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We are pleased to announce the arrival of over 700 marriage records from St. Peters Anglican Church in Mossel Bay. Surnames included are:

Cuff, Cupido, Damons, Frans, Gelderblom, Hendricks, James, Jantjes, Karelse, King, Matfield, Meyer, Michael, Muller, October, Pieterze, Plaatjes, Riley, Sheard, Swart, Tobias, Van Brissies, Wiggett.

The Minister in charge in this Parish for many of these the years The Revd Thomas Sheard was born in London, in 1824 and was the son of Francis Sheard and his wife, Sarah Wilson Sheard. He married Mary Sarah[maiden surname unknown]who died in 1864.

The Revd. Sheard was ordained as a Deacon in St. George’s Cathedral, Cape Town on 24 December 1854, and Priest in St. Saviour’s Church, Claremont on 7 June 1857, by the Metropolitan Bishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Robert Gray. He was also a Schoolmaster at Rondebosch in the  Cape Colony.

In 1857 he became the Rector in Mossel Bay. Thomas died at “The Parsonage” in Mossel Bay, on 19 November 1871, aged 47 years.

“Usually very gentle and rather reserved, his vehement indignation was roused by anything that he considered a dishonour or slight cast on his Master. … But it was by quiet, patient work and a consistent life that he won the respect and affection of his parishioners.”

“Care, time, good common sense, which he possessed in an uncommon degree, were all devoted to those over whom God had placed him. Owing to the gradual growth of the malady which at last brought him to death, his public ministrations were for many months carried on in ‘weariness and painfulness;’ but neither pain nor weariness could keep him from his work, as long as he could stand or speak …”

His son Robert Sheard who was born in Mossel Bay on 11 November 1849 was also an ordained Minister.

Source + Acknowledgements

(The Church News). [Bishopscourt Archives, Letters of Orders, 1848-1985; Licences to Clergy, 1848-1963, p. 2. The Cape Argus, 17 October 1871, p. 3, col. 5; 28 November 1871, p. 2, col. 5. Death Notice, Cape Archives MOOC 6/9/137, number 7686. The Church News, no. 52 (1 January 1872), p. 6. CF Pascoe, Two Hundred Years of the S.P.G. (1901), p. 893. T Gutsche, The Bishop's Lady (1970), p. 147. RR Langham-Carter, "The Early British Families of Worcester", in Familia, XXIX (1992), no. 1, p. 7.]
Messengers, Watchmen and Stewards by Andries William De Villiers.

Vincent VAN GOGH, famous Dutch painter, had a younger brother, Cornelis Vincent (aka Cor), who fought in the Anglo-Boer War on the Boer side. Cornelis arrived in the Transvaal in 1890. He worked for the Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatskappij at the Cornucopia Mine in Elandsfontein near Germiston, where he helped build trains. He is said to have also helped build the railway track to Lourenço Marques. When war broke out, he took leave and joined the
Hollanderkorps, a commando unit under Cmdt. J.S.F. BLIGNAUT’s command.

Not much is known about his whereabouts during the war. He may have joined as an ambulance driver. He was taken risoner by the British in March 1900 near Kroonstad, fell ill and put in a makeshift hospital in Brandfort where he died on 14 April 1900. He was buried in an unmarked
grave in the Brandfort churchyard.

The cause of death is a mystery – some people believe that he committed suicide, like his brothers
Vincent and Theodorus, as there was one bullet wound. The official report stated it was an accidental shooting. Others believe he died of malaria or tuberculosis. In the Dutch Reformed Church in Pretoria, Cornelius’s name (C.V. van Gogh) is on the memorial plaque which
commemorates the Dutch who died in the war.

Cornelis was born 17 May 1867 in Zundert, North Brabant, to Theodorus VAN GOGH and Anna Cornelia CARBENTUS. He married Anna Catharina FUCHS in February 1898 but the marriage did not last long.

Sources:
Discover Pretoria, by Henie Heydenrych & Abrie Swiegers, J.B. van Schaik, Pretoria, 1999
Nederlanders in Transvaal 1850-1950, by Jan Ploeger, J. L. van Schaik, Pretoria, 1994
Cornelis Vincent van Gogh in Transvaal, by Dr. Jan Ploeger, Lantern journal, Dec 1981
Newspaper article: De Volksstem 26 Sept 1906

Written by and with kind permission Anne Lehmkuhl

Over 3300 records from 1892 – 2004

Common surnames that appear in this register are Arendse, Bennett, Carelse, Collins, Daniels, Davids, Erasmus, Fisher, Fortuin, Fredericks, Hendricks, Isaacs, Jacobs, Jones, Lawrence, Manuel, Petersen, Ross, Samuels, Smith, Solomons, Thomas, Titus and Williams.

