19th Century Passenger List of Canarios to Puerto Rico Introduction
19th Century passenger list of Canarios to Puerto Rico from the 19th Century available for review. Below is an updated list of those individuals that sailed in the 1800s. They provide names, ages, where they sailed from, and some notes. These could be helpful to researchers who are trying to find an ancestor if you can connect with them directly. Unfortuanealty, it does indicate where they settled, which would have been very helpful.
The Canary Islands consist of seven islands located some 90 miles off the West Coast of the African continent. The geological origins of these islands are volcanic, but the source of its people, the “Guanches,” is unknown. Some anthropologists claim that they were Nordic or Viking raiders, others say they were Celts, and still, others claim they were Berber migrants from the nearby Saharan Desert. While their origins are in dispute, its people were conquered and enslaved by the Spanish in 1595. And 100 years of colonization, intermarriage, and Christianization, the Guanches ceased to exist as a social and political unit.
The Spanish conquistadores sailed down from Spain to the Canaries and re-supplied their ships with food, water, and men, and continued to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico was the first stop in the New World for ships going on to Cuba, Mexico, and South or North America. As soldiers and sailors in the service of Spain, Canarians formed part of the early colonization of Puerto Rico and the rest of Spanish America. Initially, their numbers were relatively small, and it was not until 1678 that the mass migration to the New World began.
In that year, the Spanish Crown passed a royal decree (law) officially called La Real Cedula de 1678. Unofficially it was called “El Tributo de Sangre .” It was a draconian measure, which mandated that 50 Canarian families migrate to Spain’s most minor populated colonies in America for 1000 tons of Canarian exports. In essence, it was a tax credit, which accrued to the benefit of the wealthy Spanish landowners, exempting them from Spanish import taxes. They provided bodies to populate the colonies. No one was officially obligated to migrate, but it was an offer they could not refuse. The economic pressures made it so. They were poor and landless, so the offer of free passage, land in the colonies, a stipend of 500 “reales,” seeds, and agricultural implements if they agreed to leave to the new world.
M. Hernández, 1999
The first wave of Canarian migration
The first wave of Canarian migration to PR seems to be in 1695, followed by others in 1714, 1720, 1731, and 1797. Thus, in its first three centuries, the number of actual Canarians to Puerto Rico is unknown. However, Dr. Estela Cifre de Loubriel and other scholars of the Canarian Migration to America, like Dr. Manuel González Hernández, of the University of La Laguna Tenerife, agree that they formed the bulk of the Jibaro or white peasant population.
As for the Canarian migration, numbers are more exact in the 19th century, and in her detailed work, “La Formación de Pueblo Puertorriqueño: La Contribución de los Isleno-Canarios” she precisely identifies (by name) some 2,733 immigrants. There is no doubt there is more because, besides these persons whose names appear on ship manifests and other official documents, there was covert or illegal immigration. This 19th-century migration came about due to various economic depressions, droughts, and a disease that attacked the grapevines. Nevertheless, they produced the finest wines of Europe and were the base of much of Canarian economic life.
In addition, The Puerto Rican Genealogical Society (SPG), based in Puerto Rico, has published its first volume on the migration of Canarios to the island. “Genealogy and History Collection. (out of print) The contribution of the Canaries to the Puerto Rican family, Volume I, is the first book published and contains ab additional 3000 names. Thus, Dr. Estela Cifre de Loubriel and the SPG have almost 6000 documented Canarios in Puerto Rico. In addition, the SPG plans to unveil their second publication that will contain another several thousand names!
M. Hernández, 1999
Source:
Following is a list of over 200 passengers who migrated to Puerto Rico mid to late 19th Century. This list originates from the appendix of the doctoral dissertation of Julio Hernández Garcia. The original passenger list may be found at the Universidad de La Laguna library in Tenerife, Canary Islands. Dr. Hernández’s thesis includes thousands of names, most of which constitute those who immigrated to Cuba, and Venezuela, the countries of choice of most immigrants. However, horrible travel conditions by sail and steamships convinced many to get off at the first stop, Puerto Rico. These passengers refused to continue to their final destination.
