Ancestry24

Did your Ancestors immigrate to South Africa in the past 100 years?

Search our thousands of records of people who applied for citizenship here from Europe, the America’s and Rhodesia. Were they a speculators or skin dressers? And are you proud to have a wattle planter as an ancestor?

Names like Adler, Archer, Baker, Barclay, Bereletowitz, Bloch, Blumberg, Brenner, Chemaly, Dahl, De Lorenzo, De Quintal, Di Pasqualie, Lindgren, Factor, Fine, Forrester, Futeran, Galombik,Gamsu, Gerasimo, Hadjidakis, Hammerschlag,  Haviland, Hirschfield and many more are included.

Write in and tell us about your ancestors who came to South Africa and win a free six month subscription.

On the 15^th September 2010 Ancestry24 in co-operation with the City Parks Cape Town will embark on the mammoth project of photographing every headstone in the Cemetery. As part of their civic duty and preservation of National Heritage these headstones once photographed and tagged will be available to the public for free on the Ancestry24 website’s gallery.

With over 100 000 souls buried in this huge cemetery covers 100 hectares. The first burial took place on 16 January 1886. This graveyard is now nearing its capacity and needs to be retained as a haven of remembrance as well as a place where it is safe to walk around the rich heritage of the famous and not so famous people who have made the City of Cape Town what it is today.

A large proportion of bodies from the old Somerset Road Cemetery have been reinterred in Maitland Cemetery. Many of the headstones are laid out as paths, some put up against the wall and others lay buried under mounds of mole hills.

Burials from 1888 – 1925 have already been transcribed are in our database collections

To help photograph and tag the images from this cemetery please contact Heather

Over 600 marriages from Diocese of St. Andrews Bloemfontein covering the years 1850 – 1955
These marriage records cover the Parishes of Chapel of St. Patrick, the Native Church, St. Philips Waaihoek, Cathedral of St. Andrew and St. Michael, English Church Building. The Wesleyan Chapel, buildings of the Government School, private dwellings and the  All Saints Church.

There is a discernible difference between the pre and post war period in that the "white" congregation appears to have become more prominent in the records. However there are surprisingly a number of Basutho’s that were married in this Diocese as well

Interesting marriage entries are Theophilus Tylden Shepstone, Widower; Civil Service of the Cape Colony of Barkly East, Cape Colony married Rachel Anna Frederica Every of Karee Poort, District Bloemfontein on 12 July 1892.

Sidney George Moore professional golfer from Kimberley who married Ellen Maria Staughton of Bloemfontein on 22 December 1908 and also John Henry Squires, professional boxer who married Annie Catrina De Beer on 07 March 1923.

Other notable people were early Portuguese and Greek Settlers Antonio Pereira, fruiterer, who married Johanna Heineker on the 01 January 1884 and Apostal Marroudas, fruiterer, who married Alexandra Kassape on 03 April 1906.
 

Over 1000 new marriages for St. Marks District Six. Covering the years June 1925 – November 1939

Start searching now to find out if your ancestor was Abraham the Rat Catcher, Christian Paulsen the Bioscope operator, Ryno Verster the petrol inspector or George Plaatjies the Asylum attendant.

This database with a variety of surnames and occupations is another vital link to your past.

Don't forget to also make use of our baptisms and burials registers from St. Marks + St. Philips in District six where you will find thousands of families that were born, lived and died in this contraversial area of Cape Town.

If you have any stories to share with us about your families life in District Six – please send them to us now as there are lots of people who would love to hear you story

Looking for your great grandfather’s pension number? Was he wounded in action? Search our latest acquisition of over 3, 600 military men + women's pension cases and numbers. These were pension disabilities assessed by the Imperial Pensions Board

You might also be interested in the Cape Corps 1st Battalion 1915 – 1919 with over 6,000 records and the World War Honour records of over 31,000 soldiers.
 

Birth Certificates, where do I find them?

Search for birth records in our databases

Search our baptisms records to find dates of birth

Contribute your birth certificate to Ancestry24 to get your records online faster for future generations.

Birth announcements are also published in the press and Ancestry24 aggregates many of these records. Below  is a list of handy databases that also provide dates of birth and parents names too.

