The Slave Trade of the Dutch East India Company

In the middle 1600s, Jan van Riebeeck, a Dutch East India Company employee, founded what would one day be known as Cape Town. Although the area had been used for nearly 200 years as a place for traveling sailors to trade precious metals and tobacco for fresh meat from the local Khoikhoi natives, van Riebeeck and other members of the Dutch East India Company were sent by the company to establish a permanent way station for ships traveling from Europe and along the coast of Africa on their way to the Dutch East Indies. He was also charged with establishing a fort to protect the area from pirates and native attacks.

The settlement grew far too slowly for the Dutch East India Company. When Riebeeck was questioned about this, he blamed it on the lack of labor and requested slaves be sent to help build the town. The first slaves arrived a year after the way station’s founding, and within five years there were ten slaves in the area (out of a population of 144), most of which came from Madagascar. The slave population quickly increased in 1658 when 250 Angolan slaves arrived, followed by 228 slaves from Guinea. As time went on, the way station grew and settlers eventually began to colonize the area around Cape Town (then known as Fort de Goede Hoop and later known as The Castle of Good Hope). This displaced many of the native Khoikhoi, many of whom became servants or slaves to settlers.

 

 Illustration of a Slave Ship

This was just the beginning of the “slave culture” in what would become South Africa. While many indigenous people were undoubtedly sent around the world as slaves, many of South Africa’s slaves were actually transplanted from other areas rather than the area immediately surrounding Cape Town. When the British took control of Cape Town in 1795 as a result of victories against France during the Napoleonic Wars, they soon passed the Slave Trade Act. The Act, which took effect in 1808 (after being passed in 1807), prohibited slave trade to take place between colonies. Slaves were still permitted (and taken) in South Africa until 1820, and slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1833; this resulted in the emancipation of all British slaves on August 1st, 1834. 

All of this diaspora creates a situation that makes it incredibly difficult to trace your origins if any of your ancestors came from (or even visited) South Africa. The traveling sailors inevitably fathered children with the Khoikhoi native women as well as with slaves; after all, the ships all male crews often went months without seeing a woman. Since the Dutch East India Company and other shipping companies kept very poor records of their crewmen’s life outside of the company’s employ, and the Khoikhoi were unable to keep records as they didn’t read or write. Determining if your ancestors were from this time is difficult if not impossible.

Although the Dutch East India Company kept decent records of all those arriving and departing from South Africa through Cape Town, records of slaves being born or dying were not necessarily kept accurately. When you add in the possibility of scandal associated with babies born out of wedlock (especially if the father or mother was a slave), this means that many births went unaccounted for. This is complicated by the fact that many of the slaves were imported from other areas, where records may have been shoddy at best. In addition, slaves often followed their masters when they left South Africa, meaning that your ancestors could have originally come from South Africa even though you thought you were British or European.

Finding and sorting through South African genealogy records for this time period (not to mention from all over the world) is nearly impossible for anyone that’s not a trained genealogist. Genealogists know how to translate different records and combine their results in order to get you an accurate picture of who your ancestors were and possibly where they came from. If you suspect that you came from the South African area (be it as an descendant of a slave or a colonist), then it’s best to hire a professional genealogist, who might have access to slave logs and colonial records that can at times be difficult for you to access, let alone interpret or translate.

Ellis Island Immigration Station

Ellis Island records are the key that unlocks the door to the lineage of many families in the United States. About forty percent of all U.S. citizens can trace at least one ancestor to Ellis Island, a federal immigration station that officially opened on January 1, 1892.

The peak period of Ellis Island was from 1900 to 1914. During that time, 5,000 to 10,000 passed through the Ellis Island every day. From 1925 to 1954 (the year it closed), about 2.3 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island – more than half the immigrants entering the U.S.A.

Immigrants Arriving at Ellis Island

 

“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, 

are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.” 

― Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

  

Although there is a common belief that Ellis Island officials sometimes changed the names of immigrants entering the U.S.A., this is not necessarily true. In fact, in those years there were no visa requirements. Immigration inspectors did not create immigration records. Rather, they checked the names of the newly arrived against the ship’s passenger list. And these ship’s manifests are the only record of entry of the immigrant.

Quite often, the passenger’s names were wrongly recorded on the ship’s manifest which is how they got miss-spelled in the U.S.A. Some passengers also changed their names in advance of arriving in the United States, and others changed their names after arrival in the U.S. – they had their own reasons for doing this. In those days, changing your name did not require a legal process.

All of these name changes has not made it easy for descendants tracing their family roots.

In total, more than 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island, and the Ellis Island records – ship’s manifests - have been critical in tracing long-lost ancestors.

