Approche généalogique d'une population insulaire : Terre-de-Haut des Saintes, dans la Caraïbe

The island of Terre-de-Haut is part of the Saintes group of islands of the coast of Guadeloupe Populated in the seventeenth century it now supports population of 1500 often called poor whites Unlike the rest of the region the black element never came to prevail since no plantations could be organized in the island The study of such small isolated largely endogamous population sample makes it possible to trace the network of family ties for several generations On the basis of the abundant data provided by the records of tite etat civil the use of computers was possible After reconstituting the different families on the island and applying the tools of historical demography the author succeeded in tracing the various lineages back to their original ancestors Such an approach confers new interest to the study of family structures frequent in Caribbean studies and allows for the development demographic model proper to the island Ultimately this approach allows one to confront the problems raised by matrimonial economy particulary the process of miscegenation since the whole population derives from two different initial genetic stocks The reconstitution of family trees takes on added importance the relationship between race and social status make this island privileged place where biological history and social history meet and merge close survey of two lines of descent suggests that no obstacles existed to intermixing and that this is population relatively sheltered from contact with the outside world fact which emphasizes the originality of the populationBonniol Jean-Luc, Hegesippe Jean-Michel. Approche généalogique d'une population insulaire : Terre-de-Haut des Saintes, dans la Caraïbe. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 35ᵉ année, N. 6, 1980. pp. 1143-1170