The Department of Planning and Natural Resources — Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums (DLAM) has announced receipt of a 34-DVD digitized set of Danish West Indies Passenger Arrival Records from the Rigsarkivet (Danish National Archives). The generous gift is a result of over 18 months of persistent follow up by DLAM, and collaborative fundraising by the Caribbean Genealogy Library (GCL) on St. Thomas.
“October is nationally celebrated as Archives Month, so the timing could not be better! The digital images in this record set will help so many Virgin Islanders to accurately trace the movements of their ancestors,” said Ingrid A. Bough, J.D., territorial director DLAM. “It is through significant collaborative efforts that this gift was made possible, but special thanks are due to the Danish National Archives for its generosity, and in particular to senior researcher Erik Goebel and Danish National archivist Asbjoern Hellum for this wonderful gesture to the people of the Virgin Islands,” said Bough.
A little over 20 years ago, microfilms of Danish West Indian Passport and Citizenry Registers from 1794 to1847 for Christiansted, and St. Thomas Police Station Registers of Persons Arriving and Passports issued for 1805 to 1899, were a valued part of the holdings of the von Scholten Collection at the Enid M. Baa Public Library and Archives.
“Those microfilms, commonly referred to locally as the Passenger Arrival Lists, were some of the most often viewed by historians and family history researchers,” said Susan Lugo, territorial coordinator for the archives in DLAM. “They yielded invaluable information on who traveled to and from the Danish West Indies, relationships between travelers and the frequency of travel generally in the Caribbean.” 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.
During the widespread aftermath of Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the Von Scholten Collection microfilm storage area at the Enid Baa Public Library was affected, which caused irreversible damage to all 25 reels of microfilm due to the high temperatures and humidity levels. John and Delores Jowers made a donation to the CGL to help defray the cost to replace the films. Other donors soon followed.
In the end, the Danish National Archives, at its own expense, converted the microfilm images to high resolution digital format on archival quality DVDs. This costly conversion was done “as a gift from the Danish National Archives to the USVI,” according to a cover letter from Rigsarkivet senior researcher Erik Goebel. Access to the information in the records will be demonstrably easier for researchers in digital format. Images can be displayed on any computer and illegible handwriting can be zoomed in on for a more detailed reading. Digital format also means more convenience and accessibility for researchers everywhere.
The entire 34-DVD set of Passenger Arrival Lists, along with a preliminary finding aid being prepared by Lugo, will be available soon at the following repositories: the Territorial Archives and the von Scholten Collection at Enid M. Baa Public Library, the Caribbean Genealogy Library on St. Thomas, the Caribbean Collection and Territorial Archives at Florence Williams Public Library in Christiansted, Whim Research Library and Archives on 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, and the Archives and Records Management Unit of the Deputy Governor’s Office in Road Town, Tortola.
For more information about the V.I. Public Libraries, contact Ingrid Bough at 773-5715 or visit the Web site at www.virginislandspubliclibraries.org.
