DIARY OF A NATAL MOLE
November 2004

1 Meeting with Delyse at The Palace on the matter of Byrne passenger lists which are gradually being uploaded on the genealogyworld site.

2 Some Mendelssohn, Bach and Mozart, the usual Tuesday morning chamber music rehearsal, restoring sanity and calm to Mole's mind.
Afterwards continuing with Byrne ships for the site, an activity not similarly guaranteed !

It seems that SA isn't the only place where archives are affected due to strike action: note from the London Society of Genealogists:
"There are notices up at TNA to the effect that it will be closed this Friday (5 Nov) for one day on account of Industrial Action - or inaction. I assume that this will also apply to the FRC." .

Discussions on the GIPSY BRIDE (1858) with Dennis Pretorius, who is trying to find a picture of this vessel. No luck so far.

3 Enquiry comes in re the JARDINE family who arrived at Natal per PHANTOM (July 1858); the original handwritten list from the Port Captain's register appears on genealogyworld maritime pages. As often happens, there is another more detailed list, giving full names rather than just initials and "+ six children" - in the registers of the Immigration Board. (Part of European Immigration records at PMB Archives.)

5 Remember, remember the 5th of November, Gunpowder Treason and Plot - recently watched brilliant BBCTV series of this title, starring (of all people) that chap who was in "The Full Monty" (Robert Carlisle, I think?) - here in the role of the King and very convincing he is, too. (Nowadays the Guy Fawkes celebration seems of little relevance - merely an excuse for cruelty to animals, of which I have heard some shocking stories this year.)

6 Question from Anthony CAMP re the uniform worn by white NCOs of the Natal Native Contingent during the Anglo-Zulu War - having difficulty finding an accurate pictorial representation, or even a full description in any of the relevant texts.
Nothing found at Killie Campbell Library (more correctly the Campbell Collections). It is possible to see a selection of their photographs online and to order a jpeg sent by e-mail or on CD or a hard copy print.

7 Tracing forward to living relatives has its pitfalls. Current example, BULL family, original settlers to Natal being George and Rebecca. Someone mentioned that one of the BULL descendants, Cyril GREEN, may have been a "well-known" SA comedian; if anyone has heard of him, Mole would be appreciative.

8 Useful items of family history interest are often presented on UK BBC Radio - e.g. Radio 4 this month running a series "What Did Your Ancestors Do for a Living?", featuring numerous voices from the British genealogical community discussing ancestors' trades and occupations e.g. cutlery, pottery, button and gunmaking, heavy industries including mills, ship building and mines, also artisans, domestic service, army, crooks, farming, the workhouse, dockworkers, cigarette and chocolate makers.

9 It never ceases to amaze me that on hearing a surname, one then suddenly comes across an instance of it - like meeting people in the street when you've just been thinking about them. In this case FOXON was the surname: on the day the enquiry came in I found a group photo of Natal Carbineers with FOXON the younger included.

10 Delia Robertson mentions she is compiling a Churches timeline - good idea.

11 PMB Archives: busy in the CSO (Colonial Secretary's Office) marriage declarations- always worth checking the card index for surnames of interest; these are special licences for civil marriages. From the index, one can go to the relevant volume and page number for the original document; sometimes revealing notes are attached, such as a father's signed consent to the marriage of a minor daughter.

12 At Natal Society Library in the 1840s and 50s newspapers. Their condition far superior to those of later decades - paper quality decreased as time went on, less rag being used in the making. The 1870s editions are extremely fragile. This entire collection should be preserved as full page photographs - microfilm is out (see the fungus-ridden films of the Mercury, Witness etc at Don Africana Library), and CDs don't last forever (many of mine have turned into useless frisbees). So what does last? DVD may be the way to go. Imagine the cost - and time - involved. But soon these original copies will be inaccessible. It's naturally far easier to search for an item on the actual printed pages than going through any film column by column. I recall journalist and colourful character Molly Reinhardt in the 1970s being given special dispensation to use the original Natal Mercurys preserved at the then Local History Museum, Durban, for material for her book on the history of the July Handicap. She'd given up on the microfilms.

Request received for description of typical costume worn by colonials during the late 1890s in Natal -from an author in Michigan who needs background for the novel she is writing based on her missionary family history.

13 Remembrance Day comes round again - Becky Horne sends me "In Flanders Fields" by WWI poet John McCrae, a timely reminder of the appalling waste of lives in that conflict (or any other war, for that matter):
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

I hadn't previously been aware that McCrae (a doctor) had seen service in the Anglo-Boer War. What with that and WWI (seventeen days of hell in the Ypres salient) he must have had some grim stories to tell. During extended local newspaper reading in the 1914-1918 period this year, it became evident to me that there can have been scarcely a family in South Africa who remained unaffected by loss. The weekly Roll of Honour which appeared in the Natal Mercury is testament to that. There are, scattered through most editions, very detailed obituaries of some of the SA fallen; it would be a worthwhile future project to collate these.

