Earlier this year, I discovered a AncestryDNA match of my mother's whose parents are from Samana, Dominican Republic. The confidence of the match was considered to be "good" so I decided to proceed with sending him a message. I basically told him where I was from and my interest in figuring out our connection. He messaged me back saying that he believed our connection could be through freed African Americans who migrated to Samana, Dominican Republic in 1824. I found that to be interesting and something that I'd never heard before so I immediately took to Google to research. What I found was a wealth of information that many aren't aware exists. After a little more messages between the two of us, I encouraged him to upload his DNA data to gedmatch.com. It turns out that he is at 4.5 generations with both me and my mom and shares 26.2 cM's on chromosome 4. There is also a 6cM segment of DNA on chromosome 15 but I'm not sure if that is noise or not.
Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer sent an emissary to the United States to invite freed African Americans to settle in Hispaniola. While President Jean-Pierre spearheaded the idea, figures like AME Church founder Bishop Richard Allen arranged for the formerly enslaved to make the move to Samana. The former slaves were primarily from Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. The proposal of work, land, homes and the thought of being free from an oppressive system lured hundreds to Samana. This makes me wonder, had one or more of my ancestors been apart of the voyage from America to Dominican Republic?
As I looked through the surprisingly extensive family tree of the DNA match, one surname caught my eye. Dishmey! I'd seen this surname amongst the list of surnames that were originally from the US. According to the information in the family tree of said DNA match, Rebeca "Mama Bequi" Dishmey was born about 1851 in Samana and she died in 1945. While it doesnt give a place of birth I see that her surname is American. But where in America? It also doesnt list her parents which could possibly provide more information. Searching for the surname Dishmey has come up with minimal results. Honestly, it's a very uncommon name. What I have mostly found are many people with the surname that have moved from Dominican Republic to America in the last 50 years. There aren't many records available from Samana and the marriage, death and birth records on Ancestry.com don't have many listed with that surname. The US census search for the surname came up empty as well. How did this name come into existence? Was it a name that the Freedmen made up?
To be continued...
Learn more about the Freed Slaves who Immigrated to Samana, Dominican Republic:
http://libguides.ccny.cuny.edu/ld.php?content_id=14167855
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