairman Kenneth Cuvalay: "Rather than dig up our ancestors from their graves without our consent, analyze their teeth in a lab and then tell us they came from Afrika, we prefer to research archival records from our own perspective. So, the narrative is told from our perspective and no one else's.”

St. Eustatius Afrikan Burial Ground Alliance

 UCF Caribbean has formed the "St. Eustatius Afrikan Burial Ground Alliance" with several people and organizations. This Alliance will carry out this unique Family Heritage project. The project coordinator and co-researcher is Ms. Nathaley Weyman whose roots are on the island. She lived in St. Eustatius for many years and will return to the island in December. The researcher of the project is Mr. Jack Theuns from Den Bosch, the Netherlands. He is an expert in archival research and in recent months he has collected many archival sources about St. Eustatius from many countries in the world. 

Families of St. Eustatius

This Family Heritage project is aimed at the St. Eustatius community to connect family names in colonial archives (manumissions and so called ‘borderells’) to the people of St. Eustatius as the descendant community. Maritime marronage and inter-island slave trade used to be common because of St. Eustatius’ central geographical position in the Caribbean. As a result, family names may have spread further than realized, and this community project could give more insight into this.

Although the project is not aimed at 20th century genealogical research, it can provide insight into how our ancestors spread around the world and where to. Wealthy European colonizers had many possessions and often our ancestors were forced to travel with them to other islands or countries as servants. We also want to shine a light on stories of resistance. For example, Thomas Dupersoy and other leaders of the uprising in 1848 were exiled to Curaçao. And some of our ancestors had the courage to swim across the ocean to reach St. Kitts.

Registers and archives

In 1862, at the dawn of Emancipation, a new Slave Register and other documents (so-called “Slaven Borderellen”) were made by the enslavers to ensure that they got their compensations from the government. In these documents (per enslaver) all enslaved African people of that moment were mentioned, with their first name or names, very occasionally with a surname, their estimated age or birth year, sometimes the name of their mother, and if they had lepra or elephantiasis.

Double standards of the Dutch

After 1863, when enslavement was officially abolished in the Dutch colonies, the St. Eustatius government had to start registering former enslaved Afrikan people in the civil registration. But the astonishing fact appears that many decades after Emancipation the civil servants still kept the registration of former enslaved Afrikan people up to date. And as this continued from 1863 till at least 1925 this proofs that the local government kept a double administration:

• The official civil registration, as ordered by the law;
• A second registration for those who were once enslaved, plus their descendants.
  

The discrimination based on race was kept intact by the St. Eustatius government for a very long time.

Make the Connection

Because of many reasons, there are differences in the various registrations, archives are missing, archives were deliberately destroyed, people are missing, people have moved to other islands, names were changed, there were many writing mistakes because of phonetic names writing (which also is a cause for so many very similar surnames), and not so many people could read or write, etc.

Nevertheless, in many cases it is possible to make the connection between the Afrikan descent people mentioned on these documents and present day descendants. By this, we identify the enslaved or former enslaved Afrikan people by giving them back their surname and family relations. For their descendants, it makes them aware of their ancestors, where they lived, sometimes where they died, and were buried.

Furthermore, this goes in two directions: sometimes this effort also makes it possible to identify the parents or grandparents of the enslaved Afrikan people of 1863. So anyone who tells that it is unknown who was buried on which plantation, has not done his or her schoolwork, or possibly has other motives.

There were also former enslaved people who were manumissioned before 1863, and got back their freedom. Sometimes under the condition of adapting the surname the enslaver give to them. The real family histories of these Afrikan descent manumissioned people is also very unclear.

Our approach of Community-Based Research

This is a project for Afrikan descent people helping each other. To us, community-based research means that the community directs the project and is in charge of the project and all the results. This is for and by the St. Eustatius community, thus taking control over our own narrative. 

We have made a start in identifying enslaved and former enslaved Afrikan descent people, and are seeking the participation of the community.

• This is a project for the whole community. Old and young.
• Especially the younger generation of Afrikan descent are very welcome to this project. 
• Anyone who has once made or tried to make a family tree, and who knows almost for sure that their ancestors also lived on St. Eustatius, and were probably enslaved or former enslaved people of Afrikan descent, could participate.
• People living on St. Eustatius, but also people with roots in St. Eustatius and living elsewhere can participate.
• All stories about people who have experienced the time of enslavement or lived in the decades afterwards could possibly help.
• Other volunteers are also welcome to help read the many archival documents to find identifying data of enslaved Afrikan people. Some documents need to be translated to readable text.
  

With this Family Heritage project we can shine a light on many family histories, and give those who have died a name and a family.

Outcome of the project

During the coming months, we will publicize several milestone documents for and about this project on the website.  We hope we can and may publish other results on a new website. The results of this project will be made accessible for the St. Eustatius community by archiving all found documents, data, etc.

Are you interested in participating?

If you wish to participate in our project, you can leave a message at steustatiusafrikanburialground@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page.