LIT6236 - Postcolonial Studies: Caribbean Migrations (Panama and the Canal): Finding Resources

FamilySearch https://www.familysearch.org/ 
Many National Archives records relating to Panama the Canal (e.g., census records) and other types of government and church records are available for free in FamilySearch, but it does require an account to use. This site is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormons have been leaders for decades in scanning genealogical materials. The church also operates Ancestry.com, which is a pay service. It contains more records and users have access to advanced searching.

If you search for a person or family name in FamilySearch, you will search a variety of records and resources including census records, employment records, shipping records, etc., so it is usually easiest to start with basic searches. If you need to narrow your search to specific types of records you can use some of the FamilySearch guides below.

FamilySearch - Panama Emigration and Immigration
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Panama_Emigration_and_Immigration
Includes:

• Panama Canal Zone, Employment Records and Sailing lists, 1905-1937. https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2193241. 
• Panama Canal Zone, Employment Records and Sailing lists, 1884-1937 at Ancestry ($)
• Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild (use the search box to search for Panama and/or family names)

FamilySearch - Panama Online Genealogy Records
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Panama_Online_Genealogy_Records
Includes links to Census records, Church Records, etc. (some resources are pay only)

Index to the Gorgas Hospital Mortuary Death Records, 1906 - 1991
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1263917
Click on the Download Index link to download a text file (ASC format). This file is also available as a Microsoft Excel file.
Note that some records are missing for the years: 1912,1917,1918,1955,1960,1965,1980 (Oct 79-Sep 80).
 

See https://pcmc.uflib.ufl.edu/research/yearbooks-and-periodicals/ for a list of some newspapers and yearbooks relating to the Panama Canal. Many but not all of these are available in the Latin American & Caribbean Collection (LACC) reading room, 3rd floor, Smathers Library Building.

Panama Star + Herald (Panama)
https://ufl-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_UFL/175ga98/alma990259309100306597 
Latin American & Caribbean Collection (LACC) Microfilm 079.862 P187
1849-1890; 1919-1951

LACC Ltd. Circ. Oversize 079.862 P187
1851-1854 and 1920-1921

Issues for 1919-1922 are available at https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00017962/allvolumes.

The 1850s issues are available online in various places:

• https://ufl-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_UFL/pek2if/cdi_crl_catalog_b28716644 
• https://ufl-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_UFL/pek2if/cdi_crl_catalog_b27282879 
• https://ufl-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_UFL/pek2if/cdi_crl_catalog_b28860433 
• https://ufl-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_UFL/pek2if/cdi_crl_catalog_b2871667x 
• https://ufl-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_UFL/175ga98/alma99383242792806597 

Panama Tribune
Available via Interlibrary-Loan on microfilm: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/173759995

Panama American
1950s available online: https://dloc.com/AA00010883/00001
(Alternative view with each issue listed chronologically: https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00010883/allvolumes)
UF is scanning the 1920s issues from NY Public Library microfilm currently and they may be added online soon. Other years are available via Interlibrary-Loan only.

Barbados Advocate
LACC Microfilm 079.72981 B228

The Workman (1919-1930)
https://dloc.com/title-sets/AA00027053/results
(Alternative view with each issue listed chronologically: https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00027053/allvolumes).

School Yearbooks 
La Boca School: La Bocan https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00026325/00001
La Boca Normal Training School: The Thinker https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00017315/00001
Paraiso High School (Escuela Superior de Paraiso): El Pacifico https://ufdc.ufl.edu/title-sets/AA00015058/results
Silver City / Rainbow City High School: Apex https://ufdc.ufl.edu/title-sets/AA00019279/results / Arco Iris https://ufdc.ufl.edu/title-sets/AA00015016/results

Searching Text

Some but not all of the newspaper and yearbook resources are searchable by text. To search the text of these publications:

• Go the Panama and the Canal digital collection: https://dloc.com/collections/pcm
• Click on Refine Search and select Advanced Search.
• When the "Refine Your Search" page opens, find the box labeled "Search for Items that Contain the Following Text" and use that box to enter your term or phrase.
• Click on Search
• For example, searching for "Garvey" results in multiple hits including many issues of The Workman newspaper.
• Click on the search results and you should see a secondary results page (e.g., https://dloc.com/AA00027053/00535/search?term=garvey) that shows each page in the publication containing the text you searched for. If you hover your cursor above a thumbnail image, you can see a pop-up showing each hit for your search term on that page.

