Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

19th Century British Guiana newspapers

397 views
Skip to first unread message

Ash Emery

unread,
Jul 8, 1997, 3:00:00 AM7/8/97
to

On Tue, 08 Jul 1997 08:23:52 GMT, bobnich wrote:

>I have access to two indexes for BDMs for the following newspapers:
>
>1. The Colonist Newspaper - Georgetown, British Guiana 1864-1880
>2. The Argosy Newspaper - Georgetown, British guiana 1880-1896
>
I am attempting to trace the Melville family who lived in British
Guiana (now Guyana) in the period about 1860 to about 1880. John
Melville was an English merchant and lived in Berbice who was married
to Sarah. They had several children whilst in British Guiana
including:
John born about 1863,
Ann de Berenger born about 1869,
Marguerite Matilda born about 1871, and
Walter born about 1876.

John Melville Snr died about 1878/79 presumably in British Guiana.

Would it be possible for you to check the index to see if there is any
mention of a Melville between 1860 and 1880?

Thanks a million!

Ash

Trev Sue-A-Quan

unread,
Jul 9, 1997, 3:00:00 AM7/9/97
to

bobnich wrote:
>
> I have access to two indexes for BDMs for the following newspapers:
>
> 1. The Colonist Newspaper - Georgetown, British Guiana 1864-1880
> 2. The Argosy Newspaper - Georgetown, British guiana 1880-1896
>
> These indexes came from two volumes at Salt Lake City compiled,
> indexed and submitted by Inge R. Veecock of London in 1996. The
> actual entries in the books were copied from microfilms at the British
> Newspaper Library at Colindale. I understand that there is a chance
> in the future that these two volumes may be published.
>
> The British Library Newspaper Library
> Colidale Avenue
> London England
> NW9 5HE
> Tel: +44 (0)171 412 7353
> Fax: +44 (0)171 412 7379
> E-mail: news...@bl.uk
> Internat: http://portico.bl.uk/newspaper/history.html
>
Dear Bobnich:

These documents sound very useful. For the last few years I and others
have been compiling the family trees for the Chinese who have origins in
British Guiana. There were 13,541 indentured labourers from China who
went to British Guiana in 39 boat shipments between 1853 and 1879. Of
these, 85% were males and by the end of the century only about 3,000
remained, the majority having died without descendants while others
migrated to other countries in the region, particularly Trinidad,
Surinam, French Guiana, and St. Lucia. It is from the few thousand
survivors that the present day Guyanese of Chinese origin are descended
and there is a considerable amount of inter-relationships between the
Chinese families for the first few generations. The current generations
of Chinese descendants now have surnames as varied as Arrizza, de
Freitas, Dumont, Ghafur, Khan, McKay, Mihelich, Neilsen, O'Toole,
Prohaska, Reimer, Smith, Van Alts, Vazquez, Yamada etc. Our objective is
to trace their ancestries to the original boat immigrants. The records
of births of Chinese for the 19th century are not easily accessible and
I would be interested to find out how I could view your indexes,
particularly for the Argosy.

In appreciation,

Trev Sue-A-Quan,
Vancouver, Canada.

Trev Sue-A-Quan

unread,
Jul 9, 1997, 3:00:00 AM7/9/97
to bobnich

bobnich wrote:
>
> I have access to two indexes for BDMs for the following newspapers:
>
> 1. The Colonist Newspaper - Georgetown, British Guiana 1864-1880
> 2. The Argosy Newspaper - Georgetown, British guiana 1880-1896
>

Dear Bobnich:

bobnich

unread,
Jul 11, 1997, 3:00:00 AM7/11/97
to

On Wed, 09 Jul 1997 12:12:10 -0700, Trev Sue-A-Quan
<Tre...@digital-rain.com> wrote:

>bobnich wrote:
>> I have access to two indexes for BDMs for the following newspapers:
>> 1. The Colonist Newspaper - Georgetown, British Guiana 1864-1880
>> 2. The Argosy Newspaper - Georgetown, British guiana 1880-1896
>>

>These documents sound very useful. For the last few years I and others


>have been compiling the family trees for the Chinese who have origins in
>British Guiana.

<snip>


>The current generations of Chinese descendants now have surnames as varied as Arrizza, de
>Freitas, Dumont, Ghafur, Khan, McKay, Mihelich, Neilsen, O'Toole,
>Prohaska, Reimer, Smith, Van Alts, Vazquez, Yamada etc.

<snip>
>particularly for the Argosy.


Trev Sue-A-Quan,

Checked the Argosy index for all of the above names. The index only
provides the name and the year in which the BD or M notice appeared in
the newspaper.

Of the names you mentioned the only one in the index is McKay in
1885 and 1892.

The Argosy index is just 7 pages that I photocopied for my own use. I
am not sure of the politics of making copies and distributing them
around the world. However If I can help with any other names, just
ask.

Regards
Tikwis


Ash Emery

unread,
Jul 15, 1997, 3:00:00 AM7/15/97
to

On Tue, 08 Jul 1997 08:23:52 GMT, bobnich wrote:

>I have access to two indexes for BDMs for the following newspapers:
>
>1. The Colonist Newspaper - Georgetown, British Guiana 1864-1880
>2. The Argosy Newspaper - Georgetown, British guiana 1880-1896

Hi,

I did post a query a week ago.

I am a descendant of John Melville who worked in British Guiana from
about 1864 to 1880. He was a merchant and lived there with his wife
and at least six children. He died there about 1879 or 1880.

I should be grateful if you could check your newspaper indexes to see
if there are any Melville references.

Thanks!

Ash

Daniel Josa

unread,
Nov 13, 2020, 10:02:05 AM11/13/20
to
Dear all,
I see this hasn't been active for some years, but if anyone is still interested, I have been researching my ancestor Luigi Josa. He was "missionary to the Coolies" and spoke some Chinese, and Hindu. There have been some interesting books articles written about him, he was very positive about his Chinese congregation and said various things that might interest you Trev!

Does anyone know where I can consult the original microfilms?


Best!
Danny
dannyjos...@hotmail.co.uk

A D

unread,
Jul 2, 2022, 8:27:01 PM7/2/22
to
It's offensive to use the word "coolie". One doesn't speak "Hindu", one speaks Hindi.
0 new messages