emigration to the West Indies

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emigration to the West Indies

Postby puds69 » Sun Jun 16, 2013 10:37 pm

I have been looking for the details on my paternal great grandfather. He was called HENRY ROBERTS and he was born in England sometime in 1855-66 approx. All we know is that by 1925 he was living in Trinidad West Indies, married to a woman originally from Barbados. He is written on a ships record of Nov 1925 going to New York to visit his daughter as a shipping clerk. How he came to be in Trinidad and married to a Bajan, nobody in the family knows. Anyone with any details of a family member who did that or where we might start hunting, all gratefully received.
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Re: emigration to the West Indies

Postby gardener » Sun Jun 16, 2013 11:24 pm

Hi
That sounds very interesting!
There is a passenger list, is this him?

Name: Henry Roberts
Arrival Date: 16 Oct 1925
Birth Date: abt 1861
Birth Location: England
Birth Location Other: london
Age: 64 Years 2 Months
Gender: Male
Ethnicity/ Nationality: English
Port of Departure: Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Port of Arrival: New York, New York
Ship Name: Maraval

travelling with wife Elizabeth aged 66 W. Indian
next of kin son O Roberts, 44 Belle Eau Rd, Port of Spain, BWI

it says that he was a civil service employee
"The present is the key to the past" - Charles Lyell
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Re: emigration to the West Indies

Postby gardener » Sun Jun 16, 2013 11:47 pm

Perhaps that is a different one?

Do you know where your father's mother/father was born? And when? Did your gtgrandfather go back to Trinidad?

all I know is that I wrote to Trinidad records office asking for help finding hen someone died, and basically they replied that I needed to know when and where they died before they could help me! Which was not helpful at all. In the end I went to the British Library in London and trailed through the Trinidad newspaper there until I was lucky enough to find an obituary for the person. Bit of a needle in a haystack though.

But perhaps any children of the couple will help pin things down and you could look for a marriage cert or births of children.
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Re: emigration to the West Indies

Postby grangers14 » Mon Jun 17, 2013 5:09 pm

If that is the right one theres also an entry for Elizabeth travelling 1924. on her own. Its states husband Henry Roberts, Harbour Masters Office T'dad.
The other entry says Mrs H S Tappin, I wonder if this is her husbands name? Theres a Gladys Tappin in usa Living with a Henry?
Also on a trip back to USA , Gadys Tappin 25,, children William 3, Jellicoe French 1. It has crossed out that Gladys was English then West Idian. Her father H Roberts, Port of Spain, Trinidad, Her husband Mr H Tappin, 429, W 124 St New York.
1919 and also 1917
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Re: emigration to the West Indies

Postby gardener » Mon Jun 17, 2013 9:18 pm

That all seems to look hopeful.
Ancestry has a tree which fits in parts, though not in others. It includes an Orlando Roberts as son of Henry and Elizabeth,born 1883 Trinidad and Tobago so would fit with the one named in the passenger list.
But it also has Henry and Elizabeth living on a farm in Lincolnshire which doesn't seem right so I would approach that with an open but critical mind.
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Re: emigration to the West Indies

Postby puds69 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:08 pm

That all seems to connect - except the farm in the uk!!!

I know that Henry S Roberts of England somehow ended up married to an ELIZABETH REDMAN from Barbados - living in Trinidad and had a son in 1882/3 - my Grandfather - Orlando. They also had a daughter - Gladys the one married to Henry S Tappin (of the match maker Tappins). They emigrated to New York in 1917 - 1919 with a selection of sons - they ended up with 7 sons in all!!!
I also know that the older Roberts's (Henry and Elizabeth) went to visit their daughter in late 1925 but Elizabeth died there in 1926 and Henry never left! He died in New York in 1941?? What I can't seem to find out is why he was in the West Indies, when he left England and how he got a Bajan wife but Trini kids!!!!!
AAAAAGH!
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Re: emigration to the West Indies

Postby SRD » Sun Aug 25, 2013 7:14 am

It wasn't that unusual for companies to take on employees in England for work overseas. If he took a job with a shipping line or the Port Authorities he may well have moved around the local offices throughout the Carribean so that might be a line of enquiry, some companies keep records going back deep into the 19th century. If they did well, and some of your information suggests they did, then they may have saved enough to buy or rent property in the UK which they may have visited regularly with the attention of retiring there. Have you tried The National Archive and The London Gazette.
Currently investigating the Hillmans of Sussex.
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