•  
• Free – Anglican Church Register Finding Aid
• Free – British Chaplaincy Baptisms 1796 – 1803
• Free – Cullinan Mines Birth Records
• Free – St. Georges Cathedral Military Baptisms 1806 – 1829
• Free – St. Georges Cathedral Cape Town Baptisms 1921 – 1970
• Premium – 1908 Who's Who
• Premium – 1919 Who's Who
• Premium – 1929 Who's Who
• Premium – 1933 Natal Who's Who
• Premium – 1939 Who's Who
• Premium – 1946 Who's Who
• Premium – 1947 Who's Who
• Premium – 1959 Who's Who
• Premium – 1966 Who's Wo
• Premium – 1979 Who's Who
• Premium – 1999 Who's Who
• Premium – All Saint's Namaqualand Baptisms
• Premium – All Saint's Somerset West Baptisms
• Premium – Announcement Records 1896 – 1910
• Premium – Baptism Records Mixed
• Premium – Beaufort West Wesleyan Baptisms
• Premium – Birth Records
• Premium – Bredasdorp All Saints Baptisms 1861 – 1891
• Premium – Domestic Announcements
• Premium – Graham's Town Methodist Church Baptisms
• Premium – Graham's Town Presbyterian Baptisms
• Premium – Methodist Baptisms
• Premium – Methodist Marriages
• Premium – Music Personalities
• Premium – Namaqualand Baptisms
• Premium – Official Name Changes
• Premium – Oudtshoorn Methodist Baptisms
• Premium – Pilgrims Rest Methodist Baptisms
• Premium – Queenstown Methodist Baptisms
• Premium – Somerset East Methodist Baptisms
• Premium – St. Andrew's Port Nolloth Baptisms 1874 – 1900
• Premium – St. Andrews College Grahamstown Register 1844 – 1959
• Premium – St. Cyprians Baptisms Kimberley 1873 – 1884
• Premium – St. Francis Simon's Town Baptisms – 1813 – 1932
• Premium – St. Francis Simon's Town Baptisms Index 1921-1970
• Premium – St. George's Simons Town Baptisms 1876 – 1964
• Premium – St. Georges Cathedral Grahams Town Baptisms 1823 – 1856
• Premium – St. John's the Evangelist Cape Town Baptisms 1849 – 1886
• Premium – St. John's Anglican Church Clanwilliam Baptisms
• Premium – St. John's Anglican Church Wynberg Baptisms 1832 – 1905
• Premium – St. Mark's District Six Baptisms 1877 – 1915
• Premium – St. Mary's Barkley West Baptisms
• Premium – St. Mary's Cathedral Johannesburg 1887 – 1895
• Premium – St. Mary's Port Elizabeth Baptisms
• Premium – St. Mary's Potchefstroom Baptisms
• Premium – St. Olav's Durban Baptisms 1885 – 1979
• Premium – St. Olav's Marriages Durban 1890 – 1979
• Premium – St. Pauls Rondebosch Baptisms 1855 – 1952
• Premium – St. Peter's Mossel Bay Baptisms 1855 – 1911
• Premium – St. Peters Mossel Bay Marriages 1855 – 1879
• Premium – St. Saviours Claremont Baptisms 1894 – 1904
• Premium – Swellendam Baptisms 1849 – 1873
• Premium – Victoria West DRC Baptisms 1842 – 1864
• Premium – Woodstock Presbyterian Baptisms 1916 – 1947
• Premium – Wynberg Methodist Baptisms 1836 – 1910

Where else can I find birth records + certificates

Birth certificates are generally to be found in the Department of Home Affairs which is the official holding office for Births records. Applications should be lodged at your nearest Home Affairs office if applying from within South Africa. If living abroad, you should contact the nearest South African Embassy, Consulate or High Commission. Always request a full, unabridged vault copy. There is no public access at all to the birth registers or indexes held at the Department of Home Affairs.

Department of Home Affairs

For these certificates you will need to apply+ to the Department of Home Affairs, the official holding office for South African births, marriages and deaths. Applications should be lodged at your nearest Home Affairs office if applying from within South Africa. If living abroad, you should contact the nearest South African Embassy, Consulate or High Commission. Always request a full, unabridged vault copy. There is no public access at all to the birth, marriages and death registers or indexes held at the Department of Home Affairs. There is the index to the Home Affairs Western Cape registers.

