The Eugenia Campo Photo.

Earlier today I posted the photo of Eugenia Campo in the sidebar. I previously had serious reservations about making it public. After some email discussions with my Co-Admin Patrick Vella, who is a relative of mine through the Govias, Patrick only had three words to say, "Go for it!" Hardly advice I could ignore.

While it's possible, even likely that someone else in the family has a copy, I got this original from a family album before I left Trinidad to migrate to Australia in February 1974. The handwritten note (which I'm pretty certain is my father's handwriting) on the back said it was taken in 1927, and the setting is obviously "Down the Islands", and almost certainly Gaspar Grande, or "Gasparee".

I privately passed it on to some relatives through emails in the past, but I thought it best to make it public and available to others who may not have seen it.

I previously provided some historical background to Eugenia Campo in a post done in 2015, which explains why I  describe her as Carib/Arawak.

Eugenia Campo

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The New Project, So Far.

We've made a lot of progress. Fortunately, we've been able to bring David Agostini on board, and he has been a pivot point in that progress. I corresponded with David by email in 2013, after he had earlier sent me a copy of his book,  The Ancestors. That correspondence unfortunately came to a halt largely, not wholly, because of work and other related "life pressures" on my part. When Patrick Vella and I established contact in 2015, my enthusiasm was renewed, and Patrick was the driving force in accomplishing more in Govia family history and genealogy in a few months than I had over a lifetime. Literally. Patrick's IT knowledge and eye for detail far surpassed anything I'd previously done, and I was frankly astounded and delighted. The reactions in Govia family circles was no less than mine. It was like a cyclone coming through and changing the landscape. My late brother Mike, who departed this world on May 12 this year, provided Patrick with the answers he'd been looking for, and that proved to be a major breakthrough for Patrick. It just goes to show that while technology is great, it can only go so far. The "old timers" like Mike (and David) are key sources to making any progress, and without them it would not be possible, or progress would be very slow, if at all.

We reached a point where Patrick and I felt there was little more we could do, and since doing family history is an unpaid hobby, we both had  other priority "real world" responsibilities. Patrick established, however, that he had connections to the Agostinis as well, and that generated his interest in Agostini family history (See below).  So once again using his IT knowledge, Patrick generated a huge Agostini genealogy database, which also very much impressed David.

That database has so far only been shared within a small circle, but hopefully will eventually be available to everyone. We are still working on extending it, and that's where your help is needed if you can provide information about your family history.

David proved to be a major breakthrough for us, and very kindly provided us copies of documents he obtained during his visits to Corsica, and that included information which wasn't shared in his book The Ancestors. The basics of what we know so far is that there were two Gasparos in Simon's line:

Gasparo Agostini, father of Poletto. Poletto Agostini, father of Gasparo. Gasparo Agostini, father of Simon. So it's Gasparo-Poletto-Gasparo-Simon.  

The Agostini family database created by Patrick, which is the primary source of this project, is quite large and contains much more detailed information about Simon's descendants, and will include you if you're related to Simon. 

Inquiries, corrections or submissions:

Patrick Vella: patvella@gmail.com

Ray Agostini: rayagostini3@gmail.com  


Patrick Vella:

My first contact with the Agostini family was a year ago when I made contact with Ray, while researching my Govia ancestors. We exchanged a number of emails over the course of a few months before he passed me on to Mike his older brother who provided key information related to my grandmother.

Although my primary focus was, and still is, the Govia family genealogy, the Agostini family provided me with a window into my Govia roots due to intermarriage between the two families.
 
Ena Govia, the mother of Ray and Mike was the initial link that connected the two families. One family was part of the Madeiran exodus to the West Indies fleeing religious persecution and attracted by socio-economic factors, the other a family from Corsica fleeing for political reasons as well as economic ones. Both families also had ties in Venezuela. The two families also show up again in the Philip family with their two daughters Irma and Ena, Irma marrying Edward Govia, the brother of my grandmother and Ena marrying Goldney Agostini, first cousin, once removed of Ray.


