Puerto Rico Emigration and Immigration

Puerto Rico

Emigration and Immigration

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Online Records

Emigration and Immigration

• 1807-1880 Extranjeros (Foreigners in Puerto Rico), ca 1807-1880 at FamilySearch — images
• 1815-1845 Puerto Rico, records of foreign residents (Puerto Rico, registros de extranjeros), 1815-1845 at FamilySearch — images
• 1816-1837 Emigrados, 1816-1837 FamilySearch — images
• 1901-1962 Puerto Rico, Passenger and Crew Lists 1901-1962 at Ancestry — index & images ($)
• ShipIndex Vessel Research Database at shipindex.org - index
• World Passenger Lists Map

Naturalization and Citizenship Records

• 1795-1889 Pasaportes (Passports), 1795-1889, at FamilySearch — images
• 1815-1845 Puerto Rico Records of Foreign Residents, 1815-1845, at FamilySearch — images; Also at Ancestry.com($) — images
• 1897-1985 Puerto Rico, Naturalization Records, 1897-1985 at FamilySearch — index & images
• 1899-1900 Declaraciones de naturalización (Naturalization Records), 1899-1900,at FamilySearch — images

Institutions to Contact

Archivo General de Puerto Rico
Avenida Ponce de León
500 Puerta de Tierra
San Juan, Puerto Rico

Tel.: (00 1) 787 725-1060
Contact: archivogeneral@icp.gobierno.pr
Website

This archive contains some collections of interest for studying Spanish emigration during the 19th century.

• Departamento de Estado. Serie: Declaraciones de Nacionalidad
  

As in Cuba, when the Spanish-American came to an end in 1898, and in keeping with the 1898 Treaty of Paris, Spanish nationals residing in Puerto Rico who wished to maintain their nationality had to make a declaration before a municipal judge. These nationality declarations included the following details: Name of the subject, age, status, place of origin (municipality and province), address in Puerto Rico and family details. The declarations, arranged according to files for minors and adults and dated from 1899 to 1901, are identified by municipality and stored in 8 boxes.

• Capitanía General, Asuntos Políticos y Civiles. Serie: Pasaportes This collection holds a series of passports dating from between 1795 and 1889.

National Archives and Records Administration, Northeast Region (New York City)
201 Varick Street 12th Floor
New York, NY 10014

Tel.: (00 1) 866-840-1752
Contact: newyork.archives@nara.gov
Website

• GUIDE to PUERTO RICAN RECORDS in the NATIONAL ARCHIVES NEW YORK CITY

All the documentation issued after Puerto Rico came to be governed by the United States when Spain lost its last colonial possessions is not held in Puerto Rico but rather in the United States National Archives, where records on passenger arrival and departure from the island are held.

Migration Patterns

Puerto Ricans are by law citizens of the United States and may move freely between the island and the mainland. Puerto Ricans "were collectively made U.S. citizens" in 1917 as a result of the Jones-Shafroth Act. Therefore, a Puerto Rican person moving to the United States will not have a naturalization record because they are already citizens.

Emigration is a major part of contemporary Puerto Rican history. Starting soon after World War II, poverty, cheap airfares, and promotion by the island government caused waves of Puerto Ricans to move to the United States, particularly to the Northeastern states, and Florida. This trend continued even as Puerto Rico's economy improved and its birth rate declined. Puerto Ricans continue to follow a pattern of "circular migration", with some migrants returning to the island.