The same searching is available in the older digital system. Follow these steps:

• Go the old Panama and the Canal digital collection: https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/pcm
• Click on Text Search.
• When the "Search full text" page opens, click on the box labeled "Include newspapers" and use the box above to enter your term or phrase.
• Click on Search
• For example, searching for "Garvey" results in multiple hits including many issues of The Workman newspaper.
• Click on any of the search results and you should see a secondary results page (e.g., https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00027053/00571/search?search=garvey) that shows each page in the publication containing the text you searched for.

Other Publications Online

Isthmian Echoes
https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00014955/00001/citation
Includes essays by West Indians selected and edited by Sidney A. Young. 1927.

Afro-Panamanian Newsletter, By Ines V. Sealy, Available on Academia.edu

There are many sources for photographs and other scanned materials pertaining to the former Canal Zone, Panama, and the Canal. For photos in the Panama Canal Museum Collection, it's always best to ask John Nemmers and Betsy Bemis for help searching because many photos aren't available online yet. Photographs that have been digitized are available on sites such as:

• Panama and the Canal Digital Collection, Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) - https://www.dloc.com/collections/pcm
• Internet Archive - https://archive.org/
• National Archives - https://catalog.archives.gov/id/535442
• Library of Congress Digital Collections - https://www.loc.gov/search/ (limit to "Available Online")
• Digital Public Library of American (DPLA) - https://dp.la/

We scanned many of our photos relating to West Indian people and communities as part of a webinar we held in May 2021, and this gallery is available here: https://sankofapcmc.domains.uflib.ufl.edu/zen/. Unfortunately, the app seems to be having difficulty right now because of a recent app update, so we have made the same images available here: https://pcmc.domains.uflib.ufl.edu/pan-caribbean-voices-gallery/. Hopefully, the primary gallery will be fixed soon because it also contains descriptions for each image.

And there are dozens of personal and group websites devoted to preserving photos and information about the former Canal Zone and Canal-related topics including:

• CZBrats - http://www.czbrats.com/
• Silver People Heritage Foundation - https://thesilverpeopleheritage.wordpress.com/
• Gamboa Silver Town Reunion - https://www.gamboareunion.com/

So, if you're looking for a specific image it's always a good idea to search via Google. 

This annotated bibliography can help you find books in LACC that are illustrated with photos of Panama and the Canal Zone. The street scenes in Panama could include theaters or other locations related to your research.  https://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/pcm/PCBibliography2019.pdf

I want to highlight this book specifically:

Zien, Katherine A. Sovereign Acts: Performing Race, Space, and Belonging in Panama and the Canal Zone. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2017.

https://ufl-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_UFL/6ad6fc/alma990358479090306597

Available in LACC Library and Online through UF Libraries

Milton Garvey is mentioned by name in Chapter 2, “Entertaining Sovereignty: The Politics of Recreation in the Panama Canal Zone”. The chapter is particularly relevant for context if you are looking into the theater component of the Garvey family.

Airall, Guillermo Evers. Silver and Gold: Untold Stories of Immigrant Life in the Panama Canal Zone. Pittsburgh: RoseDog Books, 2014.  UF George A. Smathers Libraries: F1577.A1 A47 2014  

Conniff, Michael L. Black Labor on a White Canal – Panama 1904-1981. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: F1577.B55 C67 1985

Engle, Margarita. Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal. St. Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 2014. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: PZ7.5.E54 Si 2014

Flores-Villalobos, Joan. “Gender, Race, and Migrant Labor in the “Domestic Frontier” of the Panama Canal Zone.” International Labor and Working-Class History, (2021): 99,96-121.

