12-01-07
Introduction
What follows is an attempt to document the history of those individuals and their families, who lived in the Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands is defined as Christopher Columbus named them and thus includes the British Virgin Islands, the U. S. Virgin Islands, formerly the Danish West Indies, as well as, Culebra and Vieques, the two islands which now are a part of Puerto Rico.
The documents are "working documents" in that they are dated and will be continually refined and added to as new documentation is found. When a change is made to a document, it will given the date on which the change is made.
The principal behind the creation of a document is to follow the patrilineal (father's) line of the family. In other words, to follow the people who carry the surname (family name). Individuals who marry into the family are briefly described and their surname is listed at the top of the document under "related families" with a link to that family document. In a similar manner, the children of women's in a particular family document, will be found in their father's family document. In a few cases, where the father is not known, but the mother is, then the children will be listed under their mother until such a time as it is possible to ascertain what surname the children subsequently carry. The construction of a particular family document begins usually with the first individual who settled in the Virgin Islands. In some cases, the parents of such a person may be given, when known. If the origin of the individual who settles in the islands is know, that is given under the category "origin." In general, those individuals in a family who are married outside of the Virgin Islands will not have their spouses' family history described here. The first child listed will given the Arabic number "1" and in addition a small roman numeral, such as "i." Children of children will be followed with their given number, and their children will begin with the last number given to the parent's sibling (brother or sister), and then his children will be given, in addition, roman numbers, beginning with "i."
In the brief numerical listing of children, their birth dates and deaths will also be given when known. Then, in the text which follows, the individual can be found by their arabic number. It is here that any information known about the individual is presented, including the person's partner/spouse. Information concerning place of birth, where and when baptized, where and when married, place of residence and occupation are also given. These then become brief biographies of the individual.
Whenever possible a piece of information will be given a citation from an original, primary source, for instance a baptismal record, a marriage record, a death record, as well as such sources as censuses, tombstones, etc. In some cases, information has been transmitted from an individual, but without attribution as to where the information came from. This latter form of citation has to be considered a secondary source, which hopefully in time will be attributed to a primary source.
When evidence of relationships between individuals is weak, the goal is to have at least three pieces of evidence which link the two individuals, in order to surmise that the relationship is probable. If there are fewer links, then this will be noted, where ever possible.
Corrections to family documents are welcomed, especially if they are accompanied by primary evidence. The changes may be sent to vifamilies@gmail.com, and the individual sending the evidence will be given credit by being added to the "Contributor" line. Email will be answered whenever possible, as time allows. Requests for searches may be requested, but there is no guarantee that they will be made.
Svend E. Holsoe
Abbreviations
NARA National Archives and Records Administration,
the U.S. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
RA Rigsarkiv, the Danish National Archives, Copenhagen, Denmark
RG55 Record Group 55 in NARA. This is the record group for the Danish
West Indian archival materials found at the U. S. National Archives.
VILA Vestindiske Lokal Arkiver, the West Indian Local Archives,
found in the Danish National Archives, Copenhagen, Denmark.
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