DIARY OF A NATAL MOLE
April 2005
1 A welcome day's respite from interruption, catching up with downloading and sending results of various research. Continue putting together an article for overseas family historians on the type of content to be expected from NAAIRS files: the Russian Roulette approach to ordering such files can be an expensive pastime. e.g. Mortgage Bond documents aren't often helpful for family details, while Records of Conduct and Service for the SA Constabulary are valuable sources of information. Priorities need to be established to help keep within the family history budget.
The Anglo-Zulu War community in uproar over remarks made by journalist Max Hastings in the Daily Mail of 29 March, calling Lieutenant John CHARD V.C. "a butchering buffoon." Debunking heroes has become an international sport. It was Queen Victoria who said "The Defence of Rorke's Drift is immortal" - and so it is, and it'll take more than injudicious sniping by the likes of Hastings or his gutter press, name-calling tactics to make a dent on the immortality of its heroes.
Another furore raging re proposed destruction of WWI records, for which The National Archives Kew and other bodies such as the Ministry of Defence cannot find storage space. Transport costs for the 140-plus steel filing cabinets containing the record cards are another difficulty. To date, despite rumours to the contrary, no final solution to the problem has been found. It is unthinkable that the records should be summarily dispensed with, whether the information has been (partially) captured on microfilm or not. Messages of protest continue to pour in. I wait to hear more from Colin CROCKER of the Western Front Association - but so far All Quiet on the Western Front.
Delyse finds a useful reference to GADSDEN in the Gentleman's Magazine - films of selected editions of this rewarding source can be found at the LDS Family History Library in Silverton Road, Durban.
I make contact with Allan Jackson - local history enthusiast and author of the highly successful book "Facts about Durban." Like the book, his web site http://www.fad.co.za/ is nostalgic, entertaining and informative.
2 Discussions with Joachim Schubert re his German settler site with passenger lists.
www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/7589/schiff_en.html
5 A day earlier to Pietermaritzburg since Archives closes later this week. I find the original passenger list of the Estafette, August 1858, bringing COLENBRANDER's settlers to New Guelderland. This will make a certain Dutch-speaking Welshman, descended from one of these settlers, very happy.
Evening at the Chichester Cathedral Choir Concert lives up to expectations. Never seen so many dog-collars in an audience.
6 Researching circuses in Natal - an absorbing exercise with some surprises. The resulting article and pix soon to be uploaded on Allan Jackson's site (see URL above).
Dip again into "Twentieth Century Impressions of Natal" pub 1906 - ideal source for industries, businesses, churches etc and the personalities concerned. Good photographs.
7 PMB Archives closed for staff conference. Morning at Natal Society Library working on passenger lists for the site. I find my own birth announcement while exploring for William BOTTERILL, who died in Durban on the day I was born, and continue digging into the WOODWARD brothers.
It takes 3 hours to get back home due to roadworks and the Mole-mobile overheating.
8 Pleased to see Familia Vol 42 No 1 carries a blurb on Genealogy World site. Also in this edition, Adam YAMEY's excellent article on his ancestor Jacob SELIGMANN - a lesson in how to acquire in-depth detail on one intriguing individual and put it together in immensely readable narrative form.
10 Peter GADSDEN sends extract on the Feast of St Balbina, evoking thoughts of John of Gaddesden, "our" legendary mediaeval priest physician, and his grisly cures; uploaded this on the Gadsden pages (link on Genealogy World). A girl from Gaddesden Herts apparently "had the evil in her feet". After a day spent taking photos at Archives I know how she felt.
11 Practical and necessary chores - the Present getting in the way of the Past.
13 More on the Estafette from Denbighshire Record Office archivist, David CASTLEDINE, after his visit to Amsterdam Maritime Museum. He says the records there are incredible and assistants very helpful. This will be one of the best-covered voyages ever, including extracts from the "Haven Journaal" before departure from Holland, log of the journey and arrivals at Simon's Bay and Natal.
14 Permission received to put the DHS rolls online - Delyse currently busy with name index to both "The Durban High School Record 1866-1906" and H D Jennings's "The D.H.S. Story 1866-1966". The DHS Record, edited by Belcher and Collins, was published in 1906 and includes each pupil's years at the school, what house they were in, sporting teams they belonged to, military and business details after leaving school, some residential addresses and spouses' names. It was in this volume (miraculously found at Christison Rare Books, Pietermaritzburg www.antiquarian.co.za) that I came upon the only known extant photograph of my grandfather's elusive brother, William GADSDEN, in a group pic of the school in the 1880s. The resemblance to my father, William Bell GADSDEN, who later also attended DHS, is unmistakable. Both were known as "Bill".
The Jennings sequel gives the Rolls of Honour for World Wars I and II.
16 E-mail the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, London, concerning the WOODWARDS - the Society unbelievably helpful and prompt in their response. Also contact Rhodes House Library (at the Bodleian, Oxford) where it was hoped a photo of the brothers might be found, but nothing on their index (they'd like a copy of the Woodward research when finished).
18 My paternal grandmother's birthday - Maud Alice SWIRES b 1890 who married Sydney Bartle GADSDEN in November 1909. With me throughout the morning were childhood memories of her homemade bread, hot and crusty from the oven, with butter - and her beautiful garden, with all the old Natal flowers and trees lovingly tended, stretching down to the bush on the banks of the Umgeni. We ran wild, ate mangos and guavas, played with the dogs and made friends among the Indians who then lived near the river and were later removed under the terms of the Group Areas Act. The view from grandma's verandah was spectacular by night or day - over the Umgeni and Windsor Golf Course below, up to the Berea westwards, and eastwards towards the sea, with the distant Bluff like a protective arm enfolding the City and the Bay.
20 At PMB Archives following up some deceased estate files, CSO marriages and the muster rolls for the Alexandra Mounted Rifles.
21 Read pamphlet by W K ENTE published 1862 on the New Gelderland settlement on the Natal North Coast. One section entitled "Noordzijyde Der Umgeni: Het Bosch"; others on Verulam, Victoria and the Tongaat River, the Bay of Natal and D'Urban, and Sugar. A picture of Natal at the time of my g grandfather, Thomas Alfred GADSDEN's arrival, quite apart from its value as background on the Dutch settlement under COLENBRANDER.
22 At Natal Soc Library find the passenger list for the Estafette arrival1858 published in the Natal Mercury 26 August. Also an advertisement for Farquharson ANDERSON's wheelwright business at the Umzinto Hotel in 1878. After Anderson's death his widow Charlotte Fisher (born MELVIN) married William DIXON SMITH.
26 Music morning: Vivaldi and Mozart work their usual restorative powers.
28 New CD Writer installed.
Tony JONES in UK sends video of The 1879 Group performing at Detling in full Anglo-Zulu War rig, and the latest instalments of his tireless search into his ancestor, William JONES V.C., defender of Rorke's Drift.
30 Quote used by Terrick FitzHugh in his book "How to Write a Family History: The Lives and Times of Our Ancestors" (ISBN 9780713630787):
"The retrieving of these forgotten Things from Oblivion in some sort resembles the Art of a Conjuror who makes those walke and appeare that have layen in their graves many hundreds of yeares; and to represent as it were to the eie, the places, Customes and Fashions that were of old Times." (John Aubrey)
"These Forgotten Things" - great title for a book; must bear that one in mind.
Mole