DIARY OF A NATAL MOLE
October 2005

1 Genealogy World is promised an article from someone researching the Willowfountain (or Wilgefontein) Settlers to Natal in 1880. The passenger list of their ship Nyanza is available on our maritime pages.

2 Hughen NOURSE speaks of Capt Cracroft NOURSE who had the unusual distinction of surviving the battle of Isandhlwana 1879. Cracroft was subjected to an arduous time at the official inquiry into this British disaster (and he didn't get a medal). Several references to Nourse occur in Morris's 'The Washing of the Spears' and there's a brief mention in Marina King's 'Sunrise to Evening Star' which I've coincidentally recently re-read. Cracroft Nourse was Marina's brother.

3 Further interesting communication with Pamela Kirkham on the KIRKHAM family and its Natal/Australia associations.

4 Alison Hunt asks about tracing an Anglo-Boer War Australian nurse, Bertha Hannah HUNT. Q & A section on Genealogy World carries more on this topic.

5 Katy WHEELER e-mails re her great great grandfather William MITCHELL, a Royal Engineer on board the transport St Lawrence at the time of her shipwreck in 1876.

6 A long-lost cousin of mine, Gary Bell, at last able to make contact from US to share material on James Colquhoune BELL, son of Captain William Bell and brother of Eliza Ann Bell (who married Thomas Alfred GADSDEN). If it hadn't been for internet this connection would never have been discovered: Gary saw my offering on the Conch on Michael Phillips's excellent ships site www.cronab.demon.co.uk/conch.htm (have a look at the main page index for some remarkable material on other ships too) and an entire raft of descendants has now been added to the BELL family tree. Previously, 'what happened to James Colquhoune?' was an unanswered question.

13 My cheque to Society of Genealogists London has gone astray. Ever optimistic, I fire off another one.

14 The KIRKHAM article goes up on Genealogy World.
Complete the MITCHELL/St Lawrence narrative and illustrations; this is one of those stories which just keeps growing in depth and interest. Sean Sweeney adds his information on Bandmaster SWEENEY of the 3rd Buffs, who was also on board.

I hear it is now possible to search and download the service registers of more than 500,000 seamen who joined the Royal Navy between 1853 and 1923 for a small fee.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/stories/78.htm?homelink=docs

20 Two welcome new items from Graham Mason on Genealogy World's AZW pages, one on The Fighting Clerk, George William MABIN, and the other on the Sergeants at Rorke's Drift.

21 If, like me, you're terminally addicted to the obscure, http://www.ilnpictures.co.uk/ is worth browsing for unusual illustrations. I was amazed to find an engraving of the ship Ballengeich (which brought emigrants to Natal under MURDOCH and PELLY's scheme) departing on a voyage to Australia during the gold rush years. Search on the keyword 'emigration'. ILN mention that they have 2 million pictures - and invite site visitors to contact them for anything not found in the online gallery.

22 Katy WHEELER sends a photo of a mystery ancestor who seems to have an aura of the theatre about him. Rootsweb offers a mailing list (THEATRE-UK) for anyone with a genealogical or historical interest in the theatre and entertainment business, mainly but not only UK; additional material can be found on the THEATRE-UK website. Another mailing list (THEATRICAL-ANCESTORS) is available for ancestors who took part in any theatrical or film work.

At some point most family historians find photos giving the name of the photographic studio: this can be a useful clue as to date, and trade directories may help establish when the firm was in operation. For professional photographers in England and Wales between 1850 and 1950, browse the archives of yet another mailing list: UK-PHOTOGRAPHERS

22 In 2005 we've celebrated the anniversary of Trafalgar (21 October 1805), followed by that of Agincourt (25 October 1415). I'm waiting for someone to remember the definitive anti-establishmentarian, Guido Fawkes, and his 'gunpowder, treason and plot'. The National Archives Kew holds his confession, extracted under torture, and bearing his wobbly signature (how well would you do after a session with the thumb-screw?). Here is an obvious opportunity for the makers of commemorative mugs and other souvenirs, yet it would appear that Guido is being dismissed without so much as a whimper, never mind a bang.

23 Chats with David DAVIDGE in New South Wales re the Dreadnought, one of Byrne's ships - an unusual variation on this theme as David's ancestor John Alfred Sage GRANT wasn't a settler but a member of the crew. Proving the value of newspaper research (yes, I know I sound like a broken record) details of the launching of this ship in Peterhead, Scotland, have now been found in the Banffshire Journal and the Aberdeen Journal 1849. The Dreadnought sailed from Peterhead on her maiden voyage on 9 June 1849 bound for London under Captain BIDDER, who later brought her to Natal. The passenger list can be found on Genealogy World's maritime pages.

24 Mailing list discussion on Natal marriage records. Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository holds Durban Marriage Indexes 1895-1984 and Marriage Registers 1887 -1972. There are no restrictions on viewing these records since the Access to Information Act of 2000/1. Digital photography of entries is allowed. Also available for Durban: Birth Indexes and Registers 1868-1930, Death Indexes 1910-1949 and Death Registers 1868-1949. A printed index to 'Archives of the Department of Home Affairs' for Natal can be found on the main table in the Reading Room.

29 Tombi Peck sends URL for Old Mersey Times website which provides deaths on passage at Crimea, December 1854 to January 1855
www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/index.html See under section 'New Snippets'. There is also other material on the Crimean conflict and much else transcribed from Liverpool and Merseyside newspapers; the emigration pages seem well worth a browse.

31 Parting shot from the Society of Genealogists Exhibition catalogue of 1937: 'It is of importance that individuals should be encouraged to study the history of their own families: not in the boastful and snobbish spirit which produced such a spate of false pedigrees in the nineteenth century, but on the scientific lines of modern genealogical research which demands proof of every statement and the recording of every fact, whether pleasant or unpleasant, for whatever view may be held on the merits of such research, all will agree that unless it be conducted with accuracy it is entirely futile.'

Couldn't have put it better myself.

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY:
1905 Oct 04 - US: Orville Wright flies an aircraft for more than 33 minutes
1906 Oct 01 - HMS Dreadnought reaches 21.5 knots in first sea trials
1906 Oct 03 - S.O.S. adopted as international distress signal
1908 Oct 01 - Detroit US: first Model-T Ford goes on sale
1908 Oct 06 - Wilbur Wright sets record flight of over one hour with a passenger
1909 Oct 02 - Orville Wright flies at record height of 1600 feet
1911 Oct 23 - UK: Winston Churchill is named First Lord of the Navy
1912 Oct 11 - US: President Roosevelt shot in attempted assassination
1913 Oct 14 - UK: Explosion in colliery in Wales kills 439 miners
1914 Oct 04 - First bomb falls in London
1915 Oct 12 - British nurse Edith Cavell executed in Brussels for treason
1915 Oct 23 - British cricketer W G Grace dies, aged 67

Mole