Looking at period newspaper notices concerning the Victorian photographer Carl Constantine Lyon, I’ve learned a bit more about his photography business and life. CC Lyon created images of the landscape of the West Indian island of St Kitts, but apparently relied largely on income from taking portraits of Kittitians, as…
Category: <span>St. Kitts</span>
I have traced my husband’s Cannonier ancestors back to the British island of Montserrat. His 2nd great grandfather, John Henry Cannonier, was born about 1832 and died young in St Kitts in 1868. I have yet to establish a definite link between the Cannoniers of Montserrat and John Henry Cannonier,…
The vital records of St Kitts document births, deaths, and marriages, and are invaluable in genealogy research on my husband’s family tree. The birth records in particular usually list the mother’s name as well as the baby’s, and often the father is recorded along with the mother’s maiden name (if…
Tracing a man who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries in the Caribbean can be quite difficult, but the roadblocks to research can pale in comparison when uncovering the life story of a woman from that time and place. As part of my project of untangling the Cannoniers of…
My husband’s great-grandfather Burchell Edward Marshall (1873-1951) was the son of a school teacher who became a prosperous businessman and landowner in his native St Kitts. During the first half of the 20th century, he owned a number of sugar cane estates on the island, which was not typical for…
My husband’s DNA covers a broad range of Northern European roots, with some Southern European and African thrown in as well. This reflects, in part, his diverse paternal ancestry from the West Indies, from places like England, Wales, Madeira, and areas of Western African where people were seized and sold…
I’ve written many times about my husband’s ancestors from the tiny Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis, including the use of surnames as middle names in his Mallalieu tree. This can be very helpful in looking for the names of ancestors going further back. His great-grandfather, John Nicholas Faxivo…
I have looked in the past at the documents and background details surrounding the manumission of two young enslaved people, whose freedom was purchased by my husband’s 3rd great-grandfather, Frederick Walton Mallalieu of St Kitts. No relationship is specified between Frederick and the two young people. In my research into…
My husband’s great-grandmother was Margaret Johanna Cannonier (1868-1940) of St Kitts. Documenting her family tree back past her father John Henry Cannonier (abt. 1832-1868) has presented a brick wall. There were a number of Cannoniers in St Kitts in the first half of the 19th century, but their relationship to…
In the current pandemic era, countries worldwide have developed policies to prevent the introduction of the Corona virus. St Kitts and Nevis has its own version; they are now allowing passengers from a limited number of cruise ships to enter their country for short, strictly regulated visits referred to as…