If you need assistance, Our Ancestry can help you find those elusive ancestors.

Genealogy Research: Family Naming Conventions can be Helpful

When doing ancestry research, it is not uncommon to hit a brick wall once in a while, and when you do, some knowledge of naming conventions can help. 

A long time ago before we started keeping records, most people had just the one name and members of the same family did not have a common family name. As the size of villages grew and several people ended up with the same name, it became necessary to differentiate people with the same name in order to avoid confusion. For example, in a village where several people were called John, the village people may have differentiated the Johns as follows: John who hunted with a bow and arrow was called John the Archer; John who baked the village bread would have been called John the Baker; John who made a living carving wood would have been called John the Carver; and John, the son of William would have been called John, William’s son.

Over time, these names would have morphed to John Archer, John Baker, John Carver, and John Williamson.

Surnames (last names or family names) generally had four basic sources: Patronymic names, Geographic and place names, Occupational names, Descriptive names.

Patronymic Names

The most popular type of surname is derived from a patronymic: the father’s name augmented by a suffix, typically one meaning ‘son of’ or ‘daughter of’, a custom spread by the Vikings as they settled in parts of the British Isles.

In countries such as Finland, the use of patronyms instead of family names was very common well into the 19th century, and was the rule in rural parishes prior to 1900. Thus, Karl Johansson means Karl, the son of Johan. And Lovisa Martensdotter means Lovisa, the daughter of Marten.

Courtesy of the Vikings, the English name John Williamson meant John, the son of William.

Geographic and Place Names

Toponyms are another important source of surnames. Thus, the names of villages, towns or other geographical areas and places often ended up as family names. 

For example, people with the surname of Waldeck may trace their heritage back to the sovereign principality of Waldeck that comprised territories that are now included in parts of the present-day Hesse and Lower Saxony in Germany. The most common surname in Portugal, Almeida, is derived from a town name. The most popular family name in Austria, Gruber, comes from a word meaning ‘pit or mine’.

In some locations such as eastern Finland, farm names were sometimes used as family names. The French surname, Fontaine is a topographic name for someone who lived near a spring or well. And the last name Carlton is a locational name.

Occupational Names

The second most common origin for surnames stems from occupations (called metonymic names): Miller, Carpenter, Smith (the most common surname in England), Carver, Baker, Joiner, Archer, etc. 

Occupational names appeared across language and geographical borders. Thus Carpenter in English was Zimmerman in German and Timmerman in Dutch. Miller in English was Melnik in the Ukraine, Müller in Switzerland and Germany, and Mylläri or Möllare in Finland and Sweden.

Descriptive Names

Quite often, the physical characteristics of a person became the surname e.g. Long, Short, Strong. The surname Olifant (meaning elephant) was given to a large, lumbering individual.

Things can get a little confusing if your ancestors migrated because many immigrants changed their names when arriving in their new country, especially if they spoke another language. For example, many Finland-Swedish immigrants settled in America in the late 1800’s. A way of adapting one's last name to another language or culture, a practice widely applied in Finland, is to translate or to reshape the name. This practice was used often by Finland-Swedish immigrants. Thus, upon arrival in America, the family name Båtman became Boatman, Viktor Albert Mattsson Storkung became Albert Mattson, and Amanda Johansdotter Anneberg became Manda Berg.

Genealogy research is difficult at the best of times, but understanding naming conventions can be of considerable help when you hit the proverbial brick wall!

Census Data is a Great Place to Start Your Genealogy Research

If you want to find information on your long-lost ancestors in the U.S., then the Census data is a good place to start.  Census data has been accumulated for centuries.  All you need is the name of your relative or ancestor, and the state in which they lived. That’s all you need to begin your genealogy research to expand your family tree lineage.

The first Federal Population Census was taken in 1790, and has been taken every ten years since then. Regrettably, Census data after 1940 is not currently available because of a 72-year restriction on access to the Census. The last Census data released by the National U.S. Archives was 1940, and was released on April 2, 2012. The 1950 Census data will only be released in 2022.

Professional Genealogy Services at Affordable Prices

A typical Census will provide the following information for each household:

• The names of family members
• Their ages at a certain point in time
• State or country of birth
• Their parent's birthplaces
• Year of immigration
• Street address
• Marriage status and years of marriage
• Occupation(s)

Census data can also give you important clues to follow when researching family ancestry. For example, the 1840 Census reported the name and age of Revolutionary War pensioners, and the 1820 census reported the number of persons in each household who engaged in agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing. Since 1900, the Census indicates the person's year of immigration to the United States. This information should help in locating a ship passenger arrival list. By following these clues, you will be able to find other records about the same ancestor in your family tree.

Good luck with your genealogy research!