Saint Kitts and Nevis Emigration and Immigration

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Saint Kitts and Nevis

Emigration and Immigration

Online Records

• 1813-1834 Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1813-1834, index, incomplete, ($) St. Kitts records listed under St. Christopher
• 1878-1960 UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• 1890-1960 Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960, St. Kitts at Findmypast - index & images ($)
• 1890-1960 Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960, Nevis at Findmypast - index & images ($)
• 1892-1924 New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924 Search results for St. Kitts
• 1892-1924 New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924 Search results for Nevis
• ShipIndex Vessel Research Database at shipindex.org - index

• United States Immigration Online Genealogy Records

British Overseas Subjects

• British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms, Saint Kitts and Nevis, index & images ($)
• British Armed Forces and Overseas Deaths and Burials at Findmypast - index & images ($)

Finding the Town of Origin in Saint Kitts and Nevis

If you are using emigration/immigration records to find the name of your ancestors' town in Saint Kitts and Nevis, see Saint Kitts and Nevis Finding Town of Origin for additional research strategies.

Saint Kitts and Nevis Emigration and Immigration

"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country.
Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.

Immigration into Saint Kitts and Nevis

• The first English colony was established in 1623, followed by a French colony in 1625. The English and French partitioned the island, with the English colonists in the middle and the French on either end. In 1629, a Spanish force sent to clear the islands of foreign settlement seized St. Kitts. The English settlement was rebuilt following the 1630 peace between England and Spain. The island alternated repeatedly between English (then British) and French control during the 17th and 18th centuries, as one power took the whole island, only to have it switch hands due to treaties or military action. Since 1783, Saint Kitts has been affiliated with the UK.
• The island originally produced tobacco, but it changed to sugar cane in 1640 due to stiff competition from the colony of Virginia. The labour-intensive cultivation of sugar cane was the reason for the large-scale importation of African slaves. The importation began almost immediately upon the arrival of Europeans to the region.

Contents: Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1813-1834

The Original Register of 1817 represented the first census, or perhaps inventory, of the enslaved populations of St. Kitts. Subsequent returns recorded new births, deaths, manumissions, transportation and marronage (the process of extricating oneself from slavery).

The most obvious information that comes from the registers includes:

– The names and number of the enslavers;

– The number of the enslaved held in bondage by individuals and on the Island as a whole;

– Individuals’ names, age, sex, colour, place of origin and occupation;

– On rare occasions there is mention of family relations.

– The enslaved were property that could be bought, sold, exchanged, willed and inherited;

– The young (6 and under) the old and the infirm were not expected to work;

– Enslaved man and women worked side by side in the cane fields.

There is also information that can be inferred.

– There were opportunities for traditions and customs originating in Africa to be renewed and passed on.

– A significant amount of migration was taking place both within the region and with North America.

– Muslims were very likely present on the island and that some of the enslaved may have been literate as Muslim boys were often thought to read and in some instances to write.

– Enslaved workers were moved, en mass from one island to the other, suggesting that elements of the white population had interests in other places besides St. Kitts.

– Enslaved people may have attempted to create a family experience.

– The names of the enslaved were sometimes an indication of the depth of the psychological trauma that the enslaved endured.

– Some of the enslavers were actually humane and may have cared for the enslaved persons who worked for them.

– Not all enslavers were rich white men. In some instances they were women, or free coloured or free black men or women who may have controlled a plantation or just a few household slaves.

For Further Reading

• Irish Immigration to Saint Kitts and Nevis, in Wikipedia
• French settlement in Saint Kitts and Nevis, in Wikipedia