Flores-Villalobos, Joan V. “Race, Development, and National Identity in Panama”. Master’s Thesis. Austin, TX: University of Texas, 2012. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00016534/00001

Flores Villalobos, Joan Victoria. “West Indian Women in the Panama Canal Zone, 1904-1914”. Amherst: Amherst College. Honor’s Thesis, 2010. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00019230/00001

Frederick, Rhonda D. “Colón Man a Come”: Mythographies of Panama Canal Migration. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: PN849.C3F75 2005

Greene, Julie. The Canal Builders: Making America’s Empire at the Panama Canal. New York: Penguin Press, 2009. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: F1569.C2 G66 2009

Isthmian Historical Society. Isthmian Historical Society Competition for the Best True Stories of Life and Work on the Isthmus of Panama During the Construction of the Panama Canal. Isthmian Historical Society, 1963. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00016037/00001

Lasso, Marixa. Erased: The Untold Story of the Panama Canal. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2019.

Lewis, Lancelot S. The West Indian in Panama: Black Labor in Panama 1850-1914. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1980. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: F1577.B55 L48

Lisser, Henry de. Jamaicans in Colon and the Canal Zone. Kingston, Jamaica, 1906.

Lowe de Goodin, Melva. De Barbados a Panamá = From Barbados to Panamá. Panama, Republic of Panama: Editora Géminis, 2007. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: PQA7529.2.L68 D4 2007

Newton, Velma, Kathleen Drayton, and Woodville Marshall, eds. The Barbados-Panama Connection Revisited: Commemorating Migration from Barbados to Panama, 1904- 1914. St. Ann’s Garrison, St. Michael, Barbados: The Barbados Museum & Historical Society, 2014. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: JV 7429.B37 2014

Newton, Velma. The Silver Men: West Indian Migration to Panama, 1850-1914. Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle, 2004. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: JV7429 .N49 2004

Paz B, Sadith Esther. “The Status of West Indian Immigrants in Panama from 1850-1941”. Masters Thesis: University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1977.

Petras, Elizabeth McClean. Jamaican Labor Migration: White Capital and Black Labor, 1850- 1914. Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1988. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: HD8178 .P47 1988

Richardson, Bonham C. Panama Money in Barbados, 1900-1920. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: HD8178.5.B37 R53 1985

Russell, Carlos E. An Old Woman Remembers: The Recollected History of West Indians in Panama, 1855-1955: A Prose-Poetry Monologue. New York: Caribbean Diaspora Press, 1995.

Senior, Olive. Dying to Better Themselves: West Indians and the Building of the Panama Canal. Kingston: The University of the West Indies Press, 2014. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: F1577.B55 D9 2014

Senior, Olive. “The Origins of ‘Colón Man’: Jamaican Emigration to Panama in the Nineteenth Century.” In Regional Footprints: The Travels and Travails of Early Caribbean Migrants, edited by Annette Insanally, Mark Clifford and Sean Sheriff, 52-67. Kingston: Latin American-Caribbean Centre, University of the West Indies, 2006. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: HD8193 .R53 2006

Westerman, George. “School Segregation on the Panama Canal Zone.” Phylon, vol.15, no.3 (Third Quarter 1954): 276-287.

Westerman, George. Sore Spots in United States-Panama Relations. Address Given at International House, Chicago. Panama: Acción Cívica Istmeña, 1952. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: E183.8.P2 W52 1952

Westerman, George. A Study of Socio-Economic Conflicts on the Panama Canal Zone. Panama: Liga Cívica Nacional, 1948. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: HD8178 .W4 1948

Westerman, George. Toward a Better Understanding. Panama, 1946. UF George A. Smathers Libraries: F1577.A1 W4 1946

Young, Sidney Adolphus, Editor. Isthmian Echoes: A Selection of the Literary Endeavors of the West Indian Colony in the Republic of Panama. From Articles Contributed to the West Indian Section of the Panama American from February 1926 to December 1927. Republic of Panama: Benedetti Hnos., 1927. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00014955/00001

Zenger, Robin Elizabeth. “West Indians in Panama: Diversity and Activism, 1910s – 1940s”. Dissertation, The University of Arizona, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/581411