Question: "German Town"

[Bruce]

I heard there is a small enclave called "German Town" somewhere in Jamaica, whose residents trace their roots back to German sailors. Does anyone know where this is, and what parish?

[Bricktop]

I heard there is a small enclave called "German Town" somewhere in Jamaica, whose residents trace their roots back to German sailors. Does anyone know where this is, and what parish?

Which other parish red people come from odda dan St Bess? Bruce, are you Jamaican?

[Gamma]

no man, there is a "german town" in westmoelan i think....seaford town is the proper name i believe

[Gamma]

seetyah....

http://www.jamaicatravelandculture.c...aford-town.htm

[Sickko]

There is a German Town (Seaford Town) in Westmoreland close to Bethel Town and it is populated by a lot of people who have direct German descent.

They have a lot of blond haired blued eyes people there and the German Government used to send direct aid there in the form of medical, optical and dental; farming tools and seeds etc.

There is another settlement near Munro that Mosiah might be aware of as well and the story that a German or Russian Submarine got lost and ended up there and they were forced to send a few months there.

Nine months later there was a rash of white babies from the pastor's wife to the young girls..

[Baddaz]

when i lived in kingston my neighbors were german and they came from seaford town... they had told me that they have family in st. bess too...

my neighbors were 100 % caucasian and they were also born in jamaica... all 4 of them, mother, father, son and daughter...

[Bruce]

Well...

Which other parish red people come from odda dan St Bess? Bruce, are you Jamaican?

Some members of this Forum tell me I was Jamaican in a previous life. At Mo Bay Airport, the immigration agent checked my passport and said "You, again?"

[Gamma]

dem stap ask yuh fi passport?!!! LOL!!!!

[Exile]

Westmoreland - ''Seaforth Town'....well years ago when you were all a thought...my work took me to that place...it was amazing...there were grown white men with blue eyes talking with rankest country Jamaican accent I ever heard with true German names....seemed to be sm inbreeding (I have no proof of this)....but they were working class Jamaican country folk....farmers...

[Assasin]

Stop tell lie pon the babies. The will get darker when them grow older

and some a dem get the colour from them granny.

[Bruce]

Won't Happen Again..

dem stap ask yuh fi passport?!!! LOL!!!!

My passport, with "Jamaica" stamped in it ten times, has expired. I will have to get a new passport and/orr Western Hempishphere border crossing card for the next trip.

[Mosiah]

On my way to St. Elizabeth from Montego Bay one Saturday, I decided to take a detour through Seaford Town, having noticed on the map that it was close by. Always wanted to check it out. The place could not be more remote. I wondered what could have made anyone settle in this area.

As soon as I passed the sign saying Welcome to Seaford Town (sadly written in English only) I saw a very tall white man with very straight features. I noticed that difference (straight features) because the Germans I know from St. Elizabeth had what I had considered more German features - angular, square faces, with stocky bodies. Think Oliver Kahn or Sepp Maier. Soon after, I saw a very elderly lady with snow white straight hair and straight features again. She was also tall. Others in the area were mixed to various levels. If yuh like some good-looking brownins, that's where you'd want to go. However, many persons in the area had nothing particularly German about them. I understand that many of the Germans migrated to the USA. I suppose many might have gone back to Germany too.

Next time I pass thru I think I'll conduct some interviews with the residents.

Clearly though, St. Bess has quite a few people of German heritage, maybe more than even Westmoreland. Heard the story about the German ship but I'm not sure if it is indeed true. I am assuming all the red people from the parish have German heritage. (I hope I am not being racist or derogatory when I say red.) From Treasure Beach to Junction and everywhere in between, it's not hard to notice. Blue eyes and blond hair mixed with the deepest patois was an eye opener to me. Coming from Kingston, I didn't know any poor whites, but St. Bess had a few. 99% have English or anglicized names but I remember a student at Munro by the name of Otto Starzmann. One lady I know said her grandfather anglicized his German name to Fairman.

Interesting stuff!

[Peter R]

Bruce my Uncle's wife is from St Elizabeth; she is by Jamaican measures a "white" woman although as some would crassly put it, a "tar brush pass through" the family. Her maiden name is an anglicism of the the German "Blumfeld".

The story I heard was that a ship carrying Germans got shipwrecked or stranded in St Elizabeth and the rest is history. There is a large portion of the population from that part of the island who are "fair-skinned or "red".

[Stonigut]

The real reason for the number fairskinned people in SE St Elizabeth has to do with two fundamental factors.

1. A settlement of 1200 English colonists from a failed Surinam settlement moved to St elizabeth Jamaica in 1675 this is the bse group from which St Elizabeth is composed. They moved initially to a place called Surinam Quarters which was in St Elizabeth in them times, however that is now in Eastern Westmoreland and still called Surinam Quarters today.
2. From 1697 to 1699 a failed colony of Scotsmen from Darien, Panama were driven by the Spanish, disease etc back to scotland however their boats were in poor condition at least 3 out of a fleet of at least 10 beached in jamaica in Bluefields and they over time migrated to SE St Elizabeth, many of our common Jamaican names come from this migration. One of the most famous of these Scotsmen was a certain Colonel Guthrie whom you all know as an Englishman who negotiated the treaty with one Captain Cudjoe of the Maroons, Guthrie was a St Elizabeth Scot and they were a pretty strong group of people for a while known as St Elizabeth Scots, that is where all the Junction, Bull Sav, Ballards Valley, Pedro Plain, Top Hill, Great Bay, Treasure Beach, Flagaman St Elizabeth people look the waty they look mixed in with African, Arawak, Misquito Indians etc over 400 years you get that look today.

[Peter R]

Thanks for the history lesson. That might explain why my neighbours, white Jamaicans, had an estate in Westmoreland, and it had been in their family for seven generations.

So the story about the Germans being stranded isn't true? or just part of the "puzzle".