The Parish of St. Philips was built by the Cowley Monks who came from a village near Oxford in England. This order was founded by Fr. Richard Meux Cowley in 1866, and where Viscount Nuffield first made his Morris Cowley and Morris Oxford cars.

The parish community was a very mixed one but St. Philips was a church of the people and a church of the poor and the mortality rate was high.

It is interesting to note the number of “sick houses” that were in District Six where many people opened up their homes to the dying as a large percentage were not admitted local hospitals and the social infrustucture did not cater for the poor.

Slave woman Lydia Williams was one of the founding members of the church and helped the Cowley Fathers with their work. Information on Lydia can be found in the Cape Town Archives in the documents of the Cowley Evangelists.

Harold Cressy’s wife Caroline had her burial service performed by the Rev. Smart in this parish. She was buried on the 15 October 1918 after she had died in the great flu epidemic.

Laughing at Kurt’s Family. In June 2009 we joined Kurt Schoonraad on a journey into his past on  SABC 2. This extraordinary passage with Kurt will revealed some amazing stories in the comedian’s life that might or might not have be a laughing matter…   We found out what military background his  ancestors had and questioned “Did the family really come from the Island of St. Helena?”  And what part of his family is of German descent?

During an interview with Kurt he said: “it’s like the Cape Flats on some other part of the planet, apparently the whole culture mix happened there already”; On whether he is really African or not, Kurt says “I think it’s a question that’s becoming obsolete at the moment” adding “I’d like to believe I’m a citizen of the world”.

Kurt was born in District Six, Cape Town and moved to Mitchell’s Plain when South Africa’s apartheid government forcibly removed families from the District Six area. Kurt started school at Zonnebloem Primary in District Six, transferred to Duneside Primary in Mitchell’s Plain and fell in love with the stage at age 10 when he joined the Creative School of Speech And Drama. His love of acting and entertaining continued in High School where he was inspired by his teacher Mr. Keston at Rockland’s Senior Secondary. In 1999 one of his friends suggested he try out for the Smirnoff Comedy Festival’s New Faces search, he took their advice and was accepted to perform as part of the festival’s stand-up comedy line-up. Without any regrets Kurt is today one of South Africa’s most successful stand-up comedians.

Bartholomew Dias

Over 1500 burials have been transcribed from these parish registers. The majority of the deceased persons were listed as living in Mossel Bay and the were given as “Aliwal”.

Surnames included are Arendse, Bayman, Cameron, Cunningham, Damons, Domingo, February, Frans, Hendriks, Isaacs, Jantjes, January, Karelse, Losper, Lukas, Maart, Malgas, Maori, Marais, Mathews, McBean, Meyer, Michaels, Muller, Olkers, Pamplin, Pickering, Pieterze, Roman, Roode, Smith, Tobias, Waites, Welkom, Wiggett and Williams just to mention a few.

Mossel Bay was one of the earliest towns visited in Southern African when Bartholomew Dias rounded the Cape in 1487 in an attempt to find the sea route to the East. The town was orignally called Golfo dos Vaquerios meaning “bay of herdsmen) in Portuguese.

On 8 July 1601 another Dutch navigator, Paulus van Caerden, named the bay Mossel Bay, as, according to tradition, he could only find a bed of mussels with which to replenish his ship’s provisions. The present town was founded in 1848 and was named Aliwal in honour of the victory of Sir Harry Smith, Governor of the Cape Colony (1847-51), over the Sikhs at Aliwal in India on 28 Jan. 1846. This official name never became popular and, to avoid confusion with Aliwal North, the old name of Mossel Bay was restored.

This brand new database of Voters in the town of Potgieterus not only highlights remnants of the old Voortekker families but also displays an amazing number of English families such as Acutt, Braithwaite, Cawood, Clayton and many others in this once very dominant Afrikaans town. This amazing collection also provides maiden names of women voters too.

After the Voortrekker leaders Hendrik Potgieter and Andries Pretorius had become reconciled in 1852, the former established a town at Makapan’s Poort, between the Waterberg and the Strydpoort Mountains, which he named Vredenburg (`town of peace’) to commemorate the reconciliation. On 25 Sept. 1858 the Volksraad renamed the town Pietpotgietersrust after Pieter Johannes, the son of Hendrik Potgieter, killed at the entrance of Makapan’s Cave during the punitive expedition against Chief Makapan. Because of fever and trouble with the Bantu, the town was abandoned and deserted for twenty years, but after 1890 it was re-established. Subsequently the town, which was known as P.P.Rust for short, abbreviated its name to Potgietersrust, which was modernised to Potgietersrus in 1939. A village council was constituted in 1904, and in 1935 it became a municipality.

