ABSTRACT
I am an African American of Caribbean descent, born in New York City in the 1950s. My father was an immigrant from the Caribbean island of St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles, and my mother, who was born in Quincy, MA, was the daughter of immigrants from St. Maarten. Thus, I am a first generation U.S. American on my father's side, and a second generation U.S. American on my mother's side, but all four of my grandparents and all of my traceable ancestors were from St. Maarten/St. Martin. The dual spelling reflects the island's status as a dual-nationality territory, which it has been since the 17th century when the Dutch claimed half of the 37-square-mile island and named their part St. Maarten, and the French did the same on the other half, which they named St. Martin. Today it is the world's smallest territory to be shared by two governments.
