A book setting out the story of the residents of the island of Menorca who came to the Rock to trade, work and settle during the time when both Gibraltar and Menorca were under British rule has been translated from Catalan into English by local translator Brian J Porro.

“The ‘Minorkeens’ of Gibraltar” represents some 20 years of work by the Catalan linguist, journalist and friend of Gibraltar Martí Crespo i Sala. The project began as a paper on the Menorcan origins of Catalan surnames in Gibraltar and grew steadily - resulting in the book published in 2018 in Catalan, and now available in English.

Following the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Gibraltar and Menorca came under the British Crown and this led to an intense period of military, commercial and migratory contact between the two Mediterranean outposts until the island was returned to Spanish rule in 1802. Many Menorcans, especially from the area around the port of Mahon, headed to Gibraltar and contributed to the development of today’s society. That contribution is what this book, based on new material drawn from thorough research in the archives in Menorca, Cadiz and Gibraltar and the available bibliography, seeks to bring to a wider audience.

Brian explains what drew him to the project: “When I saw the original Catalan version of the book launched in October 2018, I immediately bought it and read it in a couple of nights, entranced by what I learned from it. I am a genealogist tracing my family in Gibraltar, so I have located plenty of information about my Genoese, Jewish and Irish ancestry, but the Menorcan angle had been a bit of a blindspot which this book went a long way to clearing up. As soon as I read it, I knew I had to translate it to help as many people as possible find out more about their origins as Abrines, Bacarisa, Cabedo, Dalmedo, Pons, Vila and many others from Menorca.”

He adds that this book is a “major contribution” to the study of the various origins of the Gibraltarians.

“The Menorcan strand in our society has often been obscured by two factors: when children were born to Menorcans in Gibraltar, they were deemed ‘Native’ or ‘from Gibraltar’; as Menorca changed hands, the entries in censuses would show persons who had previously been listed as ‘from Mahon’ or ‘Minorkeen’ as now being from ‘Spain’.”

Brian says that the “meagre bibliography” available shows how little attention has been paid to the Menorcan component in Gibraltar in historical studies in both Gibraltar and Menorca. While the arrival of thousands of Genoese, Jews and Maltese who settled over the last three centuries has been documented exhaustively in many books and studies on each of the communities, the journeys back and forth of Menorcans to and from the Rock have not generated anywhere near the same volume of literature.

The book can be purchased as an eBook (£7.99) or in paperback (£12.95) via Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1919650806.

Pic below: Brian J Porro, translator.