Monrovia – One hundred and fifty years after their patriarch, John Prince Porte, led his young family and joined 240 other citizens of Barbados, braving the cold and turbulent waters of the Atlantic, the story of the Porte emigration to Liberia has been recorded and published.

The multi-year collaborative project was the brainchild of Ambassador Lorenzo Witherspoon, great-great grandson of John Prince Porte who served as Project Director and Executive Director, and his daughter, Loyce Beryl Witherspoon, as Lead Researcher and Producer.

It was produced thanks to the support of family members across the globe, as well as indispensable contributIons from family elders, Elfric K. Porte, Kenneth Y. Best and Ina D. King, in addition to Rodney D. Sieh and Lindiwe Khumalo. //

the Barbados Minister of Home Affairs, Information and Public Affairs, Hon. Wilfred Abrahams, announced the decision by the government to enact new and transformational legislation that will extend citizenship rights to all direct descendants of citizens of Barbados, irrespective of generation. This is a fundamental change from the current citizenship law which restricts citizenship rights to children and grandchildren. //

The plan hopes to boost its population, currently 290,000, by availing multi-generational diaspora descendants citizenship of the island. The change would mean that, providing they can prove it, descendants of the island who settled in Liberia beginning in April 1865 and after could be in line for citizenship of Barbados.