Ancestor Discovery
Among the over seven thousand Danish visitors to our islands every year, quite a few come here with a special mission: to locate information about a family member who many years ago, when the island belonged to Denmark, lived and worked here. 
A substantial number came here as government workers, others as soldiers or gendarmes ( a hybrid soldier/police officer stationed here after 1909 ) or as employees or managers at the many sugar factories. Family lore in Denmark often contains tales of an adventurous relative who traveled to the distant colony and in some cases mysteriously disappeared.
Fortunately, St. Croix is well equipped to help these visitors (and visitors from many other areas who may have had family connections here) thanks to the unique resources we have available now. At the St. Croix Landmarks Society's Whim Plantation Museum Research Library you are sure to find many local citizens researching their family history, and Danish visitors to that library have often been able to garner valuable details about their ancestor here; they are also often ably assisted in their research at the Florence Williams Public Library in Christiansted.
The Danish official records - yearly census lists, baptismal and other church records, burial records, tax records, property listings, to name a few - are extensive and widely preserved. This enabled the leaders of the Virgin Islands Social History Associates (VISHA), a local non-profit organization, to mobilize the St. Croix African Roots Project that documents the demographics of St. Croix's entire Danish period from 1734 to 1917. This unique study, funded by the Danish Carlsberg Foundation, primarily focuses on the African population of St. Croix before and after emancipation. The over 2 million entries have recently become digitized and available on the Internet through the website www.Ancestry.com In several cases, descendants of the enslaved have been able to trace their family back to a specific area of Africa, an astounding feat.
Sometimes family research carried out here by Danes can have surprising results. Quite a few blond, blue-eyed visitors have learned through research that back a number of generations ago, their ancestor here was an enslaved person of color. This has been the topic of TV programs and books in Denmark and brings an interesting perspective to the relationship between Denmark and her former West Indian colonies.
The St. Croix Landmarks Society Research Library helps you find your roots.
Photo Courtesy of Topher Cox
