The Haitian Roots of Sonny Rollins (RIP)

Several years ago, perhaps in 2011 or 2012, we tried to research the Haitian origins of Sonny Rollins. Through interviews, it was clear he was aware of a Haitian grandfather named Paul Solomon or Dr. Solomon. Well, it turns out there was a Haitian doctor named Paul Salomon who was rather prominent in Haitian medicine in the early decades of the 1900s. Exactly how the grandmother of Rollins met Dr. Paul Salomon is unclear, but it was likely during a time when the Haitian was in St. Thomas. Indeed, the 1905 baptism entry for Sonny's mother, Valborg Solomon, indicates her parents were Miriam Walcott and Paul Solomon, the latter a doctor in Haiti. Thanks to the genealogical records digitized on Ancestry, one can find the baptismal data for Valborg Solomon, Sonny's mother. 

We cannot read Danish and haven't found clear evidence of Paul Salomon in Saint Thomas yet. However, one court record in Danish from Ancestry's database does indeed name a Paul Solomon, possibly the same person) before 1905. We were unable to find any evidence of Miriam Walcott residing in Haiti, so it's likely she met Paul Salomon when he spent time in St. Thomas. 

But who was Paul Salomon? Dr. Salomon was born in Coteaux, Haiti to Salomon fils and a mother surnamed Brejot, a widow. Thanks to digitized natal records at the Family Search website, one can date the registration of Paul Salomon's birth to the year 1871. His father was not yet the communal magistrate of Coteaux. Moreover, due to how common Salomon as a surname was, we have not yet been able to confirm any relationship between Salomon fils and the Salomons of Les Cayes, who are ultimately descendants of a noir from Martinique (see L'état haïtien et ses intellectuels by  Délide Joseph). 

The parentage of Paul Salomon is also confirmed by his marriage in 1901 to Louise Momplaisir in Port-au-Prince. Interestingly, the young doctor was married to a politically connected wife who was also related to the Salomon of Les Cayes. Louise Momplaisir's mother, Antoinette Salomon, may have been a relative of Paul Salomon's father. 

Indeed, the earlier marriage record for Maximilien Momplaisir and Antoinette Salomon named her father as Pierre Etienne Lusimond Salomon of Les Cayes. This makes Paul Salomon's wife a descendant of the Salomons of Les Cayes. Once again, evidence for Paul's father hailing from the same family is lacking but possible. 

Records from Port-au-Prince also show that Paul Salomon fathered "natural" children with women he did not marry. The above case is for a child named Jean Joseph Paul Arthur. He also recognized a daughter born in 1894 named Marie Françoise Alice Salomon, born to the same mother. 

Some of Paul Salomon's children in Haiti served in the government, too. One of his children,  René Salomon, even ran for president in the elections of 1957. We believe this man, Dr. Paul Salomon's son, was therefore not a grandson of President Salomon. This child of Dr. Salomon appears in articles in Haiti Sun, currently available for browsing at the Digital Library of the Caribbean. We suspect this man was the one involved with the PSH, a group that mingled noirisme and socialism. 

Lastly, despite Paul Salomon traveling to or through New York City a number of times, Sonny Rollins apparently never met him. Indeed, one must assume that there was no contact at all between Valborg and her father, even after she had permanently moved to New York. 

Luckily, a group photo from the Medical School in Port-au-Prince does show what Paul Salomon looked like. He appears to have been the second from the right in the front row of this picture, next to Justin Dorsainvil. Although it seems unlikely, one wonders if Sonny Rollins ever looked up his maternal grandfather and identified him. It is almost certainly this Paul Salomon who was named in the baptismal record for his mother.