The Plantin Family: Past, Present & Future

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Ancestry

For those who may not know, I was born in New York 🗽, to an entire family of immigrants from Haiti 🇭🇹 (don’t worry, we came here legally). I still have members of my family – including my dad, uncles, aunts, and cousins – who still live in New York, but I’ve been fairly out of touch with them, at least physically, since I moved to Ohio. In this coming decade, I plan to strengthen relations with my relatives living in New York and in other places across North America, as we share and exchange our common past, present, and future family history.

“Most people from the Caribbean now have predominantly European or West African ancestry — a consequence of the Transatlantic Slave Trade that continued in the region until slavery was abolished in the mid-19th century. Today, this diverse history is reflected in the region’s music, cuisine, languages, and DNA.”
The website 23andMe.com showed my DNA test results to be 70% from Sub-Saharan Africa 🌍, with at least 30% being from present-day Nigeria 🇳🇬, along with being parts Ghanian 🇬🇭, Beninese 🇧🇯, Togolese 🇹🇬, Angolan 🇦🇴, & Congolese 🇨🇩.
Growing up, I always suspected my lineage had to have at least some white ancestry, since my own black skin was somewhat lighter compared to some other black people I’m met. These tests above and below confirmed it! It’s also striking just how diverse even my ~30% European heritage is: I’m apparently small bits of British 🇬🇧, Irish 🇮🇪, Spanish 🇪🇸, French 🇫🇷, German 🇩🇪, Italian 🇮🇹, and even Ashkenazi Jewish! 🇮🇱
I first bought DNA tests from these 2 different companies back in 2017, so I could compare and contrast their results. There were some differences, but they’re mostly the same – and they both detected both African and European DNA from me. In other words, our family is mixed between black and white!

This is a photo of one of my 3rd great-grandfathers, General Mérisier Jeannis, who lived from 1833 until 1908. According to history records, he was a military division general, who in 1896 led a political rebellion in his hometown of Jacmel against then-Haitian President Florvil Hyppolite; this president was well-known for his corruption, for executing his opponents. Once he got word of the uprising in Jacmel, he wanted to battle with and capture General Jeannis, except he died of a heart attack while riding on horseback before he could even leave Port-au-Prince. 

General Jeannis was also a Vodou priest who presided over two temples, one in Jacmel and the other in Port-au-Prince. He maintained control over the Jacmel area, and once aspired to become the leader of Haiti himself, up until he was ousted in 1908.

I found out about him and about more people from the past using this family tree below I built on Ancestry.com, which I plan to continue building in the coming years and decades, as more and more family history gets explored and recorded.

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