I guess when many of us think of the Caribbean region in terms of ancestry, we think of strictly Africa and to a lesser degree the colonial powers that brought many of our African ancestors to the region. Despite the popular talk of African roots many of us cling to, many of us are well aware that the “master” dropped his “seed” here and there. That’s a whole story unto itself for another day.

What I find is less talked about and underestimated are the many waves of migrations that took place for one reason or another since slavery ended in the Caribbean. On the southwest side of Jamaica in the parish of St. Elizabeth, legend has it that a cruise liner carrying either Germans or Scottish passengers shipwrecked off the the shoreline of that parish. The survivors made it to land and stayed, eventually forming a community there. Over time, some merged into the local population through marital and/or sexual interaction which created a mulatto type community whom Jamaicans call “brownings” to this day. Many Jamaicans of a rather fair complexion originate in St .Elizabeth. While this was not necessarily a traditional migrations of soughts, it helped to shape a part of what and who Jamaica is today.

Also, Indentured servant hood played a big role in Jamaica, like Trinidad and Guyana and to a lesser degree, other Caribbean islands after slavery, as wealthy land owners (often white) took up offers to bring in workers from distant places like China and India who worked to pay of their passage to the Caribbean while in the process help former slave owners and/or their children deal with the massive blow the abolition of slavery gave to their way of life. As would be expected, many of these immigrants were looked upon with suspicion by the local population and the suspicion was returned. Most of them held strongly to their way of life they remembered back in their homelands. This, however, did not stop eventual intermingling with the locals by their children and children’s children which eventually bore children of “mixed” heritage and race. This of course gave birth to Jamaica’s motto, “Out of many, one people.”

In addition to the Chinese and Indians, there were also another less mentioned group of people that came to the Caribbean, mostly the eastern Caribbean down to Trinidad and Guyana. They were the Portuguese, hailing from a Portuguese island off the northwestern coast of Africa and Southwest of Portugal known as Madeira. Like the Chinese and Indians, many came in search of work or to start a new life. Popular surnames names they left behind were De Freitas (Freitas), Dias, Delacoudray, Costa, Fernandes (Fermandes), Gomes, DeSousa (Sousa, Souza), Santos, etc.
Of course it is common knowledge that many East Indians migrated to Trinidad and Guyana and in lesser waves, to the other islands of the Caribbean. They changed the landscape of those countries of course.

There there is the mass migration of mostly Jamaicans and Barbadians to Central America (namely Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras) to clear jungle, build railroads, and eventually the Panama Canal. Many of these migrant workers had children in those countries, even down to places like Colombia in South America which borders Panama.

Then there were waves of migrations from Jamaica and the eastern Caribbean to Cuba and the Domincan Republic to cut cane and work in the sugar cane factories. This was in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Many young able bodied men from places like St. Kitts, Nevis, St. Martin, Anguilla, the U.S and British Virgin Islands fathered many children in the Dominican Republic and women who tagged along from those islands ended up with children from the local Dominican men also. These immigrants included my grandfather and his 7 siblings. That migration is being reversed today as just about everyday, many Dominicans attempt the dangerous trek across the Mona Passage chanel between the Domincan Republic and Puerto Rico to make it to lands where their fathers and grandfathers came from 50, 60, 70 years ago. While the Dominican Republic is a Spanish speaking country, it is not surprising to find many English surnames there, such as Leonard, Huggins, Hodge, Gumbs and Richardson which hints back to this point in time when many men and women from the English speaking Caribbean migrated to this Spanish speaking country.

Bermuda, isolated in the middle of the north central Atlantic Ocean saw a huge wave of Kittitians, Nevisians, and natives of Montserrat in the 1940s and 1950s helping to shape that relatively prosperous island into what it is today - in the top five of world nations in regards to standard of living.

St .Croix Virgin Islands saw a wave of Puerto Ricans coming to her shore when the Hess Oil Refinery opened up in the early 60s. Today, while St. Croix is an english speaking island, it is not surprising to find many Spanish surnames on that island.

The Virgin Islands, mostly St. Thomas, had a wave of immigrants which included my mother and father starting in the late 40s and early 50s when tourism boomed after World War II. Many war veterans had been stationed at the naval base (Sub base) in St .Thomas, protected by the deep water and semi enclosed and hidden harbor in Charlotte Amalie. After the war ended, many made their way back to this slice of paradise with their families, setting off the tourism boom. Since many native Virgin Islanders had abandoned the then impoverished island(s) in 1927 when the U.S. granted all natives U.S. citizenship, a call was put out for workers from neighboring islands to work in the hotels and gift shops which brought in hordes of “down islanders” from as far as Guyana. As a result, the Virgin Islands boast a population with probably at least one representative from every Caribbean island from tiny St. Barthelemy to relatively large Trinidad and points in between. In addition, families of Palestinians came to the Virgin Islands after the 6-day war in Israel to escape Israeli domination of their ancestral land and as mentioned before, many Dominicans (Dominican Republic) have found their way into the local population via illegal entry by way of smuggling across the waters from their country.

There are of course other migrations that are also beneath the radar, so to speak, but as I think of them I will present them. Please note that all of this was written strictly from memory and observation. Facts may be inaccurate at the moment.