Johannesburg Newsletters

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.

Lees die aanbieding by die Wes-Gautengtak. LM & MARIANA DU PLESSIS : BETROKKENHEID BY DIE DORSLANDTREK-VERENIGING:Weens die beperkte spasie beskikbaar, is dit onmoontlik om reg aan die geskiedenis te laat geskied. As ‘n gebore (1945) Suidwester, het ek al die jare ‘n belangstelling in geskiedenis gehad. In Augustus 2003 en 2008 het ek byeenkomste as ‘n nasaat van die Dorslandtrekkers se feesvieringe by Swartbooisdrift in Kaokoland bygewoon. In 2008 het ek van daar ook Angola besoek, om te kyk waar my ouers gebore is. In my soeke na my wortels, het ek 8000 kilometers gery! Dit het verdere belangstelling by my gewek, en so het ek my familie-navorsing begin.

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

Our speaker this month is Stan Close who will be telling us about his visit last year to Belarus in search of his Jewish Roots. This promises to be a very interesting meeting and has raised my interest me so much that when I realised how little I knew about the Jews in South Africa, I visited The Jewish Museum in Cape Town. As it happened they were celebrating “175 years of Jewish Life in South Africa”. More about that later.“I was born in Bulawayo in (then) Rhodesia, attended primary school in Bulawayo and Ndola, and senior school in Johannesburg. I served 12 years as a SA Naval Officer, 12 years with Eskom as a business performance management specialist, and since 1989 have owned and operated a business which assesses, trains and coaches entrepreneurs. This company has helped some 2500 small businesses to start up and grow in South Africa and in four other African countries.

In this issue of the news letter an article about the GSSA's coat of arms can be read. Valda Napier researched the origin and registration of the Coat of Arms. I also found the following notification in the newsletter: "I don't know how many of you have 1820 settler ancestors but with over 4000 of them having arrived the chances are pretty good you'll find a link somewhere! Sue Mackay a staunch supporter of the 'share genealogy' ideology, spends a great deal of time in London photographing the Grahamstown Journal and then transcribing the information she gleans from these and then shares it to our eggsa (http://www.eggsa.org/1820- settlers/index.ph) and the rootsweb list (south-africa-immigrants-british@rootsweb.com) ...so if you don't already subscribe to this list, you really ought to sign up. It's free and very easy to use.

Read Dave Kinghorn's overview of the activities of the branch. There were a few outstanding contributions.
He also addressed the membership status of the branch, something of value for all members of the GSSANeed to ask questions like
− What contribution have I made to the branch?
− What have I learned and what new skills have I developed?
− How can I improve in terms of my own research and furthering the good of the GSSA as a body?
− To start off with, it is important to recognize why people join non-profit organizations and what causes them to be fully functioning and effective board members. People join non-profits out of a passion for the issues or cause, personal experiences or because someone they know asked them to join.

Our speaker this month is George Shaw and he has sent a very comprehensive e-mail to David explaining his lifelong interest in Genealogy as well as his story of the diary.The Boer War Diary of Jocelyn F de F Shaw.Last month David gave a talk on the Lighthouse Stevensons and the lighthouses they had built along the coast of Scotland. Among them is the Bell Rock lighthouse, built on a rock that is only exposed for four hours a day. Also read the Story of Durban High School that celebrates 150 years

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

*     Levien Smuts and Annette Goussard were responsible for lodging photos of       a small farm cemetery, Samehaling, between Aroab and Karasburg.
*    Farm cemeteries Buffelspoort 343 and Buffelsfontein 344, Mooinooi are             now available on the eGGSA site. The former is a predominantly Janse van       Rensburg cemetery and the latter contains Janse van Rensburg, Viljoen and       Barnard headstones. Both were photographed by John Schwartz.

And more

Read more about Van Riebeecks Hedges. This hedge of wild almonds was planted in the year 1660 A.D. by order of Commander Jan van Riebeeck to mark the southern frontier of the Cape Colony, from Kirstenbosch along Wynberg Hill, to a point below the Hen and Chickens Rocks. Thence the hedge was continued by a fence of poles across the camp ground to the mouth of the Salt River........ So you’re related to Charlemagne? You and every other living European… by Adam Rutherford. Irish parish registers online for the first time. Irish baptism and marriage records dating back to the 1740’s can now be accessed on the web free of charge thanks to a major digitization project. Find out how.