DIARY OF A NATAL MOLE
September 2004

1 A spate of messages received on the topic of Gypsies, a recurring thread in the mailing lists which always gets my attention due to a link between the BOSWELL and GADSDEN surnames - and also because Mole is a self-confessed romantic. I heard from a correspondent in Wales whose great grandfather, when living in Hanley Stoke Staffordshire, became friendly with the famous "Gypsy Smith". The latter's autobiography can be found at www.biblebelievers.com/gypsy_smith Ancestors magazine August/September 2003 carried an article "Travellers' Tales: On the Trail of Gypsy ancestors" by John Pateman and giving extensive bibliography plus online sources.

2 Burke's Peerage & Gentry Today September Newsletter extract: "Do we have a Nobility? by Sir Anthony WAGNER, K.C.V.O., Garter King of Arms. Taken from the 1970 Edition of Burke's Peerage & Baronetage:
'About the time of Viscount Linley's birth, I was asked by a continental student of such matters how it was legally possible for the son of a man not of noble birth to be in line of succession to the throne. I replied that, while a full answer would have to be a long one, the root of the matter was that nobility, in the sense which the word bears on the continent, not only does not now exist in the English legal system but has not existed since the Norman Conquest.' " There we are then.

3 Microsoft moments with my e-mail programme. Sigh. Bill Gates has a lot to answer for.

News from the Society of Genealogists London that the National Archives plan to make BT 395 database of World War II Medals issued to Merchant Seamen available on DocumentsOnline wwwdocumentsonline.nationalarchives.gov.uk

4 Important GADSDEN rellie in UK reports loss of vital (& expensive) photos and documents sent by snail mail. Failing amphibious runner with forked stick, perhaps a well-trained pigeon the only option. Average length of time by (conventional) airmail now one month. If it arrives at all.

5 Antipodean family history enquirer's e-mail says: "Help, I don't have time for this." So I do?

6 Photo emerges at Killie Campbell Library showing founders of the Simmer & Jack gold mine - A SIMMER and John JACK. Good news for someone in England.

7 A virtually unknown member of the Natal Police turns out to have links with half the aristocracy of Europe, his ancestry dating back to the Merovingian Kings and Henry I, as well as, more recently, an 18th century miniature painter whose work hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Mole thinks: better swot up on the European nobility; who knows when they will emerge in the wilds of SA as Collectors of Dog Tax? [The full story is to appear in due course on Genealogy World.]

8 Robin GRIFFITHS sends his latest offering - an index to names occurring in "The Dynamite Company, the story of African Explosives & Chemical Industries Ltd." by A P Cartwright (Purnell 1964).
[See Robin's pages on this site.]
The ironic connection between Alfred NOBEL, dynamite and the Nobel Peace Prize never ceases to intrigue me. Must find time to write about my Ayrshire HAMILTONs, many of whom worked at what was locally referred to as "the dinnamit" - Nobel's factory near Stevenston. Some of the girls were "carteridge makers" from as young as 12 during the 1880s, under far from ideal conditions.

9 Robert BLATCHFORD, editor of The Family & Local History Handbook (www.genealogical.co.uk), e-mails that he's hectic with preparations for The Great North Fair, which this year has the largest number of exhibitors for any family history fair in the British Isles. The 9th edition of the Handbook will appear early in 2005. I have placed my order.

Birth of my grand-niece, Isabel DIXON-SMITH, at the Queen Charlotte & Chelsea Hospital, Hammersmith UK, to ex-pats Andrew and Leigh (nee PRESTON-WHITE - her mother Eleanor lectured me at Natal University in Social Anthropology; his mother, remarkably also an Eleanor, is my first cousin as well as my sister-in-law). The midwife from Ghana remains apparently unconvinced that this is an African baby.

Elizabeth FEISST of QUALTROUGH fame sends name of researcher on Isle of Man: Carole Carine.

10 At PMB Archives an AGO (Attorney General) file of 1864 which didn't look promising on the index - a matter of the defective condition of a bridge - provided an important clue concerning the writer of the statement: that he had been "resident in the Colony since July 1842."
Motto: leave no stone unturned.

11 The article on James DONALDSON, a Scottish carpenter who drowned in Durban Bay in 1880, appears on Genealogy World Maritime Pages. Good to have the photo of James himself, supplied by Elizabeth GABRIEL.

12 Searching through original newspapers at Natal Society Library PMB find a particularly gruesome account in the Natal Witness 3 January 1896 concerning Dannhauser rail accident, several names mentioned but no all-inclusive list of casualties, and no sign of the MULLINS I was after. Have his DN.

14 Note that Becky HORNE's new Eastern Cape Mailing List going very well and filling a need.

15 Message from someone with chameleon-like propensities, who tells me she started off as WHITE (her maiden name) then became PINK (her first husband's surname) and is now BLACK (her 2nd husband's name)!! The ultimate Rainbow Person?

16 News after a lengthy hiatus from Maureen BRADY, one-time prolific poster to mailing lists, who is very busy with Earthyear magazine (Mail & Guardian). Her mother lives in Vause Road, not a million miles away from The Palace (Mole's residence).

17 Today PMB Archives closes for fumigation. Yesterday no access due to strike action - which is likely to cause further disruption.

19 Carte Blanche offers something on DNA, heredity et al.
New web site from Heather MacAlister online this week.

20 Re-reading article by Anthony CAMP in Family Tree Magazine way back in 1997, his mention of the pedigree of the royal family of Cambodia gives one pause: "Norodom Sihanouk's eldest daughter's fourth husband was the half brother of her third husband and of her father's second wife as well as being the brother of her father's fourth wife and the first husband of her half sister." Wot?

21 Sapper Mason sends his latest article (on The 58th Regiment); now uploaded on Genealogy World Anglo-Zulu War pages.

Delyse distinguishes herself by using a bag of apples to clobber a car thief, thus retaining her vehicle. What was I saying about dynamite?

22 My HP printer is starting to eat envelopes for breakfast.

24 Heritage Day. Archives and libraries closed. Mole showing withdrawal symptoms.
Written to Sherwood Foresters, Nottingham, in pursuit of more information on discharge papers for the 45th Regiment - the longest serving British Regiment in Natal, about 16 years.
www.wfrmuseum.org.uk
Continuing with overview of sources on immigration, to be added to Genealogy World.

28 Arrival in Natal of UK visitor Gail DIXON-SMITH from Ashburton Devon. If she can tear herself away from whale-watching in the Cape ...

Mole