#4035: Haitian names : Chamberlain adds to Barnes (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

And then of course there are all the German names, led by Frantz but also
including Rommel, Himmler/Himler and even a few Hitlers.  Can anyone say
where this custom came from?  Some the guys with the last three names are
under 40.  The heavy German influence in Latin America was before WW2 when
many national armies were trained or influenced by German military
practice.  This was not so in Haiti however, which simply had the
German-origin Mevs and Brandt families (dating from the turn of the last
century), plus a few German refugees and minor ex-Nazis.  And of course the
US 1915-34 Occupation was done on the excuse that Germany had gained
commercial ascendancy in Haiti and the region.

When is someone going to write the fascinating history of the handful of
Haiti's most powerful families -- all immigrants from Europe or the Middle
East at the beginning of the 20th century ?  You never see a serious word
written about that (in Haiti or elsewhere in the region, where such
immigrants are powerful), yet there they are, always quietly running the
show.  Can anyone come up with a bibliography?


        Greg Chamberlain