In September 1854 Willem Prinsloo’s party, consisting of 18 men, women and children, were massacred at Moorddrift (16 km south of Potgietersrus on the national road) by followers of the chiefs Makapan and Mapela. In 1937 the spot was marked by a small monument. Apart from Makapan’s Cave, which has been proclaimed a historical monument, the valley in which the caves are situated is of so much archaeological and palaeontological interest that part of it has been proclaimed a natural and scientific monument. A group of ana-trees (Acacia albida) in the Vaaltyn Makapan Location, 16 km from Potgietersrus, was proclaimed a natural monument in 1949. According to tradition, Livingstone camped in the shade of these trees, which are some 20 metres in height, and the Voortrekkers held meetings under them.

Acknowledgement: Standard Encylopedia of South Africa

Submit genealogy-related photos and get a free 12-month subscription to Ancestry24 plus 3 CD books of your choice. Create at least one album between now and 12 March  and populate it with photographs. There is also a free 6-month subscription or CD of your choice for person who adds the second most.

Did you know that you can now have your very own photo albums Ancestry24?

Our new photo albums have been created just for our users and is a fantastic way of sharing photo’s with family and friends as well as connecting with other people who have the same names in their family tree. You can begin right away by registering as new album owner in the Ancestry24 Gallery .

When you begin please label your album appropriately. Remember that you can have as many sub albums as you like so think carefully about what you are going to put in each album e.g. photos, death notices, documents, letters etc. You can always add more later or move your albums around as well as edit the items (photos) too. Moving photos from one album to another is another great bonus just in case you make a mistake.

Please make sure that each image is labeled correctly and that there is a description for each photo. This makes search function work and enables others to share and find your precious memories.

It is important that your images are genealogically related, free from any copyright, are in the public domain,  do not belong  to anyone else and that you have re-sized them. Last but not least – no empty albums allowed.

Go straight to the gallery now and start adding now

Competition Rules: One entry person person, each image it to be labeled and has a description, images must be genealogical related, free from copyright and in the public domain or is your own work of art and they must be re-sized preferably under 200kb each. The judges decision is final. The winner will be notified by email and announced in our March newsletter.

The Maps of Africa to 1900 digital collection contains images of maps listed in the bibliography Maps of Africa to 1900: A Checklist of Maps in Atlases and Geographical Journals in the Collections of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Bassett & Scheven, Urbana: Graduate School of Library and Information Science, 2000). As such, this collection mines not only the Library’s map collections, but also its extensive collection of 19th century atlases and geographical journals, including the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (United Kingdom), the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de Paris (France), and Petermanns Geographische Mittheilungen (Germany).

Bassett’s and Scheven’s original bibliography lists 2,416 maps of which nearly 78 percent date from the 19th century. Africanists and historians of cartography are drawn to this century because the map of the continent changed so rapidly in the wake of European explorations, conquests, and colonization (Bassett & Scheven, p. iii). About a quarter of the collection dates from the sixteenth century, 9 percent from the seventeenth, and 13 percent from the eighteenth century.

The Library is digitizing as many of the maps as possible, condition permitting. Maps are added to the collection as they are completed.

The African Film Library is an M-Net initiative showcasing the best of the African film industry – making the movies easily accessible for movie aficionados around the world.

The African film industry is one of the oldest – with its roots in Ain el Ghezel (The Girl of Carthage), which was produced in Tunisia by Chemama Chikly in 1924. M-Net has spent the last three years negotiating the rights to almost 600 works in English, French, Arabic and Portuguese and digitally remastering them.

The library forms an important archive of the continent’s cultural cinematic heritage, and also, for the first time, makes the African artists’ works easily accessible by a wide viewership around the globe – creating a new audience for existing and emerging filmmakers.

The library consists of award-winning works from more than 80 producers including Senegalese Ousmane Sembene and Djibril Mambety, Yousef Chahine from Egypt and Haile Gerima from Ethiopia. This is great source for Heritage enthusiasts.

Beyond the boundaries of the normal documents used every day to trace your family history, voters lists and municipal directories  can fill  huge gaps in your research. We have added over 900 Voters in the Bethlehem district to our collections to help you even more.

Many of our ancestors did change their jobs a couple of times and did not always lived in the same house or town as we always have believed. Our families moved and changed jobs as the economics of  the country changed and as as history changed. The Bethlehem voters  list it a great new source for you.

Sometimes our families lived in one province but actually worked in another and traveled thousands of miles away and then came back home again without you even realising it. Many of these people were travelers, coach drivers, farmers and miners where traveling was a popular event as 1899 was the outset of the Anglo Boer war.  Bethlehem fell on the 7th July 1899  when it was taken over by the British.

Did you know that Bethlehem was the headquarters of the Free State Boers and that the famous Moodie Trek left Bethlehem for Melsetter in 1892 ?