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Welcome to a
world of information on Portuguese communities all
over the Caribbean! This site aims to
explore the history and genealogy of Luso-West
Indians, that is, West Indians whose ancestors
hailed from Portugal, especially from the
archipelago of Madeira. The Portuguese
and their descendants have been a vital part of the
Caribbean landscape for over 150 years. Today,
Portuguese communities represent very small
minorities in several (mostly Commonwealth) West
Indian territories. Despite their limited numbers,
the contribution of Luso-descendants to the
development of our region, in all spheres of life,
is of great and lasting importance Your hosts are
Jo-Anne Ferreira and Dean de Freitas, both from
T&T. As you can see from our surnames, we are
descendants of Portuguese immigrants, both on the
paternal side. While researching our roots, we
noticed a real lack of internet-based information
on the Portuguese of the Caribbean, and so we
decided to change that situation. To learn more
about your authors, click here. We are very
interested in how we can make this site more
valuable to you, our fellow researchers. We promise
to make this effort an ongoing one. In return, we
ask you to please visit our guestbook.
There you can contribute your comments, criticisms,
and suggestions that can help us make this site
better. In addition, please let us know what
surnames you are researching so we can post them on
our surname page, which is (still) in
preparation. We eventually
hope to make this site available in Portuguese as well. This site is
divided into three main areas, the
Portuguese
Diaspora in the West
Indies,
Genealogy
and Research
Help. The
Portuguese Diaspora in the West
Indies*,
provides information on the history of Portuguese
migration to eight different territories in the
Caribbean. This section will
look at the circumstances under which various
groups of Portuguese nationals came to the West
Indies, such as Sephardic Jews, Azoreans, Madeirans
- including religious refugees, immigrant labourers
and entrepreneurs - and
others.
For each
Caribbean territory to which the Portuguese
migrated, we will focus on the background of
Portuguese migration. These territories are:
Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Curaçao,
Guyana (formerly British Guiana), Jamaica, St.
Kitts-Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and
Trinidad and Tobago. Please note that we are
working on this section territory by territory, and
Trinidad
and Tobago
is the country that we are currently working on.
We will also
focus on the people who made it happen and the
culture that they brought with them and adapted
locally. We will include profiles of prominent
Caribbean Portuguese in their various home
territories. Genealogy
is sub-divided into the following sections. They
are: Methods,
a section which gives tips and guidelines for
general genealogical research. People,
which deals with fellow researchers, surnames and
naming practices of the Portuguese. Places,
which provides links to genealogy related sites
sorted by country. Research
Help, a section which we hope will assist you
in your research, and which comprises: Sources
- this section lists our main sources of
information. It provides helpful and thorough
bibliographies, and there is also useful
information on National Archives, national record
keeping, and relevant Library catalogues and
special collections. You will also find information
on online bookstores, as well as information on
published material such as books, newspapers and
other documents. Our
Archives,
which include reproductions of all kinds of
interesting historical documents, such as 19th
century newspaper extracts and articles, invaluable
information such as immigrant registers and the
like, and other articles and essays. Internet
Links
that are valuable to your research efforts,
especially TriniGenWeb,
Deb Kleber's MadeiraExiles,
Bob Coraor's Exiles
site, and Jim Lynch's CanDoo.com
Caribbean Genealogy
Site.
Links that are specific and relevant to each
section will remain in those sections, but you will
find internet links of general interest such as
online telephone directories, maps, and
newspapers. *Also referred
to as the Caribbean and the
Antilles. We have included
many ways for you to get around the
site: To get back to
this page at any time, click on the "Portuguese of
the West Indies" bar at the top
of the page. The
button on the top right will get you to the Site
Index. The buttons below
the Site Index button show you the main sections
of
our
site. The text on the
bottom of the page provides convenient links, and
also
allows you a
quick way back to the top
of each page. Some pages have a
bar on the right side of the page with additional
links for you to try. HAPPY
RESEARCHING! UNDER
CONSTRUCTION!! |
