Good evening,
I am very interested in the European families that lived in the French, British, Danish, Dutch and Spanish West-Indies islands during the 18th
and 19th centuries so I visited Maria Smith St. Thomas cemetery database
and I saw names such as Delinois, Luchetti, Becker, Michelsen, Riise,
Lockhart, Steven and Taylor.
Some years ago I found in an attic some torn out pages,coming from a
book written around 1900 probably by an American author, that deal with
the names mentioned above
Below are main extracts of those pages that might help anyone looking
for more information about St.Thomas families
"What is not shared is definitively lost !"
Happy reading
Philippe Clerc
(Lyon, France)
Prominent Citizens of St. Thomas
_*Sosthenes LUCCHETTI *_
/"He is a native of Toulon but his parents came from Corsica and to that
island they returned soon.//
//He was still a mere youth when in 1854 he emigrated to St Thomas and
entered the employ of his uncle, V. PICCIONI, who was then a prosperous merchant of the island //
//In 1865 he was elected to the colonial council//
//In 1867 he was made consular agent for France//
//In 1870 he was elected chairman of the colonial council which office
he held until 1875//
//He has been decorated with the order of the Legion d’Honor and also by
the pope of Rome with the order of St Gregory the Great"/
_*Captain Frederick Gustave BECKER*_
/He was born in Cassels, Germany in 1842 and received his youthful
education there//
//When fifteen years of age he shipped before the mast and sailed about
the world in different vessels for 6 years, part of which was spent in
China//
//In 1868 first became employed in the Hamburg American Line as fourth
officer in one of their steamers plying between Hamburg, Germany and New Orleans //
//In 18771 soon after the company extended their business to the
West-Indies he first came to St Thomas//
//In 1885 he was made consul for Germany and 10 years later was
decorated by the present emperor of that country/
_*H. MICHELSEN*_
/"He is a native of Scheswig in Denmark and has lived in St.Thomas since
1865//
//He started as a clerk for H.C. Brodersen and after a few years entered
the firm of C. Praetorius & Coof which he became a partner and finally
in 1870 sole proprietor. The firm has been manufacturing bay rum since
1870, and his bay rum met with such a success that he removed to the
American metropolis and his office has ever since been at 36 Broadway."//
/
_*Louis DELINOIS*_
/"He is a son of Clitus DELINOIS, recently deceased//
//He was at one time a member of the old and reputable firm of Delinois
& Co. which passed from his father’s hands into his hands and his
brother Charles.//
//He was born in Haiti in 1842, he was given a finished education in
France and studied medicine for some years. He never took his diploma
however, as on account of failing health, he was obliged to return home
and was induced to go into his father’s store.//
//He was decorated with the Venezuelan Order of the Bust"//
/
_*Charles DELINOIS*_
/"He is the sole proprietor of the Panama straw-hat business of Delinois
& Co, which was originally established by his father, Clitus DELINOIS
many years ago.//
//He is born in Haiti in 1843 during a time when his father was a great
power in that island and from which, in consequence of the political
success of his opponent, he was exiled in 1848, Valdemar was taken by
his father when 30 years of age. He lived there for nine years,
acquiring his education and in addition to a thorough classical training
he took a degree in law in Henrique College and became also an
accomplished linguist//
//He returned to St.Thomas and entered his father’s employ in 1866. //
//In 1884 he and his brother Louis were made partner in the business //
//This business now consists in the shipment of Panama straw hat all
over the West-Indies and America, the buying and exportation to America
of Haitian coffee, the buying and selling of exchange on New-York and
Paris, and the agency of several of the principal fire and marine
insurance companies in the world//
//Mrs DELINOIS is a French lady of exceptional charms, both of mind and
person, and their only daughter is a vivacious miss, educated in French,
German and as well as English"/
_*Valdemar RIISE*_
/"He is owner of Apothecaries’ Hall and a son of the late A.H. RIISE who
died in 1882 and left to his 13 children a fortune of several millions
of dollars which he has accumulated in the same Apothecaries’ Hall and
which after his death was taken over by Valdemar and his brother Carl.
The latter sold out his interests to the former in 1890.//
//Although the only one of his father’s children now living in St.