Whilst I sometimes feel I am prying into the Agostini family and invading their privacy by researching the Agostini genealogy, I know that my efforts are at least being recognised and appreciated by the few who remain interested in the history of the Family. Simply put, the documentation of the genealogy into one single document which is easily searchable, and relatively quickly generated, is simply not being done, except for the excellent work by David Agostini, Father Anthony de Verteuil, and the online tree by Wayne Agostini.


As Ray rightly points out, information technology can only go so far. Digital genealogical data can only be retrieved if it has been stored, hopefully online, in the first place. Key primary sources remain the older generation of the family who continue to provide priceless genealogical information, memories and stories that were handed down to them.


This feeble attempt at documenting the Agostini family is in a way a small thanks to the family that has provided me with answers and a gateway into my own maternal grandmother’s ancestors.

                                                                              -  Patrick Vella, 6 November 2016 

A New Project.

Announcing a new project which has been developed and will be coordinated by myself and Patrick Vella , tracing and collating data in regard to the genealogy of Simon Agostini and his ancestors and descendants.

Within three years, on the other side of the world, another island changed hands. Trinidad became a British possession. It was just about this period that the Corsican immigration to Trinidad commenced.

Don Simon Agostini was a capitulant and one amongst the first to take the oath of allegiance to the King of England. There are many families of Corsican descent in Trinidad today. 

While there's a rich history described mainly in two books, Anthony de Verteuil's The Corsicans in Trinidad and David Agostini's The Ancestors , the main aim of this new project will be to develop and add to the already existing Agostini genealogy database. Patrick has already created a document titled Genealogy of Gasparo Agostini , which will be the primary source of this project. Contributions are invited from all to continue to expand the database, and if you feel you can and wish to make a contribution, we can be contacted at:

Ray Agostini: rayagostini3@gmail.com  

Patrick Vella: patvella@gmail.com

Even seemingly "unimportant" family information can sometimes make a difference. So if you are connected in any way to Simon Agostini, or merely just interested in the project, your contribution is welcome.

The Corsicans

Guest Post: The Quest.

By Patrick Vella

17 September 2015

It's difficult to determine and pinpoint the exact moment I started delving into my family history, and genealogy in general, especially on my maternal side, but having a mother who was a ‘Murray’ from Trinidad certainly helped. I was curious to find out more about my roots, having only faint recollections of what my mum had said in the past. Her father was Ken Murray, which sounded Scottish, and her mother was Belle nee’ Govia, which I later found out was Portuguese/Madeiran, thus providing two very interesting genealogical lineages.

I grew up hearing my mother talk about the carnival in Trinidad, the white sandy beaches, roti, corn bread, steelpans and the land she came from. Unfortunately, she became ill at an early age, and I never got round to asking her more in the short time we had together. She passed away in 1991 when I was 26.

A number of years passed. Some memories were forgotten, some buried forever, whilst others were resurrected by a children’s Christmas concert in December 2014. My partner, who is a school teacher, decided to have a Christmas sing-a-long for the girls in her class. This would include Christmas carols from a number of countries, and in memory of my mother, Trinidad was included. The concert came and went and was duly forgotten, however the seeds were sown and memories started rising to the surface again.

In February 2015 I woke up to a renewed enthusiasm to actually do something about my roots and maybe, in a way, honour my mother, my heritage and my ancestors. I was confident that social media could be used as a genealogy tool for tracing long lost relatives and re-establishing contact. 

I commenced my research by looking for an old family tree that was sent to us in 1993 by Ralph Weldon. Ralph had married Violet Mae Murray in 1948, in Arkansas, USA and was very active in the Union County Genealogy Society where he served as President for many years. I eventually found it, and luckily, it contained two pages with about 50 names of my mother’s paternal Murray line going back to a Walter Murray born in 1708. This list provided a vital starting point and laid the groundwork for researching the Murray side of the family. I made contact with the children and step children of Ralph and was saddened to hear that both he and his wife had passed away.  

