Extracts Transcribed from CO53/5 at the National Archives, Kew, London by Sue Mackay from original hard copies of the South African Commercial Advertiser lodged at the National Archives in Kew, London. CO reference numbers refer to the UK National Archives.

Transcribed from CO53/6 at the National Archives, Kew, London by Sue Mackay

These transcriptions were transcribed from original hard copies of the South African Commercial Advertiser lodged at the National Archives in Kew, London. CO reference numbers refer to the UK National Archives. Digital photographs were taken of various extracts and the transcriptions done later at home. The transcriber cannot guarantee that all notable events were included but did her best to ensure that all birth, marriage and death notices, as well as other snippets thought to be of interest, were captured from each issue. Original spelling has been maintained, but obvious misprints have had a [sic] added and the correct version inserted if known.

Transcribed from CO53/6 at the National Archives, Kew, London by Sue Mackay

These transcriptions were transcribed from original hard copies of the South African Commercial Advertiser lodged at the National Archives in Kew, London. CO reference numbers refer to the UK National Archives. Digital photographs were taken of various extracts and the transcriptions done later at home. The transcriber cannot guarantee that all notable events were included but did her best to ensure that all birth, marriage and death notices, as well as other snippets thought to be of interest, were captured from each issue. Original spelling has been maintained, but obvious misprints have had a [sic] added and the correct version inserted if known.

VENABLE, Henry Isaac. American missionary born in Shelby county (Kentucky) on 20th  June 1811 and died in Paris (Illinois) on 22nd May 1878. With his wife, Martha, he was among the first group of six couples sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to South Africa in 1834, sailing from Boston on the brig Burlington on 3rd December and arriving at the Cape on 6th February. 1835. With Daniel Lindley and Alexander Wilson and their wives, the Venables first established a station in Mzilikazi’s territory at Mosega, near modern Zeerust. They were there for only a few months before virtually all of them became seriously ill and Wilson’s wife died. When the Voortrekkers broke Mzilikazi’s power at Mosega, the missionaries returned with the Boer commando and eventually rejoined the other missionaries near Durban. In Sept. 1837 Venable and George Champion established a second station at Dingaan’s military kraal Hlangezwe. Here they worked for only five months before the murder of Piet Retief and his men drove them away. They were forced to leave Natal with the other missionaries and wait in Cape Town for the end of hostilities. In Jan. 1839 the Venables returned to America. Venable is remembered chiefly because, with the Owen family, he was one of the few people to view the scene of the massacre, only a day after it had occurred. He and Champion gave vivid descriptions of what they had witnessed. Written by R. W. SALES . Acknowledgement: Standard Encyclopedia of South Africa. Nasou Via Afrika

The so-called `Hottenot Venus’, a Bushwoman of mixed stock named Saartjie Baartman, was born on the banks of the Gamtoos River about 1787. In 1810, while living in a shack on the Cape Flats, she was seen by a ship’s surgeon named Alexander Dunlop and persuaded to accompany him to England by promises of great rewards and repatriation after two years. From Sept. 1810 she was exhibited in London at 225 Piccadilly and aroused great interest. It was, however, suggested that she was being kept in durance by her exhibitor, Hendrik Cerar, who, together with Alexander Dunlop, was summoned before the Court of Chancery to reply to the allegations.

The Court was satisfied that there was no foundation in the charges, and the exhibiting of Saartjie continued. At the entrance to the Piccadilly building where she was exhibited were a couple of cartoons of her, the better-known of which was drawn by Frederick Christian Lewis. On 7 Dec. 1811 Saartjie was baptised in Manchester by Joshua Brookes, and this fact is all that is definitely known of her until she was taken to Paris in Sept. 1814 and exhibited there, the exhibitor being a showman named Reaux. Not only were the Parisians intensely interested in Saartjie’s strange figure, but the great scientists, Georges Cuvier and Geoffrey Saint Hilaire, took the opportunity to study her anatomy and to describe it in detail. At her death in Paris on 29 Dec. 1815 Cuvier obtained her body and, after making casts of it, dissected it, preserving the skeleton and other parts. The casts and skeleton are today exhibited in the Musee de l’Homme, Paris. Both in England and in France political cartoons were issued in which Saartjie figured prominently; and in Paris in 1814 a one-act vaudeville was actually produced with the title `La Venus Hottentote, ou Haine aux Francaises’.  by Percival Kirby

