PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Noted Caribbean historian Marianne Ramesar (nee Soares) died here Friday. She was 86.

The Jamaican-born historian was best known for her seminal book on “Indentureship in Trinidad, Survivors of Another Crossing: A history of East Indians in Trinidad 1880-1946″. She also published a book on the history of Aramalaya Presbyterian Church titled “Celebration: A Centenary History of Aramalaya Presbyterian Church, Tunapuna, Trinidad 1881-1981″.

Her works also appear in 17 publications and 134 library holdings.

She had been engaged in research over two decades on her African ancestry in the Caribbean, tracing her first slave ancestor, Addo, to Ghana where she would later give birth to two of her three children.

Ramesar was a part of West Indian history herself as her name is memorialised on the monument at the Mona campus of The University of the West Indies’ (UWI), recognising the university’s first cohort of students.

She also served as a senior research fellow at the Institute of Social Economic Research (ISER) at the UWI St Augustine Campus here.

Her late husband, Esmond D Ramesar, was an adult education pioneer, who also served the UWI and died in 2005.