In late spring/early summer, I got two emails regarding the same thing – a updated new resource that could prove fruitful for my research! Both David Quénéhervé and Mickaël Mange, who have helped in different ways throughout my Afro-French Caribbean research, reached out to me to mention this website. Mickaël mentioned the website was fairly new (at least its design and what it would hold) and that they are still uploading documents to it. He also mentioned that the website would host records known as “hypothèques” (related to the Spanish word hipoteca) which are payments, for mortgage, being made. I looked around the website, tried some simple searches, but did not really get too far. Since it was fairly new and this could be overwhelming when navigating a new developing website, I decided to wait and see what would come of it.
Below you can see some of the inventory that is already making its way online, though this does not necessarily mean that the actually documents themselves are readily available.
The next email that rolled in from David mentioned this same website with links to promising areas of the website. David warned as well that not much was up so it seemed that we were at a dead-end for now. Nonetheless, the websites promises some interesting information and David linked a “how to” guide for finding information.
Last year before hiring Mickaël I was concerned that given the short amount of time my ancestors were freed, they would not have had much to own and therefore would only appear on records via their slave owners. Mickaël was able to find Julienne and her mother Eglantine, albeit via documents of their sale via slavery, but I was happy to learn a bit more about their situation in Martinique.
Let’s hope that this website will provide more information on my Guadeloupean side of the family since they were freed before 1848 and therefore I was unaware of their slave owners and how to find them via documents.
A Quick Look!
The records in question all seem to be tied to my 4th great-grandfather Gustave Jean Charles. The first document in question for example is a list of various “Jean Charles” people (both men and women). There is a “Gustave” listed who is a resident of Basse-Terre but once you continue to read the entry it actually seems to be a wife since it is listed as “née Adèle Jacson”. The one problem here is that my Gustave was never married to an “Adèle”, if not, he was married to a Françoise Jackson/Jacson, originally from Marie Galante. The likelihood however seems high that this is the same couple given their names and place of residence.
The numbers on the right seem to be what will be important when looking for information in the actual records as these represent the “volume” and “case” number.
A similar search conducted under “Gustave” by David brings up a “Charles Jean Charles Gustave”, who was listed as living in Basse-Terre as a capitaine caboteur. My 4th great-grandfather had a brother who went by Charles Jean Charles but who lived in Point-à-Pitre and had died by 1849. This leads me to believe that this also is my 4th-great grandfather who worked as a captain au cabotage throughout his life before arriving in Puerto Rico.
Another important detail again here is the volume (9) and the case number (417), which are the same numbers which had been listed above with Adèle Jacson Jean Charles. This likely means that these two case entries are related to one another and are likely the same person or family unit.
The last document found is very promising, it is a list of the various transactions for volume 9, case 417. On the top left you can see “Adèle Jacson (what I imagine is a shorthand for femme – wife) Gustave Jean Charles” and the on the right “Gustave Jean Charles son mari“ (her husband). The first two to three dates seem to reflect each other for both Adèle and Gustave but then there is a variation of dates. Adèle’s last date is 14 May 1861 while for Gustave is 10 July 1860.
What is interesting to me here is that these are crucial years for me in my research. Currently on Ancestry, I have Gustave’s immigration from Guadeloupe to Puerto Rico listed as occurring somewhere between 1861-1866.
I am not sure what kind of information would be available but I am wondering if there is information on buying/selling either property and/or the boat he later sold in Puerto Rico thereby giving some more social context to his life prior to arriving.
We also know that Julienne Malvin Lautin around this time was already living in Saint Pierre, Martinique having given birth to a son in 1862. I am ITCHING to get my hands on these new records to see what else I can learn about Gustave!!
One of the interesting dates for example is “19 février 1861 – Sommation“ for Adèle Jacson. For what could she have received this summons/warning?
Patiently waiting...
For now, there is nothing I can do except wait to see what/when records are uploaded and that hopefully they will be filled with important information to help piece together Gustave’s life before arriving in Puerto Rico.
Super excited and grateful for the digitalization of documents!
Cover Photo: “Archives Départementales de la Guadeloupe,” Archives Départementales de la Guadeloupe (https://www.archivesguadeloupe.fr/ : accessed 8 September 2022)
Saludos Luis,
He estado buscando por varios años mi apellido y he encontrado mucha info, mi apellido es Labault y buscando en Guadeloupe encontre un primo que vive en Francia que ha encontrado mucha info que me ha compartido;
entre esta que mi apellido era Lavault porque nuestra abuela era esclava de 15 años y estaba embarazada de su dueño de apellido Caillet y uno de esos hijos llego a Rio Grande y de ahi sale mi linea. Hay mucha mas historia, cualquier cosa mi whatsapp es 7874616638
Hola Carlos, wow – gracias por compartir esta historia, ¡qué fascinante! Me alegro que pudiste encontrar familia, en eso estoy ahora – tratando de encontrar familia que se quedó en Guadeloupe o Martinica. Saludos, Luis