Ralph’s documents showed that the Murray family background is Scottish and although still unproven, that they are descended from the Duke of Atholl, named after Atholl in Scotland. ( It is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, held by the head of Clan Murray and the Duke of Atholl's traditional residence is Blair Castle, near Blair Atholl in Perthshire, Scotland. )

I searched for Murray family trees online and also made contact with Alexandrina Murray, Project Administrator and Robert Burns, Project Researcher for Colonial America who maintained the Murray Clan website. They were very helpful but could not prove linage to the “Murrays of Atholl” that was mentioned in Ralph’s documents without a DNA test.

Information provided by Murray descendants who I made contact with online agreed with Ralph's family tree. "The Murray family left Scotland around 1745 at the time of the Jacobite uprising when bonnie Prince Charlie lost his attempt to defeat the King of England at the Battle of Culloden in Scotland in 1746. Thousands of people were slaughtered, and our ancestors left and escaped to Antigua, in the West Indies. Our earliest known Murray ancestors are Walter Murray Sr. (1708 - 1792) and his wife Bridget Murray who left Scotland around 1745 and settled in Falmouth, Antigua."

My search also turned up some very old digitized books about the West Indies and these also provided some additional information about Dr Stephen Murray who was mentioned in 1793;

"Dr. Stephen Murray, a practitioner of considerable eminence at Falmouth, in the vicinity of English Harbor, and at the time Surgeon to the Ordnance on the island, informed me (says Dr. Chisholm), that the malignant pestilential fever of the year 1793 was evidently imported from the Experiment man of war, the crew of which received the infection at Grenada. " (A History of the West Indies by Thomas Coke)

and Dr Walter Murray mentioned in 1812;

"I appoint John Crawford of Antigua, Surgeon, Walter Murray of Antigua, Surgeon, Adam Gordon of Antigua, Merch', & Lewis Smith of the Ordnance Office, G', my Attorneys in Antigua. At Elgin 13 May 1812." (The history of the island of Antigua -  Vere Langford Oliver.)

The Murray family seems to have stayed in Antigua until Henry Earle Berkeley Odlum Murray moved to Guyana and Harold Berkeley Murray moved to Trinidad. Harold was my mother's grandfather.

Over the next 6 months I continued to make contact with a number of Murray descendants spread all over the world, including Trinidad, Belgium, Canada and the United States. My tree flourished and grew, at least on the Murray side. Old books no longer in print containing family pedigrees and priceless information on early settlers in the West Indies, and in particular Antigua and Trinidad by Vere Langford Oliver, were found online and they provided invaluable resources and information.

On my mother’s maternal Govia line, all I had was my grandmother’s name, and the online searches I made didn’t turn up anything. She did not appear in any Govia family tree I could find. Was she an only child? Who were her parents?

I asked my father’s sister if she knew anything about my mother’s family, but all she remembered was being told that the Govia family had moved from Portugal to Venezuela and then to Trinidad.

Although this information seemed trivial, I realised that I would have to focus on the Portuguese migration to the West Indies. Almost immediately I stumbled upon papers and books written by a Dr Jo-Anne Ferreira of the University of the West Indies, who specialises on the Madeiran and Portuguese migration to Guyana, St Vincent, Antigua and Trinidad, having Portuguese roots herself. We exchanged some emails and searched through all the well known ‘public’ lists that were available online relating to Portuguese families, but again, Belle did not appear in any of them. Without even the names of her parents, it seemed an impossible task to trace her lineage. 

Weeks passed, and my frustration grew. My mother’s paternal Murray line was expanding rapidly as new information was coming in, and new contacts were being made – but her maternal Govia line was a dead end. Dr. Ferreira was kind enough to point me in various directions where I could possibly get help. The Church of Scotland was one. I knew my mother was baptised in the Church of Scotland so why not my grandmother? But again, this didn’t turn up anything.

