South African History Online

I discovered this site the other day while doing a research for one of my history classes. SA History is a wonderful site that I highly recommend. I love its layout too, very cool. This is a great place to start some back ground research on place or things in South Africa’s past. Make sure to check out the Chronology tab as well.

Resources & Digital Imaging Project

I came across the Stanford Library Resources site and they have a Guide to South African resources. It looks pretty good I haven’t had much use for it yet, but I am taking a History Writing class and I am going to be writing alot on South African history – by December I should have a few essays to share on here 🙂 There is also a link to DISA , the Digital Imaging Project of South Africa. You can search through a bunch of SA journals. This would be a place to check out even if you aren’t planning on writing an article.

A History of South Africa

I am currently reading Frank Welsh’s book “A History of South Africa”. I am thoroughly enjoying it. I am only in chapter 4 but I am hooked. It is wonderful to learn about South African in this way. Some concepts I knew but many are new to me. It is a wonderful book that I would recommend to anyone interested in a unbiased and interesting history of South Africa.

Birth, Marriage and Death Records

I am not really sure why, perhaps a reader could enlighten me, but South African “Civil Registration” is not available for public viewing. Basically that means no index or personal searching. However if you have sufficient information about a ancestor you can order a Birth, Marriage or Death Certificate from the South African Department of Home Affairs. Cerificates cost R40 (about 7 USD or 4 GBP) and you can download a PDF application by clicking on the following: Birth Certificates ; Marriage Certificates and Death Certificates. If you have your ancestors Identity Number it is supposed to speed up the process, however don’t be in too much of a hurry to receive a certificate, staffing is limited and of course people requesting their own certificates are a priority. This is not the place to begin your research unless you have a full name, date of event and depending on the certificate you require parental information.

If you feel a little disheartened by this, especially since the SA survining census’ are apparently only statistical, there is good news! Two words… okay four: Death Notices and Estate Files!!!
In a coming post I will talk a bit about these records. However for the moment I will connect you to NAAIRS (National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System) where you can search the online index or Death Notices, Estate Files, Wills and other useful documents. Please be sure to read the help page first – I know we (of maybe its just me?) usually disregard instructions, but these are imperative to understanding this system. >>>> NAAIRS help.

Database Managers

 One of the most commonly used database managers is PAF. It is available free from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) is available for FREE. You can download version 5.2 from the following link.

To learn more about using PAF, students and professors at Brigham Young University (BYU) created a tutorial called… PAF Tutorial. Click here to learn more.

Beginning with a song… part 1

In the classic, The Sound of Music, Maria (Julie Andrews) sang: “Let’s start at the very beginning; It’s a very good place to start.”

I have been thinking about what I would advize as the ‘best’ place to begin doing South African genealogical research. It is an interesting thought that probaby has a different answer depending on who you talk to. I have thought about my own research and what has helped me in getting starting and finding out a good approach.

For those who are used to American or British research, South African genealogical research may see very difficult when considering the records and the genealogical infrastructure in South African. However they would soon learn that while South Africa may not have the the same records available to researchers, it has some every unique and wonderful sources and records available for consultation.

to be continued….

South African Immigrant Ancestors

Today I spoke at the annual Brigham Young University genealogical conference. My part of the presentation was directed at South African research, particularly looking at records to help in “Tracing the South African Immigrant Ancestor”. This was the title of the project that I have been doing since being awarded an ORCA Mentoring Grant, which assisted me in the expenses I incurred in Europe. You can read my proposal and ideas for this project as well as the final report that will be available in December 2006 by clicking on the ORCA tab in the top right corner or here.

I will be posting my notes of the presentation and sources here soon. Check back soon.

More Beginning SA research!

I found another guide to beginning South African research that looks great to me, there is even some humour – and we could always use more humour in life! Its is called the “Absolute Beginners Guide” to South African Family History Research. 

BYU Family History Conference.

Brigham Young University offers genealogical conferences annually to any range of researchers, from beginners to professional genealogists. August 1st, 2006 is the next conference and I will be speaking for a few minutes on Tuesday morning about some of the research I found in the British Isles pertaining to South Africa. Our presentation is titled “British and Irish Emigration Records” . I will be adding most of what I say in the presentation here, so check back soon for the post.

Beginning SA Genealogy

Anne Lehmkuhl has a great website that has helped me in my research. It is a great guide and has great tips for searching online. This is a site everyone starting South African genealogy should visit.