I believe I am dealing with this issue in my own lineage right now. I recently found death records showing my maternal grandmother and her only brother (as far as I know presently) as being born in the Caribbean. However, I do not know where or what island they were born on. My mother has always believed that her mother was born in Canada and I think it's probably what she was told by her. She was not born in Canada and she had a definite accent. She pronounced words such as "this", "that", and "thing" as "dis", "dat", and "ting". When I asked my mom about her accent as a child she could not tell me why she sounded like that. My grandmother was supposedly of Irish decent but her coloring suggested elsewise. She had an light golden tone to her skin and her hair was curly and jet black, her eyes were also jet black and to my recollection of Irish coloring that doesn't fit the bill!! I believe she was "passing" for white completely because her family came to America in the late 1920's and it was probably easier for her to pass for white here because no one knew her here. Their surname is Philpott and I have been told its found in Jamaica, Antigua, as well as, Barbados. If anyone can offer me any info I would really appreciate it.
Her name was Johanna Philpott she was born 8/3/1905
Her brother was Michael Philpott and he was born 1/15/1900
On their death records under the US Social Security Index it shows them both born in the Caribbean Islands but it doesn't specifiy which one.