Below is a table for commencing dates for the registration of births in the various old provinces:

When contacting the Department of Home Affairs:

• Expect delays as they are very understaffed. Average waiting time is three months.
• Take down the details of any official you deal with.
• Supply an ID number for the person whose certificate you wish to obtain to speed up the process.
• There is a charge of R45.00 per item.

National Archives

The National Archives is the custodian for birth certificates on behalf of the Department of Home Affairs up to the early 1970's. Note that a CLOSED period of 100 years exists to all birth records to protect individuals.

These indexes and registers are heavy and cumbersome. You will first need to know exactly which magisterial district the event took place before you can request the index. These indexes are not made available electronically, but the Western Cape indexes can be searched on Ancestry24. The Home Affairs Western Cape Index (HAWC) is housed in the Cape Town Archives as are the Home Affairs Eastern (HAEC) and Home Affairs Northern Cape (HANC).

How to search at the Archives for Birth Certificates

As an example, if someone was born in Cape Town you will need to check places like Cape Town Central, Wynberg, Docks, Green Point, See Point, Woodstock, Observatory etc – all separate registers. To find the birth certificate of an individual you will need to first consult the index to the birth in the area in which it was registered, e.g. Worcester. The earliest reference number begins with 1/3/57/4/1 – which covers 1895 to June 1905.

Once you have got the register 1/3/57/4/1 you will need to look for the dates between 1895 – 1905 for that birth registration. There are two volumes of birth registers that apply for this period being 1/3/57/3/1 to 1/3/57/3/2. The first volume covers January 1895 to June 1899 and the second one June 1899 until January 1905.

The size of the initial index will depend on how many volumes of registers there are for each area. Worcester has 62 Birth registers equaling about 4 years per book until 1933 and then one book per year thereafter.

Some of these books are very large and the pages are difficult to photograph because of the size. They are on the top floor of the archives. First make sure you get your volume numbers correct before you attempt to order any of these books. Once ordered, be prepared for a very long wait.

• Expect delays as they are very understaffed. Average waiting time is three months.
• Take down the details of any official you deal with.
• Supply an ID number for the person whose certificate you wish to obtain to speed up the process.
• There is a charge of R45.00 per item.

Search our online database of Indian immigrants to South Africa. The Indian Shipping Lists, complete in 91 volumes, provide extensive data relating to Indian indentured immigrants to South Africa.

Passenger Lists

The captain of each vessel was provided with a list of passengers and this was handed over to the Protector of Indians, or his representative in Natal, who, after checking the list against the passengers, had it bound in what have become known as the Indian Shipping Lists or Ships' Lists.

Every indentured labourer from India is listed in these registers according to the colonial number given at the time of indenture or departure from the ports of Madras (for south Indians) and Calcutta (for the north). This number remained with the individual throughout his or her stay in Natal. It followed them into marriage where the colonial number of the husband appeared on the marriage certificate with his wife's number and on the birth record of their colonial born children. The colonial number appeared on every official document including licenses, employment agreements and finally death certificates.

Indentured Indians in South Africa

In addition, using the Registers of those returning to India, which are unfortunately incomplete, information has been given, as far as possible, about those who left to return to India. This has been explained in the next section on Indentured Indians who returned to India. Other information has been captured from the copious correspondence of the Protector of Indians and the Indian Immigration Trust Board; this included lists of those leaving Natal under license for other parts of South Africa. The final remarks column provides the employer, an individual or an estate, where the first indenture period was served.

The start of the Shipping List project

Research into the Shipping Lists began in 1978 when a study of was made of the number of Christian Indians who had come to Natal. The Shipping Lists were used extensively to identify them for a study of Christian Indians in Natal ( J.B.Brain, Christian Indians in Natal: Cape Town, OUP, 1983). They also formed a base for work on the economic history of Natal, in which the caste and occupation of individuals were extracted and then traced to their employers in the Estates Registers (Guest and Sellars eds, Enterprise and exploitation in a Victorian Colony, chap.8: Pietermaritzburg, Natal University Press, 1985).

The Department of History of the University of Durban-Westville was given permission to consult these documents at a time when they were closed to the public for political reasons. Because work on the Shipping Lists was obviously going to be a long term project, permission was requested to have them microfilmed. This was granted on condition that nothing was removed from the Department of Indian Affairs where they were kept.

