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United States Virgin Islands Emigration and Immigration

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Online Resources

1895-1921 Passports Issued 1895-1921. When ownership was transferred to the US, passports were issued to the residents. Volume 1, 1895-1902, Volume 3, 1909-1919
1917-1923 Passport Correspondence 1917-1923: Applications and Correspondence for travel Identity Cards from 1917-1923

United States Virgin Islands 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.

Background

  • The Danish West India Company settled on St. Thomas in 1672 and St. John in 1694, later purchasing St. Croix from France in 1733. The islands became royal Danish colonies in 1754, named the Danish West Indian Islands.
  • The islands proved ideal for sugar plantations – sugarcane, produced by slaves from Africa, drove the islands' economy during the 18th and early 19th centuries. It is estimated that by 1775, slaves outnumbered the Danish settlers by a ratio of 8:1.
  • Slavery was abolished in 1848, now celebrated as Emancipation Day. With the plantations no longer as profitable, Danish settlers began to abandon their estates, causing a significant drop in population and the overall economy.
  • During the submarine warfare of the World War I, the United States, fearing that the islands might be seized by Germany as a submarine base, approached Denmark about buying them. After a few months of negotiations, a selling price of $25 million was agreed. The deal was finalized on January 17, 1917.
  • In 2010, the racial makeup of the United States Virgin Islands was:
  • Black or Afro–Caribbean: 76.0% (66.1% Non-Hispanic Black)
  • White: 15.7% (13.5% Non-Hispanic Whites)
  • Hispanic or Latino of any race: 17.4% (10.3% Puerto Rican, 5.4% Dominican)
  • Asian: 1.4%
  • Mixed: 2.1%
  • Other: 4.5%
  • Many residents can trace their ancestry to other Caribbean islands, especially Puerto Rico and the Lesser Antilles'. The territory is largely Afro–Caribbean in origin.[1]

Emigration

  • Despite the rather small number of Luxembourgers, there is a relatively large diaspora, in Europe and elsewhere. Particularly, there are populations in the surrounding countries of Belgium, France, and Germany. For the most part, this is due to historic reasons, especially the three Partitions of Luxembourg, which led to former territories of Luxembourg being incorporated into each of the three surrounding countries.
  • There are also significant populations in the Americas, with the largest contingent being in the United States. However, many people of Luxembourgish descent also live in Canada and Brazil, to which large waves of Luxembourgers emigrated in the nineteenth century.
  • Others migrated to Hungary along with Germans during the first phase of German eastward settlement in the 12th century. Transylvanian Saxons and Banat Swabians are the descendants of these settlers.

Records show people from many places have settled here over the centuries including considerable interaction with other islands of the Caribbean. Many records from the Danish colonial period are held by Rigsarkivet (the Danish National Archives).

If your ancestor traveled by passenger ship to or from St. Thomas in the 1800s, or to or from Christiansted between the years 1794 to 1847, it is likely a record was created documenting that travel. Now, all Virgin Islanders will be able to view those archived records in digital format thanks to a remarkable gift from Rigsarkivet (the Danish National Archives).

The entire 34 DVD set of Passenger Arrival Lists, along with a preliminary finding aid prepared by Susan Lugo, is available at the following repositories:

  • the Territorial Archives and the von Scholten Collection at Enid M. Baa Public Library, St. Thomas
  • the Caribbean Genealogy Library in St. Thomas,
  • Whim Research Library and Archives in St. Croix,
  • the Territorial Archives at Florence Williams Public Library in Christiansted, St. Croix
  • the Elaine I. Sprauve Public Library Special Collections on St. John,
  • the Sociedad Puertorriqueña de Genealogía collection being established at the Universidad Interamericana de Hato Rey,
  • the Archives and Records Management Unit of the Deputy Governor's Office in Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands.


For Further Reading

There are additional sources listed in the FamilySearch Catalog:


References

  1. ↑ "United States Virgin Islands", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Virgin_Islands, accessed 13 May 2021.
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