Gauteng archive tour (August 2022)

Participants are prepared by means of advance email briefing documentation; in this way, they know exactly what they are looking for and hoping to find answers to.
To make sure they do not “re-invent the wheel”, they first visit the genealogical library of the GSSA and Northern Transvaal branch on Monday to consult registers and books that already exist.
On Tuesday and Wednesday they spend full days in the National Archives (Transvaal archival repository). For beginner researchers it is suggested they mainly copy family information from estates documents. These files usually contain information about parents and children. As they progress, participants will be able to study other files, e.g. dealing with farms, government departments, court cases and much more. One also can find maps and photographs!
On Thursday they visit the National Library, one of the legal deposit libraries. Authors publishing more than 100 books are obliged by law to donate copies to these deposit libraries. Thus, one may find a copy of a book from way back when books were printed. One also finds all Government Gazettes, many newspapers, university theses etc. For the genealogist, there also is a large genealogical book shelf.
Friday follows an interesting excursion by Gautrain to Parktown in Johannesburg where the research centre of the Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) is situated. Here one can scroll through microfilm rolls of church registers of many congregations and learn how to make full use of the well-known FamilySearch.org online programme.