14 Continuing work on my great grandfather Finlay GIBSON - acquired a UK Death Certificate which should fit the date but certain details make me suspect it can't be the correct individual - back to the drawing board.

15 The wreck of the MINERVA being a current topic on genealogyworld, I note that in 1852, the first ship built at Port Natal under the British flag was the 28 ton schooner LEONTINE MARY - constructed from the wreckage of the Minerva which in 1850 came to grief at the foot of the Bluff. 1852 was also the year that the first steamship crossed the bar and entered the harbour (16 August at 4 p.m.) - the SIR ROBERT PEEL was a 265 schooner-rigged screw steamer, which carried 20 passengers.

17 An entire morning at the Master's Office PMB looking at part of their Deeds and Wills collection. Some of these, filed according to year of probate, are quite early, back to 1852. It's worth remembering that if a deceased estate file isn't found (or even if it is!) check this M.O. collection. e.g. noted will 1863 of Thomas PHIPSON, whose "Emigrant's Letter Home" is to appear on genealogyworld. Other selected surnames: CLARK COWEY HENWOOD MACLEAN STOCKILL WARD WOOD GILLESPIE RATSEY HOLMES PHELPS GIBSON SHUTER BOTHA SWART HOBSON ELSTON WILLIAMS LEUCHARS and many more. Although one might expect that material from the 1850s, 60s & 70s would be located at PMB Archives, there is in fact no legal or other obligation for the Master of Supreme Court to hand over any documents to Archives.

19 Back from PMB to further computer problems. Unbelievable. Some sort of cosmic plot this year.

20 Re-reading Hugh Thomas's magnificent tome, The Slave Trade, and again struck by this paragraph,
p 11:
"The slave trade was, of course, an iniquity. All the same, every historian must recall Hugh Trevor-Roper's warning: 'every age has its own social context, its own climate, and takes it for granted ...To neglect it - to use terms like rational, superstitious, progressive, reactionary, as if only that was rational which obeyed our rules of reason, only that progressive which pointed to us - is worse than wrong: it is vulgar."

When thinking or writing about ancestors it's vital to see them against the backdrop of the social mores of the time in which they lived. Genealogy and history go hand in hand.

22 Books on my Christmas shopping list:

"The Sunburnt Queen" by Hazel Crampton (Jacana Media Johannesburg). Castaways and shipwrecks on the Eastern Cape Coast, inspired by the story of Bessie, a 7 year old girl washed up the Wild Coast in the 1730s and adopted by the amaPondo. The book traces the lives of her descendants and some of the other castaways whose names are known. Other topics touched on - Portuguese, Dutch, British, Boers, Khoi, San, Zulu, amaXhosa, and Malay and Indian slaves.
ISBN 1 919931 92 9

"Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879" by Saul David (Viking 2004)
ISBN 0 670 91474 6

"Dear Louisa" by Dr Ruth Gordon has deservedly gone into its 3rd reprint edition - Ellen McLeod's letters to her sister in England from the Byrne valley, "a record of hardship, endurance and fidelity".
ISBN 0 620 25285 5

The works of Deneys Reitz are now published as a trilogy under the title "Adrift on the open Veld - the Anglo-Boer War and it Aftermath 1899-1943" (Stormberg)
ISBN 0 620 24380 5

23 Baroque music this morning. Take my mind off the computer, which is still in hospital. I may join it soon.

25 My younger son turns 24 today. Doesn't seem possible.

26 Return of the prodigal, i.e. my pc. No fatted calf was killed.

27 Catching up on the backlog of e-mails and finally able to download the latest batch of results garnered in PMB last week.
Departure of son for Pretoria on his mission to obtain an overseas visa. Holding thumbs.

28 BBC World News item mentions the growing problem for single SA women who might be married without their knowledge! If an ID document is lost or stolen, check when you get the replacement to make sure you haven't been married in the interim to someone, probably a foreigner, of whom you've never heard. Corrupt officials are bribed by people wishing to obtain permanent residence by marrying a South African national. There were a thousand such cases of false marriages uncovered up to August this year. Preposterous is the only word that comes to mind.

30 Delightful English Parish Register entries (quoted by John Titford in Family Tree Magazine):
"Thomas, a son of Thomas MESSENGER and Elizabeth his wife, was born and baptised October 24 1731 by the midwife at the font, called a boy, and named by the godfather, Thomas, but proved a girl."

Some confusion here, but none whatsoever in the following:
"Jonas, a bastard son of that ancient harlot, Elizabeth DUCKETT, of Poplar, baptised ... 1589."

Mole is taking a break during December, back again in the New Year. Best Wishes to all.

Mole