For some months now I have been nagging them at the Cambridge Cemetery Office for the Burial Register of the Berlin (Eastern Cape) Cemetery.

The lady at the Berlin Office. whom I know personally and who has lived in Berlin all her life, tells me that some years ago someone from the Town Office (Buffalo City) sent a courier out to collect the register, which now appeared to be lost?

Quite by chance, about three weeks ago, I mentioned this to a staff member who happened to be at the Cambridge Office. He told me he was sure he had seen the Register at the Mdantsane Office, just outside East London, and gave me the cellphone number of one of the supervisors whom he knew out there, I contacted the man and made arrangements for the register to be brought to the Cambridge Office.

Berlin is about 40 kilometres from East London. on the road to King William's Town. It became part of East London in 1973, until which time it had its own Village Management Board. It was well populated with descendents of early German Settlers (hence the name).

There are very few descendants of the original German settlers now living permanently in Berlin but I am told that some of those who once lived there, when they pass on, are having their ashes, together with a Memorial Stone, placed on the grave of their parents.

I have now photographed and transcribed the register. The transcript can be searched on the eGGSA Burials page.

Brian Barrett