The Trinidadian Chinese Ancestry Trait Test — Do You Have Any of These?

On October 12, 1806, a ship called the Fortitude reached Trinidad with about 200 men recruited in Macau, Penang and Calcutta. It is described as the first organized settlement of Chinese people in the Caribbean. By 1810, 22 were left on the island. By 1834, seven. Since then, many Trinidadian families have asked the same question: do we carry Chinese ancestry, and can a trait show it? This video counts down ten signs people point to, and tells you what the science says about each one. It covers the 1853 arrivals on the Australia (432 landed) and the Clarendon (251 landed); the 2,645 Chinese immigrants of 1853–1866; the 2011 census count of 3,984 unmixed Chinese in Trinidad and Tobago; the surnames in the record (Achong, Aleong, Chin, Fung, Hochoy, Lai Fook, Lee, Lee Hueng, Lee Lum, Wong); and the families of Pack Fan (Pawan) and Tang Cheong Wang. Then it looks at the traits: lactose intolerance, the alcohol flush (Brooks et al., PLoS Medicine, 2009), thick hair and tooth shape (Kamberov et al., Cell, 2013), shovel-shaped incisors, dry earwax and underarm odor (Yoshiura et al., Nature Genetics, 2006), and an East Asian line on a DNA test (Benn Torres et al.). Important note, stated directly in the video: no trait on this list belongs only to people of Chinese descent, and I did not find a genetic study of Chinese Trinidadians as a population. Several traits are also found in the First Peoples of the Americas. About two thirds of East Asians do not flush, and a Chinese ancestor can pass on none of these traits. I could not confirm how common any of these traits is in Trinidad. Some sources differ on the numbers (194 or 192 survivors of the Fortitude; 2,645 or 2,649 arrivals in 1853–1866). Mixed Chinese ancestry is usually counted as mixed in the census, so the true number of families is larger. A trait cannot name your ship, village or ancestor. Records can. 🔎 Want to find your family's story? Book your surname search. The link is in the pinned comment. 🧬 Ready to trace your roots? Book your surname search and family research today. The link is in the pinned comment. Drop your surname below, and tell us how many of the ten signs you have. Type a number from zero to ten. Sources: - Wikipedia, "Chinese Trinidadians and Tobagonians" - National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago; Look Lai, W., The Chinese in the West Indies, 1806–1995 (1853 immigration report excerpt) - TriniGenWeb, "Migration to and from Asia"; Trinidad Express, "Our families, our histories" - Kamberov, Y. et al., Cell (2013); UCL news release - Yoshiura, K. et al., Nature Genetics (2006) - Brooks, P. et al., PLoS Medicine (2009) - Hrdlička (1920) and Dahlberg (1947) on shovel-shaped incisors, as compiled in a University of Hong Kong study - PNAS (2025) on lactase in East Asians, via Live Science - Benn Torres, J. et al., American Journal of Physical Anthropology (2019) Subscribe — every week on this channel we trace another documented piece of Caribbean history back to the exact families still carrying it forward today. #Trinidad #ChineseTrinidadian #Hakka #Genealogy #FamilyHistory #Ancestry #DNA #CaribbeanHistory #Surnames #Heritage