Ramcharan-Crowley

The Memorat says "...born at Nawa Dumka, on the Bihar/West Bengal border..." Dumka is now a district in the state of Jharkhand, which was carved out of the southern part of Bihar state on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand is bordered by the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east.

Re: Occupation - Shopkeeper He...soon became a very wealthy man, with several shops in and around Princes' Town (12 miles east of San Fernando in Southern Trinidad.)

Re: Occupation - Importer ...he later specialized in importing Indian products, metal and ceramic cooking equipment, Hindu ritual paraphernalia, foods, and spices, and soon became a very wealthy man...

Like nearly half the indentures, Aja decided to return to India, although long after his indenture was over. He turned the business over to my father-in-law [Baba], having skimmed off most of its resources and converted them into gold coins in a money belt, and returned to Calcutta about 1924. Somewhere enroute, he was robbed, and instead of being able to display his wealth to his relatives, he had to live on their none-too-generous bounty. Needless to say, he returned to Trinidad as soon as he could.

Peter had a Macaw named "Gunga," who lived to be very old and "spoke 7 languages." He was obtained through trade with Arauca tribesmen on their annual pilgrimage to La Pique. Pearl remembers that if you said to him "Cocotte doodoo, spell 'rat'" he would answer, in a very low voice, "R-A-T rat." His favorite thing to say was "Rain falling! Rain falling! Ek do teen char" (the last part is "1 2 3 4" in Hindi). Peter's grandson, Winston, also owned two Macaws that he taught to speak beautifully.

Possible ships for arrival in Trinidad: 1880 - 1889 Ship Name | Arrival | Indians | Died Nerbudda | Tuesday, January 6, 1885 | 585 | 16 Brenda | Monday, October 26, 1885 | 539 | 2 Sheila | Wednesday, December 2, 1885 | 560 | 5 Jura | Wednesday, January 13, 1886 | 558 | 4 Brenda | Thursday, October 21, 1886 | 529 | 5 Sheila | Thursday, November 25, 1886 | 535 | 9 Jura | Sunday, December 12, 1886 | 542 | 9

THE PATERNAL MEMORAT Our family version concerns my wife's grandfather, a Baniya named Hari Govind Lal, born at Naya Dumka, on the Bihar/West Bengal border, about 1870. After a fight with his siblings over family lands, and hearing about "the streets paved with gold" in Trinidad, he decided to change his name to non-caste-specific Ramcharan to hide his caste, because Baniyas were not welcome as indentures--too likely to start businesses--and signed on for indenture. After meeting a Sonar (goldsmith) named Ramkallop, they became jehaji-bhai , sailing from the Port of Calcutta around Africa to Trinidad. Although he "was selling cloth out the barracks window" before his first indenture was over, he later specialized in importing Indian products, metal and ceramic cooking equipment, Hindu ritual paraphernalia, foods, and spices, and soon became a very wealthy man, with several shops in and around Princes' Town (12 miles east of San Fernando in Southern Trinidad.) A profitable innovation was providing a covered area near his shops for people to camp overnight, when they had traveled far from their plantations. Ramkallop also became a successful jeweler for Indian women using gold and silver bracelets (bera and churi) both to amass and to display wealth. Both men converted to the United Church of Canada, and their children became relatively well educated. Ramcharan married another indenture whom he apparently met after his arrival in Trinidad, a widow with two girl children, one named Bhutan who died a few years later at age 10--a particularly bright girl who was remembered with sadness by her half-siblings. His wife supported his specializing in rare and much-desired Indian products. In her own right a clever trader, she was deeply religious, read the Ramayana in "an unknown tongue," wore a nathuni in her nose, arranged for Indian musicians, dancers, and pandits for Hindu ceremonies, during which she played the drum with her notably short fingers. She remains a mysterious woman, a remarried Hindu widow whose "unknown tongue" was probably Bengali rather than the local Bhojpuri Hindi, but could she have been a Santal, the tribal group from near Dumka? Why did they marry? Had they known each other before? Later in life, she separated from her husband (by now Miriam and Peter Ramcharan, having first converted to the United Church of Canada, then he apostasized back to Hinduism) and with their daughter Edith Meighoo, set up a profitable mercantile business next door to her husband's. She sent him food, and stayed on good terms with him and their two sons who worked for him, my father-in-law Baba and his brother Piti. Like nearly half the indentures, Aja decided to return to India, although long after his indenture was over. He turned the business over to my father-in-law, having skimmed off most of its resources and converted them into gold coins in a money belt, and returned to Calcutta about 1924. Somewhere enroute, he was robbed, and instead of being able to display his wealth to his relatives, he had to live on their none-too-generous bounty. Needless to say, he returned to Trinidad as soon as he could. Some years later in 1934, he was found bludgeoned to death in his shop, with telltale human feces wrapped in paper on a nearby shelf, suggesting protective magic by the murderer, who was never found. Source: Chronicle: Memorats of Migration: Stories of an East Indian Family in Trinidad S13