Thomas, Valdemar was the only one not born there. He first saw the light
of day during a visit of his parents to Denmark, their native home, in
1853.//
//H was educated in Copenhagen, first in Borh’s school and later in the University of Copenhagen, from which latter institution he was graduated
with a diploma in pharmacy and chemistry. He subsequently with the
object of gaining experience followed the apothecary’s profession in
Leipzig and Dresden, Germany and spent a year as a clerk in the
Pharmacie Centrale, in Paris, under the preceptor ship of Wurtz, the
celebrated chemist. He returned in St.Thomas in 1878, probably the most
learned and expert chemist and pharmacist the island has ever known"/
_*Albert Harris LOCKARD*_
/"He rose from very humble origin. //
//He was born in St. Croix in October 1862 and his parents, who belonged
to the common poor people, were either unable or indisposed, or both to
send him to school. So he started out in life with his own account when
only 10 years of age without money, education or friends. He first
secured a situation with a mercantile firm in St.Thomas at 3$ a month.//
//Now he is the leading and most extensive merchant in St.Thomas…."/
_*David STEVEN*_
/"He has been for more than a quarter of a century prominent in St
Thomas Gas Company //
//He is born in 1846 in Forfarshire, Scotland town of Kirrimuir or
Thrums, which has been made famous during late years by Barry’s “Windows
in Thrums”.//
//He received his training in gas engineering at Inverness and Edinburgh
and became expert in the science and when the gas plant was put in in
St.Thomas by his brother John, he was induced in 1869 to come to the
then flourishing island and take charge of it"//
/
_*Dr C.E. TAYLOR*_
/"Born in England of a good old family, he started life as a peripatetic musician, and after a varied and checkered career all over the American continent, he struck St.Thomas where fate, in the form of a critical
attack of illness, and subsequent infatuation for the lady who nursed
him back to health, and who subsequently became his wife induced him to
make his home.//
//Dr Taylor is a charming violinist, an author (Leaflets from Danish West-Indies, An Island of the sea and Jumby Hall are from his facile
pen), an artist, and a painter of exceptional talent, a fluent lecturer,
a most marvelous prestidigitator, a surveyor and an engineer (the relief
model of the island of St. Thomas exhibited at the World’s fair at
Chicago was his handiwork) and through he took up the study of medicine
late in his life, a skilled physician, holding an American diploma and altogether a most extraordinary man.//
//Now Dr. Taylor conducts the only book and stationery store in St.Thomas" / (C.E. = Charles Ernest ?)
Le 13/08/2017 à 07:31, Dante C. Beretta a écrit :
Rosa,
Maria Smith did a great job of a cemetery database in St. Thomas- see her work at:
http://cgl.vi/pages/maria.html <http://cgl.vi/pages/maria.html>
Give us more information on who you’re searching and I may be able to help. Full name, date of birth, date of death, religion, locations, etc are all clues that can lead you to other documents.
There is a Louis Marsan enumerated in the Free Black census of 1831-1832 for St. Thomas. He was 35 at the time. Also, in the same record a 17 year old Simon Marsan. Let me know if you want me to send these records to your email. Also, if you want to
send a copy of your census record to my email I’d be willing to comment on it.
Good luck with your search!
Dante
On Aug 12, 2017, at 7:14 PM, caribbean-request@rootsweb.com wrote:
Message: 1
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2017 20:53:20 +0000
From: Rosa Petrovich <rosa.petrovich@gmail.com <mailto:rosa.petrovich@gmail.com>>
To: caribbean@rootsweb.com <mailto:caribbean@rootsweb.com>
Subject: Re: [Carib] CARIBBEAN Digest, Vol 12, Issue 48
Message-ID:
<CAGxh1toz4-CfxcyGuEgzagCbTt4MOts=x+2upokByg9fwDoO-g@mail.gmail.com <mailto:CAGxh1toz4-CfxcyGuEgzagCbTt4MOts=x+2upokByg9fwDoO-g@mail.gmail.com>>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Wish I could help you catalog the names in the cemetery! I am very
interested in finding information on my maternal ancestors. Her great
grandparents were Luis and Berenice Marsan, who I found in the October 1846 >> census of Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas. Her grandfather, Huberto, was just a >> boy still living at home. I am very new to ancestry in St Thomas and have
no idea where to go from there. Any help or direction would be very much
appreciated.
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