Anegada deed order questioned: younger residents got titles before elders

A former chairman of Anegada's Land Development Advisory Committee has challenged the sequence in which the island's residents obtained formal ownership of ancestral property, noting that some younger descendants received deeds substantially ahead of their parents and grandparents.

Darrell Ruan Jr, speaking on the Honestly Speaking talk show, described his own case as an example of what he called a "backwards" system. He obtained a deed to Anegada land seven years before his father, even though Ruan was living in Houston, Texas at the time and his father maintained stronger ties to the island. His father's reaction to the delay was severe distress.

"How is that possible?" Ruan asked, expressing his bewilderment at the arrangement.

The frustration was not isolated to Ruan's family. He noted that many of Anegada's older residents shared similar grievances, particularly those who never left the island yet saw their children and grandchildren obtain titles first. "The people who are sucking the salt on Anegada, never left there, and made it to where it is, they ain't get their deed," Ruan said.

Ruan argued that the island's founding families and matriarchs should have received deeds as a priority, allowing them to make decisions about how land would pass to the next generation. Without this approach, he warned, individual parcels went to younger relatives, fragmenting family properties and making the overall distribution process more complicated.

Anegada has grappled with land title issues for decades, as families with generations-long claims to property have struggled to secure formal recognition of ownership. The government has pursued efforts to formalise titles for qualifying residents, with the Natalio Wheatley administration prioritising resolution of the matter.