Background

• At the beginning of the 16th century, the Spanish people began to colonize the island of Puerto Rico.
• Despite the Laws of Burgos of 1512 and other decrees for the protection of the indigenous population, some Taíno Indians were forced into labor in the early years of colonization. The population suffered extremely high fatalities from epidemics of European infectious diseases. In 1520, King Charles I of Spain issued a royal decree collectively emancipating the remaining Taíno population. By that time, the Taíno people were few in number.
• Enslaved Africans' had already begun to be imported to compensate for the native labor loss, but their numbers were proportionate to the diminished commercial interest Spain soon began to demonstrate for the island colony. Other nearby islands, like Cuba, Hispaniola, and Guadalupe, attracted more of the slave trade than Puerto Rico.
• With no significant industries or large-scale agricultural production as yet, enslaved and free communities lodged around the few coastal settlements, particularly around San Juan, also forming lasting Afro-creole communities.
• The colony's seat of government was on the forested Islet of San Juan and for a time became one of the most heavily fortified settlements in the Spanish Caribbean earning the name of the "Walled City".
• During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, slavers, which had made but few stops on the island before, began selling more enslaved Africans to growing sugar and coffee plantations.
• To increase its hold on its Puerto Rico and Cuba, the Spanish Crown revived the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 (ntended to also attract non-Spanish Europeans) as a result of which 450,000 immigrants, mainly Spaniards, settled on the island in the period up until the American conquest. Hundreds of families arrived in Puerto Rico, primarily from the Canary Islands and Andalusia, but also from other parts of Spain such as Catalonia, Asturias, Galicia and the Balearic Islands and numerous Spanish loyalists from Spain's former colonies in South America.
• Hundreds of non-Spanish families, mainly from Corsica, France, Lebanon, China, Portugal, Ireland, Scotland, Germany and Italy., also immigrated to the island.
• Continuous European immigration and high natural increase helped the population of Puerto Rico grow from 155,426 in 1800 to almost a million by the close of the 19th century. A census conducted by royal decree on 30 September 1858, gave the following totals of the Puerto Rican population at that time: 341,015 were free colored; 300,430 identified as Whites; and 41,736 were slaves. A census in 1887 found a population of around 800,000, of which 320,000 were black.

French Immigration

• Today, the great number of Puerto Ricans of French ancestry are evident in the 19% of family surnames on the island that are of French origin. These are easily traceable to mainland France, French Louisiana émigrés, and other French colonies in the Caribbean.
• Upon the outbreak of the French and Indian War (1754–1763), between Great Britain and its American Colonies against France, many of the French settlers fearing the English-speaking intruders who were invading Louisiana fled to the Caribbean islands of Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and Puerto Rico.These islands welcomed and protected the French from their English and Protestant enemy.
• When the British attempted to invade Puerto Rico in 1797, many of the French immigrants offered their services to the Spanish colonial government in Puerto Rico in defense of the Island that had taken them in when they fled from the Louisiana "Territory" of the United States.
• The British attempted to land in San Juan harbor with a force of 400 French prisoners, who were forced to fight (against their will) the other French troops defending Puerto Rico. French Consul M. Paris, sent a letter addressed to the French soldiers being forced to fight for England, promising them a safe haven in San Juan. The French prisoners agreed to accept the offer and become settlers on the Island. The English retreated from the Island without their 400 French prisoners. The newly arrived 400 Frenchmen all stayed and thrived in Puerto Rico. They soon sent for their families who were living in France.
• In 1796, the Spanish Crown ceded the western half of the island of Hispaniola to the French. The French named their part Saint-Domingue (which was later renamed Haiti). The French settlers dedicated themselves to the cultivation of the sugar cane and owned plantations, which required a huge amount of manpower. They enslaved and imported people from Africa to work in the fields. In 1791, the enslaved African people rebelled against the French in what is known as the Haitian Revolution. The French fled to Santo Domingo and made their way to Puerto Rico. Once there, they settled in the western region of the island in towns such as Mayagüez. With their expertise, they helped develop the island's sugar industry, converting Puerto Rico into a world leader in the exportation of sugar.
• In 1815, the Spanish Crown had issued a Royal Decree with the intention of encouraging more trade between Puerto Rico and other countries who were friendly towards Spain. The decree also free land to any Spaniard (and eventually French) who would be willing to settle on the island. Thousands of French and Corsican families (the Corsicans were French citizens of Italian descent) settled in Puerto Rico. The Corsicans (who had Italian surnames) settled the mountainous region in and around the towns of Adjuntas, Lares, Utuado, Guayanilla, Ponce and Yauco, where they became successful coffee plantation owners. The French who immigrated with them from mainland France also settled in various places in the island, mostly in the unsettled interior regions of the Island, which up to that point were virtually uninhabited.

For Further Reading

Sources are also listed in the FamilySearch Catalog:

• Puerto Rico - Emigration and immigration
• Puerto Rico - Naturalization and citizenship

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