|
|
Tracing Scottish Forebears in Argentina and Southern Patagonia
How then does one set about tracing forebears and perhaps their descendants, and creating an account of their lives in Argentina or Patagonia? Clearly, it is essential to start with what one knows, perhaps a family oral tradition, a document or a letter. From one or more of these, it should be possible to establish approximate dates, perhaps a likely place and a possible occupation. Then, if one knows little about Argentina or Patagonia it may be helpful to get some background information from maps and books.
For general information on Argentina in the second half of the 19th century the various editions of M. and E. Mulhall's "Handbook of the River Plate Republics" make excellent reading; they give descriptions of the various provinces and include names of principal landowners, some of whom are Scots. Some editions are available in the Mitchell Library. Also, in the National Archives of Scotland, there is James Dodds' "Scottish Settlers on the River Plate and Their Churches" which contains many names of members of the Scots community in Buenos Aires. The National Archives of Scotland also has William Blain's "A Shepherd in Falkland and Patagonia", describing his experiences on the estancias. Michael Mainwaring's "From the Falklands to Patagonia" and Greta MacKenzie's "Why Patagonia?", both in the National Library, are valuable sources for background and for many names of shepherds and estancieros from the Hebrides and other parts of Scotland. These and other books in the National Library of Scotland, National Archives of Scotland and the Mitchell Library offer a good start and may even turn up a relevant name. The two editions of Andrew Graham-Yooll's "The Forgotten Colony" offer a wider introduction to the British community in Argentina. Finally, Maxine Hanon's "Diccionario de Britanicos en Buenos Aires" is a marvellous source of brief biographies of Scots and other British subjects who entered Buenos Aires in the first half of the 19th century.
Apart from consular returns from Buenos Aires, held in the Public Record Office and the General Register Office in London, much of the relevant documentary material for Scots in Argentina is held in the National Archive and the Archive of the Civil Registry in Buenos Aires or by the Scots Church in Buenos Aires. The National Archive holds immigration records, censuses, Roman Catholic registers, property and other legal documents, cemetery records and directories. The Civil Registry has civil records of births, deaths and marriages. The Scots Church in Buenos Aires has records of baptisms, marriages and burials. In most respects, then, the records parallel those for Scotland. However, various factors affect availability. As one would expect with a developing nation with a distinctive culture and language, some records start later than their equivalents in Scotland, are mostly in Spanish, and may or not be indexed.
The censuses, taken in 1869 and 1895, are very useful, and contain
entries for nationality - although Scots are usually lumped together
with other Britons as "Inglaterra" or "Britanico"!
The 1895 Census for Argentina can now be accessed at http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html.
The immigration records, from 1820-70 are very useful, giving dates,
names, ages, occupations, ports of origin and names of ships. Data
from later immigration records are available from a body called The
Centre for Latinoamerican Migratory Studies (CEMLA). Civil registration
began in the 1880's and certificates are similar to Scottish ones
in content, with the added bonus of nationality. However, there is
no equivalent to the Registers of Sasines with indexes and abridgements,
although vast records of landownership and other legal processes exist.
So, most of the key records survive but are several thousand miles away, accessible only to a searcher on the spot or by precise correspondence with an archive! However, the combined contributions of communication by Internet, the Genealogical Society of Utah and individual researchers have radically changed the situation. Through the Internet it is now possible to access websites holding transcribed data and to correspond with people with expert knowledge who may have the information one wants.
The Family History Library of the Genealogical Society of Utah holds
extensive microfilm on Argentina, including the 1820-70 immigration
records, census data and records of the Scots Church in Buenos Aires
and elsewhere, Roman Catholic registers and so forth. Searches on
the internet of the catalogue can be made at lds
familysearch under "Family History Library Catalogue", and microfilm
can then be ordered for study at a local Mormon Family History Centre.