However it proved impossible for any microfilming cameras, large as they were at the time, to pass through the strongroom doors. Just as the project seemed impossible, a young professional photographer offered to copy the registers.

After experimenting for some time a focus range was selected and the entire task was performed, using three vintage Leica cameras borrowed from the photographer's father, one of which collapsed under the strain and had to be repaired; fortunately in those days spares were still available. The numerous five-foot lengths of 35mm document film, after developing 15 at a time in three tanks, were spliced together, sometimes in the wrong order, by a commercial film studio. Although the end result was not as professional as it would have been if a microfilm camera had been used, the entire first stage of computerisation was completed from these reels.

Thanks are due to the Registrar of UDW for obtaining permission for this work to be done and to the Research Fund for providing the financial resources. The set of microfilms is the property of the Department of History of the University of Durban-Westville.

For the first few years two research assistants, working from the microfilm reels, captured the details on to a computer. It was a slow and exacting occupation and errors inevitably slipped in but they worked steadily, and eventually, when the money ran out, they had completed about 96000 entries. Work came to an end for some time and Professor Surendra Bhana used the information then available to compile a statistical analysis of the first stage of the study (Indentured Indian Emigrants to Natal 1860-1902: New Delhi, Promilla & co.,1991). In 1989 money was again available and in the next three years the second part of the capturing was completed. In 1992, with the Shipping lists now housed in the Natal Archives, the task of revising, checking and correcting began. Now, using the actual registers for the first time, the entire 91 volumes were revised and this was completed in June 2003.

Special Problems

The computerization of the Indian Shipping Lists presents special problems for the researcher. The first is the condition of the original registers. Some, as for example vol.1 (Madras), has many of the initial pages missing, others are torn or have the numbers and first names destroyed. The early Calcutta registers (A-D) are also in a poor condition. Calcutta volume J is almost illegible. Even when the pages are intact many of the volumes have been repaired with opaque tape which has become brittle and discoloured and nothing can be seen through it. We have tried to find the missing names in other sources with only limited success.

The next difficulty is in reading the handwriting. There is an art in reading nineteenth century copperplate handwriting, as all researchers know, but in the case of the Shipping lists there is an extra problem in that in most instances it is almost impossible to distinguish between n and u. Both these letters, as well as m and r, are in common use in proper names and when carelessly written, as many are, nn may correctly be un or in. Examples of names using these letters are Munnuru and Narasimmulu. Thus inaccuracies may and do appear in proper names despite care, patience and the use of a magnifying glass!

In a few cases it has been shown that the person's sex is given as male in one source and female in another. This has been left as it appears unless it is obviously a female name and is followed by the names of infants or children. Some of the ages are difficult to decipher where 3 and 8, 5 and 7 are not properly formed.

As far as place names are concerned it must be pointed out that Indian place names have been substantially altered since 1947 and the original names as given in the registers have been left as they are. The use of a 19th century gazetteer, such as The Imperial Gazetteer of India , which is available in Natal, is useful in identifying places and districts.

Because of the possibility of inaccuracies in the reading of proper names, the researchers would like to be informed of errors that have been detected by family or descendants together with sources consulted. This will allow corrections to be made in the revisions.

Acknowledgements

The University of Durban- Westville Research committee and the Human Sciences Research Council provided financial support in the 1970s and 1980s, paying for the hire of research assistants for part of that time. Again in 1990 and 1991 Miss Jaythree Singh did sterling work in the deciphering of north Indian proper and place names. I thank them for their generous support and thank also the research assistants associated with this project, in particular Miss Nadine Cockburn of Durban, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

For several years permission was given to Professor Brain to work one day a week at the Department of Indian Affairs, consulting the original registers which were closed to the public at that time. This was of great assistance.

I express my gratitude to the staff of the Natal Archives in Pietermaritzburg where in the 1980s I examined and listed every document relating to Indian immigration; they also permitted the temporary transfer of the Estates Registers, volumes 1 to 8, to the Durban depot. The staff of the Durban archives, where the Shipping Lists are now kept, have provided us with every assistance, including pleasant and friendly working conditions, over the final period of this project.

Finally I want to express my gratitude to my colleagues of the last few years: Dr T.H.Bennett travelled to Durban with me each week to work on the Shipping Lists and on the Estates Registers and has been responsible for the capturing of all the new and revised information. Mrs Deirdre Papendorf and the late John Ford gave of their time and energy so that the work could be completed in 2003. That this has been possible is due to their help and enthusiasm.

