Johannesburg Newsletters

T R E E T O P I C S 

MARCH 2020 ISSUE NO. 118

COMMITTEE MEMBERS • CALENDAR OF EVENTS HINTS & TIPS • WEB LINKS • MEMBERSHIP FEES

In our last Newsletter for the year, you will find all the usual suspects such as news on our meetings, a bit of humour, a list of new library acquisitions and a book review. We also tell our member about the exciting competitions that are planned around the GSSA's 50th birthday celebrations.

In This Issue:
On Ancestry.com  try the new IRISH CATHOLIC REGISTERS 1763-1912 to uncover baptisms, marriages and burials across three centuries. More than 80% of Irish people declared themselves Catholic in 1831. With more than a million records covering 22 of the possible 32 counties of Ireland, you are likely to find at least one branch of your family tree!! The General Register Office for Northern Ireland has unveiled its eagerly awaited family history website – several days before its ‘official’ launch on Wednesday 9 April

New listings available for perusal from the LDS website familysearch.org. Introduced by the government of King Charles II in 1662, the Hearth Tax required householders to pay a duty for every hearth or stove in their dwelling. The surviving paperwork can prove highly important for genealogists researching people in the 17th century. PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Marvin A. Clark vanished during a short trip to Portland on Halloween weekend 1926, but the search to find out what happened to him may finally be drawing to a close nearly 90 years later. Do you know about the following website in Holland? http://www.openarch.nl/?lang=en

See this website for South African Death Notices; http://www.identitynumber.org/death-notices-surname.php?id=P; It is a paid service though.
Check his out: www.findmypast.co.uk  have released online over 300,000 of our airmen's service records which contain information about an individual’s peacetime and military career, as well as physical description, religious denomination and family status.

I am so thrilled with the result of some research I did two weeks ago.... that I have to share it with you! Just to tell you that I was on Thursday afternoon for a visit and for research about the Munro family at the research centre of the Glasgow and West Scotland Family History Society and had tea with their president, as well as met several members. major collection of probate records has been published by Ancestry.co.uk, spanning five centuries. A number of royals feature in the collection, including Queen Adelaide, wife of King William IV (See picture) The England and Wales Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) Wills collection showcases original images of wills dating from 1384-1858, which were previously available to download for a fee on the The National Archives website.

Visit the Johanneburg Branch page and click on Newsletters

Sue Mackay, whose name avid researchers subscribed to the various immigrants list will know well, writes via the south-africa-immigrants-british@rootsweb regarding selected SETTLER correspondence.She was able to photograph selected correspondence housed at Kew recently, and will gradually be transcribing them to e-ggsa.
FreeBMD Information from http://www.freebmd.org.uk/search-help The FreeBMD database is an electronic version of the index created by the GRO (General Records Office)All Births, Marriages and Deaths are recorded in Registers.
Bungled Newspaper Headline? The public is to be allowed to inspect the Crematorium on Sundays. Other amusements will be found advertised in the local press. From a Canadian newspaper

 

A Grave story. This weekend we went to Machadodorp and armed with some co-ordinates from the Cemetery DVD we headed off to Carolina hoping to take photographs of some of the graves and memorials that had been transcribed but not photographed.This should have been a simple exercise and the first was a piece of cake - a Boer War memorial.There it was on the street corner, large as life.Then it was off to find the Volunteers War Memorial. But it was not where I expected it to be. Just a new shopping centre. Well we drove up and down Kerk Straat, now Church Street on the GPS, and never did find anything that could possibly be a memorial........... read more in the Newsletter.

A Grave story. This weekend we went to Machadodorp and armed with some co-ordinates from the Cemetery DVD we headed off to Carolina hoping to take photographs of some of the graves and memorials that had been transcribed but not photographed.This should have been a simple exercise and the first was a piece of cake - a Boer War memorial.There it was on the street corner, large as life.Then it was off to find the Volunteers War Memorial. But it was not where I expected it to be. Just a new shopping centre. Well we drove up and down Kerk Straat, now Church Street on the GPS, and never did find anything that could possibly be a memorial........... read more in the Newsletter.

Natalie has put together a collection of íïee sites to be found on the Internet. Can you addmore? This will be an open meeting and we would like members to participate - Tell us aboutyour favourite free sites. Read about the Clarendon High School for Girls, East London.