Baartman Betekenis

Dié van was oorspronklik Baatemann, afgelei van die ou mansnaam Bate.
Stamvaders: (1) Maarten (Martin) Baartman, oorspronklik Baatemann, van Braak in Oldenburg (Duitsland). Sy moeder was Anna Margaretha Mollenhauer. Hy het in 1752 as matroos hier aangekom, word burger in 1756 en was later eienaar van ‘n kroeg; oorl. 23.5.1787. Trou 25.6.1758 met Catharina Elisabeth Jansen (9 kinders). (2) Jan Frederik (Friedrich) Baartman(n), van Hannover (Duitsland). Trou 29.3.1801 met Huybregtje Koegelenberg (6 kinders). (3) Johannes Arnoldus Baartman, van Amsterdam (Nederland). Trou Mei 1821 in Kaapstad met Judith Aletta Wolff, van Kaapstad.

This video traces our migration out of Africa and explains, through DNA evidence, how humans colonized the world. It is part of the Made Easy series of videos that show the evidence of our origins, from the Big Bang onwards.

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TRACING your ancestors or creating a family tree is a relatively simple matter when one lives in a society where key moments in the life of an individual, such as birth, marriage and death, are written down and recorded as a matter of course. But how do you go about constructing a family tree in a society where, especially in times past, written records were not kept.

Ndela Ntshangase

In societies, such as that of the Zulu, with an oral tradition, the significant events in a life are also recorded but in different form.

For a Zulu wishing to create a family tree the first port of call is izithakazelo — the clan praise. “For the Zulu people this is a source that can tell them who they are, where they come from, and what are the major incidents — positive and negative — that occurred to them as a tribe or a nation,” says Ndela Ntshangase, lecturer at the School of Zulu Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg.

Ntshangase points out that the Zulu people are made up of different tribes and clans. “Izithakazelo provide an abbreviated history of the clan,” he says. “For example, the Mkhize izithakazelo will mention the leaders and their great, great forefathers. And they will name them, such as Gcwabe being the forefather of Khabezela. Khaba Mkhize, the well-known journalist, takes his first name from this forefather.”

Another Mkhize ancestor detailed in the izithakazelo is Zihlandlo. “He was a hero during the days of King Shaka,” says Ntshangase. “He was a soldier and we know that he was physically very fit, very brave, and that he killed many enemy soldiers. So we know not only his name, but we also know incidents connected with him.”

Izithakazelo also reveal places associated with a particular clan. “For example, Wena wasembo — tells us that such-and-such lived or lives at the place of Embo. So izithakazelo are able to give us details of forefathers, of names and of places.”

Every Zulu family has its own izithakazelo and these are passed on whenever there is a ceremony marking a significant event in the life of that family. “When welcoming a newborn baby in an imbeleko ceremony, someone will do izithakazelo, usually an elderly person, umkhulu (grandfather) or ubaba (the father), and ugogo (the grandmother) will do this only if there is no elderly male person in the family. It’s not taught formally but passed on by being repeated in rituals and ceremonies.”

Izithakazelo will differ slightly according to the branches of a particular clan or family. “The izithakazelo of the Dlaminis will be similar. They all come from Dlamini but they have settled in different places. So the branch histories will be different.”

With the rise of literacy and with many Zulu people now living in an urban setting there is move from an oral tradition to a written tradition. “This is in full swing,” says Ntshangase. “The Mkhizes have traced themselves back over many generations and they have written books. They trace themselves back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

Ntshangase can recite his forefathers’ names and they take his roots back to the early 19th century. And it’s not just forefathers. “The mothers’ names are also remembered,” he says. “Ma- is added as a prefix, so a mother’s surname does not disappear.”

A woman born to the Khumalo clan will be commonly addressed as MaKhumalo ­after marriage and a woman with the maiden clan name Zondi will be known to all her new in-laws as .

A woman’s history will be told, for example, when a ceremony is performed to mark the moment a bride leaves her family home. “If a Cele marries a Sithole, when leaving the Cele home someone will tell who she is, where she came from. If she was born out of wedlock and she has taken her mother’s name the person reciting the izithakazelo will use her mother’s name, her biological father’s name too will be revealed publicly — this is information that is necessary, so that her children don’t ­marry into that family because they are close relatives.”

