Newfield to speak at Canary Islanders Heritage Society meeting

Paul “Skip” Newfield will be the featured speaker at the 11 a.m., Aug. 3 general membership meeting of the Canary Islanders Heritage Society meeting at the Louisiana State Archives Building, 3851 Essen Lane, Baton Rouge. The meeting will include a report on the fate of the San Pedro as well as the status of Newfield’s genealogical research into those families in Venezuela.

 The San Pedro sailed from the Canary Islands in 1780, destined for Louisiana, but she never arrived. The 35 Spanish recruits and their families aboard the San Pedro ended up, instead, in Venezuela, and they would never again see their cousins and kinsmen in Louisiana.  

Persons interested in Spanish Colonial Louisiana history or tracing their Canary Islander ancestry are invited to visit the Canary Islanders Heritage Society of Louisiana web site at www.canaryislanders.org or contact the President of the Society by email at president@canaryislanders.org.