Everywhere i look for any information based on the Tainos, something is always missing. No one knows where they really are from, or their personalities, how many, etc etc.I'm very interested in these particular Indians and any information that help me understand them better will be greatly appreciated.
The Taino were the indigenous peoples of the island of Hispaniola (modern Haiti and Dominican Republic) when the Spanish arrived to the Caribbean. They likely inhabited Cuba, Puerto Rico and other islands as well but drawing lines is difficult because the early Spanish sources often differentiated between "Taino" and "Carib(e)" not along ethnic rules but according to their response to colonization. Indians that were deemed "friendly" by the Spanish would be called Taino and others that were hostile or simply refused to submit were named "Caribe". "Tainos" and "Caribes" were documented as speaking the same language or languages close enough to be intelligible between each other.
Anthropologically speaking both Taino and Caribs were part of the Arawak peoples, who colonized the Caribbean islands from South America in different waves starting some 4000 years ago. They began by Trinidad and migrated north and west along the Lesser Antilles until reaching Cuba and Jamaica. They didn't come from Florida, but probably visited the area since they did colonize the Bahamas (where an Arawak, possibly Taino people known as "Lucayos" was present at the time of Spanish contact, in fact these were the first indigenous people found by Columbus in his first voyage).
Hispaniola was divided in different Taino chiefdoms (amusingly called "kingdoms" by the Spanish, something they had done as well when meeting the Neolithic people of the Canary Islands). The Taino didn't practice agriculture or use metal tools and had no real domestic animals besides dogs and ducks, although sometimes they kept wild local animals like hutias and turtles alive in enclosures before slaughtering them. Thomas says that syphilis was rampant in pre-contact Taino society but I don't know what he bases this claim on.
Taino population collapsed after the Spanish conquest, as a result of introduced Old World diseases, wars and forced labor. Tainos were press-ganged into working in mines or diving to collect pearls. As the native population in the island collapsed during the course of the 16th century the Spanish resorted to bringing Indians from other islands (causing the complete depopulation of the Bahamas for example), and eventually African slaves. The surviving Taino converted to Catholicism and intermingled with the Spanish. Eventually virtually any trace of Taino culture and language besides a few words was lost.
There is not a single, living, full-blooded Taino today, but mtDNA tests have revealed that, for example, over 60% of Puerto Ricans have some kind of indigenous and presumably Taino ancestry. These numbers are deceptive because said indigenous DNA is around 10-15% per person and these people look and identify as white, black or mulatto. So be ready to distrust anyone who comes from the Greater Antilles claiming to be "Taino".