During one of my numerous online searches, I stumbled upon an online blog created and maintained by Ray Agostini, and in this blog he had a short family history including a ‘John Emanuel Govia’ marrying a ‘Lola Camilla Ffrench' and having 

fifteen children.

My eyes keenly ran down the list in anticipation, but again there was no mention of ‘Belle’ on the list. It was yet another dead end but there was no harm in emailing Ray. 

Ray was kind enough to reply the next day. What was interesting is that Ray’s mother, Ena Govia had married into the Agostini family, thereby linking the Govia and Agostini families through marriage, but again, Belle did not appear anywhere. Ena was one of fifteen Govia children and to Ray’s knowledge, Ena’s father John Emanuel Govia Jnr. was married only once...so the trail stopped there. What was also important however, is that where the Govia family was notoriously difficult to trace, the Agostini one was more researched and documented, with books such as David Agostini's "The Ancestors" and "The Corsicans in Trinidad" by Anthony De Verteuil available. The Agostini family provided me with a vital link into the Govia family genealogy.

At this point I was losing hope in ever tracing my mother’s maternal Govia line. If my grandmother Belle did not appear in any family trees and nobody seemed to have any information about her, there was little I could do, especially with my parents and grandparents both passed. The trail was going cold again.

I spent some weeks exchanging emails with Ray. He proved to be articulate, friendly, and helpful and many of his emails were peppered with personal anecdotes and memories of the Trinidad he grew up in, which to me was priceless information one did not find on the internet. When we had both exhausted all leads, he directed me to his older brother Mike, who was 20 years older and with more knowledge of the ‘older’ generation. 

In 1950, aged fifteen, Mike Agostini had won the Trinidad National Open 100M championship. At 17, he broke the World Junior record for 100yds running it in 9.4 seconds, where he defeated the 1952 Olympic champion, Andy Stanfield (USA). He left Trinidad in 1953 at the age of 18 to study in America on a running athletic scholarship. On the 23rd January 1954, the same month that he enrolled at Villanova University, Mike ran 100 yards indoors in 9.6 seconds to break the world record. 

At the British Empire Games in Vancouver, Canada in 1954, Mike won gold for Trinidad in the 100 yards in 9.6 seconds. His international career continued for another six years. He collected silver in the 100 metres at the Pan American Games in Mexico City in 1955. In the 1956 Olympic Games at Melbourne he was 6th in the 100m (10.7 seconds) and 4th at 200m (21.1). In the 1958 Empire Games in Cardiff he won bronze and, representing the newly formed West Indian Federation, he won three medals at the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago (silver at 100, bronze at 200m and sprint relay). He was also dubbed "World's Fastest Human" in 1954 and 1956. Mike retired from athletics in 1960 at age 25. He married and settled in Australia, where he became a successful businessman and prolific writer (seventeen books published) on a variety of subjects.

I wrote a long introductory email to Mike with all I knew about Belle, and sent it off, having little expectation.

The next day I received a long email in answer from Mike, and as I sat there reading it, I felt the first tingle of excitement and I knew that the long journey was finally coming to an end, but not quite over. Not only did he remember Belle, but she was his Godmother, and a cousin of his mother. He did not know who her parents were, but he told me that out of his mother’s fourteen siblings from John Emanuel Govia Jnr., one aunt, Lola Blanc was still alive, and if anyone would know anything, it was sure to be her.

Two other pieces of information emerged following a number of email exchanges with Mike. One was that John Emanuel Govia, his grandfather, had a father also called John Emanuel Govia Snr. who was married more than once. This was his great grandfather.

The second was that he remembered that Belle had a brother called Eddie who had a daughter called Brenda. Mike passed on Lola’s telephone number and Brenda’s email address.

The rest, as they say, is history. After a chat with Lola on the phone, who proved to be a lovely, charming, warm, elderly lady with an excellent memory, she confirmed to me the names of Belle’s parents – John Emanuel Govia Snr. and Virginia Mendes and that her grandfather had been married twice. Belle was the result of his second marriage. The last piece of the puzzle was determining how many siblings Belle had and if Eddie was the only one from her grandfather’s second marriage.