Other transcribed data can be accessed in two ways, either by entering
individual websites or sending e-mail to a mailroom. Neil Hampshire's
Brits in South
America, (BiSA) is a growing compilation currently containing
some eleven thousand names of British emigrants, with dates and places,
for Argentina and elsewhere. Patagonia is particularly well-served:
Ricardo Drault's patagoniadatabase
contains Scots among others; and Duncan Campbell has a fine collection
of data on British subjects in southern Patagonian territories of
Chile and Argentina. His site at patbrit.org
has among other things: extracts from the 1895 Argentine census for
Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, Anglican marriages at Punta Arenas,
some Scots Church baptisms, an index of protestant burials in Punta
Arenas, an index of British consular registrations at Punta Arenas,
a list of names of pioneer settlers taken from a plaque at the British
Club in Rio Gallegos, names of men who went to serve in the first
world war, names of businesses, photographs and other information.
Lastly, the baptisms, marriages and burials at St. Andrew's Scots
Church, Buenos Aires, up to 1900 can be accessed on Jeremy Howat's
site at http://www.argbrit.org.
E-mail requests can lead to other data or enable one to ask questions. The best starting point is to e-mail SOUTH-AM-EMI-request@rootsweb.com and subscribe (free). Thereafter, e-mails of a specific or general nature can be posted. This is an excellent mailroom with many expert correspondents. Among the data currently available from subscribers' personal websites are lists of doctors and other professionals, an 1871 yellow fever death roll for Buenos Aires, a list of passengers aboard the "Symmetry" in 1825, lists of merchants, burials in the Socorro cemetery in Buenos Aires, foreign residents in Buenos Aires in 1863, marriages at St. John's Episcopal Church, Buenos Aires 1824-51 and so forth. Alternatively, specific requests may turn up all sorts of information about particular persons and families, places of settlement, occupations and so forth.
As yet, some key records are either not directly accessible by internet
from official archival databases in Argentina so require different
routes to be taken. Civil registers can only be accessed on the spot
or by correspondence. At present the same holds for searches of the
immigration records in the National Archive, but happily these are
in the process of being digitised and will then be available from
source instead of ordering microfilm from Utah. Also, the later immigration
data for the 1880's through to the 1920's which are held by the Centre
for Latinoamerican Migratory Studies (CEMLA) cannot be directly accessed;
however, requests (a fee is payable) for a search of their database
can be made by e-mail to <base@cemla.com>.
Despite the obstacles that remain, research is now a practical proposition for researchers living in Scotland. Consequently, it may be possible to use records and other sources to trace a forebear to a particular place, find his or her occupation, identify marriages and children and, most interestingly, create a picture of the communities and landscapes of their new homeland.
A short list of readings available in Scotland is given below, and for those who wish to have a fuller account of the emigrants and sources for research, a booklet may be purchased from the present author by e-mailing Akmgendance@aol.com .
An Englishman (George Thomas Love), Five Years Residence in Buenos Aires 1820-25, London, 1827.
Blain, William, A Shepherd of Scotland, GD1/987/1-18.
Dodds, J., Records of Scottish Settlers on the River Plate and Their Churches, Buenos Aires, 1897.
Graham-Yooll, A., The Forgotten Colony, Hutchinson, London, 1981.
Hanon, Maxine, Diccionario de Britanicos en Buenos Aires (Primera Epoca), Gutten Press, Buenos Aires, 2005.
Hudson, W.H., Far Away and Long Ago: A Childhood in Argentina, Century Hutchinson, 1985.
Mainwaring, M., From the Falklands to Patagonia, Allison and Busby, 1983.
MacKenzie, G., Why Patagonia?, Stornoway Gazette, 1995.
Morrison, A., Scots in Argentina and Patagonia: An Illustrated Guide to Researching Scottish Forebears, 2002.
Mulhall, M. and E., Handbook of the River Plate Republics, Buenos Aires, 1885 (several editions between 1863 and 1892).
Seymour, R., Pioneering in the Pampas; or the First Four Years of a Settler's Experience in the La Plata Pampas, London, 1869.
Stewart, I.A.D. (Ed.), From Caledonia to the Pampas, Tuckwell Press, 2000.
|
|