“In that ceremony you hear a family tree with all the names plus the praise names — izibongo — these praises let you know what type of person that was. The system is a complex one and still alive. It’s one way of retaining the genealogy of a particular family coupled with an abbreviated history of the clan or family as well.”

Izibongo or Izihasho are the praise ­poems of a particular individual, says ­Ntshangase. “King Goodwill Zwelethini has his bard, his imbongi, who will sing his izibongo that contain details of his special characteristics as an individual. King Shaka had his izibongo that told you what sort of person he was and how he was seen by the Zulu people.”

Ntshangase says that the izibongo sung for Jacob Zuma prior to his inauguration as president provided much information to those who speak and understand Zulu. “It mentioned his recent difficulties, it spoke of his character and there were also things we hadn’t heard before. Some of us learnt these things for the first time because they were in the izibongo performed at the inauguration.”  by Stephen Coan .

With kind permission from Natal Witness

Riaan Cruywagen

In 2009 South Africa went on a voyage of discovery as we tracked the ancestry of some of South Africa’s most influential celebrities. Who Do You Think You Are?

Everyone was captivated as well-known personalities such as Dawn Matthews, Colin Moss, Dion Chang, Patricia Glyn, Vusi Mhalasela and contraversial cartoonist  Jonathan Shapiro (aka Zapiro) went  in search of their family history, bringing them face-to-face with the hidden stories of their ancestors. These celebrities will had a pivotal role in the series; their stories were used as “emblems” of the historical trends that have created modern South Africa and their experiences enthused viewers to think about and start exploring their own family ancestry.

Each episode was presented as a highly personalised film, yet the wider historical themes they reveal situates the audience in the broader South African historical context. South Africa’s most comprehensive ancestral and genealogical service, Ancestry24, assisted producers and researchers of Who Do You Think You Are? Ancestry24′s Channel Manager, Heather MacAlister, spent many hours in the archives and at various other repositories to assist with the research of the individual celebrities.

Join us as we effectively travel back in time to meet the featured celebrities` extended family and those that knew them, and walk where their ancestors lived and worked.

The international series format has triggered a general interest in family history and a return to libraries, museums and domestic travel as people go back to the small towns they or their families came from.

The first episode of this groundbreaking series features actress Dawn Matthews known best for her role in Egoli. Dawn goes back to her roots in Oudsthoorn to find out more about her real past.

There’s only one way to find out. Be sure to tune into SABC2 at 21:00 on Sunday, 16 August for the first episode in the 2nd series of Who Do You Think You Are?

Dawn Matthews
Colin Moss
Dion Chang
Patricia Glyn
Vusi Mahlasela
Zapiro
Riaan Cruywagen
Nthati Moshesh
Meshack Mavuso
Candice Moodley
HHp/Jabulani Tsambo
Kurt Schoonraad

About 200 Afrikaners, the descendants of immigrants who, at the beginning of the 20th century, emigrated to the Argentine from the Northern Cape, are today still resident in the province of Chubut, about 1,000 m. south of Buenos Aires. Almost all of them are engaged in sheep-farming on the Pampas to the northwest of the port of Comodoro Rivadavia. The causes of their emigration were of an economic nature. Most of them had very little capital, but they did have a thorough knowledge of sheep and wool. At the start every settler was given 625 hectares of land free by the Argentine government and was required to purchase a further 1,875 hectares of government land at a purchase price of one peso per hectare. This gave him an economic holding of nearly 3,000 morgen. The purchase price was spread over a term of 5 years, and the purchaser was required to give proof of occupation by erecting at least one room, planting 200 trees and bringing 10 hectares under cultivation; he had to be in possession of 400 sheep or goats or 80 head of cattle; and he had to take an oath of allegiance to the Argentine government. Few of these settlers acquired full ownership on the conditions imposed, because not long after the arrival of the first immigrants the free grants of land were discontinued and the purchase price was later raised to 4 pesos a hectare. Eventually government land could only be leased. This led to dissatisfaction among many of them, since they were unable to obtain title-deeds; but in practice it made no difference to their right of occupation.