Two days later, a reply from Brenda came in and with it, a lot of information about Belle, her two sisters Carmen and Thelma and her brother Eddie.

Brenda knew that Eddie, her father, was married three times and had eight children before dying at the young age of 38. He had two boys from his first marriage, five children from his second marriage (Brenda included), and a daughter in Venezuela from his third marriage.

Around this time, an email out of the blue appeared in my inbox from an Elliott Govia. I had been sending emails out on a regular basis over the course of the last few months to any and every Govia family tree owner I could find online, but rarely got a reply, and when I did, there was always the same answer about not knowing this ‘Belle’. This email, incredibly, included an old Govia family tree – that had Belle and her siblings on it. The quest was complete. Elliott had made the connection between the Belle in an email I had sent to his father George some weeks earlier and a Belle in an old Govia family tree he had in hand linking me to the Govia ‘family’.

Coincidentally, these answers all came to me on my birthday.

The last couple of days have been intense, hectic and even emotional. I was invited into a Facebook group that focused on the Govia family and have been told that I caused a ‘Govia explosion’ with all the information I now had and shared. Many more have now joined, new photos and information are being posted continuously and more long lost Govias are being found and contacted.

This journey started as a wish to honour my mother’s memory and connect with my roots in order to honour her lineage. It has taken me in unexpected directions and enabled me to meet some helpful, warm people along the way and form new friendships and connections.

I would like to especially thank Dr Jo-Anne S. Ferreira of the  Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics at the University of the West indies, Ray and Mike Agostini, Marie-Therese Agostini , Brenda Hooft, Lola Blanc, and of course my partner Michelle who has supported my quest over the last seven months.

About the author:

"Patrick Vella is 51 years old and lives in Malta in Europe. He has been working in Information Technology since 1985 and holds a Masters degree in Business Intelligence. He has a background in martial arts and is an avid reader, lover of history and part time genealogist."

You can email Patrick at: patvella@gmail.com

The Burden Has Become Too Heavy.

And with that, I pass it on to other family to carry on the search and research in family history. With the emergence of very bright and dedicated figures like Patrick Vella (a distance relative through the Govias), I feel that this family history is in good hands. Patrick was a Godsend. Passionate and dedicated. And for the first time in years, I didn't feel alone.

 

 

 

 

 

Struggling to meet the demands of obsessively long working hours, and paying bills; going through the "Groundhog cycle", and trying to find some relaxation in off-time in hobbies that I love, combined with seemingly rewardless research into family history, it's time for me to give it away, and leave it in more capable hands.

There are simply not enough hours in the working week for me to do this justice.

 

 

Perhaps no one knows that this blog was actually a "mistake". Look at the URL. Have you ever seen such an odd URL? The reason for that is that a short time after creating it - I deleted it. But then I decided to restore it, with a different and longer URL. I was surprised that I could even restore it.

 

 

 

There comes a time when one must sail into the sunset, and leave the world and its troubles behind, and let the work go on in far more capable hands.

Throughout this whole project, I've often asked myself, "why do you keep doing it?" That's a question for which I still don't have a satisfactory answer.

 

 

I wish the best for present and future family history researchers. You have my blessing. And I hope you recover treasures beyond measure.

 

 

But for me, it's time to say goodbye.

Eugenia Campo.

Auguste Agostini, another son of Simon the Cedulant, was born in 1816....

There is a charming tale told of him, that one day he was riding through the dusty main street of Arima, which had been the Indian Mission, when he cast his roving eye on a beautiful Amerindian young woman. He immediately alighted from his horse and swept the young lady off her feet, married her, and began the lifestyle of a new breed of Agostinis. Since at this time, Auguste was over fifty years of age we may choose to believe that he had earlier been married and that his wife having died and left him without issue, he was searching for a new companion for his middle age.

