VIRGIN ISLANDS SOCIAL HISTORY ASSOCIATES
THE ST. CROIX POPULATION DATABASE 1734-1917THE ST. CROIX POPULATION DATABASE 1734-1917 is a searchable, virtual archive, currently consisting of 1.83 million biographical entries painstakingly transcribed from a vast array of historical records found in American, Danish and Virgin Islands archives. The Database constitutes a powerful research tool that will provide scholars, educators, students, genealogists and others with easy access to hitherto inaccessible historical documentation relating to the history of St. Croix and its multi-ethnic, multi-racial population. It will enable Virgin Islanders to investigate, analyze and reconstruct the Past from an indigenous perspective. It will also allow Virgin Islanders, Europeans, Americans and Africans to reconstruct life stories and family histories of forgotten ancestors. And, most significantly, it will permit thousands of families to trace their ancestral roots to individual Africans and to specific African homelands.
The Database is a product of the St. Croix African Roots Project (SCARP), an international historical research and documentation project initiated in 2002 by the Virgin Islands Social History Associates (VISHA), a non-profit organization headquartered on St. Croix. SCARP was created for the purpose of enhancing knowledge and understanding of the population, families and individuals on St. Croix during the period of Danish rule through systematic utilization of historical documentation, computer technology, research and educational outreach. Its primary goal is to encourage a multi-faceted historiography, in which individuals of African descent are accorded identity, humanity and agency, and assume a central place in Virgin Islands' history.
On 18 July 2009, VISHA will formally launch the St. Croix Population Database online in partnership with The Generations Network, which operates the world's largest family history website (Ancestry.com). VISHA will also announce two locations where the Database can be used on St. Croix.
Funding for the St. Croix African Roots Project has been provided by the Carlsberg Foundation of Denmark, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Solar Foundation of Denmark and The Generations Network.
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