Conclusion

Although the computerisation has been completed, we do not consider that this project has come to an end because there will no doubt be revision and correction to be done in the future. Nevertheless after many years of detailed and time-consuming work we believe that the computerisation of the Indian Shipping Lists will be of assistance to researchers and to the descendants of the indentured labourers, while at the same time helping to preserve the life of the original registers.

J.B.Brain Professor Emeritus, University of Durban – Westville Kloof, July 2003

How can Ancestry24 can help you ?

By providing you with a list of those recorded immigrants. It is important to note that no complete list of INDIAN PASSENGERS exists, however Ancestry24 has obtained the only lists available which have been transcribed from the original source. Indians who paid their own passage to Natal and needed no passport, because they had come from British India, entered South Africa and left again as they pleased in the 1870s and 1880s. Passenger Indians began to arrive in 1875, the number increased in the 1880s and by the mid 1890s restrictions on their movements were introduced in both Natal and the Transvaal. This is the subject of other studies.

The first Indentured Indians arrived on the Truro, a paddle steamer from Madras, on November 17,1860. The second ship arrived soon afterwards from Calcutta; this was the ship Belvidera which reached Port Natal on November 26, 1860. After this ships arrived regularly until July 14, 1866 when the Isabella Hercus arrived from Madras.

No immigrants were sent to Natal from India between 1867 and 1874 partly because Natal was suffering from economic depression in the last years of the 1860s and, when this lifted, the Government of India required some of the conditions under which Indians were employed to be reviewed. The first returning immigrants, sailing on the Red Riding Hood in January 1871,and on the Umvoti shortly afterwards, complained about some of the conditions under which they lived and worked in Natal. They complained particularly about the £10 bonus that had not been paid to them despite the promise they claimed had been made to them when they were indentured.

The colonial government then set up a Commission of Enquiry under the chairmanship of the attorney-general M.H.Gallwey. The report of this Commission, which became known as the Coolie Commission, was published in 1872. Once new regulations were promulgated the Government of India allowed recruitment to take place again.

Emigration began again in 1874 and continued without interruption until July 21,1911 when Umlazi 43 brought the last immigrants to Natal before the termination of the indentured labour system by the Government of India. Ships could accommodate between 300 and 700 migrants and altogether a total of 152,184 men, women and children were transported. Of these two thirds of the immigrants were from Madras and one third from Calcutta. Each shipment was expected to include 40 women for every 100 men but in many cases there were far fewer than 40 women and sometimes as few as 25.

It has always been assumed that exactly 152,184 individuals arrived in Natal as indentured immigrants. A study of the Shipping lists, however, reveals that a few numbers were never allocated, and a number of immigrants who returned to India were recruited again, often with their friends and members of their families, and were given new colonial numbers when they came back. Some of these were known to be returning immigrants and their names were endorsed with R of N (Resident of Natal) but many others seem to have said nothing about the earlier period in Natal and were given completely new numbers. There is no way of discovering how many of these returning immigrants there were but certainly there were fewer first time immigrants than was formerly thought. There were also men and women who had originally indentured for work in other colonies, completed their period of indenture and then volunteered for Natal; their names are endorsed R of S (Surinam), R of F (Fiji) etc.

Other British colonies who imported Indian labour were Mauritius, Trinidad, Jamaica, British Guiana, St Lucia and Grenada; the French islands of Reunion, Martinique, and Guadelope, together with St Croix, also took advantage of indentured labour from India.

Initially the demand in Natal was for agricultural labour for the farms and estates; gradually this changed and by the 1880s it was railway workers that were needed to extend the railway line from Port Natal to the interior. By the 1890s the coal mines in Northern Natal were calling for labour as were the rapidly developing sugar estates along the north and south coasts. By 1904, when Zululand was opened up, the planting of sugar began in the Amatikulu district and around Empangeni and Indian labour was needed there. In addition a small group of indentured men, known as Special Servants, were brought in from Madras to work in hotels and clubs, as grooms and waiters, laundrymen and carriage drivers and as gardeners and aiyas (nursemaids) in private residences. These skilled people were recruited in Madras for a particular employer, were paid higher wages and enjoyed better conditions.

Indian Indentured Migrants to South Africa