It was a bleak, uninhabited region of sparse grazing, severe winters and fierce blizzards. Roads and bridges did not exist. Nor were there harbour facilities at Comodoro Rivadavia. The settlers were therefore virtually isolated from the outside world. The only communication with Buenos Aires and the settled North was by ship. At the start they had to do without a church, and there was no school. A few non-white servants had accompanied their masters to the foreign land, but the farmers themselves had to perform almost all the labour. Although the settlers in general failed to reach a high level of material prosperity, they nevertheless managed to make a fair living. Their heaviest setback came in 1925 when an exceptionally heavy snowfall resulted in great loss of sheep, obliging many of the settlers to make a fresh start. Gradually they tamed this inhospitable region. Better dwellings were put up, more land was brought under cultivation, and one farm after another was fenced. The expense of all this, the collection by the Government of long-overdue rents and the low wool prices of 1926 and 1927 brought many of them to the verge of ruin and gave strong impulse to a repatriation movement. In 1934 there were still 900 Afrikaners in the Argentine, 80% of them in the Chubut region.

A unique problem which confronted them was the maintenance of church connections and juvenile education. They had hoped to preserve intact their national identity, their language and their religion amidst a foreign race and a foreign faith, and they were loath to assimilate with the Argentinians. At first the parents assumed the task of educating their own children as far as they could. In 1907 the Government instituted a school on the farm of C. J. N. Visser, with a unilingual Spanish-speaking teacher in charge. This school was later closed down when numbers of the farmers trekked into the interior. Some of the children were sent to the Government school at Comodoro Rivadavia, where hostel facilities were available; but no instruction was to be had in Afrikaans, nor was religious instruction given in the Government schools. Parents who lived close to the private English school conducted by Miss Cave sometimes sent their children there. A few attended Roman Catholic schools, and parents who could afford it sent their children to Buenos Aires for further instruction. Private schools were maintained at the cost of great personal sacrifice. In 1934 more than 500 children were living with their parents, and their prospects were poor. Unless they received an education they were condemned to a menial existence as herdsmen, shearers or servants. Almost 200 of them were of school-going age. Some few attended Government or Roman Catholic schools; the rest were taught the rudiments at home, sufficient to be able to read the Bible and to learn the catechism. An attempt in 1934 to persuade the Government to set up a Spanish school and a hostel with a Protestant housemaster and matron met with no success. An appeal directed to the South African government the same year also failed.

With great difficulty and at considerable expense a few private schools were maintained on a few farms. The teachers were C. Verwey, T. van der Walt and one Melville, who gave private tuition and thereby managed to maintain primary education until 1925. From 1928 to 1930 the wife of the Rev. J. J. Wasserfall conducted a preparatory school at Comodoro with Afrikaans as the medium of instruction. The management of this school was taken over by Miss Johanna Visser from Oct. 1929 until May 1933. The Poor Relief Commission of the Cape N.G. Kerk played an important part in supporting Christian National Education among its adherents in the Argentine. The Rev. A. D. Luckhoff; delegated by the Cape N.G. Kerk in 1925 to visit the Argentine, concerned himself in particular with the educational aspect. Upon his return to South Africa the Poor Relief Commission sent out Nico Loubser and T. C. de Villiers of the Paarl Training College, but their attempt at founding schools failed through lack of support. The Rev. D. P. van Huyssteen of the Cape N.G. Kerk observed a great measure of illiteracy among the younger generation and felt the adoption of Spanish culture to be inevitable.

In church matters likewise great difficulty was experienced. The Rev. L. P. Vorster was deputed by the Gereformeerde Kerk of the Cape to accompany the second trek to South America – that of C. J. N. Visser of Maclear, C.P. – after a small trek under Lewis Baumann of Bloemfontein had preceded it in 1902. The Visser trek consisted of 102 persons who, on 13 Sept. 1903, met as a congregation under the Rev. Mr. Vorster on board the ship in which they left for South America, and elected their elders and deacons. Most of them were members of the N.G. Kerk, the rest belonged to the Geref. Kerk. When Vorster returned to South Africa, these people were without a spiritual leader. The third trek, which left in 1905 under M. M. Venter, a former member of the Cape Legislative Assembly, upset the ratio between the members of these two churches to quite a considerable degree, since most of the new arrivals were of the Gereformeerde persuasion, and their church was unable to afford its members in South America financial support.

