Genealogy: in search of the names of his slave ancestors
Audio 02:32
Knowing where we come from to reconcile our history, for these descendants of slaves to find their origins is an important step.
(Illustrative image) © Getty Images / bgwalker
By: Sylvie Koffi
5 mins
While the commemorations continue to honor the memory of the victims of the slave trade, the March Committee of May 23, 1998 (CM98), a West Indian memorial association, continues its fight to honor the memory of the victims of colonial slavery.
Since 2006, she has set up a genealogy workshop, to allow French descendants of slaves to discover the origin of their family name.
Publicity
When slavery was abolished in 1848 in the West Indies, the new freemen became citizens, and "those without names" once again obtained a surname.
Anagram of their first name, month of the year, nickname… Their new identity is often a function of the imagination of the civil status officers who carry out this task.
"
The names given to infinity, taking on calendars, flowers, fruits ... There were anagrams like Garofi for Figaro, Mathurin became Thuram ...
", explains Josée Grard responsible for the genealogy office of the CM98.
Everyone comes here to the genealogy workshop to find traces of their ancestors put in slavery.
A work initiated by the CM98 which for 15 years has been able to put certain archives online.
► To read also: Genealogy workshops to find his slave ancestors
The importance of finding one's origins
Knowing where we come from to reconcile our history, for these descendants of slaves to find their origins is an important step. “
To find them was an emotion because we do not expect it. Above all, sometimes, these are names that we have never heard of in the family, so when we discover them, we appropriate them right away,
”explains a woman who came to do some research. Then she adds: “
It's important, because they have been forgotten too often. For us, it is also a way of identifying ourselves and talking about it to children
. "
Another person explains that his approach “
did not start from a pain, but by becoming aware of all this journey and all this heritage, it can become a little painful and it is true that in the questions more d current events like racism, the systems in which we live which inherit and are founded from all this past, it can be painful.
"
This genealogical tool accessible to the general public
has made it possible to find the identity of 120,000 people enslaved in Guadeloupe and Martinique.
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