We may presume that they enjoyed marital bliss if we are to judge by her fecundity, for Eugenia Campo bore him at least eleven children. We can only trace the descendants of two sons - Cedar, born in 1875, and Auguste, named after his father and born in 1883. Cedar married Lavenia Dean and they were blessed with eight children.

Source: Anthony de Verteuil C.S.Sp., The Corsicans in Trinidad, p.76.


It has often been related in family circles that Eugenia was a "Carib Amerindian", or Island Carib, and there no reason to doubt that, but with a qualification I'll add later.

The Caribs are believed to have migrated from the Orinoco River area in South America to settle in the Caribbean islands about 1200 AD, according to carbon dating. Over the two centuries leading up to Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean archipelago in 1492, the Caribs mostly displaced the Maipurean-speaking Taínos by warfare, extermination, and assimilation....

In the early colonial period Caribs had a reputation as warriors who raided neighboring islands. Early Europeans claimed that they practiced cannibalism – the word "cannibal" derives from a corruption of their name. However, Europeans may have embellished these aspects to rationalize enslaving the Caribs....

The Caribs were skilled boat builders and sailors. They appeared to have owed their dominance in the Caribbean basin to their mastery of warfare....

Several hundred ethnic Carib descendants live in Puerto Rico, U. S. Virgin Islands, St. Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad, Aruba as well as in St. Vincent....

Also from The New World Encyclopedia, Carib :

Carib, Island Carib, or Kalinago people, after whom the Caribbean Sea was named, live in the Lesser Antilles islands. They are one of the two main tribes of Amerindian people who inhabited the Caribbean at the time of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World, the other being the Taino (also known as the Arawak)....

Often the Carib are remembered for being ferocious warriors and for cannibalistic customs. Although it may be true that they were warlike, fighting and displacing other tribes such as the Taino, they have often been maligned by exaggerated early European propaganda that over-looked their many accomplishments and skills, such as sailing, navigation, and basket weaving....

The social structure of Carib tribes were mostly patriarchal. The men trained as warriors, traveling by canoe on raiding parties. Women primarily carried out domestic duties and farming, and often lived in separate houses from the men. However, women were highly revered and held substantial socio-political power. The Caribs usually lived in small groups, but these groups were often not exclusive from one another.

An important point to remember in regard to Eugenia Campo:

After successfully conquering parts of the Caribbean, the Carib language quickly died out while the Arawakan language was maintained over the generations. This was the result of the invading Carib men usually killing the local men of the islands they conquered and taking Arawak wives who then passed on their own language to the children. For a time, Arawak was spoken primarily or exclusively by women and children, while adult men spoke Carib.[9] Eventually, as the first generation of Carib-Arawak children reached adulthood, the more familiar Arawak became the only language used in the small island societies. This language was called Island Carib, even though it is not part of the Carib linguistic family. It is now extinct, but was spoken on the Lesser Antilles until the 1920s (primarily in Dominica, Saint Vincent, and Trinidad). (1) 

The Amerindians of Arima, from where Eugenia hails:

The Santa Rosa Carib Community (SRCC) is the major organization of indigenous people in Trinidad and Tobago. The Caribs of Arima are descended from the original Amerindian inhabitants of Trinidad; Amerindians from the former encomiendas of Tacarigua and Arauca (Arouca) were resettled to Arima between 1784 and 1786. The SRCC was incorporated in 1973 to preserve the culture of the Caribs of Arima and maintain their role in the annual Santa Rosa Festival (dedicated to Santa Rosa de Lima, the first Catholic saint canonized in the New World).

In regard to the subject of cannibalism, noted in both sources with caution about "European propaganda" for the purpose of enslavement, it's worth reading Cannibal Stories: The Carib Indian & Human Cannibalism European myth, not Caribbean reality...


Dominica's Caribs Embrace the Entrepreneurial Spirit In Modern Times: 




Notes:

(1) I have a photo of Eugenia Campo taken in 1927, so it's possible she was one of the last who may have been able to speak Arawakan. And, given the history, it seems very likely that her ancestry was in fact Arawakan. ​