In 1906 the Commission for Indigent Congregations of the N.G. Kerk in the Cape sent the Rev. A. J. Jacobs to the Argentine to make a fresh start at organising the church there. He inaugurated the ‘Gemeente Colonia Boera’ in Chubut, which members of both churches joined, although it was really a congregation of the Cape N.G. Kerk. Jacobs met with many disappointments. He returned to South Africa in 1911, and the Gereformeerde section thereupon tried to maintain their  own church. Both these groups kept their church activities alive through office-bearers of their respective churches in spite of having no parson.

The emigrants also directed an appeal to the Netherlands Gereformeerde Kerk in Buenos Aires. The clergyman of the small congregation there was the Rev. A. C. Sonneveldt who, at the instance of the two Afrikaans congregations, also visited the Afrikaners and attended to their separate needs. He visited them for the first time in 1913, and the following year received a pastoral call from the church councils of both congregations. Thereafter he performed this function with great devotion twice a year from Buenos Aires. The close co-operation between these two congregations continued until 1925, when the N.G. Kerk members directed a call to the Cape Church for further ministration. This resulted in a visit by the Rev. A. D. Luckhoff in the same year. In 1927 the Rev. J. A. Hurter went there, and from 1928 until 1931 the Rev. J. J. Wasserfall served the congregation. He was in turn followed by the Rev. H. J. Pick and the Rev. J. S. Klopper. During all these years the Gereformeerde congregation was still constantly being ministered to by the Rev. Sonneveldt. In 1936 the Geref. Kerk of the Cape Province sent the Rev. D. Postma to the Argentine and he remained there until early in 1937.

Even before then there had been serious talk of repatriation among the emigrants. In 1929, having heard of the successful repatriation of Afrikaners from Angola with Government aid, they made representations to the Union government to extend its aid to them. Most of them could still make a reasonable living, but they were in general not disposed to assimilate with the indigenous population, which was mainly Latin and which, in the vicinity of Comodoro where oil had been struck, was decidedly cosmopolitan. The Afrikaners were indisputably citizens of the Argentine, but they were intent on maintaining their language and religion. The Cape N.G. Kerk came out strongly for repatriation, and in 193 8 the Union government extended a helping hand. South African citizenship was restored to repatriates and both the State and the Church co-operated in meeting the travelling expenses and in providing work. In the course of 1938 two-thirds of them arrived back in South Africa. Some of them were taken up by relatives and most of the others were placed in employment. Only a few individuals had sufficient capital to venture independent farming afresh. The entire repatriation scheme was carried through with the co-operation of the Argentine government. Those who declined the offer to return, rather fewer than 200, were mainly younger people who had already adopted the country as their own. Their spiritual needs were looked after by the Rev. Sonneveldt. One further effort was made by the Geref. Kerk of South Africa after the Second World War to keep these people within the fold of the church. In 1951 the Rev. J. M. Opperman accepted a call from the Gereformeerde congregation at Chubut, and he remained there until 1953. Thereafter this congregation allied itself with other Gereformeerde elements in South America and chose one of its own young men to be trained for the ministry.

BIBL.:  Domine (Rev. A. J. Jacobs): Reisavonture op land en see (1920); Rev. D. P. van Huyssteen: ‘n Besoek aan die Boere in Argentinie (1932); P. H. Henning: ‘n Boer in Argentinie  Source + Permission: Nasou Via Afrika / Naspers

Sample of a headstone that has lost some of it's information. Photo from Protea Cemetery in Newlands

Would you like to volunteer to become part of our “Friends of the Crypt” ? and help transcribe the tens of thousands of headstones in our Cemeteries that are not only being desecrated but also fading before our eyes. These headstones contain vital information in finding those missing relatives and many of the registers of these cemeteries are in appalling condition and are beyond repair.

We are also looking for volunteers to help photograph cemeteries in their area, no matter how small or insignificant you think it might – every image is important. One day these cemeteries will be dug up and gone forever and the records lost completely.

By helping photograph and transcribe this headstones will help preserve our heritage and our history. If you want to find out more or volunteer to help  email us at [email protected]