Dear John W, Actually there were several places in the Caribbean that Hitler era Jewish refugees went. There were Jews gone to Havana Cuba, Sosua in the Dominican Republic, Port-au-Prince Haiti, Curacao and smaller numbers in other places. The majority of people with Jewish surnames in several Caribbean places are Sephardic but only if you are counting the now mostly colored Christian descendants of converts and half Jews. The Ashkenaz outnumber in terms of actual religious adherents in St. Thomas and Curacao for example. Ann I have have seen logbooks of slave voyages making stops in the Caribbean on their way to the mainland. It is incorrect to say that there was NO direct trade in slaves to the mainland or that their slaves were all seasoned first in the Caribbean. As far as only the unteachable of the slaves being offloaded in the Caribbean I have not heard that. There is a conceit among the people of the Caribbean that the masters there got first crack at the merchandise. The main reason for seasoning was health concern as to whether the individual slaves would live another few weeks in their own sewage. Susan, She was misinformed as to people from the Caribbean with Jewish descent being Falashas who are Ethiopians descended from pastorial slaves of Yemenite Jewish livestock traders. There was and is a colored community in Africa descended from slave and other traders from Europe. Some of them were indeed Jewish. The Islamic Hausa people found in northern Nigeria and adjoining states are also believed to be of East African Semitic descent. There seem to be a lot of Kente cloth blanket generalities

Richard B I'm truly grateful for that enlargement of my knowledge on refugee destinations in the Hitler era - because I once read an article on the Jewish refugees who arrived in Trinidad and no other British colony, I ignored the possibilities in the non-British Caribbean. John W ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Bond" <RichardBond@webtv.net> To: <CARIBBEAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 9:10 PM Subject: Re: MSNBC News Link: DNA tackles a familys mysteries : Dear John W, : : Actually there were several places in the Caribbean that Hitler era : Jewish refugees went. There were Jews gone to Havana Cuba, Sosua in the : Dominican Republic, Port-au-Prince Haiti, Curacao and smaller numbers in : other places. : The majority of people with Jewish surnames in several Caribbean places : are Sephardic but only if you are counting the now mostly colored : Christian descendants of converts and half Jews. The Ashkenaz outnumber : in terms of actual religious adherents in St. Thomas and Curacao for : example.